First time brewing, my beer came out sour.

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Chaddyb

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My first time brewing, with all new everything, after a week and a half in the bottles, the bee r tastes sour. It's an amber ale extract kit, with dry yeast. It spent a week in primary, a week in secondary, then to bottles. I used the one step solution that came with the kit for the primary, then star san for everything else. I saw no visual signs of anything funny, and when I bottled it the taste was good, but flat. Now after a week and a half I have an overpowering sour taste. Bottles have been sitting in my basement around 64 degrees.Do I just need more time, or is the beer infected?
 
Yeah, I might try doing a ph test, dumb ?, but what should the ph be at?

Also, should I give the bottles a little shake to stir up the yeast, or just leave em be?
 
"Infected" how about "Perfected", I love sour beers, it might be a great sour beer.

If you want to bring your bottle to Barley Johns on NOV 6th. There will be all kinds of BJCP memebers who will be glad to taste and tell you what went wrong. You would also be able to find out about the mnbrewers.org club. I will bring a good sour beer so you know what it's suppose to taste like.

Teach a friend to brew day:
When: Sat, November 6, 10am – 2pm
Where: Barley John's, New Brighton, MN
Description 781 Old Highway 8, N. Brighton. Off 35W go west on County Road D, 1/2 mile.
651-636-4670.
 
Yeah, I might try doing a ph test, dumb ?, but what should the ph be at?

Also, should I give the bottles a little shake to stir up the yeast, or just leave em be?

ph should be somewhere near 4.25 - 5 range I would guess. but if you are tasting sour, I am guessing you may be under 4.

I say just leave the bottles be too.
 
I had the same thing happen on my first beer, also an Amber Ale. Ive let it sit for more than 6 months and now its one of the best beers I have made. Probably dont have to let it sit that long, but if you can keep it in a dark place for a while I think you will be impressed with the outcome.
 
What kind of hops? I find columbus (aka tomahawk) to bring an unpleasant sourness to the party... but others will surely disagree. I don't like IPAs.

Try another bottle in a week and if it is more sour, then you might have a problem. If it the same sour (or possibly less), then you're (obviously) fine.
 
SOme folks, when sampling beers to soon say the same thing. What is often actually happening is not that the beer is sour, but that the co2, which isn't in solution yet, is giving the appearance of a sour taste or smell. That is often why the folks above have reported coming back to the beer in a few weeks/months it is fine.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

And still needed a few months more to condition.

Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience." ;)
 
I had the same thing happen on my first beer, also an Amber Ale. Ive let it sit for more than 6 months and now its one of the best beers I have made. Probably dont have to let it sit that long, but if you can keep it in a dark place for a while I think you will be impressed with the outcome.

It's difficult to be patient and leave the brew (you spent hours sweating over) to age, at least it is for me. My first brew is still sitting in the dark after being in the bottles for 4 weeks and it's hard to resist the temptation to drink it. I wonder if it would be appropriate to say that nothing good happens fast when it comes to home brewing?
 
"Infected" how about "Perfected", I love sour beers, it might be a great sour beer.

If you want to bring your bottle to Barley Johns on NOV 6th. There will be all kinds of BJCP memebers who will be glad to taste and tell you what went wrong. You would also be able to find out about the mnbrewers.org club. I will bring a good sour beer so you know what it's suppose to taste like.

Teach a friend to brew day:
When: Sat, November 6, 10am – 2pm
Where: Barley John's, New Brighton, MN
Description 781 Old Highway 8, N. Brighton. Off 35W go west on County Road D, 1/2 mile.
651-636-4670.


If I can make it out there I will certainly try too, my wife is pregnant, and gonna pop somwhere around then, so I really cant plan on anything. Certainly interested in learning about mnbrewers.org though.

New bottles or old bottles ?

48 brand new ones, two old ones.

ph should be somewhere near 4.25 - 5 range I would guess. but if you are tasting sour, I am guessing you may be under 4.

I say just leave the bottles be too.

Thanks for the info. :mug:

What kind of hops? I find columbus (aka tomahawk) to bring an unpleasant sourness to the party... but others will surely disagree. I don't like IPAs.

Try another bottle in a week and if it is more sour, then you might have a problem. If it the same sour (or possibly less), then you're (obviously) fine.

Hallertau, and fuggles


SOme folks, when sampling beers to soon say the same thing. What is often actually happening is not that the beer is sour, but that the co2, which isn't in solution yet, is giving the appearance of a sour taste or smell. That is often why the folks above have reported coming back to the beer in a few weeks/months it is fine.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

And still needed a few months more to condition.

Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience." ;)

Thanks for all the great info, Ive read some of your posts on here, and you seem to be a wealth of information. :)
 
Let them age properly. Take this time to instead buy GOOD commercial beer to sample and make up your mind about your next brew.

You're planning another one, right :D
 
Ecellent point about CO2 not in solution. CO2 is "sour". If you get a goot nose full before taking a sip, it is definitely going to impart something strong.

Ever blow a keg, open it up to rinse it out, and accidentally take a whiff of 5 gallons of spent serving pressure? It's enough to burn your nose hairs off.
 

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