Hey guys,
The beers lately that i’ve been cranking out have been much darker than i intended. granted i understand that comes with the territory of extract brewing. However the first beer from NB i ever brewed was the american wheat kit and it came out fantastic and light in body color, however i just brewed it again and tried it yesterday and not only was it not light in color, it also tasted nothing like the original. I may be scorching (caramelizing) the extract on the bottom of my kettle! are theyre any other ideas as to what could be the cause of ruin for this wheat beer, as well as many of my other ones. I keep my equipment pretty sanitary, using starsan as well as PBW. AYUDAME POR FAVOR!!!
You might be scorching your extract. Are you taking it off the burner when adding it? Are you stirring it well before putting it back on the heat? How long are you boiling your wort? Are you using excessive heat and boiling the crap out of it?
One thing you can also look into is late additions of malt extract. Plenty of info out there for that.
Another thing to consider is that higher pH will also cause more Maillard reactions to occur. Do you have hard water by any chance? Consider adding some phosphoric or lactic acid dropwise to lower the pH a little.
Another reason to go allgrain. 
Make sure the heat is OFF when you add the extract; stir thoroughly. If this doesn’t work, research “late extract addition” and explore that option for your brew day. If you’re not doing a full boil, consider it, or consider boiling as much volume as you can.
I’m in the same boat as the OP. I recently started doing full boils and while the taste of the beer is much better all 3 of the beers that I have brewed are very dark. The brick warmer and RyePA are both a dark brown with no hint of the red in the pictures.
My question is when doing full boils should I steep the grains in the full boil volume (I have been using 6 gallons to account for boil off) or should I step them in 2-3 gallons and then add the additional water for the boil? The beers that I brewed prior to doing full boils all appear to be more in line with the desired color of the beer.
Thanks for any help/responses.
Extract is often going to be a “few” shades darker than an equivalent all grain recipe. I’m stuck doing extract indefinitely due to a lack of free time. Fortunately the flavor is often fine despite being a few shades darker.
If not all grain, then at least utilize a larger boil kettle for full boil brewing.
Look into mini mash. It will not only help with “some” (still not going to take care of it all) of the wort color but it will also open up beers that you couldn’t make. Of course now they have extract for rye and oatmeal which requires a mash.
Look into mini mash. It will not only help with “some” (still not going to take care of it all) of the wort color but it will also open up beers that you couldn’t make. Of course now they have extract for rye and oatmeal which requires a mash.[/quote]
I’ve thought about that. I’ll probably end up doing that when I stop racing. My extracts have been tasting good enough that I don’t fret about switching.
Absolutely. If it is just a “color” issue and you enjoy the beer stick to it… Starting to do mini-mashes will enhance your skills if you ever want to go AG. Another nice thing is that most of the fermentables still comes from extract so you don’t have to worry about messing it up.
Very true. I’ve debated that at some point. Oddly enough, all of my planned fall/winter beers will be very fairly dark AG or not. :cheers:
Sorry for the late input…I had the same problem with NB’s wheat LME; it was as dark as the Saison de Noel that I previously brewed. viewtopic.php?f=43&t=119769
Over the Christmas holiday my dad and I brewed a 1-gallon American Wheat kit that comes with DME and it looked fantastic. I think the problem might be an issue with the LME supply, not with us.
