This is old hat for most of you, should be for me too, but I have some questions I need answers to.
I've been brewing for around 3 years now and lately am discouraged with results of a brew I've done 5-6 times at least. It's a British Ale (BASS ALE clone) I purchase from a local shop. The first few times I used the recipe it turned out great, actually better than BASS ALE IMO and a brew I could enjoy each day.
The last three batches however have come up short and in two cases so bad I could not stand to smell or drink it, nothing worse than putting your time and money into a brew only to find it's sour smelling and tasting.
The first few times I brewed it I used Iodophor to sanitize my equipment, boiled my water before topping off my carboy and went straight from the primary to the soda keg. The beer was great until I changed things up a little.
Lately I've been using Saniclean to sanitize my equipment, topping off my wort with two to three gallons of fresh water from the tap ( I was told SE Michigan water is clean enough that you don't need to boil it) and transferring to a secondary after two weeks in the primary. It's when I started doing things this way I noticed a sour smell and sour taste (sour on the sides of my tongue) and so unpleasant I can't stand to drink it.
Any ideas what might be causing the sour taste/possible infection? BTW I'm meticulous in soaking/cleaning every part of my equipment.
I've been brewing for around 3 years now and lately am discouraged with results of a brew I've done 5-6 times at least. It's a British Ale (BASS ALE clone) I purchase from a local shop. The first few times I used the recipe it turned out great, actually better than BASS ALE IMO and a brew I could enjoy each day.
The last three batches however have come up short and in two cases so bad I could not stand to smell or drink it, nothing worse than putting your time and money into a brew only to find it's sour smelling and tasting.
The first few times I brewed it I used Iodophor to sanitize my equipment, boiled my water before topping off my carboy and went straight from the primary to the soda keg. The beer was great until I changed things up a little.
Lately I've been using Saniclean to sanitize my equipment, topping off my wort with two to three gallons of fresh water from the tap ( I was told SE Michigan water is clean enough that you don't need to boil it) and transferring to a secondary after two weeks in the primary. It's when I started doing things this way I noticed a sour smell and sour taste (sour on the sides of my tongue) and so unpleasant I can't stand to drink it.
Any ideas what might be causing the sour taste/possible infection? BTW I'm meticulous in soaking/cleaning every part of my equipment.