How do I get lighter color with IPA?

[bwible]

Unless OP has a 10 gallon kettle already, it would require him to purchase a new kettle and likely a mill as well.

This is a question I didn’t see asked - ingredients look to be for a standard 5 gallon batch. How big of a pot does the OP have and how much volume is being boiled? Concentrated wort boils will produce a darker color even after the beer is diluted to full volume at the end.

I used to own a homebrew store. DME comes in several colors. Personally, I have never seen Pale DME. It is sold here as Extra Light (usually Laaglander, though I have not bought it in years), Light, Amber, and Dark. I think there is Pilsner DME now, too, but thats a recent newcomer.

Morebeer lists Pale DME as being 6L. That is not dark. And I don’t think a pound of Crystal 20 would push you too far into darkness. Colorwise, that’s the same as .5 pound of Crystal 40. I use .5 lb of Crystal 60 in my Pale Ale recipes. Cane sugar / Table Sugar should have virtually no color. So I don’t see this as a recipe formula issue.

This is some process issue. Though everybody is on the low oxygen bandwagon these days I don’t buy it and I don’t see how oxygen can dramatically darken a beer. Its a slight color change at best. Even in oxidized wines, they only turn slightly brown-ish. A concentrated wort boil would cause the color to be darker. DME that clumps on the bottom of the pot and burns will darken beer. I always turn off the flame while I add and thoroughly stir in the DME.

That is all I can think of, unless your crystal 20 was crystal 120 and the one got erased. Some kind of mis-labelled ingredient.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

A question for the readers (not any one in particular):

How much (measured in SRM or visually in a slim container) does a concentrated boil darken a wort?

 

[bwible]

A question for the readers (not any one in particular):

How much (measured in SRM or visually in a slim container) does a concentrated boil darken a wort?

I can’t give you a measurement in SRM, but its substantial. In my early days I had a small 2 gallon pot. I used to boil everything (all the extract and all the hops as required) in about 1.5 gallons and then add about 3.5 gallons of water at the end. The lightest golden beers I tried to make came out red - like the color of Smithwicks or Killian’s. Most 5 gallon recipes would call for 2 cans of extract, 6.6 lbs or so. Thats alot of extract for such a small pot. I would guess being that thick some of it burned on the bottom of the pot.

There is a practice going in now where people who do concentrated boils are only boiling half or a percentage of the extract and adding the rest after flameout. I’ve never done this. My days of concentrated boils were over 20 years ago. I have a big enough pot to boil my entire batch. I can see where not boiling all the extract might make a difference.

Best practice is to get a pot big enough to boil your entire batch. I brew 3 gallon batches in a 5 gallon pot on my stovetop.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

There is a practice going in now where people who do concentrated boils are only boiling half or a percentage of the extract and adding the rest after flameout. I’ve never done this. My days of concentrated boils were over 20 years ago. I have a big enough pot to boil my entire batch. I can see where not boiling all the extract might make a difference.

"Stove top" brewing - the approach of "Add half the DME/water at the start of the boil and the rest at the end" - has been around since the early 2010s in forums (maybe earlier). How to Brew, 4e (2017) is a good source for details on this process. It has some limits (IBUs are diluted and there may be an upper limit on the IBUs in a volume of water). Overall, it's a good approach.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I can’t give you a measurement in SRM, but its substantial. In my early days I had a small 2 gallon pot. I used to boil everything (all the extract and all the hops as required) in about 1.5 gallons and then add about 3.5 gallons of water at the end. The lightest golden beers I tried to make came out red - like the color of Smithwicks or Killian’s. Most 5 gallon recipes would call for 2 cans of extract, 6.6 lbs or so. Thats alot of extract for such a small pot. I would guess being that thick some of it burned on the bottom of the pot.

One piece of data missing here is the initial color / quality of the wort at it's intended SG.

I might be curious enough to try a concentrated boil (2 lb Pilsen DME in 1 gal water, top off to 2 gal). The colors in #40 could be used as a comparision (while not 'perfect', probably 'close enough'). I have a couple of other recipes the queue at this point, so it may be a while (if ever) before I try this.

