Irish Red Ale really dark?

Northern Brewer General
1

New brewer here. I did the 1-gallon batch of Irish Red Ale and did the NB directions pretty carefully. Its in the primary right now bubbling away nicely (day 2), but the color is really really dark (very dark brown almost black). Does it get lighter and redder in color as the fermentation goes on? Or did a mess up a step :shock:

-Cameron

2

As the yeast settles it will clear a bit, which will make it a bit lighter, but extract brews tend to be a few shades darker than their all grain equivalents. No worries though, it’s still going to taste great.

3

Was this a recipe with malt extract? It most likely has to do with the extract manufacturing process and also freshness of the extract. Did you use liquid extract? Use dry next time. Extent of boil in small batches can also be huge. What was the volume after the boil? Did you need to add water to get back up to a full batch size? Concentration of the wort in the boil can cause major darkening especially in small batches, possibly even if this were an all-grain batch.

You might be interested in the summary of brewing advice here:


http://s1022.photobucket.com/user/dmtaylo1/media/extract-beginnerrulesofthumb.png.html

4

Thanks! That is a great resource and advice!
-Cameron

5

[quote=“dmtaylo2”]Was this a recipe with malt extract? It most likely has to do with the extract manufacturing process and also freshness of the extract. Did you use liquid extract? Use dry next time. Extent of boil in small batches can also be huge. What was the volume after the boil? Did you need to add water to get back up to a full batch size? Concentration of the wort in the boil can cause major darkening especially in small batches, possibly even if this were an all-grain batch.
[/quote]
Is there an easy conversion from LME to DME?

6

20% less DME. So if the recipe calls for 10lbs LME you would only need 8lbs DME (or 80%).

7

Thanks

8

By my calculations, it’s closer to 84% on average, with a range of about 78-88%, but you get the picture.

9

So about an 18% reduction in DME would be pretty accurate.

10

Yes that should get you very very close.