Help! My wort changed color! (pics)

[spearmintskies]

So 3-ish months ago I made a batch of blonde ale. Stuck it in primary glass carboy and life caught up with me, and I'm just now pulling it out to see how it's going. I put it in my closet, dark dark space. Temperature has fluctuated probably between 68-80 with the weather (I live in the PNW and we don't have air conditioning/WA state has had a heat wave this summer)

So it was a beautiful clear amber before and when I pulled it out it's literally a gradient from what looks like a blonde to a porter! Doesn't seem infected but I've never seen or heard of this happening before.

I literally haven't touched in three months. Not to change out the sani in the airlock, not to test the gravity, nothing. The only thing I can maybe think of is autolysis, but it doesn't smell bad, particularly, just malty and sweet and kind of old.

I'm terrified to taste it. XD I've thought on more than one occasion to just dump it, but my boss is convincing me otherwise.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Recipe? Does look too dark for a Blonde. But I suspect something from the grist is to blame. Malts too dark, an adjunct, ...

Flocculation of yeast does significantly change the color. and 3 months is plenty of time for that.

How does it look poured into a glass or hydro tube?

 

[Psylocide]

.... taste it.

 

[spearmintskies]

The color closest to the trub was what it was throughout for months. Clear and consistent. The darkness towards the top came sometime in the last month or so.

Recipe ingredients are 2-row (80%), cara-pils (10%), Crystal 10 (5%), and vienna (5%). Hops are centennial.

 

[thekraken]

Taste it. Iv heard it said that nothing that grows in beer is going to hurt you (except alcohol). Based on the op I'd taste it with no hesitation.

 

[brew_ny]

look at a sample in a glass or a hydro tube bulk beer looks darker then it is

 

[spearmintskies]

Brew_ny I know that, I've just never seen the gradient thing happen before. Half the beer changed entirely from the bulk color that it was before.

Though here it is in glass, looks quite pretty actually, albeit a bit dark for a blonde.

 

[spearmintskies]

Eh, it's not bad. Not good either.

 

[Yooper]

The color closest to the trub was what it was throughout for months. Clear and consistent. The darkness towards the top came sometime in the last month or so.

Recipe ingredients are 2-row (80%), cara-pils (10%), Crystal 10 (5%), and vienna (5%). Hops are centennial.

The cause of the darkening is oxidation. It starts from the top (where it's exposed to oxygen) and works down. It's noted to do that with light colored beers especially, and wines and ciders as well. If it tastes fine, drink quickly before the flavor is impacted.

The very large headspace after fermentation stops can allow the gasses inside and outside the fermenter to equalize, causing oxidation.

 

[spearmintskies]

Thank you! I'm not sure why I didn't expect oxidation.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

The cause of the darkening is oxidation. It starts from the top (where it's exposed to oxygen) and works down. It's noted to do that with light colored beers especially, and wines and ciders as well. If it tastes fine, drink quickly before the flavor is impacted.

The very large headspace after fermentation stops can allow the gasses inside and outside the fermenter to equalize, causing oxidation.

This. In the last couple of years I've had two lighter colored beers (one a lighter IPA and one a kolsch) oxidize after bottling. Darker beers may have oxidized too but not as noticeable. Now I purge my bottling bucket with CO2, and push the beer into the bucket with CO2.

 

[AndyRN]

So there was an air leak to atmosphere to allow in the oxygen?

 

[spearmintskies]

No air leak, but lots of headspace and time.

 

[aprichman]

If you use an airlock it's not really a closed system, especially with temperature change which leads to pressure changes inside the vessel. If you drop temperature your airlock will pull air through.