My Belgian Wit is really dark...any ideas?

[redcap]

Well, I made a batch of Belgian Wit and after two weeks in the primary I racked it to the secondary. It looked like a typical wit when I first racked it, but after 10 days I went back to my 'brewing corner' to put another batch down there for fermentation, and the Belgian had turned DARK.

Here are the before and after photos. Any thoughts?

 

[PintOfBitter]

huh. Could be that it has just settled. The suspended particles (yeast especially) give beers a lighter color because they reflect the light. Now that it has had time to settle out, the light is attenuating through a deeper volume of liquid.

I can't think of any other reason this could happen off the top of my head.

 

[Bobby_M]

You're looking through about 12" of beer so it's 5 times darker than looking through a pint.

 

[redcap]

Fair enough. I'm not too worried about it, but being a wit and showing up so dark, I just thought I'd get a bit of advice since it's only my second batch.

Bottling day is tentatively Wednesday, so we'll give it a taste then and see what happens. Thanks for the replies!

 

[BtotheG]

I had the same concern on my second batch of beer which was a belgian wit kit from my local store. I don't know if my situation was the same as yours, but if you are doing all extract it will be noticeably darker than what you would expect a wit to look like. Mine was way darker than the style guidelines but it still tasted pretty good.

 

[tagz]

I think PoB and Bobby are correct. The sediment that was reflecting light has settled. But, don't worry, it will be lighter when you pour a pint. If it's still darker that you like, try Late Extract Addition and use DME instead of LME. It should lighten things up a fair amount.

 

[Homercidal]

What tagz says. It's hard to do a light colored wit with extract, and his suggestions can help to lighten it up. Use the lightest dry malts you can find. I use 50% pilsner and 50% wheat in my extract wit recipe.