Hefe not looking like a Hefe

[johnsonbrew]

I am in the process of brewing my first real hefeweizen staying true to the yeast and all. It was an all DME recipe as I am not set up for all grain yet. The first stages of fermentation looked good. It was very active and what I thought looked like a real hefe color. After a week of fermentation it looks to be amber instead of a cloudy yellow/cream color that most hefe's are. Will it settle back out and change color with a longer period or is there another explanation?

Have not really tasted anything yet since the primary is not quite done yet.

 

[izraehl]

This happens a lot with extract brews that aren't calculated for color correctly.The Maillard Reaction is a common cause to darker-than-expected colors. (A lot of people will tell you that if your beer is darker than you wanted then it's due to caramelization of the sugars. At face value it seems to make sense however it's completely wrong. Sugar cannot caramelize in such a high concentration of water. To test this all you have to do is boil some sugar water for a while. It wont turn dark, trust me.) Back to your issue, it shouldn't really be an issue for taste. To prevent it next time, I've seen some people add the LME or DME with 10 minutes left in the boil. It's okay to do this. The boil, in extract recipes, is mostly for hop utilization anyway. Good luck!

 

[gometz]

Also something I learned early on: don't think that the color in the bucket/carboy is the color in a glass. You are looking at a much larger path and it will always look darker.

 

[johnsonbrew]

The late addition of the dme would make sense except that this recipe called for 6 lbs or bavarian wheat and .5 oz of hops all at 60 minutes, would I just boil the 5 oz of hops for 50 minutes before adding the dme? or add some of the dme and add the rest at 10 minutes?>

 

[jhoneycutt]

You would want to just boil the hops for 50 minutes then the dme at ten to 15 minutes left. Also +1 on it appearing darker in the carboy or bucket. When you get it in the glass you'll see its alot lighter in color. Where its at now there's just more of it for light to pass through is all.

 

[freisste]

The late addition of the dme would make sense except that this recipe called for 6 lbs or bavarian wheat and .5 oz of hops all at 60 minutes, would I just boil the 5 oz of hops for 50 minutes before adding the dme? or add some of the dme and add the rest at 10 minutes?>

Yes. Add 1/4-1/3 at the start of the boil along with your 60 minute hops. Set your egg timer for 60 mjnutes. When the egg timer reads 10 (approximately, you could also add at 5, 2, flameout, doesn't really matter) you add the rest of the extract. Your hops have been boiled for 60 minutes, a little of your extract has been boiled for 60 minutes (likely darkening it slightly), and the rest of your extract has barely been boiled - unlikely to be darkened at all. Good luck.