My friend and I have brewed the american lager kit 3-4 times now and the most recent time something odd happened.
We followed the kit recipe etc to the letter as in the past… The beer fermented correctly, we’ve kept it temp controlled with johnson controls stat. We racked it to secondary fermenter on schedule… checked gravity - right on where it should be, tasted the beer in the hydrometer test jar - tasted right - like a mild american lager - similar to maybe a grain belt or mgd etc.
Something weird happened in the secondary… when we went to keg it, we noticed the color had shifted to a much deeper amber color and it had developed a much more notable toasted flavor - very similar to a nordeast.
All joking aside - please understand I’m being completely serious… I’m trying to figure out what magical fairy came along and made this beer better and how can we reproduce it?
Is this possibly a stressed yeast result? I’m really trying to figure it out because it definitely is enjoyable beer.
Any constructive thoughts are welcome. All jokes about lawnmower beers are also welcome.
In complete seriousness, there is no such thing as magic, and no such thing as a fairy. What you are experiencing is natural science, nothing supernatural at all.
With respect, could it be a lighting issue? I’ve had Belgium Tripels, which ordinarily pour on the yellow side, appear much darker in the carboy, almost dark orange. After shining a light on the carboy, the correct color appeared. Of course, a carboy is much thicker than a glass or clear bottle. So, don’t let the colors fool you until you actually pour them in the glass. Then, compare them to the a proper guide, such as http://www.bjcp.org/colorguide.php
No no… I understand the difference in the carboy/vs pint glass. This has never happened with any of my other beers - ales/stouts/trippel’s etc. It hasn’t happened with this exact same lager kit before either.
It is remarkably more amber/copper colored and it seems to have happened during the secondary fermentation phase. It has a more malty taste than previous brews as well. The weird thing about it is that it had all of the “normal” traits at the end of primary fermentation. It was a good beer then, but somehow changed.
Just wondering if any of the brew-know-it-all’s out there would be able to comment about what might have happened during secondary fermentation to darken the beer a little. It also has a more notable “toasted malt” taste. Everything was well cleaned etc. The only thing I can think of is that our lagering temps took a nose dive a couple of time during secondary fermentation due to the cold snaps we’ve had a couple of times. We use the Johnson Controls stat to control it, but we can’t control mother nature when the fridge gets too cold. That seems to be the only real variable.
[quote=“mnclayshooter”]
All joking aside - please understand I’m being completely serious… I’m trying to figure out what magical fairy came along…[/quote]
A question asked in earnest deserves and earnest answer.
