First brew questions/observations/whatever

[trans]

Well, right now I'm about 45 minutes into the boil as I sit down to write this. After steeping the specialty grains, I didn't expect such a dark color. But yeah, it was pretty dark. After adding my DME and LME, I noticed the color was still dark. By dark, I mean it was about the same SRM as the Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout I was drinking at the time. Yes, and for the record, I started drinking around 8:30 AM EST.

Anyways, I am trying to brew an IPA from a recipe and so far I think this will be the darkest IPA in existence. Any chance the fermentation will magically make the beer lighter? Since this is my first brew, I have no empirical evidence telling me what will happen.

Other than that, I can tell my temperature gauge is off, since it's convinced I'm boiling around 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Maybe that meant I was steeping at 160 degrees the whole time (instead of 150). I don't know.

Anyways, can anyone tell me if there is a chance of the beer getting lighter, or will this end up being Joe's Super-hoppy Dark Ale of Devastation?

Thanks for any input.


Update: No need to reply, as I think I'll ride this one out and see how it goes. I ended up having enough problems later on that the color is the least of my worries at the moment. Oh well, I'll eventually get the process down. For now, this brew will serve as a learning experience.

- joe

[The Beav]

Trans,

Congrats on brewing your first beer! Don't let the little frustrations along the way get you down. The best thing to do is to take good notes so you can learn from any mistakes you might make. A lot of learning occured with my first few batches, but they will get better.

Unfortunately, I don't think your color will lighten with fermentation.

Good Luck,

Beav

http://www.beaverbrews.com

[Lufah]

If you are not sure how to fix the problems you had post a long story of your exact process and the problems you had. We should be able to problem shoot for you. The colour will lighten up a lot if your doing a partial boil on the stove and then topping up to 5 gallons in the fermeter. If your doing a full wort boil then you have the colour that you see. If you want a lighter colour with extract you can do a late addition. To do a late addition you basically just add about 1/4 of your extract to start the 60 minute boil and add the hops. At about 10 minutes left you add the rest of the extract. This will keep the carmilization(?sp) of the wort to a minimum and get you a lighter colour. It will also get you better hops utilization.

Travis

[trans]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Yeah, I think the main problem was the dark crystal used for steeping in the recipe. I think I may have acutally used darker crystal than the recipe called for, so that was most likely the problem. I called into the show and discussed it, and I think we pretty much determined the same thing.

One of the other problems I had was that the false bottom of my boil kettle got clogged with trub, and as a result, my siphon was letting less than a trickle out. I had to end up siponing out from the top, instead of gravity feeding out the bottom. I talked to Krotchrott after the show and he suggested I try whirlpooling next time.

The only other problem I had was that apparently I bought a near-empty oxygen cylinder. There was one short hiss out of it, and that was it. At first I thought it was a problem with the regulator, but upon further investigation, I found the cylinder to just be empty. It probably had a faulty valve is all I can guess on that one. From now on I'll always keep a few cylinders on hand.

I did manage to oxygenate by rigging some tubing to an oxygen tank I have for an oxy-acetylene torch, but seeing as my only pressure regulation was the knob on the top, I couldn't really control things too well. I guess it got the job done though.

Well, that's all I got. Thanks again for the encouragement and the advice. I tended to get a bit down on myself at the time, but I'll just use the experience a stepping stone along the way.

- joe

[Lufah]

If you have a big O2 tank you can get a regulator for it and use it with some tubing stone. I've seen it done before, just can't remember where. I'll try and find a pic for ya.

It's never a wasted batch as long as you learned something from it. That's the way I look at it anyway. If it's to bad you can always send it to me.

Travis

[Lufah]

Found it...



Travis

[trans]

Travis,

Yes, my rigging was not quite that elegant. I just got some vinyl tube and ended up holding it up against the valve on the big tank. I had to test in my sanitizer water to figure out the proper flow rate, as well as to determine the proper grip around the tubing/valve so that it would oxygenate, but not blow off the airstone or the like. It wasn't my best MacGyvering, but it did the job.

Thanks for finding me that picture though. I may look into setting up a tank properly like you have shown in the picture, although using the little tanks would be more convenient...assuming they have gas in them.



- joe