My extract brew color wrong

[hopspop1176]

My extract brews usually come out darker than they should. My latest batch of Bell's 2 Hearted Clone should have had a SRM of 8.74,but it came out at 24.3. Any ideas?
HopsPop

 

[triethylborane]

Here are some considerations to account for:

-type of extract, dark, light, pilsen/gold

-full boil or partial boil

-time extract was added to boil and how long it was in boil

-age of extract?

Bell's 2 Hearted Clone should have had a SRM of 8.74,but it came out at 24.3. Any ideas?

How are you measuring the output/beer SRM? THe 8.74 SRM is from brewing software?

 

[RM-MN]

When malt extract is made the wort is concentrated and that darkens it some. If you then boil it for another hour per the recipe it darkens further from the Maillard reaction. Adding 1/2 of the extract at the beginning of the boil for hop bittering and the rest at the end will help. The only complete answer is to brew all grain.

 

[hopspop1176]

When malt extract is made the wort is concentrated and that darkens it some. If you then boil it for another hour per the recipe it darkens further from the Maillard reaction. Adding 1/2 of the extract at the beginning of the boil for hop bittering and the rest at the end will help. The only complete answer is to brew all grain.

Thanks my next batch I will try that. Any guess when to add the second half of the malt into the boil?

 

[Lefou]

When using extract, your best bet to avoid caramelization of the wort would be minimizing your boil time while achieving your bitterness level. Add half of the extract immediately after the boil to minimize darkening of your wort. If you're using pre-hopped extract, you shouldn't have to worry so much about your hopping level, but boil time and gravity will affect hop utilization if you choose to add packaged hops. A good brewing calculator can help you solve the hop utilization issue.

 

[BrewingAroundtheRrealm]

I always do late extract additions. It took me a while to learn that. Before that, I was having the same issue you described. I add 30% of the extract at the beginning of the boil. The rest goes in with about 15 minutes left in the boil.

 

[hopspop1176]

Here are some considerations to account for:

-type of extract, dark, light, pilsen/gold

-full boil or partial boil

-time extract was added to boil and how long it was in boil

-age of extract?



How are you measuring the output/beer SRM? THe 8.74 SRM is from brewing software?

The beer was made from a kit. The lme was pale. It was a 60 min. boil with the lme added at the beginning of the boil. The lme was a few months old. The SRM was indicated on the kit instructions. I matched the color on a Lovibond color chart then converted it to SRM using a conversion formula.
Thanks.

 

[UncJimmy]

I also read here that water PH can have an effect on the color with high PH darkening the color. All my kits have come out a bit dark also, but the directions always state to add the extract at the beginning of the boil. I will try the late addition advice also to see if this makes a difference.
Grain wanna-be

 

[hopspop1176]

When using extract, your best bet to avoid caramelization of the wort would be minimizing your boil time while achieving your bitterness level. Add half of the extract immediately after the boil to minimize darkening of your wort. If you're using pre-hopped extract, you shouldn't have to worry so much about your hopping level, but boil time and gravity will affect hop utilization if you choose to add packaged hops. A good brewing calculator can help you solve the hop utilization issue.

Thanks.

 

[RM-MN]

The kit instructions are based on the least common denominator. They don't want to make this kit any more complicated than they have to so they don't mention the possibility of doing a late addition of the LME, thinking that too difficult of a concept for some brewers.

 

[Lefou]

Least common denominator = me.
It took a while to figure out a lot of these new brewing terms. It's like learning a new language. One big stumbling block was timing hops for the boil and associating that with "hop schedule". Any more than one hop addition confused the devil outta me and it took me a while to figure out why anyone would use more than one hop.
LOL. Some things seemed to sink in faster once I did a couple of all grain beers, though.

 

[chickypad]

Late addition will certainly help but 24.3 is brown, some porters are even in that range. Are you sure about that color estimation? Do you have a picture of your beer - in a glass, not the fermenter.

 

[hopspop1176]

Late addition will certainly help but 24.3 is brown, some porters are even in that range. Are you sure about that color estimation? Do you have a picture of your beer - in a glass, not the fermenter.

Thanks for responding. I did have the beer in a clear glass and compared it to the livibond color chart. I then converted it to SRM.

 

[jalc6927]

Extract always comes out darker because the lme/ dme is boiled for 60 minutes

Try adding some of it later in the boil