1 week ferment, sour beer

[twbalding]

I'm brewing an american brown ale for my very first batch. After a really active fermentation for first 36hrs everything slowed way down. Now it seems that fermentation has all but stopped, once or twice a day at best I hear a bubble out of the blow off tube (its in my office). So I decided to check it today, one week in, and get my first gravity reading. OG 1.055, first reading one week in 1.021, the beer looks to be clearing up nicely and the temp is around 68-70. The problem is that when I tasted it it was sour and not at all what I was ready for.
Is this normal? Should I try to reactivate the yeast in some way? Should I hang tight for another week on 1st fermentation or should I move to secondary? Not sure what to do if anything but don't think I'll be drinking the first batch if it remains this sour.

 

[Cincy17]

What was your recipe, procedure, and what yeast did you use? Let it ride at least another week, you can't always see fermentation happening.

Fermenting beer can also have all kinds of strange favors. Especially after just a week. I won't even check gravity until at least 2 weeks and that may still be kind of early.

 

[twistr25]

Yes it is normal, it's called green. It still needs time to condition. Close it up let the beer sit for at least another week, then take a reading, wait three days, take another reading. If they are the same/stable, bottle it up. Leave it in the primary for your first batch unless you absolutely have to move it to secondary.

Once you bottle, leave it at room temp for three weeks to condition, carb and all of those flavors should meld together nicely. If for some reason it is still a little harsh, come back, post your recipe and steps and we can see if something was wrong there, but additional conditioning helps fix most problems.

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

.021 is a little high for a brown ale. It might be sweet extract twang your tasting?

Can you describe the flavor more than just "sour"? If its more green apple, vinegar tasting thats acetaldehyde. The yeast will clean this u in the next couple of days if its still on the cake

 

[solbes]

All kinds of things for that yeast to clean up at 1 week, especially if you made some mistakes on the first batch (I did!!). I would let it ride another 1.5 - 2 weeks and try it again. Remember, that the flavor will change when carbed.

 

[billl]

If your ambient temp is 70 degrees, your temp at the height of fermentation was probably 75+. Yeast kick off a lot of heat! The higher you get, typically, the more funky biproducts the yeast produce. Fortunately, the sour "green" ones generally will be reconsumed by the yeast themselves. You just need to give them some time. Put the top back on and leave them alone for 2 weeks.

For future batches, you should look at some easy ways to keep the temp down a bit lower. Search for "swamp cooler" here or try to find a cooler room to ferment in.

 

[unionrdr]

Typically,when all the crazy bubbling stops or slows down,it just signals that initial fermentation is done. It'll then slowly,uneventfully crawl down to FG. It may just be green beer,especially only one week in. Was there any white,slimy big bubbled spider weby funk on top? If no,then you should be ok.