Always dark beer?

[Antti]

Noob question coming!:

I always get dark beer, same colour, no matter the malt.

Any idea why?

To be true I've done only 5 batches.

Always in bucket-fermentors 17L of wort in 25-30L fermentor.

Recipe:

Wort:
Pilsner: 1,773 g
Pale Ale: 567 g
Bindewald Munich: 2 kg

Water: Rainwater 21 L (through Doulton filters)
Malts: Pilsner 1.773 kg, Pale Ale 0.698 kg, Munich 2 kg
Crushed twice.

Water was heated to 72 °C and the malts were added. The kettle was immediately moved to the right (cooler) side of the wood stove, and the sparge water was heated on the hotter side.

The mash was left to rest for about 75 minutes, stirring occasionally. Temperatures ranged from 62–69 °C, but stayed mostly between 65–68 °C.

The malts were sparged with about 4–5 L of water and pressed using a smaller pot.

Hops for the boil:

Galaxy 8 g (60 min)

Citra 30 g (10 min)

Saaz 30 g (end of boil)


The hops were added in large stainless steel “tea filters.”

The wort was cooled with a homemade copper immersion chiller to about 24 °C (according to the Browin thermometer).

The fermenter was sanitized by spraying with a ready-made solution for well over a minute.

The wort was transferred into the fermenter using a siphon.
Yeast (Lallemand Nottingham) was pitched during transfer.

 

[Beekeeper]

Are you doing a full volume boil, or boiling just the mash runnings and (some of the) sparge water, and then topping off?
A long, vigorous boil will increase the intensity of Maillard browning and produce a darker beer. Not so much of an impact if using full volume boil.
Use a more gentle, rolling boil instead. Ref: this post, for one:

If you are boiling 5 gallons, you will end up with less than 5 gallons...will you be topping back up to 5 gallons, or are you making a 4 gallon batch?

I ask only because it is the difference between doing a full boil and doing a partial boil, which impacts the wort concentration, which impacts the amount of Maillard browning, which impacts the darkening of your beer...

 

[mac_1103]

How dark is dark? Bindenwald makes two Munich malts - a 15 and a 25; which one are you using?