"Is my beer ruined?" thread #1,035,536 - Sour taste

I figured the beginner's forum is the best place to ask about this. I can't solidly find a good resource for what happened, so that is why I am asking here. I don't consider myself a beginner anymore, not with 30+ batches under my belt. But I don't claim to be an expert either. Here it goes:

My beer is very sour. I know, lacto infection, etc... but there was never any indication it had been infected. It looked and smelled fine when I transferred to secondary. My buckets aren't scratched as far as I can tell and I am very strict when it comes to sanitation. There were no pellicles, nothing white, no bubbles, nothing. Even the gravity reading was spot on. But when I tasted my sample from primary, it was extremely sour. I'm at a loss. I haven't dumped it yet, but likely will. For what it's worth, I haven't changed anything in my brewing process.

Here is the recipe, because I know someone will ask:

10 lbs MO
3 oz Amarillo (1 oz @ FW, 15, 0)
Cali WLP001
Mashed @ 152F for 1 hour
Fermented at ~72F for 2 weeks

TL;DR: My beer is sour and I can't explain it.

Is it sour as in make you want to vomit? Can get it down your throat sour? Vinegary? If so that sounds like infection. Otherwise it probably is something else.

Was 72 ambient temperature or wort temp?
What water are you using?

It actually wasn't disgusting. It was sour but not vinegary. I used plain old tap water, untreated. I've made a bunch of great beer with the same exact water, same exact process. 72 was the ambient temp.

72 ambient is probably too hot. Your fermentation temps probably got near 80 which is too hot.

I always was under the impression that high temps would cause overly fruity smells and tastes and would produce fusel alcohol. I think something just got in there and soured up my beer. Oh well. I'm gonna let it sit for a couple weeks and see how it develops and see if I am finally going to be dumping a batch.

Band aid. Dumped it. It was a sad day. Words were spoken. Tears were shed.

How's it going? A sour taste can come from acidification. It can come from alcohol that has evaporated. Hope this helps.

You mentioned that you, do it in buckets. Perhaps a glass carboy would suit you better! Maybe making sure your airlock is properly filled with a little H2O (water).

vinnythering said:

Band aid. Dumped it. It was a sad day. Words were spoken. Tears were shed.

Click to expand...

Ffff. I was rooting for you. Sour beers can be rare gems. Band aid beer, not so much.

John Palmer:



Medicinal
These flavors are often described as mediciney, Band-Aid™ like, or can be spicy like cloves. The cause are various phenols which are initially produced by the yeast. Chlorophenols result from the reaction of chlorine-based sanitizers (bleach) with phenol compounds and have very low taste thresholds. Rinsing with boiled water after sanitizing is the best way to prevent these flavors.

I don't trust myself with glass anymore. I broke my first glass carboy even before I had used it. Soooo... yeah. That's not happening. Thanks for the input though.

Also, I don't use bleach. Dunno how it happened, but it did and it sucked.

If you are using city water check with the water department to see if they changed how they treat the water. They may have changed from chlorine to chloramine which could have affected your beer.

I don't see how that is possible. I made two batches after that that are fine. That probably is a good idea anyway though.

So today, after 3 weeks in primary I bottled my summer shandy. I racked it on to a solution of priming sugar using a siphon. Then I added 1 dram of lemon flavor. In a moment of forgetfulness, I then POURED the entire five gallons into the bottling bucket! After bottling, I thought about what I did and looked it up on this forum. From what I read I have ruined the entire batch right?