Wort Too Dark (pic)

Hi gang, new to brewing. Today I brewed my first beer that wasn't from a kit. Not confident enough to start all graining just yet, so I tried LME. I wanted a pale beer so I plumped for a light LME. The problem is that my wort looks very dark (see pic below). Any suggestions as to why this is? Here's my ingredients for 10 litres of beer :

250g crystal malt steeped at 67*C for 45mins.
1.5kg light liquid malt extract boiled for 60mins.
10g Chinook hops 60mins
5g Citra hops 15mins
15g Citra hops at flame out.



Thanks in advance for any replies.

Anyone at all?

As I understand it, LME is notorious for creating a darker color than you want.

I would suggest reading about:
1) Late boil additions of LME
2) Switch to using primarily DME
3) Preventing scorching of LME

Other than that, the wort in the fermenter always looks darker than when in the glass but in your case it does seem that you may have scorched your LME.

extract beers are hard to keep light especially if you do partial boils...Maillard reactions cause darkening during heating and they are more pronounced with higher gravities. What was the color of the crystal malt you used, what "L" number?

It will be lighter in the glass but still amber.

EDIT: Based on those textbooks in the pic you don't have time to brew!!!

What type/color was the crystal malt (i.e. 20L, etc? And what was the color of the malt extract? Extract recipes always seem to yield darker beer than all-grain. What's in your fermentor can be deceiving. You're looking through a large volume of it so it appears darker than it really is. Also, when beer is first fermenting there is all kinds of stuff floating around in there(yeast, break material, hops material, etc.), which give it a darker appearance. When fermentation has finished and the beer settles I'm sure it will be lighter in color.

also when its in the FV it ALWAYS looks darker due to the high volume of liquid, when its in the glass it wont be nearly the same color. Also, many recommend adding most of your extract during the last 20 mins for color adjustment. I dont, I full boil extract, with great success, but to each their own, in any case, if its not going to judging... do you really care?

helibrewer said:

EDIT: Based on those textbooks in the pic you don't have time to brew!!!

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It looks more like brewing took over his studying since he is using the books as stands.

It's been said already, but I am pretty sure the "culprit" is the LME. The lightest extract brews I have done have all incorporated DME - all of the ones with LME have been pretty dark.

Thanks for the replies people! Just wanted to know if I'd made any errors. I used coopers pale malt extract and the crystal didn't have such a number on it. As I'm new to this I just asked the shop keeper for crystal malt and he gave me this. The late addition of the LME and use of DME points are really helpful.

RE using the books as stands, that was last semesters modules! Thanks for the concern though

Joff, it's important to note that, you cannot simply take a kit and shift when you add your malt extract. Doing so changes the boil gravity of the wort which directly affects hop utilization. Lower gravity = more bitterness from the same amount of hops.

I strongly reccomend use of some brewing software (Beersmith 2 has a free 21 day trial and is cheap if you like it!) to help determine when and how much malt extract to add and how much hops / timing is needed to get the desired results.

AdamPag said:

also when its in the FV it ALWAYS looks darker due to the high volume of liquid, when its in the glass it wont be nearly the same color. Also, many recommend adding most of your extract during the last 20 mins for color adjustment. I dont, I full boil extract, with great success, but to each their own, in any case, if its not going to judging... do you really care?

Click to expand...

^This. I don't know what that is you're fementing in, but it looks like something between an Amber and a Pale to me.

What do you mean when you say "plumped for a light LME"?

paparker21 said:

Joff, it's important to note that, you cannot simply take a kit and shift when you add your malt extract. Doing so changes the boil gravity of the wort which directly affects hop utilization. Lower gravity = more bitterness from the same amount of hops.

I strongly reccomend use of some brewing software (Beersmith 2 has a free 21 day trial and is cheap if you like it!) to help determine when and how much malt extract to add and how much hops / timing is needed to get the desired results.

Click to expand...

Is it the gravity that affects IBUs or the volume? I was under the impression that the volume played a much more important role than the gravity at which you input the hops. Some clarification for the noobs (like me) would help! Thank you!

It's the gravity--- reducing volume increases gravity (because you still use the same amount of wort).

When I say plumped for, I mean I chose, sorry about that, poor use of British slang! It's a brubox I'm fermenting in, its a clear soft plastic box, so the colour is representive of the actual wort.
And thanks paparker, I'll download that software before my next brew in a week or so!

Thanks again people

LOL...thanks for the British slang lesson! So far all I know is bugger (which isn't so salacious here as it is there) bird, and bloke.

So would this be correct syntax?

That bloke plumped for a bird to bugger, but the bird told the bloke who plumped her to bugger off!

LOL..hope I didn't offend any of our British brethren with my crass language!

REgarding the beer, yeah, it'll probably be a bit darker then you aimed for, but it does always look darker when it's all together like that. GL...I'm sure it'll taste great!

and I like that fermentor, carboys are great, but when not in use I have them stacked precariously in odd nooks and crannys in my garage.

Edit:

Your first gravity sample in a clear tube held up to the light will give you a more true feel for it's color. I honestly (and there's absolutely nothing other then my anectodal experience to back this up) feel like ales tend to lighten up slightly as fermentation progresses.

I don't think they lighten any, but as it clears it may appear to be lighter as more light is allowed to pass through

jbaysurfer said:

That bloke plumped for a bird to bugger, but the bird told the bloke who plumped her to bugger off!

Click to expand...

Blimey!!!

jbaysurfer said:

LOL...thanks for the British slang lesson! So far all I know is bugger (which isn't so salacious here as it is there) bird, and bloke.

So would this be correct syntax?

That bloke plumped for a bird to bugger, but the bird told the bloke who plumped her to bugger off!

LOL..hope I didn't offend any of our British brethren with my crass language!

Click to expand...

Haha! Yep, that's bang on, I use that phrase at least twice a day! But with a comment like that, I'm inclined to say you're 'taking the piss out of me' (another English phrase for you

I've kinda resigned to the fact its gonna be darker then I hoped for. But I've got a lot of stuff to think about from you lots, so cheers!

It's not as dark as you think.mi bet it will be like an amber. Wort always looks dark in a carboy

Extract twang is something that happened 5 years ago but it's pretty much disappeared from the earth now.

paparker21 said:

I don't think they lighten any, but as it clears it may appear to be lighter as more light is allowed to pass through

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^ good point.

To the OP:

Cheers!

Prost!

helibrewer said:

EDIT: Based on those textbooks in the pic you don't have time to brew!!!

Click to expand...

I saw a poll somewhere that said some 40+ percent of home brewers are some type or form of an engineer.

Side note: The quantum physics book the fermenter is sitting on looks like the edition I used in college.