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Stout Color Off???

bobo1898

Grandmaster Brewer
Master Brewer
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Brewed a stout last week. Due to COVID, our LHBS doesn't allow anyone into the shop to get ingredients. But what you can do, is order via email and do curbside pickup.

With the recipe I created, Beersmith had the color at 59 SRM. My grains were mostly UK. Roasted malts were chocolate (508 SRM) and roasted barley (609 SRM). I also had crystal 60.

So I brew and start to draw my first runnings from the mash and it's clearly a middle brown, darker amber color. So I'm confused. I finish the brew day. The receipts aren't detailed so I call the store to ask about the grain. Turns out they don't have any UK chocolate malt or roasted barley, but rather Briess. Which are both, obviously, much lower in SRM. Chocolate is 350 and roasted barley is 300. They also didn't have crystal 60 but rather crystal light, which is around 55.

So I immediately think, okay, that makes sense as to why my first runnings were too light in color. So I adjust the Beersmith recipe with the new grain and the color is still supposed to be 45, which is pretty dark. And yet today, when I pulled my gravity sample, I have this milk chocolate looking stout that's closer to mid-to-low 30s, but very very very dense.

This has to be a grain bill issue, right? I don't imagine it would be method if the first runnings were light in color.

I did a 90 minute mash and a 90 minute boil. My roasted malts totaled 9.5% of the grain bill.
 
If your specialty grains were in for the full mash, I cannot see where your process would not extract the color from them relatively efficiently.  It would appear that you are on the right trail looking at the issue of grain color from different suppliers.  Chocolate malt is one of the biggest culprits running from sub-300 SRM to over 500 SRM in color.  You might want to confirm that you received a chocolate malt and not a pale chocolate malt.  That would account for a more significant color difference.  Black/roasted malts are similar in their variability from malt house to malt house, but in my experience, not as bad.

Your difference in the crystal malt is pretty negligible, especially considering that it is probably a minor component. 

 
I bought a kit early on in my brewing career from a very popular home brew supplier. The beer came out as a Pale Ale vs a Brown Ale. I believe someone in the order fulfillment department missed some dark grain. So...it does happen.
 
Thanks for the response guys.

Chalk this one up to mystery. Or blame Briess' chocolate malt. Either conclusion works for me.

We'll see where the true color lies in a month. Maybe it slightly darkens? Probably not though.
 
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