it still tastes bad

Problem. As I said, at bottling the beer tasted good, very good. Three days later was good, and for the next few weeks great. It mellowed and was great. I used cascade hops and the aroma was great and strong, the after bit very nice like a smooth aromatic IPA. I mean other than one particular beer at a brew pub in Atlanta (320), this was the best beer I’d ever tasted. I was so pleased to really be brewing good beer.
By week four it tastes like crap. It tastes like all the other beers I’ve made: sour, no aroma, no character, just bad. All with different recipes and ingredients, yet all had the same bad after taste and smell. This batch I had “fixed” with better water. Open a bottle and the Cascade hops just popped out into the room. It was just a great ale. Now after a few weeks, about 4, in bottles it tastes like crap. Any ideas? After a year is it just time to give up? Ageing temperature? Bacteria? I can’t tell you how frustrating and expensive this is.

What kind of bottles are you using? Glass or plastic? If they're plastic, the beer won't age very well in them. How are you storing the bottles? Sunlight is bad for beer.

bottles are glass with caps, some are old Grolsh, they bad taste is to both. All bottels are dark green or browm and in a styraphome cooler with lid alwasy on.

You have half your problem lick, and all for a good beer. I found in the past that simple is most often right.I make beer, wine, cider, and do my canning of meats and vegys, and clean is major killer when one fails. My simple idea. You have a mineral residue left over from sanitizing. In earlier posts you said Lime and salt; both will leave a residue from your local filtered water,later spoiling your brew. Leaves a bad after taste. My simple idea would be to take the local filtered (RO) water and boil the heck out of it to distill the minerals out before useing it to sanitize. Use the imported mountain water for brewing and get a good cooler. Styraphome has little R factor for keeping things at an even temp. Good luck .

what is your bottling process? Now it sounds like you possibly have an oxidation issue. Is the "sour" flavor sort if like a rusty pallor that flattens the whole taste? Or do you mean sour like a lemon? Or like a pickle?

ksbrain said:

what is your bottling process? Now it sounds like you possibly have an oxidation issue. Is the "sour" flavor sort if like a rusty pallor that flattens the whole taste? Or do you mean sour like a lemon? Or like a pickle?

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hard to say, none of the above. astrigent maybe the best discription, like licking a tea bag? Not rust

BOBrob said:

You have half your problem lick, and all for a good beer. I found in the past that simple is most often right.I make beer, wine, cider, and do my canning of meats and vegys, and clean is major killer when one fails. My simple idea. You have a mineral residue left over from sanitizing. In earlier posts you said Lime and salt; both will leave a residue from your local filtered water,later spoiling your brew. Leaves a bad after taste. My simple idea would be to take the local filtered (RO) water and boil the heck out of it to distill the minerals out before useing it to sanitize. Use the imported mountain water for brewing and get a good cooler. Styraphome has little R factor for keeping things at an even temp. Good luck .

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I clean and sanatize with tap water, which I thnik does have a high lme content and likely hight clorine. I live on essentially a rock made of old coral. The local botteled and filtered drinking water, as well as the local OR water I had used to brew but this last two batches I used all imported mountain water. I

BOBrob said:

You have half your problem lick, and all for a good beer. I found in the past that simple is most often right.I make beer, wine, cider, and do my canning of meats and vegys, and clean is major killer when one fails. My simple idea. You have a mineral residue left over from sanitizing. In earlier posts you said Lime and salt; both will leave a residue from your local filtered water,later spoiling your brew. Leaves a bad after taste. My simple idea would be to take the local filtered (RO) water and boil the heck out of it to distill the minerals out before useing it to sanitize. Use the imported mountain water for brewing and get a good cooler. Styraphome has little R factor for keeping things at an even temp. Good luck .

Click to expand...

sorry I sent that by mistake. I use imported water to brew and thought I'd solved the problem. I use tap water to clean and sanatize whichI think is high in clorine and lime. Are you saying you think its the water I sanatize with and I should use filtered water for that? If so, why did the beer taste good for 10 days in the bottle?

ksbrain said:

what is your bottling process? Now it sounds like you possibly have an oxidation issue. Is the "sour" flavor sort if like a rusty pallor that flattens the whole taste? Or do you mean sour like a lemon? Or like a pickle?

Click to expand...

its possibly like a rusty flavor. Its still an issued 4 or 5 batches later. I brew a very good hoppy pale ale with a good aroma and drink a few for the first three weeks and then all of a sudden this crappy flat almost astringent taste shows up in all bottles. I didn't reply months ago as I had two batches that were clean, now this one is back to the same thing. The bad taste is consistent. Its not bottle to bottle but all go bad after a few weeks. Also, the flavor is the same no matter the receipe. I've used several different waters as well.

Are you getting the water out of your garden hose? (seriously) I remember reading a story/post about a guy who couldn't figure out where an astringent taste was coming from and it was because he was getting the water through a garden hose.

mooshimanx said:

Are you getting the water out of your garden hose? (seriously) I remember reading a story/post about a guy who couldn't figure out where an astringent taste was coming from and it was because he was getting the water through a garden hose.

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no

If the the beer, which was great at bottling and for 2 -3 weeks, then bad at week 3, is better, not great but better than week 3 at like week 5, what does that tell you about the cause of the problem?

if I am using stale adjunct grains, like I have them crushed and the stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator of at room temperture for 2 to 8 weeks, how might that negatively effect the taste and when would it be tasteable?

does using a plastic fermenting bucket as opposed to a carboy effect taste?