Extract darkening?

Hi all,

A quick question please; does malt extract (either LME or DME) when it's being boiled with the hops go dark naturally? As in, is this a good thing?

I brewed a beer today which was 3.3lbs Pale LME (which I boiled in 3/4 gallon with half the bittering hops), 2.2lbs Extra-light DME (which I boiled half of in one pan with half a gallon and the aroma hops and the other half in my big 1 and a bit gallon pot) and 1lb of crystal, steeped for 30 mins at 70 C. I was hoping for something copper coloured, but the resultant wort is comparable to an English Best Bitter instead. The bulk of this colouring appears to have come from the crystal (which I didn't know the colour of, it was just the lightest the shop had) but the colour of the LME especially seems to have transformed to something a lot darker during the hour long boil for the bittering hops.

Is this normal behaviour from extract or did I do something wrong here?

Thanks.

Its darker because you didnt boil it in alot of water. The thicker of a sugar wort solution you have, the easier it will carmelize, Those sugars need room to spread out.

A copper color, try using amber DME.

If you want to get a good color out of crystal or caramel malts make sure your using the right Lovibond rating, Something like 60-80 should give a nice copper color. If you have it crushed then steep it youi will get even better color from the grain.

It is hard to match colors with extract kits. Generally they will be darker than what they are cloned too. You can try splitting the extract and put half in during the 60 minute boil, and then the other half in at the last 15 minutes.

Thanks for the responses.

Does this mean my brew is going to taste foul because the sugar has caramalised?

No, your brew will taste...well...tasty. It's more aesthetics than a taste thing. When I do extracts, I do late addition but I do it more as a challenge to get a lighter beer rather than flavor issue.

Ah right excellent - that's a relief!

I really need to get myself a larger pot though and avoid this problem. Is there any predetermined length of time extract should be boiled for? I read about the "hot break" but I don't seem to get that with all the extracts I've tried. It'd make sense if there isn't a minimum time per se for me to just use a final wort dilution strength boil for the hops, then add the rest at the end?

Also, the color of the wort doesnt really show your final color completely (as far as I know). See how it turns out and then go from there.

Yeah, well touchwood. It's been heavily hopped with Cascade and Challenger (my own recipe) so I am hoping that the colour should be immaterial - I was seeking a copper coloured hoppy (almost IPA) style beer.

cushdan said:

Also, the color of the wort doesnt really show your final color completely (as far as I know).

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My experience has been the same. The beer always looks darker in the carboy/pail, plus it seems to get lighter as it ages and clarifies.

-Joe

Well, the Wyeast suprised me today! Nearly 24 hours after pitching the starter, the apparently steady fermentation way down in the carboy (you can see the rough line about 2 inches above the wort where it was) went beserk and I was running about with tubing to contain it! Here it is now (you can see the colour too now):

Something else you should know is that any beer will appear darker in the carboy than it will in the glass. Also, unfermented wort is darker than fermented beer. When you take your first hydro sample in a couple weeks, you'll be able to see this quite clearly.

eddie said:

Something else you should know is that any beer will appear darker in the carboy than it will in the glass. Also, unfermented wort is darker than fermented beer. When you take your first hydro sample in a couple weeks, you'll be able to see this quite clearly.

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Yeah, well I realised that beer will appear darker in a carboy because I'm looking through about ten times as much beer as when looking through a pint glass. What I didn't realise is that unfermented beer is darker than fermented beer though!

yashicamat said:

Is there any predetermined length of time extract should be boiled for?

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You don't really need to boil extract at all. You should sanitise it, of course; one of the ways to accomplish the "late-addition" method (and the one I use) is to add the lion's share of the extract at flameout. The time it takes for the wort to fall below sanitising temperature (~180degF) is plenty of time to sanitise the extract, no matter what method you use to cool the wort.

If I'm using, say, six pounds of extract, I'll calculate the boil with a pound or so of the extract in three gallons of liquor. Then I'll add the rest at flameout. Simple!

I read about the "hot break" but I don't seem to get that with all the extracts I've tried.

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Most extracts are boiled as wort until the hot break appears, so as to have a more pure product. See this article from a recent issue of BYO Magazine.

Cheers,

Bob