Beer Has Separated

[lityippee]

Hi all,
I have an issue that I have seen before. i brewed a 5 gallon batch of orange ginger pale ale, with fresh orange peels and candied ginger. I fermented with Wyeast 1056 for a 10 days, and racked it to a secondary for 7 days to clear it up a bit from the fresh orange peel matter. Last night I noticed that my beer had separated, of sorts. The ferm temps were around 66 degrees and secondary has been the same. Has anybody else seen this, and what is happening to my beer?

I have attached a picture.

Thanks,

 

[insanim8er]

I'm sure it's the yeast dropping from suspension

 

[Revvy]

It's supposed to do that, that's how you end up with clear beer. The yeast falls out of suspension, usually from the top down.

 

[lityippee]

Thanks for the responses. Should I wait until it is all one color before bottling?

 

[yeahfairly]

Absolutely! Let everything settle out....... then let me know how it tastes! I've never experimented with orange peels, but it's on my bucket list.

 

[lityippee]

great. thank you. this is my first time with orange peel, so I cant wait.

 

[dlester]

Wow, that's odd. I've seen settling, but not in extreme colors like that. I wouldn't worry about it though. The settling issues I deal with are beers in my Keggorator. When the beer sits over time, the ingredients separate and need mixing. Otherwise I get malty beer at first followed by lighter beer with higher ABV.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

Sometime you'll see multiple layers like this as the yeast cells flocculate (clump together) and drop due to them now being heavier. Gelatin as a fining can make the effect even more pronounced. Wait until it all settles out. Cold crashing will speed up the process.