pumpkin beer has a sour taste ?

put my pumpkin beer into a keg today and tasted the hydrometer reading sample
it was sour as can be. not sure what happened never seen anything growing or floating on the to top like an infection but something went wrong some were.
It did have a good fg 1.010 going to let it carb up and see what happens I guess.

Recipe? Including yeast.

Northerner brewer all grain with 3 cans of pumpkin and washed wyeast 1056 american ale. table spoon of pumpkin pie spice added to secondary.
still got 4 or 5 gars of the washed yeast might open one of them and see what it smells like but don't think that is were it is from. also did a yeast starter on my stir plate.

May just be green beer. Sour would imply infection but I'd give it a few weeks before deciding. Good luck!

It must be the beer gods punishing you for defiling beer with pumpkin and spices

In all seriousness give it a week and see if it changes any. Spices can do weird things. I would be concerned about that harvested yeast though.

i took one of the other jars of yeast and it smelled and tasted fine

Young beer with spices, I think that's more likely the culprit.

I did an imperial pumpkin, at a month it was harsh and horrible. I bottled it, and imagine with another month it'll be the best beer ever.

How sour is it? I mean it could be a blessing in disguise. A sour pumpkin ale would be a keeper in my book.

Cyclman said:

I did an imperial pumpkin, at a month it was harsh and horrible. I bottled it, and imagine with another month it'll be the best beer ever.

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Have you had past experience that would support this line of thinking? I sure haven't. If it tastes horrible at a month, it continues to taste horrible.

it was pretty sour. just going to wait 2 weeks and see how it is after its carbed up good.

TyTanium said:

Have you had past experience that would support this line of thinking? I sure haven't. If it tastes horrible at a month, it continues to taste horrible.

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I have brewed a couple of "big" beers that required longer ageing to balance out- a Dubbel and a Quad.

Cyclman said:

I have brewed a couple of "big" beers that required longer ageing to balance out- a Dubbel and a Quad.

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Well sure, balance out is one thing. But harsh & horrible to best beer ever? Seems like a stretch. Or hyperbole.

well still has a sour smell to it. the one thing I can say is it doesn't taste as bad as it smells. I think this will be my first and last pumpkin beer I make.

jshake said:

well still has a sour smell to it. the one thing I can say is it doesn't taste as bad as it smells. I think this will be my first and last pumpkin beer I make.

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If the sour is due to infection then you will eventually run out of beers to brew if you opt not to brew one type because of said infection. Find out the source of the infection, if possible, and brew again. I will put good money on the fact that you brewing a pumpkin beer is not the reason you got the infection. It could have happened to any beer, in other words.

took some to a meeting of a brew club i'm in they didn't think it was an infection but maybe something with the pumpkin pie spice in it. all in all just not a beer style i really like it sounded good but you just don't know until you try.

I just brewed a pumpkin beer 5 weeks ago and became sour and even more so after a month of aging. Its tasting like more of a cider now.
So I did a 2nd batch, made sure everything the beer touched was sanitary. Tasted great in primary, wife even approved of the flavor.
Put it in 2nd, 1 week after primary, with some roasted pumpkin (roasted for 1.5hrs at 300).
2 days later started to taste sour again.

I dont know whats going on or why this is happening.


10llb 2-row
2.5lb Munich
1lb Extra Special
1lb Crystal
1lb Rice Hulls
0.5 Pumpkin seeds (roasted and green)

4lb pumpkin
1 tsp pumpkin spice

1968 English ESB WYEAST

what temp is the secondary at? if it's in the 80's or higher it's possible you are getting a lactobacillus infection...which makes cidery mouth puckering sour flavors. It happens fast and creates a thin white pelliclie. How good did you scrub your secondary carboy and racking tools?