beer darkening throughout fermentation

[Halapeenyo]

So I brewed a Belgian triple extract kit and then had to turn around and leave town for 10 weeks so my girl has been taking care of my beer... this beer spent 6 weeks in primary and was just racked to secondary today...during this time it seems it keeps getting darker... attached are 3 pictures of this beer, from the day after I pitched the yeast till today when it was racked.. a time of 6 weeks. After brewing it it was a nice light brown color and now it looks a very dark brown color.

I've done some research And found lots of feedback of LME carmelizing during boil. This beer did use both DME and lme and was boiled for the full 60 minutes.

But it doesn't make sence to me that would be the issue since it wasn't dark when I put it into the carboy. Anybody experience this or know what could cause this?

Any opinions appreciated

 

[Halapeenyo]

And I also found some people talking about oxidation.. this carboy was sealed with an airlock the entire 6 weeks that it sat in a dark closet

 

[Face Eater]

All of the sediment/trub/yeast is clearing up so it appears darker. Extract is usually always darker than all grain. It is fine, if anything you could always put the extract in later in the boil to keep the darkening down. But as for the darkening during fermentation, it's just clearing up.

 

[Halapeenyo]

I wish I had a picture of the wort as it was not nearly this dark..that's the part that throws me off..apple wine for example looks the same after flocculation than it did before fermentation. Not the case with this batch of beer

 

[RM-MN]

When you first put the wort in the carboy it had suspended particles of hops and proteins. These reflect light so the wort appears lighter. As it ferments the yeast activity keeps particles suspended and it will look even lighter but when the yeast activity slows the particles start to settle out and the beer looks darker until all the yeast and other particles are settled and it looks black. It looks black because you are trying to pass light through 8 inches or so of beer. When you pour it into a glass you only have to pass light through a 2 inches and it will lighten up a lot.

 

[Halapeenyo]

That makes sense I love this website!

 

[unionrdr]

Agreed. It looks darker as it settles out,not to mention the column of beer is 12" wide or more. And as stated,putting all the extract in (LME & DME) will make for a darker beer. Paricularly with LME. That's why many of us use late extract additions to make for lighter color & cleaner flavor.