Last 3 beers, same taste.. BAD!

I don't quite get it. I have brewed 5 beers now. The first two were absolutely terrific, I was sad to see them go. The last 3? Awful. There was an English Red, a West Coast Pale Ale, and a Pumpkin Ale.

The problem here is they all tasted exactly the same. Some kind of sour thing, can't really explain it. We use store bought spring water so that shouldn't be the issue. We just switched to a stainless stock pot, with similar results. We have used the standard starter kit (plastic buckets) all five times so we are wondering if we should get a glass carboy next. Should we really have only expected to get two good brews out of that plastic brew kit though?

I'm looking for tips. Any would be appreciated!

what kind of sanitizer and what process do you use?

One Step no rinse cleanser powder. What do you mean by process?

What kind of sanitizing process do you use?

Um, well the first 4 beers (2 of which sucked) we would soak the equipment in the one step and sponge clean fermenter and bottling bucket with the one step. As for the bottles, they were one by one submerged in the one step, let stand for a minute or two then dumped and put aside.

With the last beer, everything stayed the same but the bottles were run through the dishwasher with sanitizer and a little detergent in the detergent spot. I realize now that if you are going to use a dishwasher, you don't use any kind of soap or cleaner but that doesn't explain the two previous failures.

By the way, this Pumpkin Ale was fermented for a week, bottled, and it has been 2.5 weeks since the bottling.

i'd recommend you lose the sponge, those things are bacteria magnets. You may wanna try star-san as well. It sounds like using sanitizer in the dw maybe a bad idea too, you're prob just wasting it as you have no way to measure a proper ratio. And adding soap is a no-no.
And one week is awfully short to go right to the bottle...don't think thats your prob tho

So you think the sponge is the only thing that affected the 2 beers before we started using the dishwasher?

you might have residual bacteria on your plastic somewhere. Do you thoroughly sanitize your lid?

I would try using star san, without the sponge, and paying attention to completely sanitize everything (possibly overnight). If that doesn't work, you might have to toss the bucket and get a new one. I've heard of people having nicked, or pitted buckets where bacteria reside and are difficult to remove.

but yeah, sourness is a good sign of infection - thats why we are asking about sanitizing materials and process.

Are you pitching to your wort when it is cool enough? And, what is the temperature of your fermenting area. Near a furnace that is now kicking in for the winter and was not during your first two brews?

One step is not a sanitizer, starsan or iodophor are good. Leave your brews in primary for 2-3 weeks. (Unless you brew a special red or IPA with a ton of hops and a very high floculating yeast at a higher temperature, and cold crash in secondary, then you COULD get away with 1 week fermentation)

OneStep got me at first, too. It "says" it's a sanitizer as well as a cleaner. I call bull****. It's expensive up front, but like COLO said, buy a small bottle of Star-San. Mix a very small amount with a quart of water and put it in a good quality spray bottle. Spray the mixture on frickin' everything which comes within 30' of the kettle and bucket! Make sure that you're sanitizing the insides of tubing, as well as racking canes, auto-siphons, and the bottling bucket valve.

I had a very similar experience that turned out to be an infection. Neither One Step nor StarSan could completely sterilize my plastic equipment. Throw out all the plastic on your cold side - not just buckets, but racking equipment and tubing too. You can try boiling the small bits like airlocks, but they may melt. It's no fun, but replacing your fermenting equipment should cost less than one ruined batch of beer.