Very Pale Wort

[brewinski]

Hi there,

did a BIAB this weekend with these grains

Barrett Burston Pale Malt (60% of bill)
Barrett Burston Wheat Malt (40% of bill)
60 min boil with light hopping along the way

and my oh my it came out light ... probably expected, not sure myself, so I was wondering if this is what should have happened.

Either way, I tried to not over boil it and kept it nice and steady, it lost around 17% -18% of volume in the boil,

Gravity PreBoil was 1030
Gravity Post Boil was 1052 (There was around 10g of sugar per Litre added in last 20mins)

Anyway, it came out very milky, just ever so slightly tilting towards brown/yellow .... (maybe even lighter than attached image)

it has been fermenting away nicely for 2 days now, and I am sure it will finish up fine to taste, but I have not seen a wort so light before, and just feels like once everything drops out of it in a week or two, it will be an almost clear Ale.

Just wondering if anyone with experience has had wort this light before, and what do you think will happen ?

cheers

B

 

[bullsneck]

You'll have a pale beer. Enjoy it.

 

[brewinski]

great ... so, as always, fear nothing, the beer knows what to do from here

 

[Spiesy]

The milky consistency is probably due to your grain bill consisting of 40% wheat, which is perfectly fine in a wheat beer.
The lack of colour is probably due to not having any malts that bring a great deal of colour to the yard.
Both of these factors were probably exacerbated by the fact that there wasn't a lot of malt in the grain bill - 1030 pre boil is a light beer, and the sugar added might bring your OG up, but it's not going to add any colour.

 

[Spiesy]

Out of interest... is that the pre-boil you were after? I'm guessing not, with the sugar additions.

Which leads me to the mash. What temp, how long? If your thermometer trusty?
And with the boil, how long and what volume of wort are we talking about here? (i.e. 17-18% of a 5L batch is substantially different to that same percentage of a double batch. I find L/hr is a better way to gauge boil-off).

 

[panzerd18]

A pale wort for a pale ale. LOL

 

[mosto]

I made a brew for my wife's birthday. She doesn't like hoppy beers so I attempted to make the brew ALMOST completely devoid of flavour. I used 95% BB Ale and 5% Carapils for the grist. Bittered with Magnum to about 15 IBU's then about 5 IBU's of Cascade in the cube to give a hint of flavour. It was easily the worst looking beer I've made, would have been similar to the colour sample in the OP. Having no malts that bring much in the way of colour, I was expecting a light coloured beer, but I was surprised at just how pale it was.

Slightly off topic, the beer I made, despite me not having any great expectations of it, was actually not bad. Very easy drinking with just enough hop flavour to keep the taste buds interested. The wife loved it and so did everyone who came to the party, which was a mix of craft beer drinkers and megaswillers. Drained the keg in record time.

 

[brewinski]

Out of interest... is that the pre-boil you were after? I'm guessing not, with the sugar additions.

Which leads me to the mash. What temp, how long? If your thermometer trusty?
And with the boil, how long and what volume of wort are we talking about here? (i.e. 17-18% of a 5L batch is substantially different to that same percentage of a double batch. I find L/hr is a better way to gauge boil-off).

Hey,

tru, I was after a little higher pre boil, and yes the sugar got me to where I needed it (Maybe ever so slightly above... was aiming for around 1046, and landed on 1052).

the mash was 5.7L at 66C for 60 mins, with a raise to 76 for the last 10 mins, then drain and sparge with 2.5L at 76 for 25mins ... Thermometer seems to be accurate and trusty. I have done a few other brews with it and got desired results....

The boil began at 6.2L and ended an hour later with 5.125L ... 1.075L/hr

although this is only my second All-Grain ... first one (a Leffe Blonde-ish clone) was so good, I had to try another, and different. The first one was a perfect light amber/gold colour once finished, but the wort was much darker on that one.

All that aside, it is likely to be that this is how it was supposed to turn out, with that grain bill, size of batch etc ... I was just wondering if anyone has had a wort so pale/anaemic looking.... I assume it is going to be drinkable, due to all the numbers adding up somewhat correctly, I was just wondering would it have any colour in the end, or will the kids confuse it for lemonade .... but in the fine tradition of brewing, waiting and seeing is the best/only medicine.

