Beers turning sour. Need advice.

Hey everyone. My name is Justin and this is my first post here. I'm glad to have discovered this site; it's a great source of information.

My brother, a friend and I recently started homebrewing, and we've encountered a problem: Our beers are turning sour.

We put together an Irish dry stout for our first batch. It tasted great in the fermenter, but three weeks after it was bottled, it's become pretty sour. Maybe three weeks is still a bit early to be judging it, but this is so sour I don't see it going away with more bottle conditioning. It's definitely drinkable though. It's a lambo-stout I guess

Our second batch was a California common. It's been in the fermenter for about three weeks, and only in the past couple of days did the fermentation seem to finally quit. I pulled a sample for a gravity reading (1.020) today and tasted it. It's developed the same sour flavor as the stout, which is a bummer because, until this point, it was wonderfully smooth and clean tasting.

I'm a bit flummoxed because there are no strange smells and the beers look fine. There are no weird growths or slimes or films. The California common is crystal clear.

To get to the point, we were going to start a Belgian wit this weekend, but I don't want begin another beer if I've got a source of infection in our equipment somewhere. I thought we had been doing a good job of sanitizing things, but maybe we missed something. I'm kind of suspicious of our autosiphon.

Thanks in advance for your advice. Until then, I'll just RDWAHA(S)HB.

if it doesn't taste unpleasant the general consensus here it that you need to age it longer. Stouts and porters usually benefit from aging. I say wait a month and if you open a few gushers, then yea it's an infection. I've accidentally done some stuff to beer that should have gotten it infected (once dropped ice from my ice bath into the wort by accident, the bucket the ice was in was filthy and had previously been used to store old donated clothes) never an infection.

i agree. i let mine sit a month in the primary now then bottle. i let them sit at least a month in the bottle if not 2 monthes before i try them. i have made several that had a cidery taste to it. letting them age for awhile has always seemed to take care of the problems in the cidery taste. if it is just plain sour i don't have a clue. i have never had any that was just plain sour. could happen tomorrow, but not so far.

I'm not 100% sure but I think that a very stressed yeast can produce off flavors so bad that you may think it is an infection.
I have some experiments going on, fermenting pure crystal malts, so not much food for the yeast, and it taste like crap, somewhat sour. I don't think it is infected, just the yeast saying "where is the good stuff?".
Have you fermented at controlled temps?

If it's truly a sour infection, throw out all your hoses and anything plastic. Get a glass carboy and starsan the hell out of it.

Are you entirely certain it's sour? My first stout was slightly sweet when I first sampled it, but after a few weeks, it seemed to be sour. However, the "sourness" never went away, and when I sampled a bottle much later, I realized it had simply become dry as the yeast in the bottle consumed the remaining sugar.

I have no problem letting these sit longer. I just want to make sure that if it is an infection, I don't spread it to a third batch.

nilo said:

Have you fermented at controlled temps?

Click to expand...

The stout was just left to ferment at room temperature. For the California common, I put the carboy in a shallow tray of water and put a wet T-shirt over it. With a fan blowing on it, the temp stayed in the mid '50s to low '60s. Over the past week, the weather cooled off a great deal, so I took it out of the tray and let it sit at room temp.

speter said:

Are you entirely certain it's sour? My first stout was slightly sweet when I first sampled it, but after a few weeks, it seemed to be sour. However, the "sourness" never went away, and when I sampled a bottle much later, I realized it had simply become dry as the yeast in the bottle consumed the remaining sugar.

Click to expand...

I'm not a homebrewing expert, so I'm not 100 percent certain, but to me, it seems that it's just sour.

Thanks everyone for the tips so far. I appreciate the help.

Does it taste like apple cider?

What are your sanitization procedures? What do you use, how do you use it, etc.

Most importantly, what is your bottle prep procedure? It sounds like it is fine in the fermenter but turning in the bottle. Where do you get your bottles, how do you wash them, how do you sanitize them, what is your bottling procedure?

Can you describe what you are tasting with any greater detail than sour? I don't like sour beers at all but love the bitter. I get a lot of people who try bitter beer that describe it as sour.

Finally, how long are you leaving beers in the primary (or primary to secondary if applicable)? And what is your transfer/ priming procedure?

More info will help diagnosis so please be as specific as possible and don't worry about the length of your response as long as you think the info could be pertinent to the issue.

TANSTAAFB said:

What are your sanitization procedures? What do you use, how do you use it, etc.

Most importantly, what is your bottle prep procedure? It sounds like it is fine in the fermenter but turning in the bottle. Where do you get your bottles, how do you wash them, how do you sanitize them, what is your bottling procedure?

Can you describe what you are tasting with any greater detail than sour? I don't like sour beers at all but love the bitter. I get a lot of people who try bitter beer that describe it as sour.

Finally, how long are you leaving beers in the primary (or primary to secondary if applicable)? And what is your transfer/ priming procedure?

More info will help diagnosis so please be as specific as possible and don't worry about the length of your response as long as you think the info could be pertinent to the issue.

Click to expand...

