So I homebrewed a batch today and got an estimated SRM of around 6. Some of my favorite beers from some of my favorite breweries (Hill Farmstead, Tired Hands, etc) make their hoppy ales beautifully and the color seems to be a golden straw color. Tired Hands especially has a beautiful yellow golden color to their beers and I am wondering how I can go about attempting to get my beers to look like that. Any idea what malt they may be using to get this color?
I don't know what malt they are using. What malt are you using? At the margin, you can achieve a lighter color by doing a shorter boil, or by lowering the pH of the wort during the boil. But I would think that your best bet, if you really want a lighter beer, is to adjust your malt bill. For us to help, we need to know what your malt bill is.
Keep in mind when measuring SRM that a beer in a large container (carboy) is going to look darker than the same beer in a pint glass because less light is able to pass thru the large container. Your beer color may be lighter than you think.
I used 97% 2 row pale and 3% 20 lovibond crystal. It yielded according to beersmith a 5.7 SRM buf its a golden honeyish color and not straw yellow like I see in tired hands beer.
Based on what you've told us, I agree completely with @Mothergoose03. You can't really judge the beer's color at this point, while it has a bunch of yeast suspended in it and while it is in a large vessel. Wait until it's in your glass to decide whether the color needs to be adjusted. When light is passing through a lot of beer, it is going to make the beer look considerably darker and more colorful than it will appear when it is actually consumed. If you still want a paler beer at that point, revive this thread and we will probably have some suggestions. (I don't know... shorter boil, lower pH...)
