what went wrong?

I recently brewed a golden strong Belgium ale for the second time. The first time it turned out amazing. The most recent, not so good. I followed my typical single infusion mash procedure, boiled, chilled, aerated and pitch from a yeast starter made the day before. I hit my gravity of 1081 and fermentation began a few hours later. I kegged it and noticed an old scent, very sour like an apple. I tasted it and it tasted like a rotten sour apple. I figured i got an infection although never having one before i asked the dudes at the beer store and they argued tooth and nail that it was over fermentation that caused that type of flavor despite my assertion that my final gravity was 1012. Any beer judges have an idea what i did wrong? Was it an infection?

"Over fermentation"? I have no idea what that even means.

Rotten sour apple sounds like an infection to me, too, but you don't mention how old this beer is. If it's still young, it might just be green.

Its two weeks old. So it could still be green? What causes that "green" flavor?

Not sure if this piece of info will help but I've been pulling small amounts daily to see if the flavor was disappearing and to me it was the same and possible worse as it got more carbonation

atietyen said:

Its two weeks old. So it could still be green? What causes that "green" flavor?

Not sure if this piece of info will help but I've been pulling small amounts daily to see if the flavor was disappearing and to me it was the same and possible worse as it got more carbonation

Click to expand...

"Green" beer is a pretty lose term for any beer that just hasn't quite finished doing what it needs to do. The flavors involved come from yeast that hasn't settled, acetaldehyde that hasn't finished breaking down, from hop and break that hasn't dropped out yet, etc.

If it's getting worse, that's not a great sign, but you may as well give it as much time as you can.

As beers carbonate I find some of the "green" issues become more noticeable before they get better. If the beer is only 2 weeks old, that seems quite young for a golden strong, given some time I would wager it will improve. (out of curiosity what was your starting gravity?)

Two weeks old is very 'green' for a strong ale.
If carbonation is making it worse, it could be that the development of carbonic acid (normal) is adding more of a bite, thus compounding your experience.
Let it age.

I'd think a golden strong might still taste a bit green at 2 MONTHS, let alone 2 weeks. Acetaldehyde can come across as an apple flavor. Let it sit another month at least, and then evaluate again.

Frank- My starting gravity was 1081. So this doesn't sound like an infection to you guys huh...Obviously ill let it age on everyone's suggestions but i had no idea that not aging it could produce those type of off flavors. I did bottle my first one and had it sitting for a month or two before i cracked it and god was it heavenly. Here's to hoping it comes around!

I would put my money on too young simply because in my experience infection takes more than 2 weeks to become detectable, unless you noticed any odd spiderwebbing or white chunks on the beer before kegging, but im sure you would have mentioned that.

I'm in the same position. Brewed a Belgian ale in early february. Fermented for three weeks, kegged it mid February and have been sitting on it since. Too afraid to tap it to see if the taste improved. Mine tasted a little sour with an acidity taste. Defiantly needed more hops and flavor mellow out. Will follow your tread and tap when your taste improves. I'm looking to hold out until June.