Why is my IPA so dark?

[Hengoedbrewer]

Hi guys



I have lost patience with waiting, and started trying my first all grain (BIAB) beer. It has been bottled for just over 4 weeks. It’s a basic Citra beer with 89% Maris Otter and 11% light crystal malt ( 2kg MO and 225g crystal to be exact). Whilst I wasn't expecting much for a first go, I am actually really happy with the taste and aroma- you get the citra on opening the bottle, and it comes through nicely in the taste too-it is much, much darker than I thought it would be. (pic attached). It’s also slightly muddy looking. Pic here:

https://imgur.com/a/FlLheKh

Whilst I am happy and relieved that my first go at BIAB is actually quite decent, I’d like to get it truer to the American IPA style I was after, ie; lighter in colour. Looking round it appears MO can be darker than other base malts- next time, should I try an extra pale malt, or even lager malt? Leave out the crystal all together? Or could it be slight caramelisation of the malts in the boil making it so dark? It was a 60 min boil but was pretty vigorous throughout.

One thing I did note was the head on the second bottle was much better than the first, I only put it in the fridge for half an hour for chilling before opening, whilst the first was in the fridge for a week. It was also a bit of an aggressive pour.

Any comments / thoughts on the colour welcome.

 

[uDicko]

On the colour point, do you have the recipe you can share here? In particular the EBC for crystal and overall target EBC.

Was the bottling process all good? Did it go without too much of a splashy hitch?

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

On the colour point, do you have the recipe you can share here? In particular the EBC for crystal and overall target EBC.

Was the bottling process all good? Did it go without too much of a splashy hitch?

Hiya

Thanks very much for the reply. Recipe is here:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/821078/citra-biab

I plugged the crystal in as "light crystal malt"- it was ordered as the same from Crossmyloof; along with the Maris Otter.

Aside from a small issue with starting the syphon going, the bottling process was fine. Bottled from bottling bucket with a little bottler. Are we thinking some oxidisation, then?

 

[terrym]

That's quite a lot of crystal malt and as @uDicko has said if you are using a darker version it can make a big difference to colour. I often use EBC 82 which is at the lighter end and that still gives a noticeable darkening to beer above 100g additions.

 

[MyQul]

11% crystal is a decent slug of crystal. My house bitter uses 10% and is about the same colour as your IPA, although I use medium crystal rather than light

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

That's quite a lot of crystal malt and as @uDicko has said if you are using a darker version it can make a big difference to colour. I often use EBC 82 which is at the lighter end and that still gives a noticeable darkening to beer above 100g additions.

That would explain it then! Thank you. So if I was to do this recipe again (which I'd like to do with maybe a change of bittering hop and upping the citra, as I love the hop)...should I just leave out Crystal all together and go for a lighter base malt? Or is MO fine as long as there's no crystal?

 

[uDicko]

Just leave the crystal out unless you think it add something you want to keep flavour wise.

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

Thank you all. There's a little bit of sweetness there which is not unpleasant but I am not convinced it needs it and I'd rather it not look like a bitter! So I'll do that. Shouldn't have problems with next BIAB colour wise as I am going for an oatmeal stout I think!!

 

[The Baron]

You've overpowered the MO with Crystal 10% is usually the most put in a average bitter/ale. I would leave it out next time on this type of brew. The Krystalweissen yeast does drop reasonably clear but and this is the but sometimes it is ok then other times it has a overpowering taste. I would not leave in on the yeast too long and maybe secondary to take it off the majority of the yeast after the first initial ferment is over perhaps 5 days-ish while it cleans up it will also help with clarity if that is a issue by your pending drinkers

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

You've overpowered the MO with Crystal 10% is usually the most put in a average bitter/ale. I would leave it out next time on this type of brew. The Krystalweissen yeast does drop reasonably clear but and this is the but sometimes it is ok then other times it has a overpowering taste. I would not leave in on the yeast too long and maybe secondary to take it off the majority of the yeast after the first initial ferment is over perhaps 5 days-ish while it cleans up it will also help with clarity if that is a issue by your pending drinkers

Thanks.. I do have some spare FV's so could transfer if that'll help!

 

[Cwrw666]

I make quite a lot of Victorian pale ale - what others might call a SMASH (single malt and single hop). If I use maris otter it comes out darker than you might expect and sweeter too so I've changed to Hook head malt (from the homebrew company) which is more authentic. BTW you can control the sweetness of the finished product by changing the mash temperature - low temp. gives a dry ale, high temp. a sweeter one.

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

I make quite a lot of Victorian pale ale - what others might call a SMASH (single malt and single hop). If I use maris otter it comes out darker than you might expect and sweeter too so I've changed to Hook head malt (from the homebrew company) which is more authentic. BTW you can control the sweetness of the finished product by changing the mash temperature - low temp. gives a dry ale, high temp. a sweeter one.

