Just bottled up my batch of this beer. I made the tea and racked on top of it. Towards the end of bottling (about 7 bottles from the end) I pulled a sample to check the gravity. It was spot on. I tasted the sample out of the tube and it was nasty tasting. I tasted some out of the fermentor last week and it was really good. I realized i had some star san in the bottom of the bucket when I dumped the tea in, but can a little star san sour out 4.5 gallons of brew? It's hard to describe the taste, but it was harsh and stingy. (if that makes sense) Is this normal for this beer until it mellows out? Has anyone else experienced this?
This is not a very easy beer to make. More steps in a recipe just increases the chances that something can go wrong. I'm not sure why it wouldn't taste good to you during bottling. You could have picked up an infection, left a large quantity of StarSan in the beer, messed up the spicing process. Starsan is an acid and the more acidic something is, the more of a chance it will taste sour. I really don't think this was your problem though, unless you left a hefty quantity in there or didn't mix the proper proportions of the Starsan. Maybe it'll improve in a few weeks, but the beer should never taste nasty.