New brewer here and my 6th batch was going to be a Haus Pale Ale,simple and quick. I like darker beers so I started to modify it but then decided stick fairly close to the recipe. Not posting all the in’s and out’s but here is the grain bill and a pic of the primary.
8lbs Briess Pale Ale Malt (3.5L - edit)
2lbs Briess Caramel Vienna (20L)
1lbs Briess Caramel 10 (10L) - Seemed very dark in bag
2oz Cascade
one hour mash at 152
One hour boil starting with 6.5 gallons down to just under 5 in fermenter
My guess is that no way was that caramel 10 they sold me. (Local outfit not NB) I am wanting to email them but figured ask here first to get some opinions.
briess pale ale malt is around 3.5L, not 10. The L stands for lovibond, and signifies color.
caramel 10L is the lightest crystal malt there is, as far as I know. what kind of color were you aiming for? That is a pale ale recipe after all.
also, thats 30% crystal malts, which is a lot. If you want darker, more caramel malt isnt the best route. A better idea would be using less of a darker caramel malt. Typically people like to keep their caramel malts under 20%, most prefer under 10%. That doesn’t mean your beer will be bad, everyone has different tastes. Just something to keep in mind for the future.
Copied that down wrong, You are correct it is 3.5L
I was assuming it was going to have a very light color. All I am really asking is if anyone thought it was possible for this grain bill to produce a color this dark. I am thinking they mislabeled at least one of my grains.
[quote=“SkyHigh”]Copied that down wrong, You are correct it is 3.5L
I was assuming it was going to have a very light color. All I am really asking is if anyone thought it was possible for this grain bill to produce a color this dark. I am thinking they mislabeled at least one of my grains.[/quote]
I thought you were aiming for a darker color, my misunderstanding.
The beer always looks much darker in the fermenter. It will look a lot lighter in the glass. with that amount of crystal it looks about right.
It is possible I added the wrong type of Vienna. I am sometimes a bit confused going from a recipe to Beersmith to my store. I do a bit of guessing and that’s probably not a good idea.
Yeah, think of the distance you’re looking through: probably ~18 inches. Your glass is going to be about about 4 inches. It’s going to look much lighter in the glass.