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quceps
New Member
Username: Quceps
Post Number: 1
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Monday, November 29, 2004 - 04:48 pm: | 
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Hello!
I have had two successive batches, both now sitting in secondary turn darker than I expected.
Both are all grain, based on 6-7 lb of 2-row pale, the first including 1.5 lb of Munich, the second 2 lb of Vienna. Both of the high-kilned malts look too pale to account for the unexpected darkening, especially the Vienna, whose package actually read "4 Lovibond".
The puzzling thing is that both worts looked really pale. Munich looked like Pilsner Urq and Vienna looked even lighter, almost Budweisery - before the boil, slightly darkening through the boil. The colour persisted until about a day in the primary, when, all of a sudden, the yellow simply "percipitated out" - fell to the bottom, leaving the beer, in both cases, about the colour of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or the red Grolsch ale. What happened?
This has not happened before with any light beer in my proven and quite standard process. The only things which were different this time (and these were the first two batched of the season):
- Actually adjusted Ca and Mg with a teaspoon of CaSO4 and a third of a teaspoon of MgSO4, to correct my water after boiling it to remove most of bicarbonate (originally 35 ppm Ca, 8 ppm Mg, 105 ppm HCO3)
- Used a shiny clean copper lautering manifold instead of a plastic one I used last year
- Boiled in a large alunimun pot instead of two smaller stainless steel ones
Pretty sure the mashes went well (1.042, 1.049)and I doubt it is oxidation, as I am reasonably careful about this.
Any ideas? |
Chris Colby
Intermediate Member
Username: Chriscolby
Post Number: 254
Registered: 03-2003
| | Posted on Monday, November 29, 2004 - 05:12 pm: |
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Is this darkening occuring in your carboy? If so, it's just the yeast (and other particles) settling. It makes the beer look darker.
Chris Colby
Bastrop, TX |
Kent Fletcher
Advanced Member
Username: Fletch
Post Number: 640
Registered: 11-2002
| | Posted on Monday, November 29, 2004 - 05:17 pm: |
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Assuming that the Munich was LIGHT Munich malt, the color predicted by ProMash is about 5-6 L, and the batch with the Vienna should be very pale, indeed. I suspect that you are overestimating the present color, remember that the beer always looks darker in a carboy. The lighter color effect that you observed might simply have been yeast and proteins. I'd say you'll have to wait until you get it into a pint glass to judge the final color. |
quceps
New Member
Username: Quceps
Post Number: 2
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Monday, November 29, 2004 - 05:18 pm: |
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No, it's happening in the primary (plastic), already after a day or so. It seems as though some remaining finer suspended trub is settling out, which is expected; the question, though, is why is the clear liquid left behind is more brownish-red than yellow. There is no crystal, no chocolate or patent in this whatsoever. This is all pale grits. Where is the darker colour coming from???
Puzzled,
Q |
Fredrik
Senior Member
Username: Fredrik
Post Number: 1790
Registered: 03-2003
| | Posted on Monday, November 29, 2004 - 06:23 pm: |
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In the fermentor: As the suspended solids drop the path of the reflected light will increase and it will look darker and shifted to red/brown like a wider glass makes the beer look different by skewing the colours differently.
Also, the apparent colour in a typical beer glass is one thing but when you look into a 5 gallon fermentor the path of the light is much longer and it will look different (shifted along the light yellow - gold - red -brown - black scale). It's probably not as dark as you think once you get it into the glass.
/Fredrik |
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Brews and Views Archive 2004 
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