bottled beer darker than keg

[dirtbikejunkie]

On 4/16/2013 I bottled an APA for a competition to be judged on the weekend of 4/27. I received my score sheets yesterday and reviewed with one of my extra bottles and what was still in the keg. I immediately noticed that the bottled version was darker than the kegged version. I assume the darker color is from oxygenation picked up when I bottled. However there are no noticeable flavor differences between the bottled and kegged and the score sheets did not indicate any issues with oxygenation either.

Any thoughts?

When I bottled I flushed the bottled with co2 before filling. I filled with a bottling wand in a picnic tap. I tried to cap on foam but remember some of the bottles did not get a good foaming action before capping. Could this be the source of oxygen?

on a side note, I got two scores of 40 on the APA. It was my first comp so was pretty happy. This was in the combined brewer's cup and Puget Sound Pro-Am.

[Ozwald]

I've heard more about flavor differences than color differences. I can't say I've ever compared the two directly, so I don't have any first hand experience. How were they both stored? I think you're leaping to conclusions going straight to O2, not saying you're wrong, but there's plenty of other potential culprits. Since it was judged pretty fresh, I wouldn't expect any judge comments about O2 this early. Interesting, nonetheless. Might be worth some scientific experimenting.