Bioguy1975
Active Member
Hello gang -
So, I wanted to get in the habit early on of putting my beer into a secondary fermenter.... I use the term ' fermenter' loosely because, with my Fat Tire clone, I'm not adding any additional flavors or whatnot, so really this step is just for clarity.
So, my Fat Tire Clone went on in 10/24. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I had originally intended this to be a 5 gallon batch but I didn't account for boil-off, so I ended up with 4 gallons. As a result, my final gravity reading as at 1.020, rather than the predicted 1.013.
In observing my secondary last night (10/31), I noticed that the airlock pressure had equalized with atmospheric pressure, and checking later, that the airlock was actually pulling a bit of a vacuum, but not so much as to pull my sanitizing fluid (week old starsan with about 2-3mL of EverClear) into the carboy. I took off the towel to see if I had any contamination, but saw nothing floating on the top, which seemed to me to be a good sign... however, the color of beer seems really dark, beyond brown, almost black. This is not correct Fat Tire coloration.
So... here are my lists of potentials:
As I had mentioned, this is my first batch of beer, so I can't relax and have a homebrew yet!
Thanks in advance for your advice.
So, I wanted to get in the habit early on of putting my beer into a secondary fermenter.... I use the term ' fermenter' loosely because, with my Fat Tire clone, I'm not adding any additional flavors or whatnot, so really this step is just for clarity.
So, my Fat Tire Clone went on in 10/24. As I mentioned in earlier posts, I had originally intended this to be a 5 gallon batch but I didn't account for boil-off, so I ended up with 4 gallons. As a result, my final gravity reading as at 1.020, rather than the predicted 1.013.
In observing my secondary last night (10/31), I noticed that the airlock pressure had equalized with atmospheric pressure, and checking later, that the airlock was actually pulling a bit of a vacuum, but not so much as to pull my sanitizing fluid (week old starsan with about 2-3mL of EverClear) into the carboy. I took off the towel to see if I had any contamination, but saw nothing floating on the top, which seemed to me to be a good sign... however, the color of beer seems really dark, beyond brown, almost black. This is not correct Fat Tire coloration.
So... here are my lists of potentials:
- Is there perhaps a contamination of some sort? (seems highly unlikely for a bacterial infection to be pulling in a vacuum rather than expelling more gases.)
- Did I skunk it by exposiing it to light in my basement? There was one day where I had been moving some stuff around, and the beer was exposed to my basement fluorescent lights for about 4-5 hours.
- Or is there nothing wrong, and my eyes are just playing tricks on me? A week in secondary will drop a lot of the extraneous particulate out of suspension, and, as such, the beer will not look as light-colored anymore.
As I had mentioned, this is my first batch of beer, so I can't relax and have a homebrew yet!
Thanks in advance for your advice.