BIAB color issues

[edb23]

Hey guys,

so i actually put a post about this a little while ago, and the problems persist. every time i brew, the beer comes out much lighter then what i'd like. my mild was a little more amber then brown, my bitter is more gold then amber, and so on. what could be the problem here?

by the way, most of these recipes are kits which is making the whole thing a little more confusing

 

[trigger]

I'm not sure that's a BIAB issue. Where are you getting the kits from?

I recently did a batch of CDA that I had crushed at my LHBS. I refined the recipe with grains I milled at home, where I get a much finer crush with my own mill. The new version I'm calling an India Brown Ale. The coarser crush caused a lot less color extraction. Also, the flavor is definitely more akin to an american brown than my CDA.

How does the crush of the grains look? Where did you get them?

 

[edb23]

the grains are crushed up pretty well, I get most of my stuff from midwestsupplies.com because the LHBS around me right now in pittsburgh is incredibly over priced. you think it could be the crush? how could i go about handling that, should i just mill it myself?

 

[Mysticmead]

BIAB itself doesn't change the color of the final product... the only thing that will effect the color is the crush or the grain itself.

 

[usfmikeb]

If they all happen to be kits from the same place, perhaps the grain bills are lighter on SRMs for their recipes. Also, what's the boil time on these? Are you getting a strong boil for the duration of the boil time? In addition to the grain, boiling can increase color through caramelization. However, I'll clearly state that I don't know what that would contribute to a 5 gallon batch for a 60 minute boil.

I'm doing BIAB, and no issues with the colors.

 

[cyclonite]

I do BIAB also, and no issues with color - mine always come out extremely close to what I had calculated.

I also think it is likely the crush. Try using a program/calculator to calculate the color based on the grains you have added and the batch size. There are some free ones online, or Beer Smith, Brew Pal, iBrewmaster, etc will all calculate it for you. You can try the one at Brewer's Friend here: http://www.brewersfriend.com/srm-calculator/.