I don't think it's the bottles, since the California common hasn't been bottled yet. It's still sitting in the carboy.

I'm at work now, so I'll have to wait until later to put together more info for you guys.

Ive had two out of three beers turn sour, the one that didnt was a stout. I still havent figured out what exactly it is, a lot of the more experienced people on here are saying an infection, which is totally plausible, although I have seen no visible signs of an infection an either bad batch.

My first one came out a little sour. One of my freinds really liked it though so I let him drink it all. Check your water. Are you using your tap or bottled. Since my first beer I started using campden tablets to remove the chlorine/chloramine as it can impart some weird flavors. They are cheap, $1.00 for like 20. My beer is better, but I don't know if it was the kit or water or infection (I never had any signs of one). And I am only on batch number 2 so.....Good luck.

captainL said:

My first one came out a little sour. One of my freinds really liked it though so I let him drink it all. Check your water. Are you using your tap or bottled. Since my first beer I started using campden tablets to remove the chlorine/chloramine as it can impart some weird flavors. They are cheap, $1.00 for like 20. My beer is better, but I don't know if it was the kit or water or infection (I never had any signs of one). And I am only on batch number 2 so.....Good luck.

Click to expand...

We've been using the big 2.5 gallon jugs of water you can buy at the grocery store.

The beers aren't bad, and are definitely drinkable. I'm just disappointed that the California common has turned sour after tasting so good before.

I have not seen anyone in this forum saying that they could drink their infected beer, so I don't think you have one.

I've drank a beer that was unintentionally soured. not my choice, but not bad, none the less. A bit tart on the palette, but certainly not undrinkable.

OP: sour is typically lacto. do you notice any white, chalky layers atop your beers?

Find a brew club. Let someone there taste your beer.

If it is truly getting soured, it's probably an infection. My beers are excellent after 3 weeks in bottle. No sour.

Infections are bacterial and indicate something is not getting sanitized. If you don't use starsan, get it.

passedpawn said:

Find a brew club. Let someone there taste your beer.

If it is truly getting soured, it's probably an infection. My beers are excellent after 3 weeks in bottle. No sour.

Infections are bacterial and indicate something is not getting sanitized. If you don't use starsan, get it.

Click to expand...

+1 to get someone from a homebrew club tasting you beer

i discovered a taste like this my first brew i just did. a basic ale light dme some crystal 20 and willamette hops. only did a 20 min boil.one gallon batch.thougt 1 gallon was wise because of costs and didnt want 50 bottles of suck.plus i like variety and can make new batches every couple of weeks.
only primaried for 9 days then bottled without knowing what the origional gravity was.Big mistake. but after 2 weeks chilled and tested my yeasty lastly botteled beer and opened looked and poured good but couldnt get away from that fruity appelly taste kinda sweet and faintly sour but definatelly fruit.could this just be from my hops i did add some at the last few minutes.is it possible its from the hops? my primary bucket smells strongly of fruit too.normal?

jonmohno said:

i discovered a taste like this my first brew i just did. a basic ale light dme some crystal 20 and willamette hops. only did a 20 min boil.one gallon batch.thougt 1 gallon was wise because of costs and didnt want 50 bottles of suck.plus i like variety and can make new batches every couple of weeks.
only primaried for 9 days then bottled without knowing what the origional gravity was.Big mistake. but after 2 weeks chilled and tested my yeasty lastly botteled beer and opened looked and poured good but couldnt get away from that fruity appelly taste kinda sweet and faintly sour but definatelly fruit.could this just be from my hops i did add some at the last few minutes.is it possible its from the hops? my primary bucket smells strongly of fruit too.normal?

Click to expand...

Sounds like your beer is still green (or bottled too soon)

Let it sit for a while then try it later

yeah hope they dont blow.it was pretty much the estimated ending gravity on a brew calculator so i think im good so im going with your and Revvy's advice after digging through other post about this taste(people saying its an infection} im going with 4 weeks from start to finish from now on. thanks!

I'm curious about your sanitation procedures when sampling. To me, this is the diciest part and it sounds like you've done a lot of it.

That said, I think you just give it more time. Time heals most everything.

Can you go through your brewing procedures?

What are your pitching and fermentation temps.?

Wow, ok. Tons of responses since I was on here last time. We just bottled the California Common yesterday, and it definitely has a sour twang to it. It's less sour than the stout is/was, but there's a sourness there. I tried to get a consensus on the type of sour flavor, but no one was really sure.

That said, I found a nearby homebrew club that meets twice a month. I'll drop by their next meeting with a beer to get some opinions.

BigTexun said:

I'm curious about your sanitation procedures when sampling. To me, this is the diciest part and it sounds like you've done a lot of it.

That said, I think you just give it more time. Time heals most everything.

Click to expand...

I'm suspecting sampling as the culprit here too. The California Common tasted fine in the carboy until the last couple days when I started sampling more to check how close we were to the final gravity.

I was using sodium metabisulfite powder to sanitize my racking cane for drawing samples, but we picked up a bottle of StarSan yesterday after seeing so many people recommend it.