A friend and I our on our 3rd starter kit and we just finished our first beer the American Wheat. It turned out very good however the color is darker and it almost has a slight IPA taste. It reminds me a lot of Moon Man by New Glarus or even a weaker Sierra Nevada. Again it taste great which is the main thing but I feel like we did something wrong. In order to prevent this in our future beers can anyone provide me some suggestions as to what they think we may have done wrong?
We followed the direction to a T as they were listed in the kits. And it could be that the American Wheat is supposed to taste like that but from a color standpoint it does not look the same.
A few years ago I did the Northern Brewer American Wheat extract kit (I assume you are talking about this kit?) on a full boil. Our’s turned out quite a bit darker than the picture Northern Brewer presents, and the hop character was a bit more pronounced than say Boulevard Wheat, or New Belgium Sunshine Wheat, sort of like a weak Sierra Nevada as you said.
Was it an extract or partial mash kit? If so, that would account for the darker beer. Extract has that effect. My first few beers were extract and always came out darker than expected. Partial mashing controls that a little better and all grain really lets you control color. As for the IPA taste… I’m at a loss.
One way to help control the color a little better when using extract is to add 1/2 or more of the extract later in the boil, giving it less time to caramelize. Adding 1/2 the extract with 15min left in the boil is a general rule of thumb I would use when using extract. Even now when I add some extract to bump up the gravity on a all grain (well, almost all grain) batch. I add it during the last 10-15 minutes of the boil.
