First pilsner...LHBS & I both screwed up

[scrambledegg81]

Never made a pilsner in my 12 years of brewing, but I'm almost positive that I received pale or amber LME instead of pilsner seeing as this current batch is more of a muddy ale color. Curious if this qualifies as some other form of dark lager/bock/prison hooch at this rate? (Higher temp due to diacetyl rest.)

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Never made a pilsner in my 12 years of brewing, but I'm almost positive that I received pale or amber LME instead of pilsner seeing as this current batch is more of a muddy ale color.

It is usually better to wait until the beer is in the glass before evaluating the final color.

When the wort/beer is actively fermenting, the color will change based on the amount of things (yeast, hop trub, malt trub, ...) suspended in the wort.

What was the process for adding / boiling the LME? Was it a full volume boil (perhaps with half of the LME at the end of the boil)? Or some other approach?

 

[VikeMan]

LME wort, even "fresh" LME, is always darker than an equivalent all grain wort. And the older the darker. I've never seen an LME pilsner that looked as light as it should.

OTOH, the beer is going to look lighter in the glass than it does during fermentation in the carboy, due to less volume for light to shine through, but also due to stuff dropping out of suspension.

 

[z-bob]

Just call it a Dunkel, or an American dark (or amber) lager.

 

[scrambledegg81]

What was the process for adding / boiling the LME? Was it a full volume boil (perhaps with half of the LME at the end of the boil)? Or some other approach?

Bog standard 60 minute full boil, added at around 190F just prior to boiling.

 

[grampamark]

It’s beer. It’s homebrew. Unless you were going to enter it in a competition, call it whatever you want. “Restaurant At The End Of The World House Beer”. Or something.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Bog standard 60 minute full boil, added at around 190F just prior to boiling.

Thanks. Fortunately, it wasn't a concentrated boil. The unknown measurement here is the actual color of the LME before the start of the boil.

As @VikeMan suggested, you won't get SRM 2 or 3. If the LME was relatively fresh, it's likely in the 4 - 8 when measured properly. For me, "Amber" is in the 12-15 range.

If you're interested in some ideas on how to brew it differently next time, let us know. There are some techniques that could help lower the color a couple of SRM.

At the moment, it looks like the posters are more interested in helping you name your unfinished beer, so I'll save my keystrokes for a follow-up question or different topic.

 

[grampamark]

At the moment, it looks like the posters are more interested in helping you name your unfinished beer, so I'll save my keystrokes for a follow-up question or different topic.

The OP specifically asked what else it could be if it turns out not to be a Pilsner. Maybe you didn’t notice that.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I noticed.

I decided to observe that one cannot measure final SRM in the fermenter. I also noted that there are improvements that could be made to the recipe to get a lighter color.

So, like I said earlier ...

If [OP is, or others are] interested in some ideas on how to brew it differently next time, let us know. There are some techniques that could help lower the color a couple of SRM.

 

[scrambledegg81]

Cheers all. We'll see what inevitably comes out of the tap in about 3-4 weeks, and provided it doesn't taste like dish soap, I'll still drink it regardless of what it looks like.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

[reply removed due to bad photo representation]

 

[Beermeister32]

Looks like an amber lager, like a Sam Adams. LME always gets darker as time goes on.... I think you will enjoy...!

 

[hottpeper13]

3-4 weeks? Wow, my pilsners are 8-12 week beers depending on 1.044- 1.060. In fact all my lagers and most of my ales spend time at 33* in the lagering chamber. I think 1 week per degree plato is sometimes over kill I do that on my higher grav brews,but my Kolsch is 1.044 and it spends 4 weeks in there and is crystal clear.

 

[Steveruch]

Octoberfest?

 

[Snark_Wolf_Brewing]

It’s beer. It’s homebrew. Unless you were going to enter it in a competition, call it whatever you want. “Restaurant At The End Of The World House Beer”. Or something.

 

[Snark_Wolf_Brewing]

+1 on all the previous replies. The beer will get lighter as it clears up from fermentation. And even if it doesn't, hey it's still beer!

 

[scrambledegg81]

3-4 weeks?

You'll find that I'm incredibly inpatient. :v

All seriousness, it's been going since the second week in July, so it'll finish at around 6~ weeks in total. I just racked it and a black IPA that I brewed that same day to secondaries earlier today, and the color was quite pilsner-ish during the transfer so I'm holding hope it's not as dark as I originally thought.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

With regard to transfers before packaging, here is a link to a picture showing the impact that oxygen ingress can have on beer color.

 

[scrambledegg81]

Cheers all. As semi-expected, it did turn out more golden/amber than desired but it's still very much a beer and it's very drinkable.

 

[Beermeister32]

Yum

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Good to read that it's an enjoyable beer.

Apologies @scrambledegg81, for going on a tangent.

With regard to color, given that it was racked to secondary (link), it's plausible to 'blame' the process for some of the darkening. A tulip glass isn't really a good glass for measuring SRM properly. I'll often see 2-3 SRM difference (top to bottom) in an IPA glass. Cloudy beer is also a darker beer.

With regard to how much extract darkens during the boil, in addition to the BBR podcasts (Aug 25, 2005 & Nov 17, 2005), there is a AHA presentation from 2005 on color at Briess's web site (link to PDF via Briess Resource Library).

Thank you. Feel free to return to the original topic