I can't make a light beer to save my life!!!

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Seeves1982

Seeves1982

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I'm on the verge of giving up. I can't make a light beer to save my life. I've made multiple batches of brewer's best octoberfest kits. Then I started playing the LME batch recipes and made a high gravity Hefeweisen which was good tasting, but malty and a little darker than most hefeweisens I've seen. It was actually really close to the Octoberfest. So then I swapped out 3lbs of wheat LME for 3lbs of Pilsen LME and got it a little lighter. Then I switched to AG Brewing and wanted to try a really light beer to get my friends to be more receptive to it. Anyway this is what it looked like. WTF Why? I'll list grain bill below.

BlondeCarboy.jpg


Grain Bill:
7 lbs. Rahr 2-Row Pale
0.75 lbs. Gambrinus Honey Malt
0.25 lbs. Dingemans Biscuit


What am I doing wrong here. Everything is coming out too dark.

Thanks,
Mike
 
The carboy always makes it look darker than it really is. Looks like the yeast is still in suspension. I'd wait a week or two, then take a gravity sample. Your sample should be pretty light looking.
 
velotech said:
The carboy always makes it look darker than it really is. Looks like the yeast is still in suspension. I'd wait a week or two, then take a gravity sample. Your sample should be pretty light looking.
Click to expand...

True, when you have that much volume of a colored liquid it's going to look darker. On top of that you have yeast in suspension.

I remember one time I had two fermenters side by side that were unlabeled. I told my friend "come smell my IPA". I opened one up ... "whoops, wrong one, must be in the other one". I opened the other fermenter and it looked the same. I couldn't figure out which one was the IPA by looking at it. The other beer was a brown ale.

If you have the ability to cold crash it after it's done it will make a world of difference.
 
A lot of people switch to all grain at least in part because the srm of extract is always a little darker. Extract by its nature is just going to turn out darker due to the cooking and concentrating steps involved.

To minimize the difference between extract and grain you can add it very late in the boil. I used to do it abut two minutes before flameout.
 
I just brewed a Wit, and I'll tell you that AG will REALLY lighten your beer up. But you have to be careful not to caramelize it while it's boiling, and of course additions like Crystal etc. will darken it.

There is no way I could get a real light beer using extract before, even doing late additions and full boils. The extract was just too dark. Yesterday, the wit was very nearly transparent ( I used Pilsner malt instead of the Pale malt the recipe called for.)
 
If you want a really light colored beer, try using really light malts. I think that your beer looks fine for that recipe, though!

If you want to make a blonde ale, though, try a grain bill like this:

3 pounds pilsner malt
7 pounds Vienna malt

Hop with noble hops. (Recipe is in my dropdown as 'fizzy yellow beer').


Pilsner malt is very light colored. Vienna malt is darker, but not much darker than US 2 row and more flavorful.

Using honey malt (25 SRM) will darken up a beer a bit, as will biscuit malt (23 SRM).

My IPA is very light colored- it uses only 2-row and a few ounces of a darker malt.
 
Use a wine thief to draw off a sample. Put that into a glass and stick it into the fridge. After a few hours, the yeast will drop out and you can see what your beer will look like.
 
I'm not familiar with Rahr 2-Row Pale , but thats a PALE malt.
pale malt gives a golden - orangish color (that's how I see it, anyway).
your other malts are too dark for this purpose, too.
This could give you a color similar to many common pale ales.

If it's yellow beer you are looking for, you should use lighter malts in this recipe , namely Pils malt.

If you want a very light beer, yet still keep it flavorful, you can do something like this:

8# Pils malt ( I like Weyermann)
0.5# Vienna
0.5# CaraPils

If you want to go even lighter, drop the Vienna or even replace some Pils for
some colorless sugar or syrup.

some say you should boil gently, to prevent caramelization, while others say it doesn't affect the color.
 
Seeves1982 said:
Grain Bill:
7 lbs. Rahr 2-Row Pale
0.75 lbs. Gambrinus Honey Malt
0.25 lbs. Dingemans Biscuit

What am I doing wrong here. Everything is coming out too dark.
Click to expand...

Are you using filtered tap water or RO water? If you're using tap water, have you checked your water profile and are you using salts and/or acid to adjust the pH? Untreated, moderate to hard water will result in a darker-than-expected beer.

Also, 12 oz is a lot of honey malt for a "light" beer. You might consider 4 oz next time.
 
Seeves1982 said:
I'm on the verge of giving up. I can't make a light beer to save my life...

Grain Bill:
7 lbs. Rahr 2-Row Pale
0.75 lbs. Gambrinus Honey Malt
0.25 lbs. Dingemans Biscuit


What am I doing wrong here. Everything is coming out too dark.
Click to expand...


You're not doing anything wrong, you're just learning. It's way too early to give up. Like the poster above said, "Pale Ale" malt isn't necessarily "pale". Look at the picture below, the jar on the left contains 1.040 starter wort that I mashed with 100% 2-row pale malt. You can pretty much consider that the lower limit of what you can get from pale malt (though it does lighten a tiny bit during fermentation). If you want a straw colored beer, you need to use pilsner malt.

