Darkening Beers Through Extended Boiling

One of my goals is to make a beer that comes close to tasting and looking like a Pilsner Urquell. One of the problems I have been having is producing a version that comes close in terms of color. Most of the ones I brew are much lighter, around 2 SRM.

I read that the makers of Pilsner Urquell do not add any darker grains to increase the color (I think theirs ranges about 3-5 SRM). Thus the color likely comes mostly through decoction boiling and wort boiling. My decoctions rarely result in much additional color, despite boiling for 30 minutes or more.

That leaves the boiling of the wort itself. I have heard that extended boiling of the wort can produce darker colors, primarily through Maillard production (carmelization requires much higher temperatures). I usually boil for about 90 minutes.

Will boiling the wort for another 30 minutes or so (a full 2 hours or more) really add that much more color? Are there other natural ways of increasing the color without adding darker grains such as Munich malt?

 

I can give that a try. Is all Carafa III "de-husked"? Or is it a special sub-category?

 

Thanks, Jack! This might save me some time and propane.

 

No, the flavor is actually reasonably close, except that I may have a little TOO much of the Maillard products.Next time I will cut down a little on either the decoction time and/or the decoction amount. I could also use a little more of that unique "fresh malt" flavor, but I don't know if I will be able to accomplish that, unless I could obtain the same fresh malt that they use. Low oxygen brewing would also help, I suspect.

 

I have not been there either, but the flavor I mentioned is in the can, if it hasn't sat too long on the shelf. A friend who went to the brewery in the Czech Republic said that the beer was even much better there than the imported cans we get. The can I had today had a best before date of Feb. 19, 1920, and I believe the shelf life is 9 months, so I assume it was distributed in about mid-May and was still fairly fresh.

 

Yes, that's why I mentioned about the malt and low oxygen brewing above, that I will likely never get really close. It is definitely one of my favorite lagers, although I tend to use a slightly lower IBU. I plan to keep improving the recipe until I'm reasonably happy. That could take months or years.

 

Actually, I have approached specific aspects of lager brewing from several different perspectives, and you are right - I may have other specific questions in future threads, because of my passion. In this thread, for example, my main question was:

"Will boiling the wort for another 30 minutes or so (a full 2 hours or more) really add that much more color? Are there other natural ways of increasing the color without adding darker grains such as Munich malt?"

These specific questions have not really been addressed, although other related aspects already covered in other threads have.

 

Actually I was thinking of keeping the same water calculations as for a 90 minute boil, boiling it for another 30 minutes, and then adding water back later to achieve the required SG. The extra boiling should concentrate the wort and hopefully lead to more darkening. But how much? Can 30 minutes make a difference of 1 or 2 SRM?

 

Of course I will. I was just hoping that others might have already had experience with it.

 

I actually did add a half a pound of Vienna to each of my last two 5-gallon batches. The calculations indicated that the beer would be at 5.1 SRM, but oddly, the result is likely closer to 2 or 3, and certainly much lighter than the actual PU.