St. Louis noob fermentation questions & pics:

[brianimal7]

So, for my first ever brew I chose a Red Ale True Brew extract kit. Everything went very smooth and fermentation seemed to be going along nicely. My question is about my light cloudy color on a red ale which I thought would be much darker, clearer. I just want to know what might have caused the color change and how it might effect my final product? Thanks for all the help! Cheers!

 

[slarkin712]

Yeast and other junk(trub, proteins, hops) are still in suspension. If you let this set longer it will clear up more. After you bottle it even more stuff will fall out of solution and create a sediment on the bottom of your bottles. What you are seeing is quite normal.

Also, if you already haven't cover the carboy with something to keep the light off the beer. The light can cause it to skunk.

 

[aiptasia]

Yeast. In suspension.

Relax.

Let the beer age in your primary for a full three weeks, then you can rack it to a bottling bucket and bottle it with a little simple syrup as a priming solution. Once capped, let your bottles sit and condition another three weeks while they carbonate up. The yeast should drop out of suspension into a nice tight little trub layer at the bottom of the bottles. If you chill them in the fridge for 48 hours after they're carbonated, the cold crash will also help clarify the beer. Adding finings such as a whirlfloc tablet and irish moss can also help eliminate proteins in your beer, which will also help clarify them (no chill haze).

Clarity is mainly a visual aesthetic. It has no bearing on the taste.

 

[brianimal7]

Appreciate the help guys. Yes the carbon is completely free of any light, what you see in the picture is the LED flash from my camera. One follow up question: what is the best straining method when I'm racking to bottle? Thanks again!

 

[brianimal7]

Just a follow up pic: I can already see trub sinking to the bottom and my beer Atkinson a more natural looking color! Woo!

 

[brianimal7]

Here

 

[saxman1036]

Appreciate the help guys. Yes the carbon is completely free of any light, what you see in the picture is the LED flash from my camera. One follow up question: what is the best straining method when I'm racking to bottle? Thanks again!

When racking you shouldn't need to do any filtering. Just keep the bottom of the cane away from the trub on the bottom of the carboy and you should be okay. When you get close to the bottom, carefully tilt the carboy a little to get a little extra beer out while still keeping the cane out of the trub. In the end, it'll be difficult to keep all the funk out, but a little trub in your beer won't hurt anything.

Good luck!