Saison all grain taste sour before bottling

[Sebastien]

Ive made a saison and after taking my fg 1.010 I tasted it and it's pretty sour I've let the fermenter temperature raise until 80 for 3 weeks
I used wlp566 Belgian saison yeast
Do you think it's normal or everything will be ok once I bottle and let them sit!

 

[m00ps]

are you sure its actually "sour?" have you had many sour beers before?

many saison yeasts can produce a bright tart flavor. 566 hasnt as much IME but its certainly a possiblity. as long as it stays at 1.010 for a few days you should be good to bottle. Although that is a pretty high FG for a saison. What temp did you mash at and what was the grain bill?

 

[kh54s10]

My first brew got warm during the first 24 hours. I posted the description as sour. I am not good at describing flavors and now think it was not really what others would describe as sour. I was advised to leave it in primary longer than the directions said and to secondary longer also. (I now rarely use a secondary) It still tasted off when bottling but when fully conditioned it was good.

I find that the taste often changes significantly between bottling day and when the beer is fully conditioned.

 

[d3track]

Yeah, I think many Belgian and French strains have a very tart-to-sour flavor.

Is also make sure to take subsequent readings, unless you mashed really high or used LME most saison strains get down very low for dry finish.

 

[Sebastien]

I'm not sure if my fg is stable I'll check in a few days if it's still 1.010 but I don't remember my grain bill and I probably did the 60min infusion around 150 then around 160 165 for sparge and mash out!

 

[Sebastien]

It's my first saison so I don't really know how it's supposed to taste before bottling but the smell and the taste are pretty strong compared to all my other brew. I just hope it's not infected.
Never had infected beer so I couldn't know :S

 

[m00ps]

have you had many saisons in general? The yeast character is pretty assertive

 

[Sebastien]

I've tasted a lot of saison or lambic, I like the style
Mine smell and taste like that a little bit but it's just very strong maybe after conditioning and bottling the taste will change but like I said its my first batch of saison maybe it's normal that it taste so sour.

 

[Sebastien]

How can I see if the beer is infected? Is there a way

 

[Sebastien]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1442939225.877003.jpg

This is my beer when I opened

 

[m00ps]

looks normal to me. just be sure to seal it back up with good sanitation

 

[MannyEdwards]

Mmmmm, looks good! I say drink it up. You'll love it.

 

[pdxal]

The beer has been at 80 for 3 weeks, but how long has it been fermenting in total?
Still wondering about the grain bill for a saison to be at 1.010 if that does end up being the final gravity.
Yeast still being in suspension can give a sour taste, and would obviously drop/condition out.

 

[AnthonyUK]

Saison is similar to other 'lager' styles in that they were tradionally brewed to store before consuming.
A lot of Saison yeasts are very tart but this will fade. They really come good after about 3 months I find.

 

[m00ps]

Im usually drinking my saisons by the 3rd week. I wouldnt do 3 months unless you add wild yeasts

 

[AnthonyUK]

Im usually drinking my saisons by the 3rd week. I wouldnt do 3 months unless you add wild yeasts

What yeast are you using? Wild yeast shouldn't really matter but maybe you are thinking of Brett?
I wouldn't want to drink a Saison made with say Belle Saison after 3 weeks.
Saison can change so much over a couple of months that it can be totally indistinguishable from what is was after a just a few weeks.
Keep a couple of bottles back and see how they improve with age.

 

[wizzzard]

plastic overtime will cause infections ...siphon to a bottle.cap no sugar. let sit overnite @ room temp. rack the rest into glass fermenter..DITCH THE PLASTIC FOR FERMENTERS.

NEXT DAY EXAMINE THE SOLO CAPPED BOTTLE. ALL INFECTIONS WILL LEAVE A RING AROUND THE COLLAR.

 

[RM-MN]

plastic overtime will cause infections ...siphon to a bottle.cap no sugar. let sit overnite @ room temp. rack the rest into glass fermenter..DITCH THE PLASTIC FOR FERMENTERS.

NEXT DAY EXAMINE THE SOLO CAPPED BOTTLE. ALL INFECTIONS WILL LEAVE A RING AROUND THE COLLAR.

I call BS. Too many people ferment in plastic with no off flavors for this to make any sense. Are you perhaps selling glass carboys and need to increase your sales?

 

[wizzzard]

No BS ..EXPERIENCE .cleaning causes micro scratches ,these "over time" create a cross infection.
bacterial labs never reuse petri dishes for this reason. blown glass does not scratch with normal scrubbing. LINKIT


https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs...UTF-8&n=60&x=wrt&hsimp=yhs-003&hspart=mozilla

 

[Sebastien]

The beer fermented for the whole 3 weeks now it's in a glass carboy I'll check gravity tonight after work it might have fermented to 1.008

 

[JosephN]

I find that the taste often changes significantly between bottling day and when the beer is fully conditioned.

That is such a true statement! Right now I have a chocolate pumpkin Porter that is so strong with pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice flavors that I don't know if I'm going to be able to drink it, the only thing that gives me hope is knowing that leaving it in the bottle to condition for at least a month will help mellow out though sharp flavors and intern balance it all out. At least that was my experience with my pumpkin ale, which is freaking amazing right now.


On the topic of saisons i've noticed that they always tend to smell and taste kind of like you would imagine dirty running shoe, sort of dirty, sort of sweaty, kind of tart on,bottling day. If you give it at least ONE week in the bottle it will make a huge difference in exposing what you actually have hidden behind that initial funky taste and smell

 

[Sebastien]

Yeah I made a vanilla stout at first I was like ohh sh*t too much vanilla beans but after 2 months the taste was perfect.
I'll cold crash soon and probably bottle them for at least 3 weeks before tasting

Thanks alot

 

[RM-MN]

No BS ..EXPERIENCE .cleaning causes micro scratches ,these "over time" create a cross infection.
bacterial labs never reuse petri dishes for this reason. blown glass does not scratch with normal scrubbing.

While I was in school we always reused the petri dishes...because they were glass and could be autoclaved. Then someone discovered that replacing the petri dishes was cheaper than autoclaving and avoided the chance of grabbing one that hadn't made it to the autoclave. Plastic does not cause infections, bacteria do and poor sanitation practices give it the opportunity to do so. Recommending that everyone switch from plastic to glass is not a good thing. An infected batch of beer has a small cost, a trip to the emergency room to try to repair damage caused by a broken carboy has a much higher cost and it has happened multiple time.