Why is my beer getting darker with age?

[Ski12568]

I now wait to stir hard once the temp gets below 80F. I give the carboy a good shake too once it's to temp and in there. Before I was stiring hard during the boil and once I started cooling

 

[Ski12568]

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-9-3.html

 

[opiate82]

Go ahead and Google "Hot Side Aeration Myth." Basic consensus is that unless you need your beer to have a 6 month+ shelf life it is a non-issue at the homebrew level. One of those brewing boogy-men that has carried over from commercial practices that isn't really applicable to homebrewing practices.

Not saying that avoiding it isn't a bad idea (it can't hurt), but based on what you are describing I don't think hot side areation is your issue and you should look elsewhere in your processes.

 

[Ski12568]

I agree it isn't the issue, I still have the problem after changing my ways

 

[campbellmike]

I'm a novice but how much head space are you leaving in the bottles? I only bottled my first few batches but I used the bottling bucket with valve and minimum head space. I had zero color change and no oxidation that my taste buds could detect.

 

[Ski12568]

I leave about an inch in the bottles, it's the 5 gal carboy that has the large amount of headspace and that's also when the color changes. I'll post a pic of it in a bit

 

[Ski12568]

Here's what it looks like now. That's pellet hops floating at the top.

It's and APA recipe using extra pale liquid extract, cara-pils, crystal 10, and a little pale malt for specialty grains. Looked like a pale ale before transfer. I will not be transferring the next version

 

[unionrdr]

It's going to look darker in that carboy due to the width of the bottle. Get it in a glass & it should look a bit lighter.

 

[Ski12568]

Is that too much head space for a secondary? If so I need to add more water on my next brew, that's a 5 gal carboy

 

[unionrdr]

If the one in the pic is 5G, then you've got less than 4G in there.

 

[Ski12568]

Yeah, it's a 5gal

 

[unionrdr]

Fermenting a 5 gallon kit as less than that can add color & ABV. It can also get darker from boiling too much of the LME in the kit or recipe by maillard reactions.

 

[Ski12568]

It was a lot lighter when I transferred. I am going to take pictures with my notes at all stages from now on. I'll wait to see what it looks like in the glass. This happened to me with the NB witbier also. Looked like an amber

 

[Ski12568]

Seems as though I was over reacting with the color in secondary. This beer turned out great!


Still working on my carbonation, this is my first time kegging

 

[BrewinBromanite]

I've noticed the same thing on many batches. It often seems darker in the fermenter than in a glass. There's a lot more ability to have light pass through a 12 oz glass than a 5+ gal fermenter full of beer, which I'm assuming is the major culprit to the perception of increased darkness in the fermenter vs lighter final product in a glass.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Pelican521]

Ok, since it's halloween, I thought I'd bring this thread back to life...

I've since decided to buy a kegging system and my hand again at an IPA that I brewed back in September to see if I could finally produce a decent IPA.

So right now I'm enjoying the best IPA (or any beer) that I've ever brewed. It's been kegged about 5 or 6 weeks and shows zero signs of oxidation. The flavor is crisp and clean with no muddy flavors and the color is exactly like when I racked it. The aroma and taste are very distinct of the hops I used unlike all my other bottled batches where they all tasted/smelled the same no matter which hops I used. Unlike all my other bottled IPA that suffered chill haze no matter how long I kept in the fridge, this is the clearest beer I've brewed.

It was also the easiest brew to date as I didn't secondary, and racked it at 12 days right to the keg (FG hit at 10 days). I dry hopped 3 oz of whole leaf in the keg in a muslin sack suspended by floss.

If anyone was in the same boat as I was with trying to brew an good IPA, kegging might be the solution!

Cheers!

 

[Vinbo7]

I think I found the real reason to your beer darkening in an earlier post in the thread here. It was happening at bottling time: you describe using oxi clean and then flushing that with Star San in your bottles. The earlier post described how if oxi clean isn't rinsed entirely then it reacts with the star San and causes the beer to darken.