My first beer - should it be so brown?!

[carnevoodoo]

Hi all. I'm new here. A couple of weeks ago I was on vacation and I decided to take the plunge into homebrewing. So I went down to my local homebrew store (http://www.homebrewmart.com/ and I think I am lucky to live near such a great store!) and got one of the kits with all the stuff I needed, etc.

They gave me the ingredients I needed to make my first beer and I chose an English porter. It is an extract brew, Munton's Dark extract with 1.5 ounces of hops and .5 at the end of boil, and all seemed to go well.

Now, I am pretty used to the porters around here. Ballast Point and Alesmith and stone all make porters and they're all dark. Almost black. My porter is very much a deep reddish brown.

Now, I don't know much about English porters. I am just used to American ones. I measured the gravity and I'm at about 4.3% right now, so it is actually beer and it smells and even tastes like beer, but is it a porter? If not, what is it?

Thanks!

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

It's an ABOMINATION! Get it away from your sight! Send it to me quickly for proper disposal!!!

 

[fritz_monroe]

Don't sweat the coloring. This is your first batch, don't expect it to be perfect, just really good. If it's too dark or light, what difference does it make as long as you like it. I made a Belgian Wit that turned out kind of dark, but it tasted really good, and I will make it again.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Yes. It's a Porter.

 

[carnevoodoo]

It's an ABOMINATION! Get it away from your sight! Send it to me quickly for proper disposal!!!

If I am ashamed I'll just drink it alone in my room at night. 24-22oz. bottles of brown delight.

and honestly, it doesn't taste too bad. Or not bad for having no carbonation and being 70 degrees. I can't wait to have a bottle.

 

[Melana]

I guess that's how we all learn... trial and error.

 

[krispy d]

I assume this was an extract brew right? extract brews, especially those using LME vs DME tend to be a bit darker than anticipated. Try a late extract addition instead of early. add your extract with less than 15 minutes left in the boil and be carfull not to let it sit on the bottom of the kettle. Keep on stirring! that extra carmelization from the extract being so close to the heat adds a lot of colr.

 

[carnevoodoo]

I assume this was an extract brew right? extract brews, especially those using LME vs DME tend to be a bit darker than anticipated. Try a late extract addition instead of early. add your extract with less than 15 minutes left in the boil and be carfull not to let it sit on the bottom of the kettle. Keep on stirring! that extra carmelization from the extract being so close to the heat adds a lot of colr.

yeah. DME.

 

[krispy d]

try a late addition and stir like crazy!

 

[BierMuncher]

I assume this was an extract brew right? extract brews, especially those using LME vs DME tend to be a bit darker than anticipated. Try a late extract addition instead of early. add your extract with less than 15 minutes left in the boil and be carfull not to let it sit on the bottom of the kettle. Keep on stirring! that extra carmelization from the extract being so close to the heat adds a lot of colr.

I think his issue was that the beer, a Porter, was not dark enough. More brown than black.

One thing about Porters is that they are much more flexible in their ingredient bill than some other beers.

If you like the taste of the recipe and simply want to "blacken" it next time. Try steeping 1/4 lbs of chocolate malt (crushed) at 150 degrees for 15 minutes before adding your extract. The chocolate is a natural for porters and the color will darken substantially.

 

[the_bird]

It is perfectly acceptable for a porter to be brown, especially certain kinds of English porters. It sounds like yours was on the lighter side, but they can range from what you described to essentially black. They aren't defined especially tightly; you'll find some examples that are so dark and roasty that you might as well call them a stout, while others are lighter and sweeter (like Southern English Browns, which are described as almost being like a dessert beer).

 

[carnevoodoo]

Plus, who doesn't like a chocolate undertone in their porter?

 

[Melana]

Chocolate is good...

 

[Beerrific]

If you like the taste of the recipe and simply want to "blacken" it next time. Try steeping 1/4 lbs of chocolate malt (crushed) at 150 degrees for 15 minutes before adding your extract. The chocolate is a natural for porters and the color will darken substantially.

I agree with this. Most of the deep, dark colors come from specialty grains. Adding specialty grains is very easy and very inexpensive. Just throw in a bag and steep at 150F for 30 minutes or so. So, next time get a kit with specialty grains, sometimes called steeping grains, you won't regret it.

 

[CBBaron]

I think to get that black porter or stout color from an extract you have to steep some roasted grain like chocolate or black malt, or roasted barley. However porters and even stouts can be a dark brown and still be within style. I currently have a porter that was based on a recipe that attempted to replicate an early 1800s porter. This batch is definitely brown. I doesn't look to be much darker than my Mild, however the taste is very different and so far it is very good (still in the secondary).
Next time steep some grains to get a fresher and roastier taste in addition to a blacker beer.
Craig