my APA came out like a brown, any thoughts?

this is my first batch, its been 2 weeks since bottling so i decided to throw one in the fridge last night and give it a shot. NICEEE, this came out a fantastic beer for only 2 weeks in bottles:rockin:. the head retention is amazing with nice lacing, flavor and aroma is great. ill take some pics once i get my camera back from my gf grandparents house. anyway, the beer is pretty brown. actaully tastes like more of a brown/amber type style over an APA. here's the recipe, any thoughts of what could have happened would be cool. it still tastes delicious though and im most proud of my final product for my first batch...

crystal 40L, 1lb
light LME, 6.6 lbs
2oz amarillo, 60 min.
1oz cascade, 15 min.
1oz hallertau, 5 min.
safale us-05 yeast

That should produce a fairly light beer, certainly not a brown. Was it really light LME, and not Pale or Amber LME. If so then the only thing you can do is reduce the crystal either by using less, or by using a lighter crystal. Crystal 8-10 for example.

You could possibly adjust your boil, perhaps you boiled off a lot more than normal and caused the colour to darken.

WorryWort said:

That should produce a fairly light beer, certainly not a brown. Was it really light LME, and not Pale or Amber LME. If so then the only thing you can do is reduce the crystal either by using less, or by using a lighter crystal. Crystal 8-10 for example.

You could possibly adjust your boil, perhaps you boiled off a lot more than normal and caused the colour to darken.

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jeah, it was Muntons light LME. your probably right with the grains steeping. during steeping the color seemed to get dark pretty quick though. i kept temp. at about 160 for 40min. with the grain. didnt think that would make much of a difference...

It can be very difficult to get a pale colored beer using LME. Search for late extract addition for tips on getting lighter color in your beers. C40 isn't that dark and shouldn't be making it look like a brown ale in that amount.

Chris

You steeped for 40 minutes... how long did you boil for, and how vigorous was the boil? Was it a full-volume boil, or partial boil with all of the LME added? Also, you mention two weeks in the bottle, but how long did it ferment for before bottling, and what were your starter and final gravity readings? It could be that the yeast didn't finish their job, and too much sugar is still in the batch.

Beers made with liquid malt extract, no matter what grade, just tend to end up darker than all grain beers. They may taste exactly the same, but the color will usually be off.

The issue is two fold- 1) the extract was boiled down at the maltser, so it already has a degree of carmalization, especially if it isn't that fresh.

2)Our boiling of the wort further carmelizes and darkens it.

There are a couple ways folks get around it.

Use the lightest liquid possible. But like I said it will still be a shade darker than if it were made with base grain and mashed yourself.

Replace Liquid with Extralight DRY malt extract in your recipes.

Do a late extract addition; add only a couple pounds of extract at the start of the boil to help extract the hoppy goodness from the hops, but add the bulk of the extract in the last 15 minutes of your boil. This limits the amount of further crystelization.

Try to do a full boil if possible (you can do like AG brewers do and brew on a turkey fryer), if you can't try to do the largest boils your stove can handle. If you can boil 4 gallons boil 4 and top off just the last gallon in the fermenter.

Hope this helps.

I have read some posts that would say not to boil any extracts at all. Meaning to boil your hops etc at the same schedule but dont add the extract untilt he boil is done and stir until dissolved...but Im a rookie what do I know

fire943 said:

I have read some posts that would say not to boil any extracts at all. Meaning to boil your hops etc at the same schedule but dont add the extract untilt he boil is done and stir until dissolved...but Im a rookie what do I know

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That's another one of those theories, but I've also seen stuff that contradicts it, that you can't JUST boil your hops in water and get the same isomerization of the alpha acids.

There has been some data/info about needing only a couple of pounds initially to help with hop utilization.

It's one of those things that only personal experimentation can solve. Deciding what works best.

When I was doing extract kits, I did just this, added 1/4 of my DME at the beginning of the boil, and the rest at the end. It seemed to help!

i followed this video for what its worth-


i did a test with drinking my homebrew and then trying some AS liberty ale right after. the flavor does resemble ale more than a brown i guess, but the color is more brown than most APAs ive seen. i would be curious to see what the results are when adding extract later in the boil. someone should post a vid on this..., like would you add the rest of the extract in the same period of time as adding some hop additions?