Funny taste

Good afternoon,

I have just finishing two separate brews, an american amber ale, and a red-hook IPA both supplied from northern brewer.
I seem to have a problem: a sourish finishing taste. its drinkable but does not taste good.

I noticed it with the American Ale first. I finished the fermenting and could smell something strange, almost yeast like or something. After bottling it smells the same and taste just like it smells: funny.
I just finished bottling the IPA and noticed the exact same smell.
I have been very good about sanitization, and following directions. Maybe to cold of a fermenting temp?
here are the directions for the american ale
http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/AmericanAmber.pdf

cheers,
CB

connorbrown6 said:

Good afternoon,

I have just finishing two separate brews, an american amber ale, and a red-hook IPA both supplied from northern brewer.
I seem to have a problem: a sourish finishing taste. its drinkable but does not taste good.

I noticed it with the American Ale first. I finished the fermenting and could smell something strange, almost yeast like or something. After bottling it smells the same and taste just like it smells: funny.
I just finished bottling the IPA and noticed the exact same smell.
I have been very good about sanitization, and following directions. Maybe to cold of a fermenting temp?
here are the directions for the american ale
http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/AmericanAmber.pdf

cheers,
CB

Click to expand...

It's almost impossible to get too cold of a fermentation temperature, honestly. What temperature were you fermenting it at?

Did you sample the beer soon after bottling or has it bottle conditioned a few weeks already?

Brent

Also have you noticed if the taste gets worse, stays the same, or better with time (weeks).

Both were fermenting in my house at 65-70 degrees for a month (2 weeks in seperate carboys each). the beer tastes the same 5 weeks after botteling as it did two weeks after botteling.

You may just want to give them more time... One of my first stouts had a 'funny flavor' that went away after a couple of months and now is great!

The only problem is that unless you had your carboys in a water bath or swamp cooler, your ambient temps might have been 65-70 but your fementation temps might've been something like 70-75... Fermentation is exothermic and can generate alot of heat above ambient. This is why I use a swamp cooler (tub with water and frozen water bottles) and why alot of people use ferm chambers.

If the sourness increases and starts to taste like vinegar it might've been an infection... but it seems like you might've had some off flavors from elevated fermentation temps... and as Yoop says, It's almost impossible to ferment at too low of a temp. Most ale yeast, can do the job at a range of temperatures 60-80 degrees F, but many of them prefer and don't get stressed at lower temperatures (lower 60s). You may have underpitched too, did you use liquid or dry yeast?