Light Colored Porter

[nitsuj80]

I just brewed the St. Paul Porter extract kit from NB a day ago and the directions recommend doing a partial boil of 2.5 gallons and then adding water after the boil to the carboy to bring it to 5 gallons. I noticed that the color is lighter than you would expect from a porter. Is this because is was a partial boil and the specialty grains were only steeped in 2.5 gallons? If so could I fix this next time by doing a full boil and adjusting the hops? Thanks.

 

[Yooper]

I just brewed the St. Paul Porter extract kit from NB a day ago and the directions recommend doing a partial boil of 2.5 gallons and then adding water after the boil to the carboy to bring it to 5 gallons. I noticed that the color is lighter than you would expect from a porter. Is this because is was a partial boil and the specialty grains were only steeped in 2.5 gallons? If so could I fix this next time by doing a full boil and adjusting the hops? Thanks.

The size of the boil shouldn't affect the color at all. I assume the grains were cracked (milled)? What were the grains? Maybe they made an error and didn't send the right grains is all I can think of.

 

[nitsuj80]

The specialty grains were 0.5 lbs English Chocolate Malt and 0.5 lbs English Dark Crystal. They were cracked and steeped at 155 degrees for 20 minutes.

 

[Yooper]

The specialty grains were 0.5 lbs English Chocolate Malt and 0.5 lbs English Dark Crystal. They were cracked and steeped at 155 degrees for 20 minutes.

1/2 pound of chocolate malt should make it pretty dark. I wonder if it just looks funny in the fermenter and it'll look much darker in the glass.

 

[nitsuj80]

I was wondering the same thing because right now it is really actively fermenting and churning with yeast.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

could it be cloudy from yeast? my CDA (28 Lovibond) that's in primary looked like coffee with creamer in it when the yeast was active.

 

[nitsuj80]

That is what I am beginning to think it might be. I will just have to wait until I get it in a glass.

 

[strambo]

I brewed a RIS that looks dark enough in the glass, but looked lighter when fermenting and taking samples.