I will report in a week or so, and see what's happening once I dry hop ... in the meantime, I will forget about it till then

cheers

B

 

[brewinski]

I made a brew for my wife's birthday. She doesn't like hoppy beers so I attempted to make the brew ALMOST completely devoid of flavour. I used 95% BB Ale and 5% Carapils for the grist. Bittered with Magnum to about 15 IBU's then about 5 IBU's of Cascade in the cube to give a hint of flavour. It was easily the worst looking beer I've made, would have been similar to the colour sample in the OP. Having no malts that bring much in the way of colour, I was expecting a light coloured beer, but I was surprised at just how pale it was.

Slightly off topic, the beer I made, despite me not having any great expectations of it, was actually not bad. Very easy drinking with just enough hop flavour to keep the taste buds interested. The wife loved it and so did everyone who came to the party, which was a mix of craft beer drinkers and megaswillers. Drained the keg in record time.

nice ... so it will look like beer at least ... this is almost exactly what I am doing this for ... Wife is not a bitter/hoppy fan, so I am trying to lighten things up for a batch ... just was worried I may have lightened it up to much

 

[mofox1]

You can draw the first few litres off and boil the crap out of it on the kitchen stove to get some more colour & caramelisation going. Obviously will change the flavour profile as well as the colour, but as long as it doesn't burn you'll get a nice bit of caramel/residual sweetness that won't ferment out.

One of my first AG's was a SMaSH (maris otter/columbus) and my god it was pale! Like fizzy lager pale... still a nice drop though.

 

[MHB]

As mentioned above you have a very pale base so you would expect a very pale beer.
One other point to note - turbid beers always look a lot paler than they really are. Because of the haze forming particles in the wort more light is reflected back to the observer.
Unless you are aiming to make a very pale beer I always find a bit of one of the light Crystal/Carra malts (CarraHell is my go to malt) helps to avoid that piss yellow colour that really isn't too appealing.
Mark

 

[brewinski]

I should have gotten into this brewing caper years ago. Awesome mix of natural ingredients, science, and it all results in Beer.... But best of all, free and endless advice, and from people that don't feel it's a competition. In fact they just want to help you and your beer brewing confidence

And besides, be buggared if I want to keep paying $11 a pint for "craft" beer, that I can make myself.... Well, in theory I can

B

 

[jaypes]

Just wondering if anyone with experience has had wort this light before, and what do you think will happen ?

cheers

B

Made a few pale beers in my time, I am pretty certain you will end up with beer (as long as its not green) it should be fine

RDWHAHB


Wheat beers are supposed to be pale

 

[Red Rocket]

You mentioned you used BB Pale, which has an EBC of 3-4 and is a pilsner malt. Just in case your not aware BB do an ale malt with an EBC of 5-7 different to the pale. I think it's a better choice and I would say give 5% light crystal a go.

 

[brewinski]

moved it to secondary today ... still pretty anaemic looking (not green) it tasted the part, and smelled freaking awesome...

has just started burping a bit of CO2 again, after being near dormant for the last 2 days, so here is hoping it continues on and it cleans up ... sort of looks like the water left in the sink when I clean the chops out of the pan.

 

[Ninegrain]

Sounds like a brew I'm about to do, albeit with BB ale malt instead of the pale and a 50/50 mix with the wheat. Interested to know what your hopping was and to what ibu? I'm using galaxy, all cube hopped to about 30-35 ibu...

 

[barabool]

I'm a big fan of the pale beers and still not OP with the adding of malt purely as a 'colouring' effect.
I am keen to see the range of beers you can get with 100% Barrett Burston Pale Malt and varying my yeast and hop additions.

 

[Eagleburger]

I'm a big fan of the pale beers and still not OP with the adding of malt purely as a 'colouring' effect.
I am keen to see the range of beers you can get with 100% Barrett Burston Pale Malt and varying my yeast and hop additions.

Going to keg a 100% BB ppale malt brew tomorrow, I will take a pic.