Sour smell of two AG pale ale brews?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ReeseAllen

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2009
Messages
368
Reaction score
5
Location
Seattle
I've just done my first two AG brews last weekend. On Friday I brewed EdWort's Haus Pale ale, and on Sunday, Yooper's Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA. I'd consider both brew days successful, though not without hiccups -- Friday I was up til 3 AM. I nailed the SGs I was aiming for and was careful about sanitation. Went through a full spray bottle of star-san both times. Both fermentations took off within 24 hours and built up thick, normal-looking krausens with lots of activity visible in the carboys.

Popping off the airlocks briefly to take a whiff, I smell a very distinct sourness in both. I've done two extract brews a few weeks ago (generic Red Ale and IPA recipes from my LHBS) and neither smelled sour during fermentation.

Is this sour smell fairly ordinary for an AG pale ale? It's not overpowering and nauseating, but it's definitely strongly competing with the yeasty, malty smell I was expecting. I'm guessing it's a not a big deal, but having some reassurance from the HBT community would calm my nerves a bit. I put a ton of effort into these brews and would hate to see them go bad.
 
The character of all brews will change greatly from primary to bottle to palate. Way tooearly to worry! Good job on the sanitation and quick fermentation. When both those things happen you're pretty much golden. Let your buckets be while you get your extracts into bottles and find some nice brews to enjoy in the meantime. Looks like you have an excellent pipeline built up from the get go. Awesome.
 
Sipping on my Red Ale right now. I really ought to let it sit another couple weeks in the bottles (it's 2 weeks bottled now) but I can't resist :)
 
Nothing wrong with that! That will stop if you brew as much as you have this month it seems. I remember when I first started out, drinking my last bottle of whatever and thinking "damn, this is just starting to get really good". lol
 
Back
Top