Hmmm. What happened here?

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CEMaine

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Location
Cape Elizabeth, Maine
I brewed an English Ale with a friend about 10 days ago. We racked to secondary last night and the beer has a mildly sour aroma and taste. Recipe:
3 lbs Muntons Amber LME
1 lb Muntons Amber DME
1 lb Crystal Malt 40L
.5 oz Styrian Goldings (60)
.5 oz Styrian Goldings (15)
.5 oz Willamette (5)
2 pkg Wyeast #1187, Ringwood yeast

First pitch did not take off so we re-pitched 2 days later. Fermented at around 63 to 65 F. I noted when removing the lid that it did not seem to be sealed well, just kind of popped off. I am wondering if I got some contamination from a poor seal.
I welcome any thoughts from the group.
 
It is unlikely your lid's seal had anything to do with it.

For one thing, I've been brewing with "open" fermentation for years. My primary consists of an Ale Pail with a sheet of clear Plexiglas just laid over the mouth of the bucket. I have never - not once - experienced an infection with this method.

For another, you had a 48-hour lag time. It is possible that your wort picked up an infection in that time, before the Ringwood had a chance to get moving.

But chances are you're not infected at all. Chances are it's just young, green beer. Give it a couple of weeks to clarify and age and sample it again.

Bob
 
The last time I used ringwood yeast when it was young it tasted that way as well. give it some time. Ringwood yeast is the strangest yeast Ive used so far
 
Give it some time... :)

I had two batches that I thought were sour. One of them I was almost positive of. I was ready to boil or get rid of a lot of my siphoning equipment.

On the advice of this forum I kept them and eventually kegged them. They both turned out great. Pale Ale was gone w/in 2 weeks of kegging it and I still have a little Kolsch left.
 
Leave it!

Ringwood is a pretty oddball yeast, I wouldn't judge anything brewed with it this early.
 
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