Color of my bitter

My ESB has been in the primary for about two days now. I'm concerned with the color. It's looking quite dark, almost like an amber ale. I thought bitters were supposed to be blonde. Will it lighten up through the course of fermentation?

If it is an esb it can be coppery reddish hue at the darker end of the spectrum (which I perfer) but do not judge it on how it looks in the fermeneter. It will appear MUCH different with yeast in suspension. It will still appear alot different from what a glass of it would look like once the yeast settles. It is a much larger mass, so, much less light gets through.

Mikeus said:

My ESB has been in the primary for about two days now. I'm concerned with the color. It's looking quite dark, almost like an amber ale. I thought bitters were supposed to be blonde. Will it lighten up through the course of fermentation?

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Bitters are quite commonly amber to almost red. British beers in general are usually darker shades. If you want blonde look for blonde ales, wheat beers and pilsners. Some american pale ales can be light also. Just be aware that in England a "pale" ale is pale with respect to brown ales or porters.
Craig

You cannot judge beer color by how it appears in the fermenter or secondary. I have an IPA in secondary that looks as dark as an English brown, when I take samples, the color is golden just like it should be.

TheJadedDog said:

You cannot judge beer color by how it appears in the fermenter or secondary. I have an IPA in secondary that looks as dark as an English brown, when I take samples, the color is golden just like it should be.

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what he said^^ remeber color is based on light passing through the body of liquid. in a glass the body of liquide is only 2 or 3 inches across. in the carboy it is more like 16 inches. it will be fine.

Even very light colored beers i've done looked dark in the fermenter. Like wise Dark beer like my hobgoblin clone looked a very pale light brown when I looked at it in the trial jar of my Hydrometer. As has been said its all to do with how much beer your looking thru and how much light there is