Pale ale is almost black and bitter burnt taste

Hewer_07 · Jan 10, 2016

I recieved a amarillo pale ale kit from midwest. It listed out at 10 pounds of 2 row, .5 of 60 carmal and .5 carapils i mashed at 152ish for 60 min biab. I did turn on the burner to gain two deg while sturing. Then put in over. When i pulled out of the oven ( set at 160) it looked like a dark brown ale. I tasted it and it had very strong carmal flavor and a bitter coffee after taste. I went on to strike using prewarmed water and 60 min boil using two pots on a electric range ( first time using it for brewing ) that left a darker ring on bottom of pots. Tasted it once cool and been put into the ferm, still taste like a brown ale and got even darker to almost a stout. My q is did i some how burn the grain or wart or did midwest put in the wrong malt? My grain bag does not look burnt at all, the pots did have light burned rings but nothing crazy. The spent grain did have some completely black grains through out it like it was darker then 60. Im just lost on this one. This is prob my 15th all grain batch and all but this one looked and tasted like the recipy style should have

Izzie1701 · Jan 10, 2016

Are you looking at it in a carboy or in a small sample. Often it will look much darker in the carboy. I don't see any problems with anything you did as long as the actual grain bag wasn't on the bottom of the pot when you heated your mash. Did you by chance taste the malt before you mashed it to see if it did taste like the correct malt?

Hewer_07 · Jan 10, 2016

Did not taste malt fresh, i heated the mash water to 168 and came up short at 150 so i picked up the bag out and put in bowl heated water to 152 and then put bag back in and it did touch bottom, while i sturred it for a min then shut off burner. Bag is white as can be no burn marks

Hewer_07 · Jan 10, 2016

My sample

brewkinger · Jan 10, 2016

Deleted post because i misread and thought you had 5 pounds of CR60

slym2none · Jan 10, 2016

That has to be a grain mistake on the seller's part. No pale ale is that dark. I'd contact them, show them these pics if necessary, and try to get a replacement.

Izzie1701 · Jan 10, 2016

My bet would be the wrong grain was in the kit. I can't see it getting that dark without it actually tasting burnt. And I would assume the grain bag would be brunt as well if you scorched the grain. I switched to gas when I went to all grain so can't comment while doing all grain but I know when I was doing extract I used an electric stove all the time and it never scorched anything during the boil. I am also newer but would bet on the wrong grain. Especially if it's not burnt tasting. Only other thing I could think of is you boiled way past your wort volume and condensed it to the point it's dark from a high SG but you would really need to boil it down.

drainbamage · Jan 10, 2016

I would guess either you got a bad order and they subbed in some darker grains, or grains got scorched on the pot when you ran the burner. Leaning towards the former.