First Brew Taste Test..seems A Bit Sour

[Truman42]

I have had a Cascade mahogany chocolate porter bottled for 16 days now and opened one to try it out tonight. It had good carbonation and tasted okay I suppose but had this sort of sour taste, if thats the right word for it. Not to strong just a slight tang to it like maybe a red wine sort of taste.
I put raw brown sugar into the bottles and only used dextrose and liquid malt in the fermenter. And yes I used the packet yeast that came with the can.

 

[Truman42]

Anyone???

 

[manticle]

Sour vinegar?
Sour like off milk?

 

[Truman42]

More like vinegar than off milk

 

[manticle]

Could be an acetobacter infection. If it increases in sourness/vinegar characteristic over time, then that seems likely.

Could just be what people describe as kit twang (which is still undefined and the suggested reasons are multiple).

This was your first HB if I'm not mistaken?

There's a couple of pages worth reading on basic off flavours, causes and solutions: http://www.homebrewzone.com/off-flavors.htm

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21.html

 

[Kevman]

What was the ferment temperature of the brew?

The only other thing I can offer is to leave it for a while longer. I did this kit once and wasn't particularly impressed with it. It seemed to get better after 2 months in the bottle.

 

[Truman42]

Thanks for the links manticle will have a read.

kevman..The temps were quite low. It never got over 16C and usually hung around 13-14 for two weeks. I had constant Sg readings of 1014 over about 5 days so decided to bottle it.

Apart from this sour taste which is only very slight, it tastes rather good.

 

[robinson_d]

Im drinking a Cascade mahogany chocolate porter as i type, one of my first brews. 9 weeks in the bottle and getting better. It was brewed with 500g coopers enhancer #1 and the kit yeast at about 18˚c. i bottled it at FG.1018 after 26 days (very slow brew) .Defiantly no sour taste, but not as much flavor as i hoped and maybe a bit flat. Just bottled a cascade pale lets help things can only get better?
Next brew should be good i hope using ideas from the post 'Ideas For Big Flavour Kit Beer'

 

[Truman42]

After three weeks in the bottle I've transferred this batch to the fridge. It's certainly darkened up to a nicer brown colour compared to the lighter orange colour it was a few weeks back. It also doesn't have such a strong twang it had previously either. So hopefully time in the fridge will improve it more.

 

[jkmeldrum]

After three weeks in the bottle I've transferred this batch to the fridge. It's certainly darkened up to a nicer brown colour compared to the lighter orange colour it was a few weeks back. It also doesn't have such a strong twang it had previously either. So hopefully time in the fridge will improve it more.

I think I know what flavour you're describing....it's one of the reasons I moved from kits to AG....but I think you'll find that it gets better with age in the bottle. That's what I always found anyway. That seems to be one thing I've really enjoyed with AG is that I can literally be drinking my beers after only a week in the bottle sometimes (just enough time to carbonate) and there's none of that flavour. That twangy/bitey taste seems to go after a while, but I also found that if I used LDME as a primer it wasn't as bad (don't know why).

Cheers

Molly

 

[Truman42]

Thanks for that explanation Molly. The brew I have in the fermenter at the moment is an AG so Im looking forward to giving it a try.

I did use 500 grams dextrose and a round chinese container full of liquid malt that the LBS suggested so I supposed that helped to keep the twang down to a minimum.