Sour beer sucks!

[alepale101]

I have been brewing LME kits. I put the hops in a hop ball. Beer seems to taste fine a bottling, but three weeks later they all have a sour taste. It is not a sour milk taste-just a sour whang. The beer doesn't seem overly carbonated. It seems to get better with age. I may be over steeping the specialty grains or making some other mistake. I follow the kit directions except for using late malt extract additions. Every thing that touched my beer is either boiled or treated with Sta-san except for a frozen gallon of distilled water. I use bottled water which I do not treat, counting on the extract to provide the required water quality. My home has a water softener as the area water has 318 alkalinity. Is softened water usable to mix star san? I would welcome advice from anyone. I'm going to try a couple of all grain "boil in a bags." If they turn out sour, I may have to throw in the towel. Life is too short to drink bad beer.

 

[rycov]

how long are they aging (in the fermenter, and in bottles)

 

[Revvy]

The beer doesn't seem overly carbonated. It seems to get better with age.

If you're opening them too soon, and they're not carbed up yet, you're probably just experiencing co2 "bite." Many folks who taste beer where the gone into solution fully yet in the bottle, or are sniffing their airlocks during fermentation come on here mentioning a sour smell or taste.

The fact that you say it gets better with age is and indication you are starting too soon. How long are your beers actually IN THE BOTTLE before you start tasting them?

 

[GRBrewer]

Is it a sour apple kind of taste? You just need to let it sit and mature for a few weeks.

 

[Revvy]

Is it a sour apple kind of taste? You just need to let it sit and mature for a few weeks.

Yeah, that's another kinda sour folks drinking too soon often experience.

 

[alepale101]

I have let these beers set 3 weeks in the primary and 3 weeks in the bottle before tasting. The beer I am drinking now is 8 weeks old. It is so sour I have mixed it half and half with Coors light. How bad is that?

 

[GRBrewer]

I have let these beers set 3 weeks in the primary and 3 weeks in the bottle before tasting. The beer I am drinking now is 8 weeks old. It is so sour I have mixed it half and half with Coors light. How bad is that?

Oh dear. 8 weeks seem pretty long to still be 'green'.

 

[Revvy]

Oh dear. 8 weeks seem pretty long to still be 'green'.

Yup....SOunds like an infection issue.

 

[passedpawn]

dump.

 

[alepale101]

If it is an infection, wouldn't the carbonation increase. I have read that infection can create bottle bombs.

 

[gr8shandini]

From what I understand, sourness from an infection gets worse over time, right? My first thought is whether or not you're misidentifying bitterness as sourness. If you're doing late extract additions without adjusting the hop schedule, you'd be over hopping a bit. And the hop bitterness would tend to reduce with age.

If it truly is a sour taste, I'm kinda out of ideas. StarSan should work with your water as long as the final product is in the right pH range (<2 if I recall correctly). Other than that, it seems the only potential flaw in your sanitation is the gallon of ice. It's a long shot, but you might want to try a brew with out it, or using ice made from boiled water in a sanitized container.

 

[starrfish]

Let it age, sours can improve with time. They will still be sour but may turn into something nice.

I tracked my issue down to my racking cane, once I replaced that and the tubing all was good again.

 

[Cimerian]

I got some sour beers on my first brew. Nothing different about them except for taste. So far have dumped 5 bottles that ended up bad. So I would not dump the entire batch. Check the other bottles to see if all are sour. I almost dumped an entire case but decided to try just one more to find it was not an infection in all the bottles but just where I did not bottle correctly and lost only a few bottles.

 

[GUZ808]

I am also experiencing the same thing right now with an amber. My beer tasted good a few weeks ago and after handing a few out to some friends the other day they say its got this sour/bitter taste. Which I thought just might be them but I opened one up and it does taste a bit sour now with the hop flavor degrading. I did put some hop in at the end of the boil just to steep for about 5 mins.
Im not sure what the problem is.
The beer tasted good after a few weeks in a bottle but never really got carbed up enough so I let it sit a few more weeks. Its been about 6 weeks since bottling. now with sour/bitter taste.

Anyone who might know what is going on or what I might be doing wrong please help. Im brewing another batch in a couple days and don't want to end up with another sour beer batch