Black ipa...um, it's brown

drives_a_bike · May 3, 2012, 4:14pm

My buddy and I recently started brewing. I ordered the Black IPA kit from NB (this being our 4th kit we brewed). followed the recipe for the most part, but I had purchased 1 pound of leaf Cascade hops from hopsdirect.com and decided to add a bit more to the recipe. I added 1 ounce at the beginning of the boil and another ounce at 20 minutes. for some reason this beer is really brown, not black at all. we brewed the Sinistral Warrior IPA a few months back and the color right now is awfully similar…I can’t imagine the extra hops made that big of a difference in the color, but then again we’re pretty new to this.

Any thoughts?

thecarrclan · May 3, 2012, 4:22pm

Ya I brewed the black IPA to it has been bubbling for 3 days now. it looks brown as well and I did not change anything about the recipe . I do not think for a second it will effect the taste, as it smells wonderful, but I have a batch of Chocolate stout going to and it is black as night

shadetree · May 3, 2012, 4:23pm

The hops wouldn’t change the color. “Black” IPA is not necessarily black like a stout, it’s just not pale or red, needs to be at least into the brown range, IMO. It’s not a defined BJCP category either, so for homebrewers it’s an open book at this point.

drives_a_bike · May 3, 2012, 4:25pm

Yeah. I tasted the wort I had for the hydrometer reading and it tasted like it’s going to be great and the O.G. was spot on, I was just weirded out by the fact that it was really brown.

s_scoggin · May 3, 2012, 5:20pm

after fermentation, and all the trub/yeast settle and when the beer clears. the color will be a bit different. i might just look brown now because of the cold break and sediment

mplsbrewer · May 3, 2012, 5:29pm

Is it their Black IPA kit or is it their Lakefront IBA kit? I only ask because a friend brewed the IBA once and it turned out black and brewed it again and it is brown. Still delicious, but brown. Not sure why.

Seems odd to me because out of all the things you can mess up it seems that color should be pretty easy to nail down when making the distinction between black and brown.

s_scoggin · May 3, 2012, 5:33pm

stone, and ninkasi (and another brewery, that i forget) made a collaboration beer “more brown than black IPA” that is delicious. I wouldn’t worry too much about the color

drives_a_bike · May 3, 2012, 5:48pm

it’s the NB Black IPA kit…I’m not terribly worried that it will turn out bad, I just can’t figure out what may have caused it to be brown. we only brewed it this past Saturday, so it still has some time to darken up…who knows.

UPS just rang the doorbell with my 2 extra carboys and we’re brewing a Dead Guy clone as soon as the Pacman shows up!

tom_sawyer · May 3, 2012, 6:46pm

Sounds like they just got a batch of Carafa III malt or British chocolate malt that wasn’t as dark as usual. Maybe they subbed Carafa II or I even. hard to say, color does vary even on dark malts. I’ve seen stuff sold as chocolate malt, that looked like brown malt.

Was this the extract kit? How long did you steep the grains? Did you crush the grains or were they already crushed?

And yeast can often change the looks of a beer, making it look more brown while they’re in suspension.

Two more carboys, now you almost have enough.

drives_a_bike · May 3, 2012, 7:21pm

It was an extract kit…steeped the grains for 20 minutes or so (it said for 20 minutes or until temp reaches 170) and they were already crushed. it came with wyeast american ale II.

yep 2 more carboys…that gives us 4, and a buddy has 2 - 6.5 gallon buckets he never used that he’s giving to me. We have a Maple Nut Brown Ale we’re bottling tomorrow and my Black IPA in the primary now, Dead Guy gets brewed as soon as the Pacman comes in the mail, and I’m trying to figure out a good summer beer I can add all this honey I have to.

This started as a hobby 2 months ago, but I work for the railroad and was recently laid-off…It’s now become an addiction, haha

beermebeavis · May 3, 2012, 8:37pm

either way, it’s not an ipa. brown or black aren’t “pale.”

duxx · May 4, 2012, 2:48am

If you are not happy with the color just add a little Sinimar and it will get black in a hurry.

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/4-OZ-SIN ... P2651.aspx

rookie_l_a · May 4, 2012, 11:07pm

[quote=“Duxx”]If you are not happy with the color just add a little Sinimar and it will get black in a hurry.

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/4-OZ-SIN ... P2651.aspx[/quote]

Or put it in the tanning booth with that wierd woman on u-tube who got in trouble for tanning her 6 year old, you won’t get any blacker than that and live to tell about it.

dbarton02 · May 5, 2012, 7:43pm

Black or Brown… it doesn’t matter what color it is.

Probably had something to do with when you added your extracts (if you were brewing that type) or if you used the wrong specialty grains.

I, personally, wouldn’t sweat it one way or another as long as the flavor is there.

I made a Blackberry Cream Ale a few weeks ago, and was expecting it to be a lighter shade, and it came out more copper.

Either way, it tastes great, so no worries!!