We did our second all grain recipe today. Trying to duplicate an IPA we did before with extract. (which was magical) This one like our first all grain, an ESB, turned out a pretty sad color. Kind of dishwater almost greenish. While the ESB was tasty, it was not shall we say, visually appealing. Maybe a bit more chocolate would have fixed that but not an IPA. Is there some trick to get that nice light caramel color as opposed to dishwater color? Or am i missing something that would help an IPA color wise. At least cover up the green. Any clue is appreciated. tnks.
Todays recipe was:
10.25lbs 2 row
8 oz munich 20
8 oz crystal 40
8 oz carapils
2 teaspoons gypsum and a heck of a lot simcoe, citra and amarillo.
I’d say the green came from hop matter, assuming you used pellets (?). If so, the particles will settle and you’ll be able to rack off of the particulate.
For sure green from the hop pellets. Just doesn’t seem to be anything in that grain to give it much color. Maybe just the lack of green floaters will make it ok.
The ESB was still dishwater grey with a greenish tint. I used maris otter base for that one. Pretty sure a bit more chocolate malt might have fixed that one. This one i am really hoping to a better tint when it settles. The ESB just has me paranoid. This one will have a dry hop secondary so plenty of chance to settle out.
Depending upon your water, if you aren’t doing more to bring your mash pH down into a proper range, there is a very good chance that high pH is creating some of your color ‘problem’. The article in the Nov/Dec 2015 Zymurgy is focused on exactly this problem and it provides simple adjustments to try in your brewing when certain problems are perceived.
You said you brewed it today?
If so, a lot of the hop particulate will settle out after fermentation is complete.
But, what they all said is also true.
This is where I was going too. When the OP says “dishwater”, that sounds like the color you get when you boil wort where the pH is too high. I have made pilsners, helles, blonde ales, etc. that came out with a sort of grayish tint. Once I got my water and my pH control in place, all of that went away. To the OP: I have seen commercial beers look (and taste!) this way too so pros have done it too and you’re not alone. Lactic acid to lower mash, sparge and kettle pH… color will improve.
I like results I get with Aciduated malt. I cannot attest to my pH as I fail to measure those values due to lack of equipment and lack of desire to keep the meter properly in it’s calibration solution.
So paranoia is normally unwarranted. The hops dropped out is probably the right answer. It looks pretty good. Put it in the secondary today and it is a little lighter than i might have wanted but not green or dishwater. Pretty tasty in the sample i took for gravity. Really thick cake in the bottom of the fermenter. went from 1.060 to 1.004.
Your recipe scored a SRM of 6.71, which should produce a light-colored dirty golden, dirty blonde color. Your grain bill doesn’t provide much color given your ratio was 10:1 and you used relatively light roasted malt. Did you batch sparge or use a bag? Also, make sure your water:grain mash ratio is appropriate. 1.25qts-1.5quts to every 1 lb of malt.
Just a follow up…It came out seriously tasty and just barely lighter than i might have wanted. Made a small mistake in the dry hopping. Put the hops in the screen tube that is the bottom filter for my mash tun. trying to avoid floaters. In the past had just poured them in and filtered going into the bottle bucket. Didn’t get as much of the citrus as i wanted but have had zero complaints from anyone drinking one.