wheat Beer dark in color?

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krc333

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I brewed a wheat beer this weekend and it looked and smelled great until I added the syrup and now it’s way too dark for a wheat beer. I did it from a preassembled beer store brew kit. Someone mentioned that I probably should have used some irish moss. Will it still taste the like a wheat regardless of the color? What did i do wrong or did the store maybe give me the wrong type of malt?
 
How long did you boil the LME (liquid malt extract) for? Boiling malt extract for a full hour tends to darken them.

I've only brewed all grain, so someone could probably explain late extract additions to counteract darkening. It will still taste fine though. Just call it a dunkelweizen! There is the offchance that they sold you a dunkel kit too.
 
If you are looking at it in the carboy it will look too dark as the wort has more mass and is more opaque that it would be in the glass. Also if you are doing a partial extract boil the wort will caramelize a bit and darken. Spanish Moss won't do much to alleviate that, and left to its own devices it will clear up a bit as it ferments and secondaries. It will look much lighter in the glass.

overall wort caramelization will generally not affect anything but appearance. But doing a late extract addition will help, as will doing a full wort boil (boiling all 5 gallons at once).
 
I threw my grains in the gallon and a half of water until the boil started and then pulled them out. Looked and smelled like a wheat beer at that point. Then added my syrup and let that roll for about 35 minutes and then added my hops and let sit for another 10 minutes. (I’m making a 5 gallon batch, cooking in a keg with a bayou burner)

It looks fine in the glass carboy as far as fermenting and it is getting lighter, but I just don’t see it getting to that traditional light yellow color of a wheat beer. I normally don’t move it to a secondary, but go straight to the bottle after about 7-10 days when I don’t see any more activity in the carboy. Should I wait longer this to help with the clarity? I really don’t care what it looks like as long as I don’t screw up the taste.
 
krc333 said:
I threw my grains in the gallon and a half of water until the boil started and then pulled them out. Looked and smelled like a wheat beer at that point. Then added my syrup and let that roll for about 35 minutes and then added my hops and let sit for another 10 minutes. (I’m making a 5 gallon batch, cooking in a keg with a bayou burner)

It looks fine in the glass carboy as far as fermenting and it is getting lighter, but I just don’t see it getting to that traditional light yellow color of a wheat beer. I normally don’t move it to a secondary, but go straight to the bottle after about 7-10 days when I don’t see any more activity in the carboy. Should I wait longer this to help with the clarity? I really don’t care what it looks like as long as I don’t screw up the taste.
Click to expand...

Wait, did you say you brought the grains to a boil. That might be a bit more of a problem than the color, which does release tannins above 170F. You might end up with an astringent taste. But don't worry, just see it through. You should get a thermometer for next time.
 
krc333 said:
I threw my grains in the gallon and a half of water until the boil started and then pulled them out. Looked and smelled like a wheat beer at that point. Then added my syrup and let that roll for about 35 minutes and then added my hops and let sit for another 10 minutes. (I’m making a 5 gallon batch, cooking in a keg with a bayou burner)

It looks fine in the glass carboy as far as fermenting and it is getting lighter, but I just don’t see it getting to that traditional light yellow color of a wheat beer. I normally don’t move it to a secondary, but go straight to the bottle after about 7-10 days when I don’t see any more activity in the carboy. Should I wait longer this to help with the clarity? I really don’t care what it looks like as long as I don’t screw up the taste.
Click to expand...

You probably won't see the straw color normally associated with Hefeweizens if you are brewing from extract. The taste shouldn't be affected though, unless you scorched the extract or something else went awry.

This is my personal best for lightness, and was from my last Hefeweizen. It is a bit darker than some commercial varieties, and on par with some others. I got it using an extreme late extract addition boil, adding 5# of DME in the last 5 minutes of the boil. it seems there will always be a slight orange tinge to extract Hefe's.

Also don't let your grains steep above about 160, I do mine at 155 for 15 min.

2556903652_83691efd1f.jpg

​
 
I pulled my grains out at the first sign of boil so its not like they were rolling around like pasta. Ok, I feel better now because my beer (in the carboy) looks just a little darker than that picture. I guess I was just expecting it to be more like a commercial wheat beer. Thanks for the feedback. Only my second batch and my first was darker so I wasn’t as worried.

This is a great site btw, tons of useful threads. I’ve already learn more from this site than my book. And i do have a temp gauge on order that will screw directly into my keg so that will help a lot.
 
First of all you did the grains wrong and you should look into the correct way - HOWEVER - color.

LME will always be darker then you expect naturally. What you can do is add about 1/3 of the Extract to begin with and the rest with 10-15 minutes left in the boil (always removing the pot from the heat first).

Boiling darkens extract. Same flavor - just different color.

Plus - carboy beer will always be a LOT darker. No worries - once you see it in a glass you will be fine.
 
Be sure and post once it's in the glass! Nice to compare to other brewers and you have a nice comparison above.

As far as wanting lighter, try switching to DME
 

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