About to prime and bottle - Beer getting darker,

I know that first time brewers always worry about EVERYTHING that might go wrong with their brew but I have to ask. My Hefe batch is getting darker. I put it into the secondary about 10 days ago for conditioning and secondary fermentation and it has gotten darker. Is that normal or is it contaminated or something? Any help is much appreciated.

It's not actually changing color, it's just that more of the suspended particulate (proteins, yeast, etc.) are falling out of suspension---and as it clears up, it reflects less light and looks darker. Given that this is a hefeweizen and you want it to be cloudy, I'd go ahead and bottle it right now, as long as your gravity is terminal. I often bottle my hefe's right out of the primary once they're done.

I'm going to try to do that tonight. Thank you, it worried me!

Either that, or your hefe is turning to the dark side of the force.

dark side of the force???

Dominator, I was *exactly* where you are a couple of weeks ago (color change, etc).. and as far as I can tell, my beer tastes OK, and is now sitting in bottles... which leads me to the next worry...er, nevermind!

I bottled it sunday and was depressed about the color and one giant greenish (yeast) thing floating mid-height in the carboy..!

Keep in mind that beer always looks much darker in the fermenter (after clearing a bit) than it does in the glass. Don't get depressed about that color just yet.


TL

I hope, I would hate to have this beer and bottling damn near "scavenger hunt" be all for no reason.

"scavenger hunt"?

cheezydemon said:

Either that, or your hefe is turning to the dark side of the force.

Click to expand...

Join forces with the Dark Lord of the Grist

scavenger hunt looking for bottles. LOL

I had a pale ale that did the same thing. Once I poured it into a glass however it was so much lighter.

You'll be fine.