Scottish wee heavy color

[millsbrew]

I brewed the AG version of the northern brewer Scottish Wee heavy back on Jan 4th. I was not able to mash out due to space constraints on my 7.5g mash tun, so I fly-sparged with 190F water. Other than that issue, everything went smoothly. My OG was 1.091 and NB estimated it should be 1.083 (I think they use 75% efficiency).

I transferred to secondary on Jan 25th once activity had died off completely. It has been in my ferm chamber at 65 the whole time.



So my question is why is it so dark? The picture on NB is a deep amber, while mine is pitch black. I haven't tasted it yet as I have read it needs at least 3 months to age. From what I have read mashing out only affects sugar profile and should not affect color. And I wouldn't think my increased efficiency would affect color either.

Any helpful tips, so that I can avoid this in the future, would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.




Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[mlakota]

Your beer will always look darker in bulk than it will once finished and in your glass. If you pull out a sample it will probably be more like what you're expecting.

 

[JimRausch]

I did this recipe back in the fall, and it turned out darker than predicted. It's a medium brown. But I did a kettle carmelization of 1G 1st runnings and that was almost certainly the reason. I would guess that the recipe doesn't/can't account for that.
Turned out very nice.

 

[millsbrew]

Thanks guys. Jim - did you bottle age? If so, how long? I'm thinking about doing 3 months bulk aging then 2 weeks in my oak barrel before bottle. I'm guessing I will need some cask yeast to get a good carb but I have no clue how much to add.

Cheers.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[ajf]

Ive never seen wee as dark as that, but then I'm not Scottish.

-a.

 

[masteraviator]

Oskar Blues Old Chub is every bit that dark and so is my clone.

 

[JimRausch]

Thanks guys. Jim - did you bottle age? If so, how long? I'm thinking about doing 3 months bulk aging then 2 weeks in my oak barrel before bottle. I'm guessing I will need some cask yeast to get a good carb but I have no clue how much to add.

Cheers.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

After fermentation was complete, I racked to a carboy for cold conditioning for 3 weeks before bottling. 1/2 of the batch I bottled with O2 scavenging caps and waxed. Those are stored for the long haul- 6 months or more. The rest were bottled with regular caps, and are almost gone.

 

[millsbrew]

Thanks Jim. So you didn't have a problem with carbing?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[JimRausch]

Thanks Jim. So you didn't have a problem with carbing?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Nope, she carbed well, with no added yeast.
As an unrelated aside, I see you did a pomegranate mead. About 3-4 weeks ago I bottled an Irish Red with one of those POM bottles plus 2 oz. dextrose. It just wasn't red enough to me. Carbonated well, is a deeper red, and has a little interesting acidic kick from the pomegranate.

 

[millsbrew]

Nope, she carbed well, with no added yeast.

As an unrelated aside, I see you did a pomegranate mead. About 3-4 weeks ago I bottled an Irish Red with one of those POM bottles plus 2 oz. dextrose. It just wasn't red enough to me. Carbonated well, is a deeper red, and has a little interesting acidic kick from the pomegranate.

Thanks for the tip. I might PM you a pic later. Mine has some pretty nice color. I didn't add the pomegranates until secondary. It's almost 7 months now and the pomegranates went in 3 months ago. I'm hesitant to carb as I'm afraid of over carbing. Did you stovetop pasteurize or use champagne bottles?




Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[JimRausch]

Thanks for the tip. I might PM you a pic later. Mine has some pretty nice color. I didn't add the pomegranates until secondary. It's almost 7 months now and the pomegranates went in 3 months ago. I'm hesitant to carb as I'm afraid of over carbing. Did you stovetop pasteurize or use champagne bottles?




Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

With the Irish Red it wasn't a problem. Using a priming calculator, I figured out how much sugar I needed. The POM listed how much sugar it contained, which I figured was 100% fermentable being probably all fructose, glucose and sucrose. Added 2 oz. of regular priming sugar to get it up to the level I wanted, and bottled as usual.
I did pasteurize a Graf batch this past fall that I wanted a little sweet and slightly carbonated. There's a thread in the cider part of the forum on cooler pasteurization. Basically you add hot(160* I think) water to a cooler with the bottles and let them sit until they cool. It worked for me. Search for the thread if you are interested.