Amber ale color changed to brown???

[beerenstein]

Well guys, what's up with this?

I brewed an American amber ale back in November or December of last year, and it was definitely a nice amber color. Due to my procrastinating buying keg equipment, a death in the family, and subsequent depression, I just got around to kegging it last Friday.

I checked on the beer for the first 3 months in primary, and the color was amber until that point. After that, I didn't look at it at all until 2 weeks ago, and the color had turned a putrid brown color. I decided to go ahead and keg it. The flavor is still nice, though.

Also, my batch was 6 gallons so I fermented 1 gallon separately, and I bottled it fairly soon after fermentation was completed. The color of those are still a beautiful amber color.

Anyone have ideas of what happened?

 

[Yooper]

Oxidation causes the beer to darken. If it still taste great that's wonderful and so I would not worry about it. With time, the flavor impact might be more noticeable but since the beer is already seven or eight months old I don't think you will notice any big changes in the next month or two.

 

[stpug]

oxidation can cause those kinds of color changes and may have a slight-to-distinct flavor associated with it.

 

[beerenstein]

Interesting. So what yall are saying is that I may just have to drink it all this weekend, so that the off flavor doesn't progress?

 

[burninator]

interesting. So what yall are saying is that i may just have to drink it all this weekend, so that the off flavor doesn't progress?

no! There's no time! You should be drinking it right now!

 

[beerenstein]

Oh no! I'll have to go just as soon as work gets off, then! Maybe I'll build a fermentation chamber while I'm at it...