National Homebrew Club Ireland

Brewing Discussions => All Grain Brewing => Topic started by: PCBrewer on December 22, 2015, 09:53:46 AM

Title: The wrong colour! HBC all grain kit
Post by: PCBrewer on December 22, 2015, 09:53:46 AM
I recently brewed the Irish red Ale all grain kit from HBC for the second time (the first time it turned out fantastic).
This time it is a completely different colour! The first kit was a lovely dark red colour, but this one has turned out a murky brown. Its still quite young, but it doesn't have the same malty of the other one either.

Is there something I could have done wrong to cause this? I don't think I did anything majorly different in my procedures. I hit my temperatures and the OG came outa s it was supposed to, It fermented a couple of points lower than expected, but part from that, im not sure what could have been different.

Any Ideas??
Title: Re: The wrong colour! HBC all grain kit
Post by: Deemon147 on December 22, 2015, 10:35:02 AM
Ive never used this kit but from experience of doing my own batches of a red Ale, I have found it to be a very fine line between brown and red, 50g of a specialty grain can throw it off. It could have been my Mash extraction though too :S
Title: Re: The wrong colour! HBC all grain kit
Post by: PCBrewer on December 22, 2015, 11:51:28 AM
Quote from: Deemon147 on December 22, 2015, 10:35:02 AM
Ive never used this kit but from experience of doing my own batches of a red Ale, I have found it to be a very fine line between brown and red, 50g of a specialty grain can throw it off. It could have been my Mash extraction though too :S

Yeah, that's what I am wondering, was it down to my mash that would have gotten such a vast colour difference.
The first batch was a fantastic rich red, this is a dank browny colour.
Title: Re: The wrong colour! HBC all grain kit
Post by: DEMPSEY on December 22, 2015, 03:42:51 PM
More likely the malts bill is slightly different from the last one.
Title: Re: The wrong colour! HBC all grain kit
Post by: armedcor on December 22, 2015, 04:58:18 PM
This happened to me before with the HBC. I'd ordered a munich helles and ended up with a brown ale or something. Took three redeliveries before I got the right kit! Mistakes happen and the specialty malt might have gotten weighed out wrong etc.
Title: Re: The wrong colour! HBC all grain kit
Post by: DEMPSEY on December 22, 2015, 05:03:52 PM
The problem with these kits is the malts bill details are a bit vague and the percentage of what's what is not told to you. :(
Title: Re: The wrong colour! HBC all grain kit
Post by: Archsnapper on December 22, 2015, 05:28:00 PM
I actually had this problem. I emailed Shane and he reckoned the kit was mis-labelled. Got a free replacement with my next order, which was pretty decent of him. By the way, the "Unknown Ale" turned out quite nice, and I'm still having the odd bottle of it.
Title: Re: The wrong colour! HBC all grain kit
Post by: PCBrewer on December 22, 2015, 11:59:07 PM
As it happens the kit came without the bag with the yeast,whirfloc and instructions in it. I emailed them.and they sent it out straight away, maybe I just got sent the wrong kit or it was wrongly labeled?
Title: Re: The wrong colour! HBC all grain kit
Post by: Donny on January 05, 2016, 09:02:13 PM
That kit was the first ever I used. I added some juniper berries and some orange zest but this was the colour of it in the end. Tasted great too :)

(http://i.imgur.com/FFYtWmo.jpg)