Sour after fermenting.

[Nobbler]

Hello again.

My first question. Myself and my good friends Sean and Martin have brewed our first Ag beer (actually our second, but due to a misunderstanding of the recipe we were following, the first turned into a major disaster)

After we mashed and boiled, we left our wort to cool. The yeast was pitched the next morning at the correct temperature according to the recipe. The fermentation was extremely quick and 24 hours later we had a lovely cake sitting on the top of our liquid. This cake had virtually disappeared by the time I had got home from work the next day.. There were a few bubbles rising but the gravity was dropping as we thought it should.

The gravity has dropped now to 1.012 and has been this way since Friday, so we are going to transfer to the barrel. We have had a taste of the sample which we used to measure the gravity and it tastes and smell a little bit sour. Perhaps sour is a little bit of a strong word, but there is a definite tang on the aftertaste.

Have we buggered the beer? Or will it be alright after we have sugared it at the point of casking?

Any help would be appreciated!

Cheers!

 

[tubby_shaw]

Yes everything is fine :thumb:
The sour smell is a combination of CO2 and esters and fusels and other such wonderful things that the yeast will sort out for you over the next few days
The sour taste comes from the massive amount of yeast in suspension (mainly) and this will reduce as the yeast clears and the beer matures :)

 

[Nobbler]

Excellent. We are now going to barrel away.

Thanks a lot for the prompt reply. You have turned a couple of worried, concerned and pissed off faces into a veritable brace of happy smiles.

Cheers!

 

[leeboozer]

similar to my first ag ,i probably didnt cool it quick enough to get the yeast in at 20c[took about 4hrs ] then towards end of fermenting noticed baddish vinegary smell [although it didnt taste too bad] anyway barreled it and it came out 10 times better than any kit brew id done before, since that me dad devised cooling system that gets temp down in 20 mins and thats made a real difference ,so see how you go you might be pleasantly suprised

 

[Nobbler]

Cool.

We'll let you know how it goes.

 

[commsbiff]

since that me dad devised cooling system that gets temp down in 20 mins and thats made a real difference

Tell us about it...

 

[leeboozer]

its just a copper coil immersion job ,he bought length of microbore pipe about 8/9 metres rolled it round 7 inch diametre rolled up carpet to gain its shape,it ended up costing £18 i think [lot cheaper than shop bought] if i can find me camera ill put a photo up but its just same principle as shop ones with maybe a bit more pipe on it so theres more water going thru.

 

[Nobbler]

Ok. We're back and worried again.

The beer has been barrelled and left for 2 weeks now. We have pulled off the 1st pint for tasting and it looks great, (nice and clear), smells great, but has a sour aftertaste. It tastes fine, if a bit sweet, but there is a sour tang after about 2-3 seconds.

Have we left it too long? Is it not ready? Is it buggered?

We are going to do another brew but could do with knowing where we have gone wrong if we have.

 

[Moley]

Sounds like it needs a while longer, my last brew (which is nowhere near ready yet) had an unpleasantly sour after-taste on the first ‘tester’ but that has faded a lot after another couple of weeks.

What hops did you use? Variety and quantity?

 

[Nobbler]

So we could be panicking a bit prematurely again?(He says hopefully)

We used 100g Goldings hops. We used a recipe which said to put the hops in for the full 90 min boil. Could this have been too much for too long?

 

[Moley]

By'eck! :shock:

That's a lot of hops.

 

[jonewer]

By'eck! :shock:

That's a lot of hops.

Meh. My last one had 140g... 50 g chinooks at 14% and some auroras at 8%.... like drinking quinine.. lovely!

 

[Nobbler]

By'eck! :shock:

That's a lot of hops.

Too much? Is our recipe flawed?

 

[jonewer]

By'eck! :shock:

That's a lot of hops.

Too much? Is our recipe flawed?

Depends on your tastes... 100g of goldings doesnt sound that much to me, but then I'm a hopaholic!

edit - though if I were to use 100g of goldings, I wouldnt us them all for 90mins, probably split them between 60g -90mins 20g - 20mins 20g - 10mins or something. Only thing is, by boiling the whole lot for 90, you wil get bitterness but little flavour or aroma.

 

[Nobbler]

Right. I'll leave it a while longer and try it in a week or so.

The aroma is quite nice but is not the strongest. Thats probably a consideration for future brews.

Cheers for the advice! :thumb:

 

[Moley]

Meh. My last one had 140g... 50 g chinooks at 14% and some auroras at 8%.... like drinking quinine.. lovely!

Yeah, I admit I'm a wuss, can't handle more than about 40 IBU.

 

[jonewer]

Meh. My last one had 140g... 50 g chinooks at 14% and some auroras at 8%.... like drinking quinine.. lovely!

Yeah, I admit I'm a wuss, can't handle more than about 40 IBU.

Hehe. I dont know how many IBU my last one had, calculator only goes up to 99.....