Wyrmwood
Well-Known Member
So I have drank 14 batches of home brewed beer (and a few wines, a mead and even some root beer), and have 2 in the pipeline. Up until now, I have had very controlled fermentations, including some experiments with open fermentation that went very well. I'm pretty good about sanitation; I wash after use and sanitize before use, though I've definitely had a few times where I questioned whether or not something went in the bucket with sanitizer before use (I am in my 40s...).
So, in hindsight, I vaguely recall when I went to put yeast into my last ESB (that really turned into an English IPA), smelling something "off" in my yeast wash. I've been washing yeast since about the 4th or 5th batch and rarely buy yeast anymore. Anyways, I normally smell it to see if it has survived the time in the fridge. I distinctly remember smelling this wash a few times before going ahead and putting it in. Again, in hindsight, probably not a good idea.
Anyways, come bottling day about 4 weeks in, I noticed something sour when I was racking the beer to my bottling bucket. I took a hydrometer reading and it was right at expected FG. I decided to drink the sample instead of returning it (hydrometer had been sanitized, so could have put it back).
Oddly, although it was definitely sour, I really liked the taste. It reminded me of NB's La Folie or Clutch; even more of AC Golden's Cherry Sour, even though there are no cherries or fruit of any kind in the beer.
Now, I'm going to consider this a mistake, since it isn't what I intended and is likely the outcome of not properly sanitizing the jar the yeast wash went into (pure speculation), but, because I liked it, I washed this yeast (and Labeled it Whitbread SOUR....)
Now, after sanitizing everything with star san and very hot water (may have ruined another hydrometer in the process...) I started a new batch, an oatmeal stout (very close to the clone brew version of Samuel Smith's, minus the rice hulls, LME instead of DME, breiss crystal 60L instead of Simpson's 55, UK chocolate and added 8oz lactose).
My question is, am I going to have difficulty avoiding sour beers in the future? Not that I don't enjoy them, but I would like control over when I actually make them. Do I need to get a new fermentation bucket? Other supplies need to be replaced? What kind of luck do you think I'll have with the yeast wash? Is this even repeatable?
So, in hindsight, I vaguely recall when I went to put yeast into my last ESB (that really turned into an English IPA), smelling something "off" in my yeast wash. I've been washing yeast since about the 4th or 5th batch and rarely buy yeast anymore. Anyways, I normally smell it to see if it has survived the time in the fridge. I distinctly remember smelling this wash a few times before going ahead and putting it in. Again, in hindsight, probably not a good idea.
Anyways, come bottling day about 4 weeks in, I noticed something sour when I was racking the beer to my bottling bucket. I took a hydrometer reading and it was right at expected FG. I decided to drink the sample instead of returning it (hydrometer had been sanitized, so could have put it back).
Oddly, although it was definitely sour, I really liked the taste. It reminded me of NB's La Folie or Clutch; even more of AC Golden's Cherry Sour, even though there are no cherries or fruit of any kind in the beer.
Now, I'm going to consider this a mistake, since it isn't what I intended and is likely the outcome of not properly sanitizing the jar the yeast wash went into (pure speculation), but, because I liked it, I washed this yeast (and Labeled it Whitbread SOUR....)
Now, after sanitizing everything with star san and very hot water (may have ruined another hydrometer in the process...) I started a new batch, an oatmeal stout (very close to the clone brew version of Samuel Smith's, minus the rice hulls, LME instead of DME, breiss crystal 60L instead of Simpson's 55, UK chocolate and added 8oz lactose).
My question is, am I going to have difficulty avoiding sour beers in the future? Not that I don't enjoy them, but I would like control over when I actually make them. Do I need to get a new fermentation bucket? Other supplies need to be replaced? What kind of luck do you think I'll have with the yeast wash? Is this even repeatable?