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Hitokiri

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Joined
Jun 27, 2011
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Location
Seattle
So my second batch was a very simple American Pale Ale that tasted great after 2 weeks in the bottle. I noticed it was a bit over carbed but I figured that I had maybe just added a bit too much priming sugar (4 gallon batch, 99 grams of corn sugar). However every bottle I've opened (about 5) since week 3 has gotten progressively worse tasting, and even more carbed. I opened one last night and I just couldn't drink it. It's gotten sour and grapefruity tart. It ended up being a fruit fly trap.

I'm afraid this entire batch is lost to infection. If so, what's the best course of action? Do I dump them all to prevent bottle bombs? Do I try to keep em cold in the fridge and hope they age well?

I enjoyed that first beer of this batch so much, so this is a huge disappointment. Next weekend is the bottling of batch #3 as well as the brewing of batch #4, so it looks like I've got a lot of deep cleaning and sanitization to do this week. :(
 
dump it. take all of your brew gear wash it with your favorite type of wash, i use powdered brewery wash which is very similar to oxyclean. after a good scrubbing hit the whole pile with whatever sanitizer you use then air dry. when a bad taste is progressing there is no point in seeing where the infection will go.
 
I've got a big ol' bin of PBW. Do I just soak everything in that? When scrubbing is it best to just use the PBW solution or some sort of detergent/sudsy stuff?
 
I'd use PBW and then Star San. Getting them cold will help it grow sour slower, but it's only going to get more sour. You shouldn't get bottle bombs for a couple months if you keep them at fridge temps ASAP. If it's to the point it's so sour you can't drink it I'd give it to a friend who likes (intentionally) sour beer or dump it.
 

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