My first brew tastes a little sour! :(

I am brewing an IPA from brewers best kit. I have been carbonating in bottle for about ten days and I couldn't wait to try so I tried one. It tastes a little sour but not nearly as sour as a lambic... If i let carbonate longer, can/will the taste improve?... I have been reading that carbonation may take up to three weeks?? any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan Foxwell

How long was it in primary??

I usually wait until at least two (full) weeks before testing a bottle that's carbonating... Giving it more time will [typically] help the brew get better... It also helps if you gave the brew long enough in primary, and practiced proper sanitation during the brewing (and every time you came near the fermenting wort)...

It was in primary for about 5 days in plastic carboy, then i transferred to glass carboy for another 12 days...it has only been carbonating 10 days

I would give it another 2 or 3 weeks. Try one bottle each week. You'll taste it getting close to prime, then at prime flavor time and then as the hop profile starts to fade. I've brewed a good number of quite big IPA's and I usually leave them in the primary for a week or two (depending on my schedule) and then dry hop in the secondary for another 7-10 days. Depending on the batch, it's usually best around weeks three to five.

Ditch the primary/secondary when just fermenting. Give it at least 2 weeks in primary, for light brews. Higher OG brews benefit from longer primaries (3-4 weeks)... General wisdom is to plan on a 2-4 week fermentation cycle, all of it in primary.

Racking to secondary adds/increases the risk of contamination. Plus, getting it off the yeast cake is a bad idea after such a short amount of time. The yeast will actually clean up after themselves BETTER if you leave it in primary.

I'm going with 3-4 week fermentation times right now, on my lighter brews (for me, that's under ~1.070 OG)... Bigger brews need more time, 1-2 months often giving a better brew.

Personally, I really hate using the buckets to ferment in. They are a pain in the a$$ to open/close for one thing. For another, they take up as much, if not more, space than a carboy... You cannot tell what the wort is doing inside the bucket either, so you have no idea when the lag phase has ended.

I've used 5 gallon carboys to ferment in (primary)... With the Better Bottle ones, you just use a blow-off tube fit into the bung. For the glass ones, you can get a blow off tube that will fit into the opening (a wider diameter tube). Typically, you only need to use the tubes (for beer) for the first few days. After that, you can install the airlock and let it ride out the remaining time.

I would wait on tasting the brew until the full 3 weeks is up, then see what it's like. Give it some more time if you need to, in order to offset the sour. Of course, without knowing the recipe, you could just be tasting the hops you added for flavor/aroma...

thanks for the advice guys! the recipe for the IPA is:

It was a pre-packaged kit from BrewersBest. Extract brew

Fermentables
6.6 lbs. Light LME
1 lb Golden DME
Specialty grains
1 lb. caramel 40L
8 oz victory
Hops
3.5 oz bittering
1 oz aroma
Yeast
1 Sachet

I wish I had saved the bags of hop pellets, not sure what they were, the yeast was a powder. I also added some kind of packaged sugar water that i boiled down before adding.

With BrewersWorst documentation, and since you didn't think to save the hop packets (or write down what they were) it's almost impossible to say if you're just tasting the hops or not.

I would highly suggest NOT using another of those kits again (ever)... The LHBS I visit makes their own kits, with really detailed ingredient listings. That way you can always refer back to the sheet to see what went into it. They alter it if they are substituting a different hop (so you don't need to) and such. My first three brews were kits from them (modified all of them) and I still have the sheets.

Give the brew some more time in bottles and see if that helps... Each week, chill down one bottle, then pop it open and try it... Once you hit the point where it's getting good, you'll be able to enjoy it more...