Ale is the color of coke!

Hey, i just got my bottles all ready to go. I lift up the bag that's been covering my secondary carboy (5 gal), and my ale has grown so much darker. Now it's the color of Coke! I checked it two days ago with the hydrometer and got a gravity of 1.018, and the color was a light brown.

Why has my beer become sooooo dark all of a sudden?

FYI, this is an english ale extract from austin homebrew. I had it in the primary for one week, racked to secondary and today makes 13 days it's been in the secondary carboy.

beer in the secondary looks much more dark than beer in a glass or hydrometer tube.

efreem01 said:

Hey, i just got my bottles all ready to go. I lift up the bag that's been covering my secondary carboy (5 gal), and my ale has grown so much darker. Now it's the color of Coke! I checked it two days ago with the hydrometer and got a gravity of 1.018, and the color was a light brown.

Why has my beer become sooooo dark all of a sudden?

FYI, this is an english ale extract from austin homebrew. I had it in the primary for one week, racked to secondary and today makes 13 days it's been in the secondary carboy.

Click to expand...

All mine have done that... nothing really to worry about. Even cheese's caramel creme ale has turned pitch black. It's got something to do with the settling of everything... Did the hydrometer reading taste good? lol i always drink the sample in the hydro tube... If it tasted good you're fine, take a taste while you're bottling if it's good, you're good... Honestly color is just asthetic... Remember that you also have more of it together in the carboy, so when you bottle and pour into a glass it will be a lot lighter...

You can't judge the color accurately in the carboy - in the bottle or glass it'll appear much lighter.

The reason it appeared lighter before was the suspended sediment that was reflecting light - as the beer clears it appears darker in the carboy.

What's wrong with dark anyway? Don't be afraid of the dark

My blonde Ales look dark in secondary.
It's the floating yeast and Protein in the Primary that makes it look light. As it clears it darkens because of the suspended matter dropping. It's not the colour of the Ale making it look dark it's the volume of the beer stopping the light penetrating. The same way clear water in a deep ocean looks black.

It's normal...because it's cleared up.

When it goes into the glass it'll be a thing of beauty I'm sure of it.

My stout looks pretty dark too.... hrmm 42SRM to be exact Chill haze, what chill haze?! :rockin:

Brewpilot

redpale said:

You can't judge the color accurately in the carboy - in the bottle or glass it'll appear much lighter.

The reason it appeared lighter before was the suspended sediment that was reflecting light - as the beer clears it appears darker in the carboy.

What's wrong with dark anyway? Don't be afraid of the dark

Click to expand...

Exactly. Nothing wrong with it at all

It gets kinda complicated but its the way light refracts off the amount of liquid. More or less the more liquid you have the darker it will appear.

If you want to get a good idea of the color have a look when you take your hygrom readings.

Yeah, I just noticed that my blonde ale appears almost black now, after being opaque for weeks. I'm thrilled! It's gonna be beautiful when it comes time for drinkin'.