Why is my beer getting sour after a few weeks in the bottle?

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TampaBrewer1

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Hi,
I am fairly new to brewing. I had my first 2 batches go sour on me. I identified the problem (rinsing my sanitizer off with tap water from a contaminated tap), and corrected it. My 3rd batch was pretty freakin delicious (a chocolatey porter based on john palmers "port o palmer" recipe). I aged it in the bottle for 1 week and it was well carbonated, if not a little too carbonated. I refrigerated about half of them and they were all pretty awesome.
The other half I put in the fridge after 2-3 weeks of being in my luke warm closet and when I tried to drink them they had all soured...
This is kind of stressing me out. From what I have read, bottle-conditioned beer is supposed to age well. It was never above 70-75 degrees F in that closet. What the hell happened to my beautiful beer?
Please let me know if you have any suggestions or knowledge on the matter.. My fourth batch is just now done conditioning and I don't want to have to buy a whole refrigerator just to keep it good for more than a week or 2.
 
How did you correct your tap water issue? You are going to have to trouble shoot this because it definitely sounds like a contamination issue. How was it sour, like vinegar or more cardboard like or something else?
 
How did you correct your tap water issue? You are going to have to trouble shoot this because it definitely sounds like a contamination issue. How was it sour, like vinegar or more cardboard like or something else?

+1 ~ Tear it all apart down to the smallest piece (Everything!) and clean and Soak (Oxi-Clean) and then sanitize (Star-San?) ~ replace your hoses as well.

Two Friends had a similar issue w/their Beers brewed seperately, they shared a bottling bucket though (it was all the Gunk in the Bucket Threads!)
 
This is the situation. I've now been through this 4 or 5 times. I brew a batch and all goes well. I sample it at bottling and it tastes great, warm, flat but god taste and aroma. This time was a pale ale with mostly Cascade hops.
A week in the bottle its got a great head, good carbonation and tastes great.
Then after 20 days in the bottle it goes to crap. Slight aroma and its just off, like sour. It has a bitter, astringent taste. Like licking a tea bag. Some people say it tastes okay but it does not and just days earlier it was great, not okay.
I''m aging the bottles at about 70 degrees, maybe cooler.
So it seems all went well during brewing and bottling. It was good and went bad at about the time it should have aged to perfection.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
 
when was the last time you pulled the spigot totally out of your bottling bucket and cleaned it?

/\ /\ /\ /\

this+1

Thoroughly clean and sanitize the spigot also completely disassemble, clean and sanitize the tip of your bottling wand.
 
As already pointed out, more details will help. Check everything - including bottles and caps. How are you washing everything, is it getting a good hot water rinse before sanitizing...? If you lay your process out and check all your equipment you will find the problem.
 
Noob here... if it gets worse over time, are your caps sealed properly?

Probably. The bacteria (lacto or more likely pedio) and/or wild yeasts that are infecting his beer work slowly. Which is why you don't taste them at first, and why they are getting worse over time.

It's definitely a sanitation issue that you're having. Still waiting for more details as to your bottling day. But it sounds like the other guys in this thread have it figured out.
 
Another possibility is too much carbonation. When i over carb i find there is a bite to it. Try less priming sugar
 
An easy way to tell if its the bottling bucket is to prime a few bottles directly and fill them straight from the carboy. If they don't go sour and the same batch bottled from the bucket do, you'll know its the source of the problem.

on a completely different angle, what yeast are you using? Some of the british ones go a little weird when bottle conditioning (i'm looking at you wy1968!)
 
Probably. The bacteria (lacto or more likely pedio) and/or wild yeasts that are infecting his beer work slowly. Which is why you don't taste them at first, and why they are getting worse over time.

It's definitely a sanitation issue that you're having. Still waiting for more details as to your bottling day. But it sounds like the other guys in this thread have it figured out.
I'm sort of hijacking this thread as I have the same issue.
Break down on cleaning;
I wash all my stuff in dish soap and water, then towel dry it. I take the little filter off the end of my auto siphon and take the inner tube out. I take the tubing off the siphon and wash everything apart.
Then I rinse it all in iodiphor.
I wash bottles in soap and water, rinse, then fill them and let each sit for a few minutes full of iodiphor, poor it out and start filling with beer.
I do not use a spigot to fill but use my siphon with wand.
I don't see how it could be dirt bottles as after three week with 25 remaining you'd think I got at least one or two clean bottles.
 
"Then I rinse it all in iodiphor."

That is likely your problem. Iodiphor is not a contact santizer. You need to soak everything for at least a minute. You also may not get getting the tops of the bottle and caps sanitized either if they aren't submerged. Same goes for your carboy or bucket.
 
"Then I rinse it all in iodiphor."

That is likely your problem. Iodiphor is not a contact santizer. You need to soak everything for at least a minute. You also may not get getting the tops of the bottle and caps sanitized either if they aren't submerged. Same goes for your carboy or bucket.
When I say rinse, I mean put 3 gallons worth in my brew pot and submruge and fill 6 to 8 bottles at a time and leave them there for a few minutes.
 
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