Beer Smells Like Rotten Fruit

So I just racked to secondary a couple of days ago. When I opened my primary bucket, the wort smelled off. Like rotten fruit! There was a heavy foam on the top, but that is not abnormal. I tasted the wort it tasted like spoiled sweet tea (if you've ever had that you know what I am talking about).

I have let it sit a few days, but I could smell it coming through the air lock. I opened it up today and it smelled really strong- like rotten fruit. I tasted it again, and it was the same spoiled juice spoiled sweet tea taste.

I have never had infected beer. It doesn't look infected. Does anyone know what could be going on? Should I go ahead and throw this brew out and start over?

Let's make sure we are on the same page and assume that it was beer, not wort, in the primary bucket. Did you take a hydrometer reading when you transferred? And how long had the beer been in the primary?
Next, I would like to ask what your motivation was for moving a beer that still has kraeusen on top to a secondary fermentor. Doing this has a tendency to cause off-flavors such as diacetyl and acetaldehyde, and cause the beer to underattenuate.

Finally, what was the recipe (including yeast), water source, sanitation method, pitching rate, pitching temperature, aeration method/time, and fermentation temperature? Without this information, we can't do better than guess at what might be affecting your beer.

This doesn't answer your question, like our magical-logic suggests we need much more information, but you can always read up on sours and pretend that's what you intended to make!

As previously mentioned, lots of factors can cause this.

I brewed a Belgian Abbey last year that smelled exactly like rotting fruit when it was very young. After it grew up for a couple of months, it tasted fantastic. The rotting fruit smell was replaced with dark fruit and caramel. Again, this was with a Belgian ale yeast, so if you weren't using a yeast that produces lots of esters, then there may be something else going on.

More details:

Recipe:
6 lb gold lme
3 lb gold dme
.5 Crystal
.5 Cara-Pils
2 oz Amarillo
1 oz Cascade
White Labs California Ale Yeast (liquid vial)

OG was 1.050. I did not take a reading when racking to secondary.

I used normal sanitation methods - I can't imagine anything went wrong there.

I used my own well water as the water source. I always do this. I live in the mountains of NC and my water quality is great. Never had any other issues. This is about my 6th or 7th batch.

I transferred to secondary for a couple of reasons- and I admit it may have been a rookie mistake. First, the brew had been in the primary for about 12 days. There was no action in the air lock. So I thought it was a safe move. Secondly, because of this strange smell and flavor, I felt that maybe I needed to go ahead and get it off the trub so it could begin to clarify and maybe clear out of this funk it was in. Again, may have been a mistake.

What was the temperature at which your beer fermented?

KegOutlet said:

What was the temperature at which your beer fermented?

Click to expand...

70-72 degrees

You said it tasted like spoiled sweet tea. As a fellow Carolinian and native Southerner I am quite familiar with that particular flavor. In sweet tea, it's caused by oxidation but I don't think that's very likely as the cause of your flavor. Could be an infection. I'd let it ride a couple weeks and retry it. Some infected beers turn out pretty good. No matter what it is, you can't do anything about it now.

So the airlock on the secondary has been dead for a few days. Should I just leave the brew in there for a few more weeks? Or is whatever was going to happen already happened?

I let my ales sit in the secondary at least a week and a half. If there are any off flavors, longer. Time tends to cure many things. I made a small porter last year off of a dual stout brew my buddy and I had. The thing tasted pretty damned awful after primary and some time on a secondary. I had no use for the carboy it was in at the time, so I let it sit for 8 months. It aged beautifully.

If yours is no good, a little time might smooth out the wrinkles.

Okay! Soooo, I'm almost at about 10 days in the secondary. The brew is starting to clear up and is smelling great. I took a little taste test yesterday and it is really amazing. I just hope I can duplicate it in the future. At any rate I have an extremely naive rookie question:

I have never let a beer sit this long before bottling. When I decide to bottle, should I use more priming sugar than normal since the yeast has been sitting so long, or does it matter? Also, can it sit too long and not be able to be reactivated with priming sugar?

Use the normal amount of priming sugar. There should still be plenty of yeast in suspension to carb it up.

I have heard of needing to repitch yeast if the beer has been sitting for a REALLY long time (several months or more). But if your beer has been sitting for less then 2 or 3 months you should be fine.