Not dark enough

I just took my first hydrometer sample of a stout that I brewed almost 3 weeks ago. the color was a little lighter than I was hoping for. It was a dark amber color instead of the black that beer smith called for. Beer smith said the color should be 38.6
the recipe is as follows
8 lb light dry malt extract
1 lb 60l crystal malt
.5 lb chocolate malt
.5 lb roasted barley
.25 lb black patent malt
2 oz chinook (60)
1/2 oz cascade (30)
1/2 oz cascade (10)

I did a full boil steeping the grains for a half an hour between 155 and 160
Anyone have any idea why I didn't hit the color that beer smith calls for?

Wow- with 4 ounces of black patent, it should be pretty dark! You didn't forget one of the dark grains did you?

YooperBrew said:

Wow- with 4 ounces of black patent, it should be pretty dark! You didn't forget one of the dark grains did you?

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well, I cant be exactly sure as my LHBS ground my grains for me but I doubt they would forget them. also, I did end up with probably around 6 gallons of wort, thought I would have more boil off. I'm still trying to get that boil off dialed in perfectly

bump it to the top

Should have been pretty dang dark, does beersmith account for 1/2hr steep time at the specified temp?

Do you know what the lovibond rating on the chocolate was? It can varry from a very light 200 up to 400or so. How about the level of roast on the barley? What was the volume of water you steeped in? Did you have a large enough steeping bag to let the grains spread out a bit? Did you rinse the grains after steeping?

Assuming your chocolate was at least 300SRM and even light roasted barley should be at least 200-300SRM, add in there 400-500SRM for black patent and it should be pretty dark, like you said in the 30+ SRM level, even with 6 gallons of wort. The black paent alone if it is 500SRm should have had you in the low 20's for color which is beyond brown

It's hard to say as you seem to suggest you orderred it as a mixed kit and are relying on the HBS to have included everything. Without knowing for sure if it was all there you will always have to wonder if they forgot something or put the wrong thing in there.

The nice thing about going to a HBS is you put everything you want in your bag and check it off as you go along. At this point I'm not sure youcan figure it out for certain. It's either something was missing, or a really bad miss on the steeping extraction.

I does sound like something is missing and it should be darker. I've also noticed for me anyway that beersmith almost always shows my beer being darker than the finished product is. Its not off by much but it is off for me somehow

Were you looking at it in a pint glass or in the hydrometer tube?

conpewter said:

Were you looking at it in a pint glass or in the hydrometer tube?

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hydro tube

Since there is less liquid to look through in the tube it is lighter than it will look in a pint glass so that might be where the discrepancy is.