Kolsch too dark?

[lnxusr]

I brewed up Midwest's Cologne Kolsch and racked it to secondary on the 23. Although it's nice and clear, it seems way too red to me. Looking on Wikipidia, kolschs are supposed to be rather light. Using this SRM chart, mine looks to be somewhere between 16 to 20.

Is it possible I overcooked the wort? I have a small pot and at the end of the boil, I had around two to two and a half gallons of wort remaining.

 

[Parker36]

Is it in a glass carboy and you are looking through it? Looking through that much beer can make it appear darker than it is.

 

[BigEd]

You have a beer made with liquid malt extract, a pound of crystal malt (even though it's lighter 10L) and I assume you did a partial boil. All those factors will produce a beer darker than an all-grain Kolsch brewed from Pilsner malt. That said I think the biggest factor is what Parker36 said. Even a very light colored beer will look darker when viewed as a large mass. When you rack the beer look at the color of the beer in the racking tube. That will be very close in color to what the beer will look like in a glass.

 

[KayaBrew]

You have a beer made with liquid malt extract, a pound of crystal malt (even though it's lighter 10L) and I assume you did a partial boil. All those factors will produce a beer darker than an all-grain Kolsch brewed from Pilsner malt. That said I think the biggest factor is what Parker36 said. Even a very light colored beer will look darker when viewed as a large mass. When you rack the beer look at the color of the beer in the racking tube. That will be very close in color to what the beer will look like in a glass.

That being said, it should still taste great (assuming you follow good brewing practice).

 

[BigEd]

That being said, it should still taste great (assuming you follow good brewing practice).

I never said that it wouldn't.

 

[lnxusr]

Parker36: Yeah, it's actually a BB though. This is only my third brew, and first racking to a secondary. I was expecting it to be more golden then red even in the BB.

BigEd: I'll be partial boiling for a while. My gas stove has a high-btu burner that does a good job with the 3 gallon pot so I'm planing on moving up to a 5 gallon pot for future brewing. Still not a full boil, but I think starting off with 4 1/2 gallons should give me close to 4 gallons of wort at the end. Almost double what I end up with now.