What's going on here? Color gradient on Tripel.

[phenry]

This is a Tripel I brewed back on 1/14 that's been sitting in secondary for 10ish weeks. It smells and tastes great, but what's going on with the top 25% being dark? Oxidation?

 

[voltin]

It looks like the yeast are starting to drop out. Since the yeast are a light color they will lighten up the solution they are in. All is well, just give it a few more days and all the yeast will have dropped out.

 

[phenry]

The yeast is definitely out of solution. It's been in secondary at 60*F for 10 weeks, the hydrometer sample was crystal clear. As far as I know, Wy3787 doesn't keep swimming around a few months after it's done fermenting. The grainbill was 12 lbs of Pilsner and 2 lbs table sugar, so the color on the bottom is what it should be.

 

[voltin]

Hmm that is interesting, have you tried pulling a sample from the top dark layer to check the color and taste?

 

[helibrewer]

Wow, that's wild...did you use dark candi or any other dark adjunct?

 

[JimTheHick]

Congrats- you've made the first tripel Black and tan. That's a pretty good-sized pint, but drink up!!

Is the sunny background casting a shadow?

 

[karljrberno]

I have a tripple in the fridge cold crashing for 7 days that is doing the same thing , the only thing I can think of is I used dark and light candy sugar

 

[phenry]

Wow, that's wild...did you use dark candi or any other dark adjunct?

Just Pilsner and table sugar. Brewtarget says it should be 3.3 SRM.

Congrats- you've made the first tripel Black and tan. That's a pretty good-sized pint, but drink up!!

Is the sunny background casting a shadow?

My thoughts exactly. I may need a DD after that glass. Or a trip to the ER. The background isn't playing any tricks on the photo, it just has dark liquid on top and light on bottom. I'm about to hopefully figure out what's going on here when I bottle it in a few minutes, I'll post back the results if I figure anything out.

 

[phenry]

Well the dark segment basically acted like an oil slick on top the rest of the beer, but when it dropped down to the siphon level I really couldn't tell much difference in the color going through the siphon tubing. Smelled and tasted fine regardless, so we'll just see how it ends up in a few months once I open the first bottle.