Secondary is darker?

Hello all. I did my first brew day on Dec. 30th with NB’s Deluxe kit. I started my Irish Red extract kit and everything has gone according to plan so far. I moved it to the secondary after 11 days, The foam was gone and there was no signs of bubbling for quite a few days. Anyway, when I transferring the beer into the secondary, it had a decent red color to it. It has now been in the secondary for 7 days and everything looks much worse. The beer is much darker, there is solid brown bits floating here and there which almost look like the dark residue of the foam from the primary. I am assuming this isn’t normal, so my question is, what is happening? I have a layer of tan on the bottom and then a layer of grey on top of that. What is the grey layer? My tap water is not very good in this house, could something be contaminating the batch this far into the process? The carboys have been sitting in my dark basement at a consistent 65-67 degrees from day one. Here are some pictures:

This is right after moving it into the secondary

http://s216.photobucket.com/user/mx3TT/media/IMG_20140110_103759_zpsc63edcfe.jpg.html

This is what is looks like now

http://s216.photobucket.com/user/mx3TT/media/20140117_163034_zpsbec2fc63.jpg.html

Here you can see where the solid bits have formed

http://s216.photobucket.com/user/mx3TT/media/20140117_163317_zps6d26a357.jpg.html

Grey and tan layers

http://s216.photobucket.com/user/mx3TT/media/20140117_163011_zpsdde9a7f3.jpg.html

Any ideas?

This looks fine to me. Before racking, there was more yeast in suspension, which made it look more turbid and I suppose “lighter.” The layers on the bottom are (from bottom to top) yeast/other solids and then mostly yeast.

Yup, kc is right. If you don’t trust it, ship it to Massachusetts and i’ll dispose of it for you.

Well, lets not go crazy now :cheers:

Here is a closer look at what can be seen happening in the secondary. As the yeast fall out of suspension, the beer appears darker (which is actually more clearer). It also appears darker because of the depth of the carboy. It will look lighter in a beer glass.

That picture is definitely worth 1000 words.

Your later secondary pics look a lot clearer (i.e., less turbid) to me. As turbidity decreases, the color of the beer will appear to change. Also note that the color will appear quite a bit darker while in the carboy than it will in the glass, because there is more volume for light to pass through while the beer is stored in bulk.

Great picture, thanks for posting that. It definitely tells the story of how it happens. And thanks to everyone for the info! I look forward to finally tasting it in a couple weeks.