1 gallon batch WAY off color

[kdog93]

I brewed a one gallon batch last night that was supposed to be an extra pale beer, but it came out with a greenish Brown color. I've read that the color error could be due to an early addition of lme. I was just wondering if it will have any kind if negative impact on the taste?
I also used Irish moss for the first time if that had anything to do with it.
I have a brewing app on my phone and when I scaled the recipe down from 5 gallons it said to start the boil with 0.6 gallons of water, could that have something to do with it?
If everything's alright I'll just lie to myself and say it's a brown ale,I just wanna know so I don't make the same mistake next time.

 

[hunter_le five]

It will probably be much lighter come bottling time. It always looks darker in the fermenter, in my experience, especially if you dumped a bunch of trub in there. And the greenish color is probably just the hop break standing out against the pale malt, and should fall out of suspension eventually. Just give it time.

Extra pale beers are a bit harder to do with extract, though I'm sure it will still be fairly pale in the end.


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[kdog93]

Ok thank you that makes me feel alot better.for a second I was thinking about conditioning with extra pale malt extract and now I feel dumb because I wasn't thinking about the fact that sugar is white and sugar water would be the lightest color substance to condition with. Serious brain fart on that one lol.

 

[flars]

It would not have been necessary to scale down the boil volume to boil less than one gallon for a one gallon recipe. Partial boils, for some recipes, are done because of limitations for accomplishing a full boil.
Doing a full boil with a bit extra for estimated boil off would have lessened some of the darkening of the extract. The darker color will not have much of an effect on perceived taste though.
The greenish color is probably from hop debris in suspension. Sufficient time in the primary will allow the hop debris to settle out.

 

[Demus]

If you scorched your extract while adding it that could certainly darken it. Also with such a all boil volume it's easier to overdue the heat; you just need enough to keep it rolling. If you did scorch it, you'll likely taste it in the finished beer (think burnt sugar). Only time will tell. There's no way to "fix" it anyway, just continue and learn learn learn. Hopefully it just looks dark for the reasons others have stated...


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[kdog93]

It would not have been necessary to scale down the boil volume to boil less than one gallon for a one gallon recipe. Partial boils, for some recipes, are done because of limitations for accomplishing a full boil.
Doing a full boil with a bit extra for estimated boil off would have lessened some of the darkening of the extract. The darker color will not have much of an effect on perceived taste though.
The greenish color is probably from hop debris in suspension. Sufficient time in the primary will allow the hop debris to settle out.

I've heard different boil ratios will affect bitterness levels how much of a difference do you think this will make in a small batch?

 

[flars]

You probably wouldn't notice any difference unless your palate is really in tune. You could try a side by side test. Brew the beer exactly the same way except full volume with a bit added for boil off.
Exactly the same way may be impossible though. Weather and the beer gnomes can influence any brew day.

 

[kdog93]

You probably wouldn't notice any difference unless your palate is really in tune. You could try a side by side test. Brew the beer exactly the same way except full volume with a bit added for boil off.
Exactly the same way may be impossible though. Weather and the beer gnomes can influence any brew day.

That's the best part of one gallon brewing is that I can brew in my stove top:rockin: