Bottled IIPA turned dark and grey...

[GrainToGlass]

So I bottled my all-grain Pliny clone about a month ago. That day I poured a sample glass from the remains of the bottling bucket and it was a beautiful ~20 SRM. The sample glass tasted perfectly fine. Big malty backbone with a complex flow of hops riding through and a moderate boozey finish on the end. Aroma was pleasant and the hop variety packed a firm punch and lingers.

At week 3 of conditioning/carbing I moved a bottle to the fridge to check on it's progress. I gave it two days to chill before prying the cap off. No hiss. I poured it into a glass with no signs of carbonation. I accepted it, and assumed it just needed more time. What surprised me the most was the drastic change in color. It looked like someone broke an ink pen and dropped it into the beer. The nice dark amber was now a cloud of inky black/grey. Not appealing at all. The body also thinned out quite a bit, almost watery and the hops are barely detectable. Sorry I don't have a picture, I was pretty occupied that night and just upset about the beer that I forgot to take one.

Could someone fill me in on what happened?

5 Gallon Batch All-Grain
14 lbs Malteurop American 2-row
.75 lb Briess Carapils
.5 lb Bairds Carastan
.25 oz Amarillo FWH
10 ml Hopshot 90min
1oz Columbus 45min
1oz Simcoe 20min
Whirlfloc 15min
Yeast Nutrients 10min
.75 lb Corn Sugar 0min
1.5 oz Centennial 0min
2.5 oz Simcoe 0min
Wyeast 1056 w/ 1L starter
Tap Water
Schedule
Mashed at 153F for 60 mins.
Boiled for 90 mins.
Primary at 62F for 4 weeks.
Secondary at 62F for 2 weeks.
Primed with corn sugar.
Bottled at 70F for 4 weeks.
Notes
I hit under target volume. About 4 gallons into primary, dry hopped in secondary and got 34 12oz bottles filled in the end. ABV came out to 9.1%.

 

[flars]

Sounds like a possibility of oxidation from an unsealed cap without the hiss of CO2 on opening. Was the bottle a twist off or pry off type? Have you tried another bottle with the same result?

 

[Pelican521]

Hey GtG, I've been struggling with the same issue with my IPAs as well (along with many others). I've done a lot of googling and from what I've read, it's oxidation that's the culprit.

Here's a link to one of my threads that discuss the issue:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/why-my-beer-getting-darker-age-471951/

I'm happy to say, I've just purchased a kegging system and will be purging with CO2 and getting into the fridge asap to slow the aging process. I will also be dry hopping in the keg as well.

Good luck!

 

[j1n]

Probably Oxidation. The color change is a big indicator.

 

[2drunk2]

Oxidation sounds about right. I'd suspect that the bottles didn't seal properly, or that something happened that prevented the yeast from converting the priming sugar. The latter scenario seems unlikely.

 

[GrainToGlass]

Sounds like a possibility of oxidation from an unsealed cap without the hiss of CO2 on opening. Was the bottle a twist off or pry off type? Have you tried another bottle with the same result?

Thanks everyone for the help. They are all pry off caps. My bench capper wasn't cooperating with me that day. They all seemed pretty sealed, but they did come off pretty easily with a bottle opener. Almost too easily. I'll throw another bottle into the fridge and try again. Hopefully the entire batch isn't ruined.

 

[2drunk2]

Hopefully it's just a bottle or two.

 

[unionrdr]

I have a super agata bench capper. I've found that I get a tighter seal if I get the bell as close as I can to the top of the bottle before crimping. But dark grey & inky? Sounds like something else to me? I've gotten oxidized bottles before & they weren't inky or grey.

 

[Pelican521]

Did you happen to pour the yeast sediment when you poured your beer? I noticed on one of my IPAs that oxidized, the yeast sediment turned a dark grey color as well when I was dumping them. Now I pour extra carefully..


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[GrainToGlass]

I have a super agata bench capper. I've found that I get a tighter seal if I get the bell as close as I can to the top of the bottle before crimping. But dark grey & inky? Sounds like something else to me? I've gotten oxidized bottles before & they weren't inky or grey.

I lowered the bell as close as I could and made sure to give it a firm press. Maybe I got a bad bell? I just bought a wing capper and did some test runs. MUCH better looking crimp!

Did you happen to pour the yeast sediment when you poured your beer? I noticed on one of my IPAs that oxidized, the yeast sediment turned a dark grey color as well when I was dumping them. Now I pour extra carefully..


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Yes, I poured the whole bottle. I noticed that the dark color didn't show until near the end of the pour. So that would explain it, thanks!

 

[unionrdr]

I don't think the bell's bad. Just the way you have to work it to get an even crimp, as stated previously.

 

[flars]

Some pry of cap bottles may seal well using a Super Agata, but not all will. Small variations in the style of the threads and even small differences in bottle height will change whether you get a good seal or a poor seal.

 

[unionrdr]

In my experiences with it, the style of the lip also has a lot to do with how well it crimps. But if I get the bell real close to the top of the bottle, they crimp better. I cracked a couple of my Bavarian watermelon hefe's last night & at 2.8 VCo2, they had great carbonation at 2 weeks & a few days. So the way I had to start crimping them worked better.

 

[BlackGoat]

what product did you use to sanitize the bottles and bottling bucket?

 

[GrainToGlass]

what product did you use to sanitize the bottles and bottling bucket?

Starsan. I'm confident in my cleaning and sanitizing, so I'm sure that's not the problem.

Update: I tried another bottle tonight and it was the same story. Probably not as bad as the first, but still disappointing. I also cracked open into my second batch, a SMaSH IPA using the same capper/cap/bottles. It was great! Full carbonation, great head, and no signs of oxidation.

It hurts to dump any beer, but I'll take it as a lesson learned. I've also saved up enough for a keg system so I'm researching my options. Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[BlackGoat]

Ok, just trying to weed out the possibility of unrinsed idophor being an issue.