My beers are all a little darker than intended... is it possibly the boil?

[jimyoung]

Hey everyone, I've consistently found that my beers come out darker than intended / predicted using Beersmith (2). I hit my targets, volumes, etc., so it's not that. My recent APA came out too dark, my Vienna Lager came out too red, and even my summer ale wasn't as pale as I intended. It's not, like, porter dark, but just noticeably more than intended.

I was thinking about it today, and it may simply be the calibration of Beersmith vs the grain I can get locally.. that's perhaps the most likely cause.

But I was also thinking: I wonder how much malliard reaction I'm getting in my boil. Does anyone know much about this? I can't find any detailed info.

I boil on propane with a nice tallboy kettle. I don't overdo it, and I do back off on the propane, but I was thinking that maybe I /am/ boiling still too hot. How possible is it that I'm boiling a little too hard, and getting more malliard browning? I've always aimed for a solid rolling boil, but maybe I'll see how low I can go and still have a boil, if less vigorous?

thoughts?

 

[h22lude]

A strong boil will definitely darken the beer.

At what point in the process do you notice the beer to be darker? Post boil, post fermentation, after packaging?

What is your boil off rate?

 

[Transamguy77]

I think it may be what you can get locally or too much specialty malt, without seeing the recipes it’s hard tell.

 

[Maxkling]

I find that sometimes the lovibond on BeerSmith will be different than what the LHBS has.

 

[Konstantianus]

How do you measure the color of the beer? If you're looking through a pint glass then it will be darker than the estimated SRM. AFAIK the SRM measurement is done with a 1/2" sample.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Are you bottling or kegging? What's your process? Oxygen can cause some substantial darkening, even without obvious 'oxidadation' flavours. If you bottle, check out this thread Limiting oxidation: effect of purging headspace O2 in a bottle conditioned IPA . If you can't be bothered reading it, just have a look at the photo's in post 2, post 68, Post 117, post 185 and post 219.

 

[jimyoung]

Hm. Some great thoughts.

I don't actually measure using any kinds of tools or palettes, it's just by eye. And yes, I am judging in a glass by eye - I didn't consider that the standard is a 1/2" sample, that certainly impacts it.

My boil-off rate is 4.7L/hr on an 8 gallon tall kettle

I do bottle (no kegging), and don't have much means of controlling O2. I'm reasonably careful re: splashing, etc., and don't notice oxidation flavors... I'll read that other thread and hopefully learn something.

thanks!!

 

[day_trippr]

 

[bracconiere]

i had a similar problem, but realized if i want a light beer, it takes A LOT less crystal then i was using....i'm talking like 4oz's for a 10 gallon batch, for 'light'.....

 

[Beermeister32]

I agree on that - I usually reduce the crystal by a couple clicks until I get the desired color, sometimes the recipe might call for 4 ounces C40, but the color for whatever reason is too dark. Run the next batch at 2 ounces for example.

 

[Deadalus]

I find that sometimes the lovibond on BeerSmith will be different than what the LHBS has.

This for sure, particularly some of the darker malts. I've been making a point to mark the containers I keep specialty malts in with the lovibond value. I also will add these to Beersmith.