 

[eric19312]

One piece of data missing here is the initial color / quality of the wort at it's intended SG.

I might be curious enough to try a concentrated boil (2 lb Pilsen DME in 1 gal water, top off to 2 gal). The colors in #40 could be used as a comparision (while not 'perfect', probably 'close enough'). I have a couple of other recipes the queue at this point, so it may be a while (if ever) before I try this.

What I liked about your post #40 is it was side by side. Color matching from photo to photo is really hard to get right. If you can't do side by side try to recreate conditions with something in the photo that was in your previous photo so you can compare the color of the background item.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Color matching from photo to photo is really hard to get right. If you can't do side by side try to recreate conditions with something in the photo that was in your previous photo so you can compare the color of the background item.

Good point. I ferment in my basement (no windows), so I have good control over the sources of light.

The photos back in #40 don't show much of an increase in color due to the boil; and the amount of darkening seems to be close to the number that's in the BBR podcasts I mentioned back in #36.

Color "darker than expected" is probably best discussed after determining
1) what SRM number was expected, and
2) what is the SRM number for the beer

That being said, #26 & #31 appear to directly answer the question "How do I get lighter color with IPA?"

 

[bwible]

One piece of data missing here is the initial color / quality of the wort at it's intended SG.

I might be curious enough to try a concentrated boil (2 lb Pilsen DME in 1 gal water, top off to 2 gal). The colors in #40 could be used as a comparision (while not 'perfect', probably 'close enough'). I have a couple of other recipes the queue at this point, so it may be a while (if ever) before I try this.

I would not consider 2 lb DME in 1 gallon to be a concentrated boil. Thats just making a 1.085 or 1.090 beer. There are plenty of those like Tripels that are light color. We’re talking about putting all the extract for a 5 gallon batch in 1.5 or 2 gallons. New brewers do this because they don’t have a big enough pot and maybe aren’t sure they are committed to spend the money for one. So they end up using the spaghetti pot out of the Reverware set, which is a 6 qt pot. Try boiling 6 lbs of DME or 6.6 lbs of LME in 1.5 gallons then top that up to 5 gallons after your 1 hour boil. That gets you to about 1.180 which is certainly a real concentrated boil.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I would not consider 2 lb DME in 1 gallon to be a concentrated boil.

If the goal is 2 gal of OG 44 beer, and the end of boil OG is around 88, it's a concentrated boil .

My curiosity with regard to concentrated boils is likely to be limited to the idea of
"all the DME and half the water" just before "flame-on"
across the range of session -> normal -> imperial strength beers (not Barley Wines or RISs).

eta: careful reading of the 'I brewed a favorite recipe today' thread in the 'extract brewing' forum may result in some experimental brewing of concentrated wort.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Follow-up to #38.

Active fermentation has slowed; beer is definitely hazy (as expected), color in the fermenter (NB little BMB) is definitely not orange or brown.

This batch will likely sit in primary (undisturbed) for another 7 to 14 days while I'm considering what to do next with this batch.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Follow-up to #50. Decided to bottle what was there and move along to other things (so no additional follow-ups).

 

[supersonicyears]

Thanks for all the replies, I took in all the advise and brewed this batch. Very happy with the color and taste!

15 minute boil -

6 lbs Pilsen DME
2 lbs cane sugar
1 lb crystal 10L (steeped for 10 min)
1 oz columbus @ 15 min
1 oz chinook @ 10 min
1 oz chinook @ 5 min
1 oz citra @ 0 min
1 oz citra and 1 oz mosiac dry hopped at day 4 of fermentation

OG 1.072
FG 1.008
~8.5%
Fermented for 9 days in primary. No racking to secondary

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

LME: 3 month old (left), 12 months old (right). All LME was added to kettle when water was around 170F. 60 min full volume boil. (link to source)

More evidence that LME doesn't darken much when boiled.

For those with older LME, there are a couple of interesting comments in the source article.