smells like sourdough bread

[mike1978]

i recently made an Allagash White clone. It fermented great and after 14 days i kegged it and noticed it smelled kinda funky. The smell is very yeastie. Why is this happening?? What could this be?? This is the first time this has happened to me.

 

[Retroviridae]

Taste it. If it smells like sourdough and tastes sour/acidic, you have a lactic acid bacteria (lactobacillus) infection. This bacteria lives naturally on grains, and all over (and in!) our bodies. It's what makes sourdough sour. Bleach the heck out of your equipment and pay close attention to sanitation. If it tastes ok, or tastes ok with age, you might have accidentally made a Berliner weiss, which is an intentionally soured wheat beer.

 

[mike1978]

Is there anything i can do to mask this smell? I added some orange zest to the keg, but didnt really get any result? I may just toss the whole batch! SUCKS!

 

[Retroviridae]

If it really is just a smell, it might age out. Or you could try wasting some hops by trying to cover it up by dry-hopping. But if you really have a lactobacillus or pediococcus infection, it will probably continue to get more sour.

Try browsing some threads in the sour beer section. Maybe some people with more experience with sour beers could weigh in?