Beer darkened during bottling

Hi everyone,

I'm relatively new to all-grain brewing. For the most part the beers I've made all taste decent, but one thing I've encountered is that my beers always seem to darken during bottling. Here's an example.

This was a SRM 6.0 (roughly) IPA I made. Here's a shot of it post fermentation (which was 1 week in primary and then dry hopped or about 2 weeks in the primary as well)

(before.jpg)

After bottling for two weeks, the beer is definitely more orange/amber and far less golden. As a result, I haven't been able to get any of my beers staying light. I have no idea what is causing it. The beers all taste good (in my opinion still, but it's possible hops are masking any problems).

Some people have suggested oxidation, but it seems odd to be to get this type of colour change in only two weeks.

Any thoughts?

Post the recipe and your process you used.

Could it be that more yeast and other particles are settling after you bottle? Yeast is a very pale tan color, so when it is in suspension, beers may appear lighter because the yeast is reflecting more light. As it settles, the true color of your beer comes through. What yeast are you using?

It was roughly 12lbs of american 2-row and 12oz of caramel 35L.

Next time, try "cold crashing" your post-fermentation sample for a few hours. I think you will find that the resulting beer color is darker than prior to crashing - for similar reasons to those mentioned above.

I want to gander its just as the earlier post said, yeast and other debris falling out of solution. Even though it might not look like any yeast is in suspension it can drastically effect the color of a beer. The pic on the left still looks a tiny bit hazy to me? How transparent was it to you before and after bottling?

Oxydation is well known to cause darkening (and other issues).

As others have also mentioned, yeast in suspension tend to make a beer look paler.

MC

when I'm done bottling, if there's only enough beer to fill 1/2 or 3/4 of a bottle, I always mark that one and drink it first. It's usually overcarbonated and significantly darker than what's in the other bottles, even after a couple weeks. So it could be that you have some across the board oxidation somehow.

In comparing those two pictures, I'm 100% confident in saying you've got suspended particulates in the first pour creating a lighter looking beer.

It definitely looks like second beer is more clear, so I would agree it is a yeast in suspension thing.

My homebrew club recently filled a 55 gallon barrel by having 12 different brewers brew 5 gallon batches and then blend. I ended up brewing and delivering my batch 2 days after everyone else. We all used the same recipe. I thought I screwed up recipe bc my wort was way darker then the other 11 carboys. After about 3 days my beer looked nearly the same color as the others once fermentation started and yeast was in suspension. Would not have believed the impact yeast in suspension has on color if I did not see it with my own eyes.