I just popped the cap off my first ale and it tastes like vinegar and was barely carbed.
I steeped 4oz of Debittered Black Malt for 30 mins at 155F in 2 g of spring water, then boiled 6lbs of light DME with 1 oz of Cascade and 1 oz of Centennial hops for 1 hour. Quickly cooled in an ice bath and mixed into 3 g of spring water and pitched a starter of S04 yeast at 70F and fermented in primary 3 weeks.
I racked onto 5oz of water/priming sugar solution and bottled a week ago. When I bottled, the top of the beer had a slight oily look.
Try another bottle or two. If they all taste like vinegar, you have an acetobacter infection and you're on your way to having 5 gallons of vinegar, not beer.
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"Good people drink good beer." -HST
Happens to everyone sooner or later. Definitely try a couple more bottles. If they're all like this, chances are the infection started in your fermentor or your bottling bucket. Cooling with an ice bath is also a potential place for problems because it may take a while to cool and leave the wort at dangerous temperature ranges for longer.
One place to look that a lot of beginners forget is the spigot on your bucket. You have to take it a part and completely immerse it in sanitizer (scrub it well, to make sure there's no hidden corners).
Good luck
one place to look that a lot of beginners forget is the spigot on your bucket. You have to take it a part and completely immerse it in sanitizer (scrub it well, to make sure there's no hidden corners).
Good luck
After bottling the yeast cake did smell a bit acidic in the fermenter.. Must have started in the fermenter. I did remove the airlock for a bit to check gravity about 2 weeks in. I am thinking this is where it caught the infection, as the sample I took smelled and tasted fine. Definitely a practice I won't repeat. I will just wait til bottling to check gravity from now on.
Beer tastes like vinegar
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