Another one !

Hi Guys,
I'm a really new one and just started my second batch yesterday. It's a Cooper brew Kit (Lager).

My first one was a Muntons American Light Ale and it's in my secondary since Tuesday. The color of it is not really encouraging since it's like brown-butterscott-dark. Is that normal ?

Thanks

Primary #1: Cooper Lager
Primary #2: Nothing yet
Secondary #1: Muntons American Light Ale
Secondary #2: Nothing Yet
Bottling: Nothing
Drinking: Coors Light !!!

Second batch and already onto Lagers. Impressive...

Wish I had a second fridge to lager in...

It is normal for extract beers to turn out darker than the style is supposed to be, especially if you are not doing a full 5 gallon boil. The less water, the more the extract carmelizes in the boil which darkens it. Also if I'm not mistaken LME will darken with age.

Steve99 said:

Drinking: Coors Light !!!

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Just kidding! Welcome!

TWolf10 said:

It is normal for extract beers to turn out darker than the style is supposed to be, especially if you are not doing a full 5 gallon boil. The less water, the more the extract carmelizes in the boil which darkens it. Also if I'm not mistaken LME will darken with age.

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Yes, and remember that you are looking through 5 gallons in a carboy- it always looks much darker in the carboy than in the glass.

It will be darker than American "light" beers because they are a very pale golden color. Depending on which LME you used, your beer can be any color from apple juice colored to a dark amber. If you burned a bit on the bottom, it'll be even darker. Even light colored LME is caramel colored.

Some brewers add some of the LME late in the boil- do a search on this forum for "late addition of extract" and you'll find a ton of information. This helps to keep the beer lighter colored, but I don't know if there is any other benefit. I've done both, and the beer always tastes great even if the color is a bit darker than desired. For a lighter colored beer, you could use extra light DME. It seems to be a bit lighter colored than light LME. Again, it's all about taste, though. Your beer will still taste the same no matter how much darker it is than you were expecting.

Lorena