Sour Head?

[ILurvTheWhiskey]

I just got through opening one of my newest beers, my Old Man's Beer. It's an extract Ale made with Pilsener ingredients (except for the yeast (don't currently have a way to lager)). I made this for my dad, who is a die hard Bud/Miller fan, hopefully as a gateway to good beer.

After letting it set for 4 weeks, I finally opened a bottle. It's a beautiful beer, clear, golden, full of tightly packed little bubbles. It pours great with a beautiful head. And upon first time, it's very light and malty and refreshing. However, the head leaves a sour taste on my lips. What the heck? The liquid itself has no off flavors and certainly no sour flavors but the head taste like a lime.

I can definitely say it's the head, as I scooped it off and tasted the beer and it tastes fine. But once you try the head, you can tell the difference.

I can say that other than the weird head flavor, the beer does taste a lot like Budweiser (taste test (and I can feel many of you rolling your eyes, haha)).

My recipe is as follows:

Three Gallon Batch:

3 Pounds Light Pilsener Dry Malt Extract
.50 Pounds Candy Sugar
.75 Ounce of Saaz
Nottingham Yeast

Any idea what might cause this? Also, does Nottingham usually come out this clean? Very very little esters.

Thanks much in advance.

 

[evandam]

No idea for sure, but your could try corn sugar rather than candi. That should help with the clean flavor you are looking for. You can put the corn sugar and for that matter candi sugar in at flame out too. That is the way I have always used it, I have never boiled it. Nottingham from what I here is a good choice (never used it except for the 2 batches brewing right now). The only thing I see that looks off is the candi sugar. My only experience with candi sugar is in a Belgium strong dark ale, which is pretty sweet.

PS I'm not an expert, just my thoughts.