Pumpkin getting worse with age?

[wtaylor3]

I made a pumpkin ale in early October and its been in the bottle for 2 weeks exactly

I had started trying and even sharing them after a week in bottle. I thoroughly enjoyed the first one, my dad had the next one and he swore he wasn't going to like it being a BMC drinker and he loved it and promptly requested more, his friend that enjoys craft beer had one and suggested it was good enough for a competition and I had one as recent as yesterday and was very happy.

However, I had one today and it seemed to have a sour taste. Still drinkable but definitely not on par with the other ones. The infection alarms went off in my head.

Could the glass do it? It's a pint size glass that has never truly represented beers to their potential.

Also I thought I possibly didn't clean/sanitize that one bottle thoroughly enough.

Lastly,(and probably most likely) I had just eaten as bad example of ravioli that was terrible and maybe this messed my palate up.

I'll try one tomorrow and report back

 

[ABVIBUSRM]

I made a pumpkin ale in early October and its been in the bottle for 2 weeks exactly

I had started trying and even sharing them after a week in bottle. I thoroughly enjoyed the first one, my dad had the next one and he swore he wasn't going to like it being a BMC drinker and he loved it and promptly requested more, his friend that enjoys craft beer had one and suggested it was good enough for a competition and I had one as recent as yesterday and was very happy.

However, I had one today and it seemed to have a sour taste. Still drinkable but definitely not on par with the other ones. The infection alarms went off in my head.

Could the glass do it? It's a pint size glass that has never truly represented beers to their potential.

Also I thought I possibly didn't clean/sanitize that one bottle thoroughly enough.

Lastly,(and probably most likely) I had just eaten as bad example of ravioli that was terrible and maybe this messed my palate up.

I'll try one tomorrow and report back

Sour = contamination

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

The pumpkin beer is one that certainly changes in flavor over the course of it's time in the bottle. I only try mine at 2 weeks in the bottle just to take some notes, but it never really tastes all that great. After 3 weeks, it's a little more balanced. After 4, it develops a very nice sweetness (this is when I begin giving it out to people normally).

Mine usually peak in flavor around 8+ weeks.

But the sour flavor is sort of odd - could be bottle contamination. Or it just needs a bit more time? I've never had a "sour" pumpkin beer though.

 

[wtaylor3]

The pumpkin beer is one that certainly changes in flavor over the course of it's time in the bottle. I only try mine at 2 weeks in the bottle just to take some notes, but it never really tastes all that great. After 3 weeks, it's a little more balanced. After 4, it develops a very nice sweetness (this is when I begin giving it out to people normally).

Mine usually peak in flavor around 8+ weeks.

But the sour flavor is sort of odd - could be bottle contamination. Or it just needs a bit more time? I've never had a "sour" pumpkin beer though.

Hopefully its just bottle contamination, because its the first one with that flavor out of about 8 of em thatve been consumed.

Not gonna lie I haven't learned the patience that a brewer needs yet, these probably won't survive 8 weeks. I just don't understand why it was better as recently as yesterday.

I really hope its just me and the sour isn't really there or ill even accept that just one bottle didn't get cleaned well enough

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

You'll find out as time goes by I suppose.

That said, I'd highly recommend rationing out your beers and giving them time to reach full potential. I keep a very well documented journal of my brew day and the beer descriptions for each date I drink them, then refer to it after each batch is bottled to see how other long other batches took. It's very interesting to record how beers taste as time passes by. Plus it helps plan out brew days for times I brewing for an occasion.

I built a closet in the Spring and I reserved the top shelf for about 220 bottles. That's the place I can put them and sorta forget about them, and it's inconvenient enough to get beer out of it that I'm not motivated to drink 2 or 3 a day.

A little off topic: I have a Bourbon Barrel Stout I've been aging since it was brewed in July '12, and a Chocolate Coffee Porter I've been aging since March '14 (that's still a young one).
-The stout I only drink a bottle of every once in a while, but will probably start digging into more this winter. It's developed fantastically.
-The porter was a beer a buddy of mine brewed with me, because I owed him for some help so we split it. He wanted a porter with chocolate and coffee flavors, but I told him it wouldn't be good right away. Well, he finished all 30 bottles that were his within 4 weeks of bottling day, most of them were gone in the first week of drinkability. The beer was...okay at first. I wasn't happy with it for the first month. But I tucked it away for a while and that porter has developed into a superb beer with the coffee and chocolate flavors developing and smoothing out. He doesn't even know what he missed out on

 

[wtaylor3]

That's awesome...maybe ill "lose" a few...that being said I waited a bit and drank the other one I had chilled and it had no such sour flavors