Darkening a Wheat Beer

[Tamir]

Hi friends

My American Wheat beer has fermented and I am pretty happy with everything but the color. I think it is too light.

I used 50% Pilsner & 50% Wheat and this is the color I got (According to beersmith it is about 2.6 SRM).

The color is very pale, anemic and boring, like a Berliner Weisse.

Is it worth cold/hot steeping 5 grams of Peeled Roasted Barley (which I already have) in order to raise the SRM to 3.6ish?

 

[DSorenson]

The manly answer is:
if it tastes good, don't piss with it.

Beer is like a girlfriend; she either dresses herself up or she doesn't. Asking her to look nicer is asking for trouble!

 

[Tamir]

I quite agree with you actually.

But I am really in a stage where I want to be able to control what I make, and I do not want to be unsatisfied with a complete batch if there is a quick fix

 

[thisisbeer]

Definitely leave it alone IMHO. There is nothing wrong with that color. But if you must. There are some food colorings available like sinmar or Maltoferm. But i think maltoferm is added in the boil. But why change it just over the color? Why do you think it's to light? Wheat beers are light.

 

[Tamir]

Because it looks very watery and "dead", unlike a nice exciting wheat beer.

 

[DSorenson]

wait for it to carbonate, that will make it lively.

 

[thisisbeer]

Carbonate it? What is a wheat beer supposed to look like. It falls within the BJCP guidlines. Trying to raise it 1 SRM seems like a major waste of time. Would you really notice it?

Edit: What he said. Wait until it's carbonated. Change your recipe next time to adjust for color.

 

[heckler73]

Mine looks the same. Leave it.

I'm more disappointed that I was a pound low on wheat, thus ended up with a light coloured AND light alcohol. Count your blessings.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[DSorenson]

Yeah! you could have real problems, like poor heckler73 over here!

 

[Tamir]

Thank you for your opinions.

It is not a problem if it is something that can be fixed easily

It is not much effort to throw a little bit of roasted in 70 degrees C water and add it to bottling bucket with the priming sugar.

I just don't want to have something the looks dull and unappealing. Like a Hoaagarden color for example, or a... lemonade.

heckler73, could you please show me how your beer turned out in a glass?

 

[Cider123]

I made a wheat beer a few weeks ago and used dark wheat (not chocolate wheat) in place of white wheat. Mostly because it's what I had in stock. Came out a bit darker in color. Flavor about the same.

 

[thisisbeer]

What's wrong with hoegaarden? Decent warm weather beer.