My husband, brother and I just started our first batch yesterday and we noticed it to be a little darker than expected. It is supposed to be a light amber and it looks more medium to dark. What can cause the color to be different than expected? I read something saying it could be the pH of the water. We just bought the gallon jugs of spring water. This is our first attempt at it so we used a brewing kit we purchased at the store, we plan on using only grains the next time around, but we want to make sure we get the process down right before we get into that. (I really want to make a honey IPA at some point! If anyone has any suggestions/recipes that would be awesome). Anyway, we noticed that clean up is a b****!! Any strategies on that one? HA
Any tips for us would be greatly appreciated! We loved our first brew day and plan to continue!!
That’s kind of what I was thinking, but my brother was worried we did something wrong. The only thing we did differently was re-hydrate the yeast. I will let you guys know how it turns out!
We are excited to not use a kit.
We did a pretty good job getting most of the traub out (by the way, the terms for all of this stuff is awesome). We have a pretty good set up, I’m not sure how to insert pictures into posts or I’d send a picture HA.
So how long have you guys been brewing, what is your favorite type of beer to brew??
Many books and commenters will tell you boiling increases cooler and fermentation will decrease the color. With extract (partial boil) you can add half the extract up front and wait to add the rest until 15 minutes left in the boil and get less darkening. The heat of the boil will cause the wort to caramelize a bit and thus darken the beer.
As was mentioned by Stevie you can’t trust the cooler in the fermenter. I usually get a better feel the actual color looking at the transfer tubing when I rack the beer out of the fermenter.
Welcome to our chosen obsession. Many good people here who can are willing to answer any questions you have.
Awesome! Thanks for the tip, we have one more kit that we are going to use before switching to just grains (so we can get the procedure down). It is pretty complicated for beginners!
Here is our set up!
Getting the wort out of the cooling tubes and back into the main kettle was a little confusing for us HAHA we had a few beer by the time we got to that step and it took some discussion, but we figured it out and didn’t make a mess! HAHA
We will probably be brewing IPAs and Stouts. I love wheats, but the guys prefer the others, hopefully they give me a change on brewing something and not just being their assistant brewer HA
It has to be asked… What will you brew on the 500th batch??
Also, to the OP, welcome to the hobby! Brew the beer you like to drink, at least initially. That’s what I did and then I started to branch out to styles that are either very expensive to buy on the regular (high-alcohol/aged/sour/funky beers) or are not found locally in much variety (British ales, saisons).
Welcome to the obsession. Learning the process is the best advice you can get, read the forum regularly, read a brewing how to book(I started with Palmer, but there are other great ones out there)
I have been brewing for almost 3 years, about 30 batches and just love everything about it.
Your set up is quite nice and extensive, quite a bit more automated than my set up
Good luck, take good notes, read a lot, and remember to have fun with it
Thanks! Yeah, I think starting with the kit was a good idea for us to help get the process down. It was a blast though! I will definitely come here with questions and advice! Really liking the community so far!
I started brewing around 1992, took a few years off to do the family thing, got back into it a few years ago, trained my oldest son to brew, and love everything about it. I joined AHA recently, and this is a great community. Lots of experience and FREE, on the spot advice. Some of these guys seem to live here, which I appreciate…I log on almost every evening to see what’s going on. I brew basic ales, lagers, and a few dark beers.
Really liking the community so far!