Why are my brews so dark and stormy?

[sponge]

I've pitched in summer around 30 plenty over the years with no ill effect.

You'd be surprised.. Your beers will dramatically improve having control over fermentation temps. By far the biggest improvement to my beers and not expensive to incorporate - I started off sitting the fermenter in a water bath and replacing frozen bottles to maintain temps reasonably well. An old fridge with an STC-1000 is even easier and just set-and-forget.

 

[manticle]

all of the coopers can brews I've ever done have instructions under the lid. They all have said pitch yeast between 18 to 32 c. Not ideal of course but that's what their instructions say. Even on lager. I've pitched in summer around 30 plenty over the years with no ill effect.
In fact if you follow the instructions to a tee and start off with two litres of boiling water it's almost impossible to be down around mid to low 20s topping up with straight tap water.

The instructions under the lid are shit.
Makes beer but beer can be made so much better.

 

[Ross]

Jeez guys, i know everyone is trying to help, but read the question asked. JYO gave the right answer, there is only one reason for the beer to turn out much darker than expected & that's old/badly stored tins. Malt extract darkens as it ages & this is accelerated with higher storage temps. The flavour you're getting is again, the sign of malt extract that's way past it's best. The poor yeast performance again indicates way out of date product.
You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, buy fresh product & you'll be back to making the beer you expect.

Cheers Ross

 

[AJS2154]

My wife has taken over my temp controlled fridge for nefarious domestic purposes.

Please, any ideas or suggestions would be most welcome.

Tony, nothing of value to add here mate, but just want you to know I pumped about 20ml of coffee through each nostril when I read that comment......cracked me up.

Can't assist with the nefarious activities of your wife; after 22 years of marriage I am still trying to manage my own domestic issues.....always a new angle to intercept.

Good luck with the brewing mate. Stick with it. Anthony

 

[tgilbert]

I like this quote I found on the internet ... "Folks in the beer industry like to say that brewers don't really make beer. Brewers make wort—which is the stuff that yeast makes into beer."

Phenols and esters? I should be so lucky! I'd love to be tasting esters in my brews but there is too much else there overwhelming the flavour. Could be phenols but if it is they're very strong. When it first happened I'd brewed a partial mash beer and used a hops bag. My immediate thought was that I'd left the hops bag in the fermenter too long and it had gone off. I thought I probably should have taken it out after 2-3 days. So my initial taste was "over-hopped". It wasn't till I brewed a couple without extra hops and had similar outcomes that I realised there was a bigger problem.

I do think temperature is one of the big issues. I used to trust the yeast to do its job at 18 degrees for ales and 12 degrees for pilseners (and that's pretty much all I brew these days, ales and pilseners), and I wouldn't worry whether the yeast had pitched or not. I'd leave them in the brew fridge for about 3 weeks (often the only sign of brewing I'd see was droplets under the lid) then drop the temp to 3 degrees for a week before I siphoned them into a keg and gassed. This worked well and produced great brews.

I should never have let my missus use the brewing fridge. She's just gonna have to give it up now!

 

[CanMan]

Jeez guys, i know everyone is trying to help, but read the question asked. JYO gave the right answer, there is only one reason for the beer to turn out much darker than expected & that's old/badly stored tins.

I believe I asked if his cans were out of date.

Regardless Ross is completely correct in saying read the original question.
I'm relatively new to this forum and have noticed how quickly threads get railroaded with technical and sometimes irrelevant banter.
Some of the beer gods have to realise people brew at a basic level and are happy to. Coopers do, hence the kits they make are forgiving in temperature control.
I remember reading one thread about a uni student wanting to get into brewing beer cheaply easily and quickly. I had to laugh a little as the list of what to do's grew by the page. Steeping grains adding hops. Buying this that and the other.

To answer some of your questions yes I brew at lower temps these days pitch at lower temps and run a more controlled consistent method. Doesn't mean I can't state what it says on the label of a coopers can without being shot down. Again I was reiterating what the op had stated. His methods and outcomes.

Now Ive had my sleep deprived rant. . Hope your dark and stormy brews shine clear once again.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Hope there's not a brawl over the brew fridge. Anyway its a brew fridge! not a cupboard. What kind of nefarious domestic purposes need temp control? Just thinking out loud not trying to start any trouble here.
Good luck.

 

[tgilbert]

Hope there's not a brawl over the brew fridge. Anyway its a brew fridge! not a cupboard. What kind of nefarious domestic purposes need temp control? Just thinking out loud not trying to start any trouble here.
Good luck.

She's using it to store extra vegetables in! She took it over at Christmas because we needed extra fridge space to store non-beer drinks and desserts. Never did give it back!

 

[manticle]

I believe I asked if his cans were out of date.
Regardless Ross is completely correct in saying read the original question.
I'm relatively new to this forum and have noticed how quickly threads get railroaded with technical and sometimes irrelevant banter.
Some of the beer gods have to realise people brew at a basic level and are happy to. Coopers do, hence the kits they make are forgiving in temperature control.
I remember reading one thread about a uni student wanting to get into brewing beer cheaply easily and quickly. I had to laugh a little as the list of what to do's grew by the page. Steeping grains adding hops. Buying this that and the other.
To answer some of your questions yes I brew at lower temps these days pitch at lower temps and run a more controlled consistent method. Doesn't mean I can't state what it says on the label of a coopers can without being shot down. Again I was reiterating what the op had stated. His methods and outcomes.
Now Ive had my sleep deprived rant. . Hope your dark and stormy brews shine clear once again.

When were you shot down?
I think most people can read and follow basic instructions themselves, usually working out fairly rapidly they are designed to make easy beer rather than good beer.
Be happy with whatever 'level' you are brewing at as long as you are happy with the resulting beer. Be happy too that there is a community of people who have tried and tested different ways of making beer, including using old ingredients and fermenting warm and fast who would seek to save you some time and frustration.

If that's getting shot down, sign me up for the military.

 

[CanMan]

Dont join the military just yet.
Just pointing out how threads get off track easily due to misinformation assumption and unnecessary posts.
Cheers.

 

[manticle]

Well it is an internet forum full of nerds so it's just living up to expectations in that regard.