Surprise sour

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cmac62

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I recently found a 5 gal corny full of beer in my garage. I put it in the fridge and chilled it for the last couple of weeks. Today there was a space in my keggerator so I put it in there and put it on 30 psi to force carb. I took a sample and it has soured since it was brewed. I have no idea how long it has been in the keg, or how long it sat in the garage. The sample tasted like a mildly soured lacto beer with no off flavors noted, just a clear sour bite. Do you think this is safe to drink? Also what is the worst that can happen? Thanks for your imput. :mug:
 
So you found a keg in your garage, you don't know what is or was in there or how long it's been there, all you know is that it was not intentionally soured, but some unknown wild microbes took control? And now you're relying on strangers on the internet to decide whether it's safe to drink... ?

Yeah, sure, go ahead. Pathogens can't grow in beer bla bla bla.
But... Are we even sure that this was, at some point, actual "clean beer"? With alcohol, hops and whatnot?

Apologies for the traces of sarcasm, but when you think about it, I think you'll agree this is not a great idea.
 
Did you open the keg and look to see what was or wasn't growing on the surface of the beer and in the headspace?

Regardless, I wouldn't trust others through the internet to tell me if my beer is safe to drink or not. That is all on you!

We can only give you opinion.
 
Every time I brew a beer I take a piece of that beige colored painters tape and stick it on my carboy. I use a sharpie to write 4 things on it. The name of the beer, the date I brewed it, the original gravity I measured, and the yeast I used in case I want to use the yeast again and I ever have more than 1 beer in a carboy at a time.

If I bottle the beer I transfer that piece of tape and stick it to inside the lid of the beer box. If I keg the beer I transfer that piece of tape and stick it to the top of the side of the keg, right under the beer out post.

This helps me indentify “mystery beers” if I ever run into any.

I used to put the little Avery dot labels on my bottlecaps. I really do not recommend those. I would say 85% of them fall off every time.
 
Thanks for the posts, I think I'm going to try a pint this afternoon/evening and see how it goes. If not well then I'll have to distill it. LOL. I may distill it anyway, I'm not sure I want 5 gals of sour on tap. maybe bottle a few for later then light up the still. :mug:
 
Thanks for the posts, I think I'm going to try a pint this afternoon/evening and see how it goes. If not well then I'll have to distill it. LOL. I may distill it anyway, I'm not sure I want 5 gals of sour on tap. maybe bottle a few for later then light up the still. :mug:
we haven't heard from you... did you survive the taste test of the mystery beer?
 
I would dump it into a bucket then dump it again in the toilet just to have dumped it twice, FREE THE KEG protest
 
Thanks for the posts, I think I'm going to try a pint this afternoon/evening and see how it goes. If not well then I'll have to distill it. LOL. I may distill it anyway, I'm not sure I want 5 gals of sour on tap. maybe bottle a few for later then light up the still. :mug:
if drinking a pint didnt give you the shitz- then this is a horrible idea. its damn near summertime, and you're about to dump 5 gallons of perfectly fine SOUR BASE? insane. you can make 5 one gallon batches to ride through summer. fresh fruit, fruit juice, red wine, dry hops. hell, i even caught one of our bartenders doing boilermakers out of our sour base and shots of midori! (smelled good, tho i didnt taste it)
we also used to sell a ridiculous amount of sour base on its own for our micheladas. i dont do tomato juice, but it was damn popular.
and seeing as how its already sour, you dont need to keep it "on tap" at all. it can sit at room temp if you dont want the space in keezer wasted. then blend small amounts one at a time.
 
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