Bad Procedures?

Good Morning!

The last two beers I've brewed (all-grain), I was going for a straw yellow hue. SRM around 4.5. I brewed my most recent beer on September 3rd. I bottled this past Saturday the 17th. I popped one last night which is early, I know, but I like to see how my beer does in stages. It's got more of a brown hue to it. This happened to my last beer too. I can't help but think I'm doing something procedural wrong.

To start, I used distilled water and add salts from Bru'n Water. Target pH 5.3. 2:1 chloride:sulfates. I added salts to the water as I was heating to strike temp.

I have a 1318 starter. Stir plate. 2 packets per Mr.Malty.

My recipe: 69.5% Rahr 2-row, 25% oat malt, 1.6% carared, and 3.9% dextrine. I mash in a 10 gal cooler at 151 degrees for an hour. No mash out. Sparge with about 170 degree water. Let it rest 15ish minutes and drain. I first wort some warrior. Boil was 60 min. I added 1 oz citra/mosaic at 10 min. 4 oz citra/mosaic at flamout/whirlpool. 5 oz citra/mosaic dry hop.

I have a freezer ferment chamber, temperature controlled. Fermentation was at 65 degrees. Looked strong. This was the first time I've used the chamber and probably the best looking fermentation I've had yet. I added dry hops on day 5 and bumped the temp up to 68 for 2 days. Then to 70 for the rest of it's time in the chamber. Dry hop was loose for 9 days. In total grain to bottle in 2 weeks.

Anything look wrong or anything I can clarify to help me out here? Any help is much appreciated!

 

My OG was 1.05 and FG was 1.01. It's not that I'm looking at how to get a SRM of 4.5. It seems as though the finished beer is much darker and why?

 

Yes, even in the four days between bottling it and my first taste. It's definitely darker. But I though oxidation took longer to take hold?

I opened my big mouth bubbler twice during fermentation. Once because the airlock around my thermowell wasn't sealing properly so I got a new one and switched out. That was like day 2 or 3. The second was to drop the dry hop in on day 5. Other than that, I took the thermowell out and used the whole for my auto-siphon. I made sure not to splash as I took it out of the freezer and moved it around. I made sure it wasn't splashing when we were siphoning. I had a lid on the bottling bucket to make sure stuff would get in there.

 

I did. It smelled like beer. I used pilsner dme and two packets of 1318 per MrMalty. It was on the stir plate for 2 days and cold crashed for 2. I brought it out on brew day, decanted and left out to bring to room temp.

My last brew was the first I've done a starter for. That one used 007. That smelled like banana bread which was interesting...

 

I usually dry hop lose. This time I had a thick krausen so I took a sanitized spoon to move it a little to let the pellets fall in. I've used bag before.

I guess my problem is I haven't really changed my process since I've started and I didn't have much issue with oxidation. It's been since I started doing starters, cold crashing and fermentation chambering.

 

I used Brewer's Friend that gave me my 4.5 srm number.

 

And if it is oxidation, where am I getting that much in my process?

 

Is that enough to oxidize an entire 5 gal batch?

 

I mean, I guess... I bought it in person at northern brewer in Milwaukee. I guess I could have grabbed the wrong one but this is 2 batches now which makes me think its more of a trend than something random like that.

 

Is there an easier/better way to bottle without having to transfer? I would use the spigot on my carboy but I usually have a lot of hot/cold break on the bottom as well as hop debris.

And I know... I know. Kegging would be easier.