Thanks for the help and encouragement. The recipe was 6 lbs. of Gold liquid malt extract, 3.3 lbs of Amber liquid malt extract, 4 oz. of Crystal 50-60L, 1 oz. bittering hops, 2 oz. Amarillo, 2 oz. Citra, 1 oz. Ahtanum hops. The boil was an hour long after a twenty minute steep, and I used spring water for both the boil (3 gal) and the top-off water. To cool the wort I used an ice bath and stirring gently with a sanitized spoon; this got it down in 23 minutes.
After this, I pitched my yeast, and let the beer sit in primary for 10 days, then another 8 days of dry hopping. I took a reading before dry hopping and it was at 1.02, but I have to admit I didn't take a reading again at bottling time. I was paranoid about increasing my chance of infection and figured with 18 days and a medium flocc yeast like S-05 it would be done.
Once in bottles, unlike my previous milk stout, the beer actually seemed to start to carbonate nicely. Pretty quickly actually.. at 5 days or so it seemed just fine to me, but wasn't pouring with a big head unless I poured aggressively. At this point, the beer tasted very good but had had a hint of a smell and flavor I can only describe as musty. A couple days later, this was gone and the beer was just purely delicious. On Thursday, I still didn't detect anything was amiss with the beer. Last night, poured one and took a sip, and knew immediately something was wrong. The beer has no discernible flavors except for unpleasant acidity, and a frothy mouth feel.
Like I said, you described some pretty strict sanitary practices, so my guess is your beers are not infected. After reading this latest post, I saw a few things are suspect. So, here are some of my thoughts (not brief... sorry):
1. At 9.3 lbs of LME (highly fermentable) and only 4 oz (.25 lbs) of Crystal malt (no diastatic power/not fermentable), you're not going to get very much sweetness in the final product... at all. Particularly for an IPA, even if from a kit, I like to balance the hoppiness with a good dose of malt-sweetness; I usually shoot for between 1 to 2 lbs of Crystal malt per 5 gallon batch. A part of this also has to do with the type of yeast you're using... I believe the Ferocious IPA kit comes with WLP007 (Dry English), a highly attenuative yeast (one of my house strains!) that will chew right through all that DME.
First Suggestion: use more specialty/Crystal malt.
2. You never included the temp at which you let the ale ferment. My assumption is, as a newer brewer (so rad), you let it sit in a dark closet, which works great! Another assumption I'll make is that you don't keep your home thermostat set to 78F
. If this is true and your home stays around 68F (where your thermostat is), than your closet is probably closer to 65F. If you did, in fact, use WLP007, this is actually the temp I prefer to ferment at... but I let it sit in primary for 3 to 4 weeks to really ferment out (you let it sit for 18 days total, no?). If you want to drink the beer sooner, you can always raise the temp of the beer after a week or so to between 68F and 72F, which will allow the yeast to work a tad harder... and also produce some esters (which many tend to appreciate).
Second Suggestion: monitor fermentation temps a tad closer.
3. As far as the beer being overcarbonated... if my last assumption is true (that your fermentation temp was a tad on the low end), then it's likely your yeast just hadn't finished working yet. This can be okay, if you cold crash the beer a day or so before bottling. If not, you risk bottling still-fermenting beer, which could create a number of issues, including over-carbonation, changing flavor... or bottle bombs. Next time you brew, if you're pleased with the FG and taste, throw your fermenter in the garage (since it's Winter) the night before you bottle. This will cause the yeast to go dormant and fall out of suspension (don't worry, there will more than enough left to carbonate your beer). It will also help to clarify your beer, as long as you don't agitate too much prior to or during bottling. I'm always a tad surprised when folks get fully carbonated beer in less than 2 weeks; I might be wrong, but that would indicate to me there was still too much yeast left in suspension. The "sour" taste you refer to is most likely carbonic acid, something that significantly diminishes over time and is a natural product of the carbonation process. I won't usually crack open a bottled beer for at least 3 weeks post-bottling.
Third Suggestion: cold crash prior to bottling and give it enough time to bottle condition.
4. DON'T STOP BREWING! Take each one of your batches as a lesson and have fun! I only brewed 2 kit batches before I started designing my own beers, mainly because I wasn't all that impressed with the kits. Look up some clone recipes, put your spin on them, and enjoy the rewards of your labor.
Fourth Suggestion: HAVE FUN!
I'm gonna beat a dead horse here and say your beers still to young to be thinking its infected. I'm impatient and always try a bottle or two before the beers conditioned, and seldom am I impressed with what I'm drinking.... In fact, when I had less brewing under my belt, tasting beer after a week or two in bottles made me worry about infection. Green beer can taste downright bad.... Tart, acidic (carbonic acid), the yeast in suspension have a bite that over shadows hop and other flavors. Sounds like that's what you're experiencing. 
