Acetobacter

[Col_klink]

Hey guys,
I brewed an extract version of Ed Wort's Haus Pale Ale a couple of months ago. At first (after 3 weeks in bottle), I found the bitterness in the beer was a little 'harsh'. I let it sit a couple of more weeks and the harshness went away. The beer tasted pretty good.
I about 10 bottles I forgot about that were in the back of a room temperature dark closet. Well, I tried a couple the other night and they both had a slight vinegar flavor. The next day my stomach didnt feel all that great, but that could have been a number of things.
Anyway, I was wondering if the vinegar taste could be Acetobacter that I read about? Could it be the first beers did not have this but the older bottles developed it over time?

 

[ColoHox]

Hard to say when the infection was introduced, but vinegar taste/smell is produced by Acetobacter or Acetobacterium. The former converting ethanol to acetic acid and the latter converting carbon dioxide to acetic acid.

It could have been that the older bottles had enough time for the bacteria to produce enough acetic acid to be tasteable.

 

[jro238]

Yeah, it is certainly possible that a very slight contamination got into your batch and didn't have any noticeable effects until the beer aged for a long time. This isn't entirely unusual, even for commercial beers. After all, brewers don't sterilize, we sanitize :cross: