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Author Topic: Different color from keg to carboy  (Read 4008 times)

Offline montanagray

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Different color from keg to carboy
« on: March 16, 2013, 05:34:40 am »
Alright folks I have never seen this happen before.  My brewbuddy and I were making a 22 gallon batch of simple beer. 55lbs marris otter, 3lbs cara pils, 1 lbs of british malt with 5 oz simcoe and 3 oz of cascade.  We transferred to the kegs and the beer was light in color in which we expected.  Then transferred the last little bit of the grain mash to a carboy and the wort was red,red, and red.  Why did this happen and is this common?

montana
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Offline erockrph

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Re: Different color from keg to carboy
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2013, 07:24:34 am »
Did the color look different when poured into the same/shape glass? Everything looks darker in a carboy because light has to pass through much more of the beer before it gets to your eyes. You can't tell what a beer is going to look like in the glass based on what it looks like in a carboy.
Eric B.

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Offline majorvices

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Different color from keg to carboy
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2013, 07:27:40 am »
Trying to understand why you are going from a keg first then to a carboy, unless you are talking about the keg being you kettle? If you are looking at a clear glass carboy with 5 gallons of beer the color is going to be different than your pint glass or hydrometer flask or sight glass or whatever simply because the amount of light that has to pass through the total volume of beer. A 5 gallon carboy is not indicative of the color of the finished beer in your glass.

Offline montanagray

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Re: Different color from keg to carboy
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2013, 08:05:58 am »
We had everything done and were putting in the conical fermentors, instead of wasting any of the wort we could get out of the last bit of the mash we decided to see what we could capture in a 5 gallon carboy after we filled up the 22 gallon fermentor.  Just trying something different to see what was left in the grains after the mash.  I know the color would be different, but it was extremely darker.  Hope this helps, Im sure the FG will be less and looking forward to it for taste, just couldnt understand the major difference in color.
Cheers,
Montana
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Offline ajk

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Different color from keg to carboy
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2013, 09:14:34 am »
It can be surprisingly darker.  A Pilsner I brewed once was a deep red in the carboy.  Turned out the normal golden color in the glass.

Offline montanagray

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Re: Different color from keg to carboy
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2013, 09:21:07 am »
Thanks AJK,

Been doing this for awhile and me and my brewbuddy were like damn.  Like I said, we were expecting something different, but wow she was really dark like a dark ale.  We are calling it a second tier beer to see what it tastes like.  I guess I didnt explain myself well earlier in my posts.  After we were done brewing and filling the blichman fermentor, we decided to see if we could capture anymore wort and how much we were actually losing in the mash when we were done.  Come to find out it was 5 gallons and some change, but not enough to fill up the other fermentor so we used the carboy.  Man was she dark dark dark, darker than when I used to brew with carboys all the time.  The OG on the original receipe was 1072 and FG was 1022 with California Ale Yeast.  The simcoe hops really brought out the taste that I was looking for and man o man she smells good.  Just curious about the second tier we have in the carboy, will know in about two weeks when we put that puppy in a keg.

Montana
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Offline jeffy

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Re: Different color from keg to carboy
« Reply #6 on: March 16, 2013, 10:04:47 am »
I'm still not sure about the process.  You say that you have a final gravity on the beer in the conical, but haven't started fermenting the carboy sample?  Didn't you do this on the same day?  Did you boil the extra wort that came out of the mash late or just put it into a carboy?
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Offline montanagray

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Re: Different color from keg to carboy
« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2013, 10:55:53 am »
Hi Jeff,

We boiled everything and placed in the conical.  We wanted to see if we had any extra wort left, so we emptied the mash tun and got 5 more gallons of wort and placed in the carboy since the conical was full. It has the same ingredients, but it was the extra sugars that was left over when we transferred to the carboy.  The carboy has yeast and hops going into it and actively fermenting away, I was just curious about the extreme darkness of it.  Sorry for the confusion, guess I cant explain what happened in words or email.

Gregg
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Offline erockrph

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Re: Different color from keg to carboy
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2013, 03:57:02 pm »
My Helles Bock I just brewed looked like a brown ale in the carboy. It's the lightest beer I've ever brewed - it can't be more than 5 SRM tops once you get it in the glass.
Eric B.

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Offline malzig

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Re: Different color from keg to carboy
« Reply #9 on: March 17, 2013, 05:43:51 am »
So, if I understand right, you mashed your grain, drained the tun, then added more water, then drained the tun again to get your second 5 gallons.  You boiled the two runnings separately to make two beers, and the second was darker than the first.

That is odd, usually the first runnings will be darker than the second runnings.

Out of curiosity, did you take the OG of the second beer?
Did you remember to boil and hop the second beer?