3757570185_4085e10aef_b.jpg


I just brewed a Hefeweizen with 50% Pils/50% wheat (that's it). I'll try to post a pic later so you can see the difference.

Water chemistry plays a role as well. If you have high residual alkalinity water, it's tougher to make a light beer.
 
dont worry wehn i attemped my first kolsch i was so mad because it came out as the same color as my ipa but then about one month later poureed out of a 22 and BAM! i made a golden goodness!!! remeber relax dont worry have a home brew!:mug:
 
Seeves1982 said:
Grain Bill:
7 lbs. Rahr 2-Row Pale
0.75 lbs. Gambrinus Honey Malt
0.25 lbs. Dingemans Biscuit
Click to expand...
That recipe ends up at 5.7SRM according to Beersmith. For a really light beer, you could consider using adjuncts. I used honey in my Ginger Ale and it comes in at 2.9SRM and it shows in the beer. With the honey it came in at 1.049.

4.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
3.00 lb Honey (1.0 SRM)

Ginger ale on the far right:

threebeers.jpg


I'm sure you could get a similar result with rice or corn as adjuncts if you don't want to use honey.

-Joe
 
You want a light? Try this:

5lbs Pils Malt
2lbs Flaked Rice
1lbs Flaked Wheat

THAT is a light beer. You will have to get most of your taste and smell from your yeast and hops, there won't be much malt character. But, it will be LIGHT.
 
Cpt_Kirks said:
You want a light? Try this:

5lbs Pils Malt
2lbs Flaked Rice
1lbs Flaked Wheat

THAT is a light beer. You will have to get most of your taste and smell from your yeast and hops, there won't be much malt character. But, it will be LIGHT.
Click to expand...


Yup, that is certainly light.
 
Clayton said:
want to make a lite beer and in a hurry you say?

i have made this may times and its a great Fast to make lite beer and is a real croud pleaser

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/centennial-blonde-simple-4-all-grain-5-10-gall-42841/
Click to expand...

+1 on the Centennial Blonde. I think there is an Extract version.

Remember, PALE MALT is pale compared to the malts that were common when it was invented, which were all pretty much brown.

I've made Wit before using 50% Extra Light Pilsner Extract, and 50% Light Wheat Extract (Dry Malt, which is lighter in color than liquid Malt). Still a bit dark for the style, but pretty light for extract.
 
Here is the Extract version from the bottom of that page:


Quote:
Originally Posted by Steiner
Sounds good. Any chance of a similar 5 gal extract version?
This should get you a very similar beer:

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.57 gal
Estimated OG: 1.044 SG
Estimated Color: 3.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 16.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 83.3 %
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 16.7 %
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (45 min) Hops 7.8 IBU
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (20 min) Hops 5.1 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (10 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (5 min) Hops 1.4 IBU
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale
 
as they said use only light malt such as pilsener, carapils ecc...

biscuit malt can give a copper-red color to your beer....
 
Seeves1982 said:
Also what are wort starters used for?
Click to expand...

Yeast starters make sure you have enough viable and healthy yeast for fermentation. A normal Whitle Labs vial isn't exactly "pitchable" as they claim. Sure, it's fine for a 1.040 beer, but even for a beer that low I would make a small starter.

There's tons of info on this board and the internet about starters. But you can start at the link below.

How To Brew: Starters
 
JKoravos said:
I just brewed a Hefeweizen with 50% Pils/50% wheat (that's it). I'll try to post a pic later so you can see the difference.

Water chemistry plays a role as well. If you have high residual alkalinity water, it's tougher to make a light beer.
Click to expand...


Here's my German Hefe. Just pilsner and wheat malt.

3877058842_165cc49c5e_b.jpg
 
Seeves1982 said:
I'm on the verge of giving up. I can't make a light beer to save my life. I've made multiple batches of brewer's best octoberfest kits. Then I started playing the LME batch recipes and made a high gravity Hefeweisen which was good tasting, but malty and a little darker than most hefeweisens I've seen. It was actually really close to the Octoberfest. So then I swapped out 3lbs of wheat LME for 3lbs of Pilsen LME and got it a little lighter. Then I switched to AG Brewing and wanted to try a really light beer to get my friends to be more receptive to it. Anyway this is what it looked like. WTF Why? I'll list grain bill below.

BlondeCarboy.jpg


Grain Bill:
7 lbs. Rahr 2-Row Pale
0.75 lbs. Gambrinus Honey Malt
0.25 lbs. Dingemans Biscuit


What am I doing wrong here. Everything is coming out too dark.

Thanks,
Mike
Click to expand...



How is this beer looking now? It looks pretty light to me.
 
For what it's worth, I did a light ale during the summer and was told by my local homebrew store owner that in order to get a truly light beer you must use powdered extract (assuming you arent looking to go all grain). I did a partial mash with the powdered extract and it was extrmely light and came in at about 3% abv. Perfect for those times when drinking homebrew all day by the pool would otherwise become dangerous...
 

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