Witbier with sour after taste. Why?

[harryd14]

So a couple weeks ago I brewed a witbier that I Bought from my local home brew supplies store. This was my second ever brew, but first 5 gal brew. I followed the directions, let it ferment for right so but two weeks and then bottle conditioned the beer for just over two weeks. My main problem in my first brew was the carbonation, so that was my main focus when I cracked the first one open. Use my bottle opener and get the much anticipated release of co2!! At this point I'm pretty pumped, pour the beer into the glass and it has a nice amber color(I know witbiers are normally a much paler orange/yellow, but this said it would be more of an amber color) I take my first couple sips and the beer has a nice initial flavor pallet, but it has a sour after taste and I am trying to determine what could be the culprit. The recipe did utilize some grapefruit and coriander seeds while brewing, but I don't think the taste is coming from either of these, but I could be mistaken.

Any ideas what could cause this? Could something have contaminated while I was brewing, or transferring for fermentation? I wish I could give you all a bottle to try as I have about 40 of the 50 I made sitting around. I have tried waiting to see if I let it sit in the bottle longer if that would help, but didn't notice much difference


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[Linkdead01]

If you are absolutely sure that it couldn't have been contaminated because of improper sanitation, then I would say your fermentation temperature was too high for too long, and the yeast produced off flavors.

 

[Setesh]

Hello, and welcome to the forum
I have a few questions for you. First, where are you located? Your profile does not say. You might get more offers to try it depending on where you are.

What yeast did you use, and what temperature did you ferment at? What was the OG of the beer/kit?

If it is an infection then the beer will continue to sour the more it ages. Witbier is best when young though. Also, yeast can taste a bit sour. Your beer is very young, and if there are a lot of yeast in suspension they can give a 'yeast bite' to the flavor. I will often have a slightly sour tasting hydrometer sample and then later after that same beer has conditioned the sour taste will be completely gone. How long was the bottle you tried in the fridge for? Let them sit in the fridge for 3 days or so, and then carefully decant the beer off of the sediment in the bottom. See if that makes a difference for you.

 

[Upthewazzu]

I brewed the witbier extract kit from Midwest Supplies last year and it turned out sour as well. I chalked it up to my process, but then I read the reviews on the website and a lot of people had the same complaint as me. Turns out I had done nothing obviously wrong, and it certainly wasn't infected. Had I known this beforehand, I wouldn't have bought it. My guess is that the recipe might have been similar to what you made.