That's interesting. Just looking at Crossmyloof and they have extra pale or pale ale malt as well as Maris Otter; so I could always try a couple of variations and see which comes out best; as this is a simple recipe it opens itself up to some tinkering I think. Might also try a Citra / Galaxy hop combo along same lines, maybe change the base malt then.

I think my mash temp was actually lower than planned last time at about 63c. I was worried about it being too thin but it's actually okay, at least to my inexperienced all grain tastes!

 

[MmmBeer]

The colour of light, medium and dark crystal varies from supplier to supplier. The light crystal I buy is 60L, check your bag / supplier's website, I suspect it's well over 30L. I tend to use Carapils for IPA's, it adds some flavour without altering the colour much.

Regarding the muddiness, adding protofloc (irish moss) will improve clarity, a half or even quarter of a tablet 10 minutes from the end of the boil. You mentioned getting your malts from Crossmyloof, did you possibly use their yeast, as this is poor at compacting in the bottom of the bottle and often makes its way into the glass.

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

The colour of light, medium and dark crystal varies from supplier to supplier. The light crystal I buy is 60L, check your bag / supplier's website, I suspect it's well over 30L. I tend to use Carapils for IPA's, it adds some flavour without altering the colour much.

Regarding the muddiness, adding protofloc (irish moss) will improve clarity, a half or even quarter of a tablet 10 minutes from the end of the boil. You mentioned getting your malts from Crossmyloof, did you possibly use their yeast, as this is poor at compacting in the bottom of the bottle and often makes its way into the glass.

Crossmyloof list their light crystal as below. I was at the higher end using 11% which seems to be the biggest culprit for the colour by what you guys are saying.

Crystal (Light). Colour (EBC 90-130) Usage 5-15% of grist
Beer Styles: IPAs, Best Bitters, Brown Ales
Malt Flavour: Biscuit, Caramel, Dried Fruit (Apricots), Nutty

I've never used Irish Moss but was thinking about it in next light brew (no point in a stout I guess!)

The Yeast was about 3/4 of a packet of Safale US05 which sticks nicely to the bottom of my PET bottles; I used it as it tends to let hops shine through malt as I understand it.It was nice and compact in the fermenter with a solid amount of trub left.

 

[Cwrw666]

I've never used Irish Moss but was thinking about it in next light brew (no point in a stout I guess!)

I use it in everything. It's nice to produce a nice clear beer, whatever the style. And then I drink it from a pewter tankard...
I tried extra pale maris otter once - didn't like it much. I grind my own grains and found it a bit soft and mushy.
The Hook head stuff I use is pretty good, and cheap too. Last time I ordered it was £19 for 25Kg.

 

[Ben034]

Crossmyloof list their light crystal as below. I was at the higher end using 11% which seems to be the biggest culprit for the colour by what you guys are saying.

Crystal (Light). Colour (EBC 90-130) Usage 5-15% of grist
Beer Styles: IPAs, Best Bitters, Brown Ales
Malt Flavour: Biscuit, Caramel, Dried Fruit (Apricots), Nutty

I've never used Irish Moss but was thinking about it in next light brew (no point in a stout I guess!)

The Yeast was about 3/4 of a packet of Safale US05 which sticks nicely to the bottom of my PET bottles; I used it as it tends to let hops shine through malt as I understand it.It was nice and compact in the fermenter with a solid amount of trub left.

In my mind, if it were 90ebc it could be a light crystal malt but at 130ebc I would describe it as medium. As others have said, different maltsters will have categories for slightly different coloured malts.

I do like a crystal heavy IPA / pale sometimes (Sierra Nevada type beer).

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

I use it in everything. It's nice to produce a nice clear beer, whatever the style. And then I drink it from a pewter tankard...
I tried extra pale maris otter once - didn't like it much. I grind my own grains and found it a bit soft and mushy.
The Hook head stuff I use is pretty good, and cheap too. Last time I ordered it was £19 for 25Kg.

Might well give it a go then- thanks for the heads up as I never would have thought to look at that as never heard of it!

I just want to say thanks again for all replies to this- I've definitely caught the brewing bug again after a LONG time away from it, and hoping with some experience (and pointers!) I'll be able to brew some more than decent stuff using BIAB. With a little one and space at a relative premium it's what is best for me at the moment. Despite the ditchwater like appearance this first go has really encouraged me after a couple of let downs with extract beers which was making me lose hope with brewing a bit; so that's good- and knowing it was almost certainly a simple overdoing the crystal malt is good to know as well as that's easily rectified next time. ​