The darkest Whit EVER!

[RDoughty]

First a bit of background on me... I homebrewed for about 2 years in 2009 - directly to bottles. I hated the extra work and time that bottles required so I vowed to take a break from brewing until I set myself up to keg... enter 2014!

My innaugural run with my old (limited) experience and new kegging equipment was a double brew on a Saturday morning several weeks back. I had purchased materials to brew a Belgian Dubbel clone and planned to use a leftover (from 2009 or 2010) Belgian Whit kit that I had. I of course used fresh yeast, corriander and dried orange peel but figured the LME was OK to use since it was sealed.

I first noticed that things were "darker" than I expected when I opened the liquid malt extract. It was the color of molasses and I was expecting something lighter. It tasted and smelled fine and didn't have any visable settling or seperating that I noticed - so I figured it was OK. It was a 2 gallon boil so the color wasn't lightened much at all during the boil.

**one other note, since I was brewing two batches at once - I used for this batch a burner on the stove that seems weaker than the rest. Hitting boil (even with just 2 gallons) took forever - and there was NO noticeable hot break**

I finished the boiled, cooled quickly with my immersion chiller and moved to primary for 6 days and a secondary for 4 days.

So here is my question... what could have taken this light colored Whit and made it so dark? Could it have been my forever boil (closer to 90 minutes from the time I cranked up the heat on the stove to HIGH), could it have been old, no good LME, could the LME have been mislabeled and actually not been what the recipe called for? I sampled the beer after fermenting and it pretty much tastes like New Castle Brown Ale to me...

Here is a pic of my evil, dark-hearted whit beer (it's in front). Pic was taken 8 hours after kegging/carbonating and most of the "head" is StarSan being cleaned out of the fluid lines.

...by the way - the Belgian Dubbel turned out GREAT!

 

[Homercidal]

Well, there is no pic.

Also, not surprised by the color. Liquid extract is notorious for darkening over time. That is why I used DME for my wits when I brewed extract. LME will always give a darker color than an AG version of the same recipe.

An extended boil may have added some color, but likely it would have been barely noticeable at that boil rate.

As long as it tastes good, right?

For a lighter wit, I do recommend using extra light DME and light wheat extract next time. A good rolling boil is also a good idea, but since it's a wheat beer, it's not recommended that the beer be really clear anyway.

 

[hunter_le five]

dunkelwit?

 

[Arrheinous]

I wouldn't have used 4-year old LME as the base for two beers. Beer and beer ingredients will oxidize over time, causing them to turn darker among other things.

What kind of LME was it? There's light malt extract, golden malt extract, dark malt extract, etc. And how was the kit packaged?

You won't get any lightening during the boil, expect darkening but not that much over 90 minutes. Only diluting it further with your extra water after the boil can do that.

Edit: Those pics look great though.

 

[RDoughty]

The only kit/ingredients that were old were for the whit - the dubbel was all fresh and newly purchased. I don't remember the exact LME but I think it was light malt extract. I tasted the beer straight out of the fermenter and it is OK - not great but OK. There is a slight sour off-taste but I wouldn't link that to the LME being old but more from a bug.
I think I've learned my lesson and won't brew with old ingredients again. I had purchased this years ago so the $$ was spent. Brewing it up really just cost me $6 for new yeast.

 

[microbusbrewery]

Yep, darkening was likely due to LME being oxidized.

 

[NadoHawk]

I had the same issue...I used an expired Coopers kit from the LHBS last year which was supposed to have a light golden color and it ended up being as dark as a brown ale. That's why, for extracts, I prefer to go after the styles that have higher SRM specifications. I'll leave the lighter beers for when I finally finish my all grain kit over a year at the same place (took a year off homebrewing waiting for the temperature to drop, ended up buying a fridge instead), just missing stainless-steel washers.

 

[Arrheinous]

DME is more stable IIRC.

You might be able to get away with calling the wit more of a biere de garde. It's just that the ingredients were stored for a while and not the beer.

 

[PetteriSeppanen]

That black colour? I recon you got the wrong can. My pal got an muntons golden ale can and ended up with a porter! Even the beer elf's down at the factory make mistakes.