RotorHead6

Recipes 

Need some help here. I made a pumpkin beer and put it in the primary. The yeast was WL California Ale Yeast WLP001. After ten days in the primary I racked it to the secondary and tried a sample. The beer was very very sour. I'm assuming that I got an infection somewhere down the line. It took about 36 hours for the fermentation to start. For the first two days the primary was in temp. around 77 degrees. I then moved it to a cooler and kept it around 68 degrees for the rest of fermemtation.

Any ideas what happened??

brewt00l

Recipes 

It's still "green" and hasn't matured yet...give it a try after it has been bottled and conditioned for a few weeks and see what ya got.

Glibbidy

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Does this sour beer taste like green apples, our sour in an acidic way? See the flavor wheel

While I would not rule out a bacterial infection, I would also not rule out young beer.
Acetaldehyde in flavor or aroma is caused by bacterial infections. this can be avoided by taking stock in good sanitation procedures.

Young beer with sour/green apple taste or aroma is caused by the beer well.... being young. An easy remedy for this is to relax and give it some time, like say 14 days in secondary fermentation.

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RotorHead6

Recipes 

Glibbidy,
In response to you question, I guess it tastes like more of an acidic sourness. Does not taste like milk or vineger. It's in the secondary now. So you think that I should leave it for 14 days, bottle and see what I get??

Beerthoven

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Yes, that is what you should do. It will still take a few more weeks in the bottle to finish.

Lots of others here have brewed pumpkin ales. You might want to search for those threads to see what they have experienced.

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Primary/Secondary:

Kegged: #77 Newcastle Brown, #79 California Common, #80 Old Bushy Tail Special Bitter

Planned: American IPA, Dusseldorf Alt, American Amber

I use secondaries!

malkore

Recipes 

77F fermentation days and 'pumpkin'...a whole variety of nasty flavors fill my head.

but i'm no pumpkin fan.

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Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet
Gal in 2009: 27, Gal in 2010: 34, Gal in 2011: 13, Gal in 2012: 10

Beerrific

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What was the whole recipe? Did you use LME or DME? The so called extract "twang" that LME can impart could be described as sour. Also, licorice and molasses are used to describe this flavor.

RotorHead6

Recipes 

I used LME. I have the twang to a few of my other beers that I brewed in the past but nothing like this. This type of sour is something that I have never tasted before out of the primary. I'm convinced that it's infected but everyone says to let it go in the secondary, bottle it and see what happens. I think that is pretty much my only option right now.

ezatnova

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I'm in a VERY similar boat. I just did/am doing a pumpkin. Fermentation also took 3 days. I had it in a constant 65 degrees though. I tasted a bit while bottling (17 days in the primary...skipping secondary due to lack of container, lol...too much going at once). It seemed the most sour of any of my beers yet. Not killer, spit it out sour, just...more sour than I was expecting. A smell that perfectly matches that taste. I'm 50/50 on whether it's infected or just young.
If it helps to analyze it, my beer is crystal clear (no signs of baddies there). When I tasted my gravity sample a week through fermentation, it was just spicy, no sour. That sort of has me worried.
Well, in the bottles for 2 weeks it sits.

RotorHead6

Recipes 

Since my last post I have bottled my beer. It was in the secondary for two weeks as directed by other members. Since then it has a better taste. I no longer think it is infected. Went through the same thing, never tasted one of my beers that was so sour!! I think it was just green and needed some time to complete fermentation. I will let it go in the bottles for one month and then try again. It should be OK. Good luck with yours, it should be just fine!!

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