Did something go wrong in my fermenter?

I just checked on my beer in the secondary fermenter and it looks very strange. I have never seem anything like this in any of my beers. Everything looked fine at the end of primary, but now after almost 2 weeks in the secondary it looks like this. It was a pretty light grain bill so I don't know where the dark color of the top part would have come from. There isn't anything growing in it so I don't think it's an infection, but I don't know what it could be. Has anyone else seen something like this or have ideas of what it could be?

To me it just looks like the yeast is settling. In a few more days, you should see that clear portion expanding downward.

Vigo_Carpathian said:

To me it just looks like the yeast is settling. In a few more days, you should see that clear portion expanding downward.

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I would say this, as well. The darker color will most likely look different once it's in a glass. Beer tends to look a lot darker in the carboy. I'd say you're fine!

Vigo_Carpathian said:

To me it just looks like the yeast is settling. In a few more days, you should see that clear portion expanding downward.

Click to expand...

Vigo has it. While active fermentation was happening in primary, all that yeast was in suspension, and now that you are conditioning in secondary, it is starting to settle out. Let it happen...it'll help clear up the final product.

As for the dark color, it is probably just due to the sheer volume of beer in the carboy. I've made light wheat ales that look dark brown in the fermenter, just because there is 5gal all in one place. Taking a hydrometer sample will give you a better idea of the true color.

Thanks for the responses. I just took samples from the top and middle sections of the fermenter. They were almost the same in color; but along the lines of what Vigo said, the sample from the middle was a bit cloudier so it looks like stuff is settling. The taste was great on both samples, and that's all that really matters to me about the beer.

Looks just like how beers look when we're waiting for them to clear.