IPA Dark/Black-ening Up in Secondary

K, a tad bit nervous. My IPA was in primary for 2 weeks, racked it to secondary a week ago today, and now it's damn near black. Very dark, still an amber glow of sorts "behind the black" color but it looks nothing like it did a week ago, and most importantly nothin like an IPA. The sample I pulled a week ago or measuring gravity I poured into a snifter glass an it looked perfect! A golden amber color.

I searched through previous posts and didn't really get the answers I was looking for - any idea what's going on?

Its a liquid extract batch, but I doubt I scorched the LME - I added it to the batch while my kettle was off the heat source. I
Also wouldn't it have been dark from the jump if my LME was scorched?

I also added a pound of both honey and sugar during the boil, I understand honey takes longer to ferment out but can't imagine why that'd effect the color.

Two things.

Did you add the extract at the beginning of the boil? It will cause a darker wort. You can add at flameout but need to be careful and make adjustments for hop utilization due to the difference in density.

Second thing. As yeast and sediment fall out of the wort it becomes clearer and can appear darker.

Take a sample with your thief and put in a glass. Then you will see the "true" color.

Extracts tend to carmelize during full boils, which give you darker colors. My Yorkshire brown ale is close to "black as night", even in the glass. It tastes great, though - a very nice example of a brown ale.

So don't worry!

Yes I added LME at start of boil.

Thanks for tips. I'll pull a sample today and check its color in a glass.

Does it matter when in process you add extra fermentables like sugar or honey given it almost entirely ferments out without adding flavor? Maybe adding those at start of boil made it even darker?

bigemadrid said:

Yes I added LME at start of boil.

Thanks for tips. I'll pull a sample today and check its color in a glass.

Does it matter when in process you add extra fermentables like sugar or honey given it almost entirely ferments out without adding flavor? Maybe adding those at start of boil made it even darker?

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Honey might indeed darken it more - I expect it would act much like LME in the boil.

Are you doing partial boils and adding top off water? Full boils will help reduce the Mallaird reaction darkening that happens with high gravity boils.

I'm doing full boils in a 7 gallon kettle (takes painfully long to get boiling on the stove but I keep sticking it out haha)

First I've heard of Mallaird ... *goes to get his google on*