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?

 

[ncbrewer]

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

This.

 

[Willy]

Use more pilsner and less Munich (esp. if it is the darker variety)... To get more golden colors.

 

[Antti]

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:

Thank you for the kind and helpful information

So you mean do I boil everything at the same time? Yes I do.
I rinse the malts and add it to the same kettle, then boil it vigorously.

Recipe said to rinse with 4L, so I went with it, but obviously there is evaporation.

So maybe the colour comes from that intense boil?

I've never thought about boiling only water and then topping up, to wanted amount of wort (beer).
So that is a ok thing to do?

Could I top it up how much?
The recipe says that I'd get around 18L of wort, which I never get.
So I could top it up to that?
Could I top it up even to 25L (size of the fermentor)?

Sorry for my "simpleton version", English isn't my native language so that's why I have to clarify things occasionally.
Also I'm quite new at this and try to follow the same recipe again and again occasionally changing malts and hops.

 

[Antti]

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

Oh the Bindewald Munich is the 25 version, I thought that it referenced to the 25kg sack of malted barley...

Good info this too. Thank you.

Can I still use it as the base malt?
At least that's what I researched it to be. (if I didn't mixed up with the paler version)

 

[mac_1103]

Well they list it as a base malt so I assume that it has plenty of diastatic power. But if you want a lighter colored beer use less or use the 15.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Can I still use it as the base malt?

You need to know its contribution to diastatic power.

The product information sheet for the malt will include a degrees Lintner (perhaps noted as °L) measurement. With that information for each malt, you (or the reciepe software you use) can determine if there is enough diastatic power for conversion. If diastatic power is low, a longer mash time will help.

Munich base malts with higher EBC tend to be lower in °L. (Wyermann CaraMunich and Briess Crystal Munich are crystal malts and have no diastatic power).

In a recipe with 50% Munich malt, it would be good to verify the diastatic power is sufficient for the mash.