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American Wheat Starter Kit Came Out Copper Colored

Northern Brewer General
#1

I received the American Wheat basic starter kit about a month ago, and followed the directions to a T. But, when I bottled the beer came out copper in color and tastes pretty strongly of the williamette hops. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t taste like a wheat. In fact, it looks and tastes just like an Irish Red. Very coppery in color with a strong flavor of the williamette hops. So much so in fact, I thought I’d received the wrong recipe kit.

Thr only addition I made was adding a second packet of yeast 3 days of sealing in the fermenter because I was worried I was not getting active fermentation. This was based on guidance from a local home brew shop.

Any ideas where I might have gone wrong? I’m not upset, in fact I’m very happy with the beer I ended up with, just not sure how it happened and it’d help in the future knowing what caused it.

Thanks for the help!!

#2

You did nothing wrong. I’ve brewed it three or four times. Copper colored and hoppy each time. It is the only beer my wife insists I make.

#3

Good to know! Thanks!! It’s a good beer, but definitely not what I expected. In fact, the only reason I started second guessing myself was that I was looking through their catalog and it looks exactly like the picture for the Irish Red and nothing like the picture for the wheat.

Ah, marketing…

#4

I have had the same results brewing a cream ale. Color was darker than expected. After doing some reading found the most probable reason is called the Maillard Reaction. Boiling the LME causes the color to darken. The color change can be reduced by boiling only half of the LME for 60 minutes. Add the other half 15 minutes before the end of the boil time.

#5

mine came out dark as well. i added orange zest and corriander to the boil and figured the corriander had a darkening effect. the end result (after dry hopping with 1 oz. of amarillo) was a nice pale ale.

#6

Same thing happened to me. I posted about it too and received the same responses. The difference is I know I screwed up a few things and mine came out roughly the same as what you are saying. Hoppy and very unwheat beer like. I wish I would have dry hopped as well to get more of the APA style! I also chilled and popped open the first bottle a little to early so after letting the beer bottle condition a little longer I have been much happier with my first batch and will starting the next one on Monday to hopefully have ready to go when my baby boy gets here on Oct 1st! :cheers:

#7

It is difficult if not impossible to get a beer to come out light colored when doing partial boil and extract. There are tricks you can do like adding the bulk of your extract late in the boil to help but I was never able to get a truly light colored beer in all my extract brewing. Doing full boils can help but even then my beers never got as light as you’d see in professional beers or my all grain beers.

The hoppyness is just that the kit leans strongly towards a hoppy american wheat vs the lighter wheat beers you’ll often find commercially made. Next time you can dial down the late hops if you want less hop aroma or flavor and even the early hops if you want it less bitter. :cheers:

#8

If the water used for brewing had too much alkalinity, the pH of the wort may have been higher than desirable. That extracts more color from any grains used and can cause the beer flavors to be a little harsher than desired.

I find that using low alkalinity water or acidifying an alkaline water does help make a beer more ‘crisp’ and refreshing.

#9

+1 One of the main reasons I switched to all grain faster than I thought I would…along with giving me an excuse to get more equipment :wink: …got tired of my brews coming out pretty much the same color from the extract.

#10

[quote=“mabrungard”]If the water used for brewing had too much alkalinity, the pH of the wort may have been higher than desirable. That extracts more color from any grains used and can cause the beer flavors to be a little harsher than desired.

I find that using low alkalinity water or acidifying an alkaline water does help make a beer more ‘crisp’ and refreshing.[/quote]

Good tip!! Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.

#11

Hey everybody, I know this is a little off topic but all of you have brewed this beer before so i thought i would ask. today was my first brew ever and I chose American Wheat. I followed the directions exactly but when I siphoned the beer from the beer kettle to the jug I only had an inch or two in it. The directions said nothing about adding more water. did anyone here have that issue? i just ended up filling the jug up with water, not sure how that will affect it but i guess i’ll see. any tips would be appreciated.

#12

How much water did you have to add? I had to add about a quart, maybe 2.

#13

turns out i’m an idiot. i read the measuring cup wrong, i thought the line said 4qt but it actually said 4= 1qt. so i used 5 cups not 5 qts. hope it turns out ok anyway. thanks guys.

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