Brew Day: Nugget Copper Ale

Draining the wort after a 60 minute mash

Tonight I brewed up a batch of Nugget Copper Ale - a beer inspired by Nugget Nectar from Troegs Brewing Company.  Unfortunately I ran into some issues and I dont think this beer is going to turn out nearly what I hoped for.

Problem Number 1
After the first draining of the mash pal I noticed that color was way off.  It was running a lot more on the yellow side and not nearly enough amber was showing through.

After the boil the color was a copper-yellow orange.  I'm hoping once the sediment settles out and everything starts to clear it will be a bit more of a true copper color.

Problem Number 2
My original gravity reading is way too low.  I got a measured reading of 1.055 after my temperature adjustments.  My recipe called for 1.070.  After a closer look at my recipe in BeerSmith I noticed one reason it was lower - I did not boil for 90 minutes!  This would of made a more concentrated wort so this is one reason the beer will be a bit weaker than I was hoping for.

So the question is what went wrong?  I thought my mash temperatures were within range.  Is the SRM of the grain I used from the LHBS different from what I put in BeerSmith?

Next time I am in the shop I will have to ask the specifics and figure it out.

Bottom Line
I like hops.  And this beer has a lot of hops.  It just may be a bit weaker than I was hoping for and the color is a bit off.

We will find out in about 8 weeks if this was a failed night or if not.
Till then...