I brewed AHS's mini mash zombie dust clone. It was a very smooth brew and everything seemed to go smoothly, my original Gravity was right on target, and the gravity upon transferring to the secondary was very close to the target FG. Now my concern is in the color. This beer looks like a stout or dark ale, not a pale ale. Anyone else have this issue? Or have an explanation to why this might have happened
1/2 lb CaraPils 1/2 lb Melanoidin 1 1/4 lb 2 Row 1 lb Munich 1/2 lb crystal 60L 8 lbs Extra pale LME And I'm judging the color based on it in the secondary
Should come out around 9 SRM. I don't know how many batches you've brewed, but beer in the fermenter or secondary can look a lot darker than it will in a glass. But if it really is too dark, my guess would be one or more of these things were factors... - Old-ish LME - Oxidation, possibly from the transfer to secondary - High wort pH resulting in increased maillard reactions in the boil. Do you know anything about your water profile?
I've brewed around 10 batches, don't really know anything at all about the water quality..I live on a mountain and just use the mountain well water
Agree with VikeMan. I bet it just looks darker than it is sitting in secondary. I'm sure there's a lot of yeast still floating in suspension which can make it look darker as well. Until you bottle it and pour a glass I wouldn't fret too much.
Something else to throw into the mix as a reason for a darker beer than expected is that the LME will sink to the bottom of the boil pot and if your flame is on before you get this stuff stirred into the wort, you can get scorched sugar, thus a bit darker.
