I made a sour beer by mistake - what now?

[Shenanigans]

Hi All,

I wanted to brew a wheat beer something like Schneider Hopfenweisse.

A fairly simple recipe:

50% Wheat Malt
50% Vienna Malt
60 min Tettnang - 19 IBU
40 min Perle - 12 IBU
10 min Cascade - 9 IBU
Out of date pack of Brewferm Blanche
Dry hop 0.75oz of Saphir per Gallon

After 3 days there was a build up of foam on top but no airlock activity, I guess the yeast was really past it's best. So on the 4th day I added a pack of US-05.

After a week it had only gone down from 1.060 to 1.050 and tasted a bit strange. After two weeks it was down to 1.013 and tasting sour but refreshing. There was no mould on top of the beer so I think it was just a slight infection due to the slow starting of the yeast and would like to try bottling it and see how it turns out. I hate throwing away beer

I just need to decide if I still want to dry hop it.
Would the Saphir still be a good option or are there any particular dry hops which fit well with a sour wheat beer?

Also for sanitation afterwards is there anything I need to do extra to make sure I don't contaminate my next batch of beer?
I've brewed about 50 batches of beer and never had an infection until now.

Thanks!

 

[kristiismean]

it's it's truly sour, then anything plastic I think should be replaced that came in contact with the beer...

 

[20grit]

It might have soured. If it tastes good, drink it.
Sterilize everything you can and brew on. If you have issues with infections on future batches, then you'll know you have some lingering bugs and can dedicate that equipment to sours.

I personally don't think bitter and sour go together. There are sour ipa's coming onto the market, but I can't imagine it being good. I'd probably stick with what you have.

 

[Shenanigans]

Hi guys that's for the replies.
Dry hopping wont add any more bitterness I was just wonder if there are any (dry) hops that compliment the sour taste? Or maybe it's just a waste of hops.

 

[Morrey]

Hi guys that's for the replies.
Dry hopping wont add any more bitterness I was just wonder if there are any (dry) hops that compliment the sour taste? Or maybe it's just a waste of hops.

I think your Saphir hops choice would be ideal if that is the way you want to go. However, my concept of sours is very low hopped as not to conflict with the sourness. When I do Gose sours, my IBU is less than 10, typically 8.

Dry hopping Saphir will likely give you an aroma only addition, but again, you may want to ask yourself what you'll gain by overcomplicating your taste profiles.

 

[metaltim]

It might have soured. If it tastes good, drink it.
Sterilize everything you can and brew on. If you have issues with infections on future batches, then you'll know you have some lingering bugs and can dedicate that equipment to sours.

I personally don't think bitter and sour go together. There are sour ipa's coming onto the market, but I can't imagine it being good. I'd probably stick with what you have.

Epic tart n juicy sour ipa is amazing. Not all ipas are bitter bombs.

 

[brokebucket]

Another case of a beer that would best be dumped. If it were me and I suspect I had an infection, I would dump the beer and chunk the ferment bucket (a benefit of cheap plastic). I would under no circumstances try to bottle it or let it anywhere near one of my kegs. Cut your losses, learn from your mistake and move on without ruining more gear. It's just beer, make more.

 

[Shenanigans]

Another case of a beer that would best be dumped. If it were me and I suspect I had an infection, I would dump the beer and chunk the ferment bucket (a benefit of cheap plastic). I would under no circumstances try to bottle it or let it anywhere near one of my kegs. Cut your losses, learn from your mistake and move on without ruining more gear. It's just beer, make more.

Yes this is also an option.
I'm still not sure if it's an infection or not.
It might be just off flavours from an old packet of Brewferm Blanche.
I see no growth of fungus or a strange layer of anything on top of the beer.
Tomorrow I'll have one last look and taste and decide then what I will do.

:fro:

 

[20grit]

I disagree with broke bucket.
It is already infected. There is no reason to toss until one confirms it tastes bad. Tossing it now is just wasted beer, and cleaning of equipment. If it is good beer, then you are only cleaning equipment.

 

[brokebucket]

Eh, I see what 20 grit is saying in THIS case since you said it tastes "sour but refreshing". Personally I dont get the whole sour thing, and I sure wouldnt throw good money after bad trying to "fix" an accidental sour. I would think that if you like sours, you would want to make a good one on purpose. However, I know a guy that tried to make a porter and screwed it all up to hell. Entered it as a "mild" in a competition and took 2nd.

That being said, if you think it is infected (which reading your posts, Im not sure it is), unless you are planning on starting a sour pipeline I would still not put it in one of my kegs, or even let it touch a syphon. The risk to future batches is too great.

The whole "wasted beer" thing cracks me up though. There is way too much good beer out there. I am not about to drink crap due to some "party foul" mentality. If it sucks, dump it.

 

[Shenanigans]

I dumped this beer by the way.
I had a lacto infection. Actually couldn't decided what to do with it and thenforgot about it for a few months.
Opened it up and it had white "skin" on top of it and smelled like paint thinners.
Didn't dare try it to see what it tasted like.

 

[user 70770]

It probably wasn't a pure lacto contamination. Honestly, when I tried to make a sour, I pitched one of those lacto/yeast blends and the beer was barely sour after a month. What I mean is that lacto seems to work pretty slowly and if your beer got infected from just ambient wild lacto strain, I'd imagine it would take a very long time to sour up due to low initial cell counts. If it got sour within a week, there was other bugs at play here and your latest post about it smelling like paint thinner is definitely evidence for that case. I think the smell you are referring to is probably resulting from acetone which is a byproduct (or intermediate product? not sure on this) of acetic fermentation. You were probably in the process of making malt vinegar lol. Anyhow, that's my guess as to what happened.