Color change in fermenter?

Well, this is odd. I had a bier de garde in the primary for 2 extra weeks while on a work trip, and while I was gone, it went from a hazy golden color to a clear brown. I expected the clearing, but am concerned about the color change. It fermented at about 70 in a water bath with ice and evaporation towel for a week, while I was home. The temps got consistently up to 75-77 while I was away. I drew off a sample, and it tasted OK, but what's with the darker shift? Bottling tomorrow, we'll see what happens.

Thanks.

 

How does the color appear in a sample glass? Generally the cleared beer appears much darker in a larger volume, especially if there is any color tint to your carboy.

 

Yeast is light colored, so if it's in suspension, it would make brown look golden. It sounds like it flocced out.

 

This.


Plus it's always going to be darker in bulk since the light has a harder time passing through a thicker liquid column (carboy) than through a thinner one (serving glass)

 

Well, y'all were right. When I drew off a sample, everything looked just right color-wise. I still don't know quite why the color shift seemed so dramatic, maybe I just haven't been letting my past batches sir long enough to fully flocc and settle out.

Thanks!

 

That's probably the correct assumption.