Wheat Beer Got Darker In Secondary.. Infection?

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newbiebrewer22

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My first batch of beer I'm making for a beer brewing class is a wheat beer by Brewer's best. I've followed all of the instructions perfectly (I think) and made sure everything post boil (including racking to the secondary) was thoroughly sanitized with star san. When transferring to the secondary, it seemed fine. I'll post pictures. It was a nice cloudy orange color coming out, and still looked orange in the carboy, but a tad darker. I know this was because it was in a larger volume than what I was seeing through the siphon hose. It's been in the secondary for close to two weeks now and it has gotten noticeably darker. I don't see many "fuzzy's" but there are a few things floating at the top. I haven't maintained the temp as much as I did during primary fermentation so it has probably been sitting in this carboy about 4 or 5 degrees warmer than it had been. Would you guys think my beer is infected?? Hopefully not. Going to bottle it tomorrow, but just a tad paranoid right now.

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When you transferred the first time there was probably still yeast floating around in your beer. After the beer sits and the yeast drop out of suspension, your beer will get slightly darker. The yeast makes the beer "appear" lighter in color. I see this in my wheat beers all the time.
 
Looks fine. I bet it appears darker just because suspended yeast/protein clumps/etc are dropping out of suspension. The stuff on top just looks like ordinary co2 bubbles to me.

Next time, if you choose to do a secondary, try to minimize the head space. That's where the bad bugs get the oxygen they need.
 
Everything looks good to me. It will begin to look darker in the carboy because with time the yeast will settle out to the bottom of the carboy. With less and less yeast in suspension over time, there are fewer and fewer "particles" which reflect light. Since the yeast is falling out of suspension, there is less light being reflected thus it looks darker. Once you bottle it Im sure you will notice that it is clearer overall, but the color will still appear to be that nice light orange. I see no obvious signs of infection, it just looks like there are a few bubbles on the surface of the beer in the carboy. That is most likely from residual CO2 in solution coming out due to the increased temp. Bottle away!

Welcome to the obsession that is home brewing!
 
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