Why is my beer so dark? Is it the PH?

[gwapogorilla]

I have done 3 batches now, and ALL of them are dark. Even my latest beer which is a blonde turned very dark, and I didn't add the LME until flame out. Here is the grain bill...

Mashed in 2.5 gallons H2O at 155* for 1 hour
1 lb 2 row malt(1.8 srm)
1 lb honey malt(22 srm)
1 lb 12 oz rice (1 srm)
1 lb torrified wheat(2srm)
Then batch sparged with 3 gallons H2O at 168*

Then topped up with additional water for full volume boil in brew kettle. Boiled hard with a good hot break. Added hops at scheduled times, then at flame out added 2.5 lbs of Briess Pilsen light LME(2.3 srm). Used wort chiller to get temps to pitching temp.

My beer smith says this should have been a very VERY light colored beer. But what I have in my fermentor looks more like a nut brown.

I called the local water dept and asked for info on the water...with limited response. I was able to find out the PH level is around 7.4 , I was unable to get more specific ion count at this time.

What am I missing guys?

 

[454k30]

I don't think you are missing anything and I don't think your water is the problem. Extract, especially LME, is going to produce a darker than expected beer. The way that extract is made imparts a bit darker hue to the malt. Doing a late addition like you did lessens how much darker the stuff gets but extract will always be darker than an all grain brew. Don't sweat it though, you will not notice a flavor difference. One other reason your brew looks so dark is because you are looking at through a full fermentor. If you still can pull a sample and put it in a glass. Look through it that way and you will have a much better idea of how dark the beer is. Like I said the extracts will always be a bit darker. So to sum all this up, don't worry you have a good looking brew there!

 

[RM-MN]

What you see in the fermenter and what you see in the glass will be very different. You have a large quantity of beer that absorbs light when its in the fermenter. This same beer in the glass will have much less light absorption and should turn out much lighter. If you take a sample with your hydrometer and have that sample in a narrow tube, it will look nearly clear.

 

[gwapogorilla]

I haven't pulled a sample yet, as it's only been a week. But really guys...it's DARK. I have it sitting next to an IPA, and the are basically the same in color...and the IPA was suppose to be dark.
I tried every trick I could think of to try and lighten the color...with the exception of the honey malt, which I can't do anything about the srm on it but I wanted the sweetness.
Any other tricks I can try? I understand what your saying about the LME, you basically have "tea" from the start...but this seemed to get darker.

 

[mabrungard]

Most definitely YES! Elevated mash and wort pH does increase the darkening of wort. If the brewing water has high alkalinity, then its very possible that the pH was higher than desirable. You can read more about those darkening reactions on the Water Knowledge page of the Bru'n Water website along with some other flavor-negative reactions from high pH.

Find out what is in your water! It is the first step to resolving this problem.

 

[chickypad]

You did mash quite thin so the pH issue is certainly a possibility. But as others suggested let's confirm you really have a problem before trying to troubleshoot. Put a sample in the hydro tube and post a pic. Lots of threads on here like this where folks were just thrown off by the color in the fermenter.