sampled first brew, second in primary

[scottie]

bad news first... i know its only been bottled for a week, but my first brew, a pale ale did not come out as expected... i beleive its due to the virtually undrinkable tap water here in florida. i boiled and chilled most of the water i used, but the beer has a mediciny, almost sour taste to it. disappointing, yet palatable. i dont know if the water caused the sourness, but im sure it caused the mediciny taste.
now for the good news! last night i just cooked up my second batch, a potent irish red ale. brewing went well, partial extact, 3 gallon boil. i used all 100% spring water this time. did have some boil over in the last 3 mins of the boil. the fermentation has been very agressive over night, when i got home from work today some beer and foam were in the airlock. i did remove the airlock and resabitized as fast as i could.. 30 secs.. infection shouldnt have gotten in, could it have? anyways, this prob should have been 3 different threads, cause now im rambling..

 

[android]

nah, don't worry about any infection getting in after 30 seconds.

bummer about the sour taste, but keep it aging and report back in a month or two. the medicine like taste can come from mashing grains at too high a temp, if you did a partial mash.

good luck with it.

 

[scottie]

update on the irish red ale fermentation... was very agressive for the first 2 days, but has significantly reduced, still pretty steady but nothing like the past 2 days, is this normal? my pale ale was steady the whole time...

as far as the sour taste to the pale ale, is that because it is too early to drink or something i may have done in the process?

 

[phatuna]

Each fermentation is different, some last a long time, others last a day or two. Your beer should get better w/ time but like android said, you may have mashed at too high a termperature.