I made a red pale ale, looked great, fermented nicely for about a week then the bubbles slowed down to about a bubble a minute. I transferred it through a filter into a carboy (which I beerbrited) and overnight it turned a blackish color and has a few little white spots on it the size of a dime.

did I contaminate it?

4/19/2008 5:31:24 PM

are the white spots mold?

4/19/2008 5:33:46 PM

sounds like you did let some bacteria in or some shit. did you clean everything with bleach first?

4/19/2008 5:34:20 PM

i used beer brite instead of bleach and i'm not sure if the white spots are mold or yeast (hence the question)

4/19/2008 5:35:04 PM

pictures would help

but it sounds like you contaminated it

4/19/2008 5:35:27 PM

it's takin mah powers

4/19/2008 7:06:13 PM

someone make Quick Hebrew question.

4/19/2008 7:06:36 PM

if the beer was amber before it went in went in to the secondary and now it is black something is not right. Is is black or just darker? it is possible that filtering out the yeast and trub made the beer darker. did you use any iodine for sanitation that could have turned residual starches black?

did you sanitize the filter? why were you filtering the beer on the way to the secondary? were you going to bottle it?

taste it. see if that will help identify the problem. it is probably contaminated but i have never heard of this problem before.

4/19/2008 7:13:45 PM

Quote :

"someone make Quick Hebrew question. "

i thought about but didn't feel like changing things around to be kosher

4/19/2008 7:14:40 PM

are you sure the white spots aren't just groups of small bubbles from continued fermentation or gas coming out of solution?

the whole color change sounds sketch...beers do appear darker in a carboy given the larger volume, but I've never seen one just change overnight...sure you're not just viewing it in a different light?

Quote :

"why were you filtering the beer on the way to the secondary?"

and beer brite is more of a cleaner than sanitizer, if i recall correctly

4/19/2008 7:55:40 PM

so is this thing covered in mold colonies or what?

4/22/2008 5:32:12 PM

the beer should lighten in color, not darken... assuming it actually got darker and does not just appear darker bc of the carboy material


New batch!

4/22/2008 5:35:15 PM

I'm guessing yeast flocculation (coming out of suspension) could also make the beer appear darker

[Edited on April 22, 2008 at 5:40 PM. Reason : I see that filtering was mentioned as a possible reason, same principle]

4/22/2008 5:40:05 PM