Lighter Beers Turning Brown

So, for years I've had no drama brewing quality IPA's and other beers in the lighter color category. After I moved it's been nothing but drama. When brewing with filtered tap water my beers have a nasty bite to them. So I ordered a water report from Ward Labs.

NA: 41
CA: 30
MG: 8
CaC03: 108
S04: 9
Cl: 34
HC03: 166

So I assumed this was due to the hardness and bicarbonate. So I've tried brewing with just distilled (w/gypsum and calc chloride) and 80% distilled and 20% tap..etc(using the brewers friend calc). Seems anytime I use distilled my lighter beers turn brown. Not sure the science behind it but I assume it's the water as my amber colored beers look great.

Any ideas?

Can you give us the recipe, process, etc for the beer in the picture? It definitely looks pretty brown.

Oxidation, LME, old DME, change of brands, alkalinity, lots of possible but without more to go on it's hard to make any guesses.

Did you get an iron content for your water?

TheMadKing said:

Did you get an iron content for your water?

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Yes, it says "not detected".

blackey73 said:

Yes, it says "not detected".

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And do you treat for chlorine/chloramines?

stpug said:

Can you give us the recipe, process, etc for the beer in the picture? It definitely looks pretty brown.

Oxidation, LME, old DME, change of brands, alkalinity, lots of possible but without more to go on it's hard to make any guesses.

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It's a Pliny clone.. so 2-row, c40, carapils and corn sugar. Brewed with different systems, same result. 10 gallon kettle, cooler for mash tun, glass carboy... etc. Brewed a mini batch on a Zymatic... same result.

Brews with more roasted malts seem to clear out fine. Could pH be an issue?

TheMadKing said:

And do you treat for chlorine/chloramines?

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Only thing I've added is Gypsum and sometimes calcium chloride.

TheMadKing said:

And do you treat for chlorine/chloramines?

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If he's using 80% distilled and 20% tap then I doubt chlorine or chloramine would be an issue (I read on arrowheads website a while back that they filter the water prior to distilling which is apparently a common practice for distilled water).

blackey73 said:

It's a Pliny clone.. so 2-row, c40, carapils and corn sugar. Brewed with different systems, same result. 10 gallon kettle, cooler for mash tun, glass carboy... etc. Brewed a mini batch on a Zymatic... same result.

Brews with more roasted malts seem to clear out fine. Could pH be an issue?

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Did you have control over the malt choices or was it bought as a kit? Just trying to rule out some obvious mistake.

Certainly pH, and alkalinity, play a factor over final beer color. Kai Troester and MDixon have both showed the effect of high pH effects on color of steeped solutions (mash in the former case, tea in the latter), and the difference in color is pretty remarkable. I'm trying to find the Kai post I've read but here's the MDixon/Accidentalis post:
http://accidentalis.com/archives/tag/alkalinity

Here's Kai's post:
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=How_pH_affects_brewing

Edit:
I don't think you every posted the pH of your water, did you? Also, do you acidify those mashes that need it?

stpug said:

Did you have control over the malt choices or was it bought as a kit? Just trying to rule out some obvious mistake.

Certainly pH, and alkalinity, play a factor over final beer color. Kai Troester and MDixon have both showed the effect of high pH effects on color of steeped solutions (mash in the former case, tea in the latter), and the difference in color is pretty remarkable. I'm trying to find the Kai post I've read but here's the MDixon/Accidentalis post:
http://accidentalis.com/archives/tag/alkalinity

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It was not part of a kit. Thanks, I'll read that article.

stpug said:

Here's Kai's post:
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=How_pH_affects_brewing

Edit:
I don't think you every posted the pH of your water, did you? Also, do you acidify those mashes that need it?

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The pH of tap is 8.0, but 80% was distilled with this particular batch. I did not acidify.

Update: So I forgot I bottled a single bottle of this same batch. It turned out fine... so something in my kegging process perhaps.

blackey73 said:

Update: So I forgot I bottled a single bottle of this same batch. It turned out fine... so something in my kegging process perhaps.

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That's very interesting. Keep us posted if you figure out anything conclusive.

I've heard and experienced oxidation in my hoppy beers make them turn darker. How is the flavor, do you detect any staleing or cardboard flavors?