Kolsch too dark

[DonRikkles]

I had the first sip of my kolsch tonight, and it was a long time coming. I brewed it in early March, it spend a month in primary, and then two months lagering around 35 degrees. It tasted as it should, light, crisp, subtly grainy with very light fermentation notes. It's clear and it's nicely carbonated; I like it a lot.

The only problem,.. is that it's too dark. I'm not sure of the color, maybe a light 6-8, pale gold or copper, but very very pale. Almost like the color went through the wash and faded. What could have caused the color to be dark? I don't think anything in my grain bill did. Did I carmelize something in the kettle?

Here's my recipe:

3 gal | 1.049 OG | 1.005 FG | 5.8% ABV

5.5 lbs pils
.5 lbs wheat malt
1 oz Hallertauer @ 60
.25 oz Hallertauer @ 20
Wyeast 2565
Pitched and fermented at 62.

 

[drainbamage]

Is that DME? When doing extract brews, if you add it all at the beginning of the boil, you will have some carmelization that will darken the beer. Some people also suspect this is a source of the "extract twang". Try adding only a pound or two at the beginning of the boil, and the rest in the last 15 minutes or so.

 

[DonRikkles]

Is that DME?

Nope - all grain. I boiled for 90 min to drive off the DMS from the Pilsner malt.

 

[drainbamage]

Interesting. I've never heard of unwanted carmelization happening in an AG batch, nor would I begin to guess how to get around it since you need the 90-min. boil with pilsner malt.

 

[DonRikkles]

Interesting. I've never heard of unwanted carmelization happening in an AG batch, nor would I begin to guess how to get around it since you need the 90-min. boil with pilsner malt.

I think I just figured it out. I added my yeast starter without decanting the yeast - I just threw it all in. I make my starters with light DME. The wort was so light that it adopted a bit of the color from the starter. Does that make sense?

 

[And1129]

I have had yeast starters completely mess up the color in otherwise excellent beers. I couldn't care less about color compared to taste, but I have definitely noticed that happening too.

 

[mrdauber64]

I've heard that oxidized beer darkens. Did you cold crash it, if so you may have sucked in oxygen. According to Jamil on a recent BN show cold crashing outside of a pressurized keg will result in oxygen being introduced through the airlock.

 

[DonRikkles]

I've heard that oxidized beer darkens. Did you cold crash it, if so you may have sucked in oxygen. According to Jamil on a recent BN show cold crashing outside of a pressurized keg will result in oxygen being introduced through the airlock.

I did cold crash it perhaps some air did sneak it, but it doesn't taste oxidized. Hmm. I'll be more careful with cold crashing and starters for the next batch.

 

[beersk]

Ah man, it's all good. Kolsch can apparently be black now! http://aleheads.com/2011/10/24/in-defense-of-black-kolsch/

I had Stone's black rye Kolsch a month back or so and it didn't taste anything like a Kolsch. But whatever...just like music genres, people need to create a new one for every beer that's different.

Ugh...