Sour Aftertaste

[DrewCarey82]

Hi.

I have had a tooheys red style beer bottled for about a 7-9 days, when I tried it, it left a sour after taste on the tip of my tongue.

Could this be due to the fact that it really hasnt had time to carbonate properly, had a reasonable head when poured but dissappeared after about 10 mins and there were still gas bubbles.

I actually was a total (bad word apologies for language) and cleaned the bottles with bleach but rinsed thoroughly with hot water and it had no smell after that.

Should leaving in the bottle for longer get rid of this, the beer itself was reasonable but not great.

Any help thoughts I'd really appreciate.

 

[dickTed]

Don't think it's the bleach because I always wash mine with White King, give them a rinse, and they're fine.

Perhaps you used white sugar?
Perhaps you fermented too hot for the yeast?
Perhaps you got a slight infection?

There's lots of other possibilities.

Putting them in the fridge for a few hours is not long enough.
Try leaving some in the fridge a few days befor drinking.

If it hasn't got an infection (look for scum or film on top) it will definately improve with time.

 

[pint of lager]

Drewcarey, please read and follow the forum guidelines.

7-9 days is a bit soon and means your beer will be "green" in flavour. Keep trying one every 5 days or so and see if the sour flavour increases or decreases. Usually, kit beers have reached their best drinkability after 4 weeks.

As Dickted said, it can be due to a range of reasons. I suspect what you are tasting is an infection which will increase in sourness the older the beer gets.

Bleach is fine as a cleaner, so long as it is rinsed thoroughly. You have given it the sniff test so you must have rinsed well enough.

Make sure you are following the basics:

1. Every surface that comes into contact with you beer must be clean and sanitised. Pull all taps, grommets, sealing orings out and clean all threads with a toothbrush.

2. Ferment temperature, for ales, around 20-22 deg C, if you have a true lager yeast, 10-12 degrees. Ignore the instructions on the tin that say up to 28 degrees. Check with your homebrew shop to see if you have a true lager yeast. Many kits claim to be pilsners and lagers but only have an ale yeast under the lid.

3. Good ingredients, buy good booster packs that contain a combination of dextrose and dried malt extract. No sugar (often listed as sucrose).

 

[DrewCarey82]

Don't think it's the bleach because I always wash mine with White King, give them a rinse, and they're fine.

Perhaps you used white sugar?
Perhaps you fermented too hot for the yeast?
Perhaps you got a slight infection?

There's lots of other possibilities.

Putting them in the fridge for a few hours is not long enough.
Try leaving some in the fridge a few days befor drinking.

If it hasn't got an infection (look for scum or film on top) it will definately improve with time.

[post="84080"][/post]​

I used carbonation drops, and brewed @ about 18 degrees, no scum or film and looks really good when poured so will try it again in about another 7 days maybe do you think? I also used hops.

Does an infection always leave a visibile sign?

Also pint of lager how arent I following the guidelines searched for this topic and couldnt find anything.

 

[Steve]

Drew
POL was more than likely referring to your f*#@n fool comment earlier.
Cheers
Steve

 

[T.D.]

No there's not always a visible sign. An acetic bacteria infection will cause white scum to form on the surface of the beer. Usually this gets much worse with age though, so I would doubt you would be tasting that after a week in the bottle. That's my (thankfully limited) experience anyway.

 

[pint of lager]

AHB Moderation and Posting Guidelines

Specifically, "They contain an unacceptable amount of offensive language."

Righto, back to brewing. You have followed the three basic rules of brewing, (assuming you used a decent booster pack, not a sucrose pack from the supermarket) so that should hopefully rule out infections and off flavours due to high ferment temperatures.

Keep checking the beer every five days or so.

If the sourness gets worse, it is an infection.

If it lessens, it is probably just green beer flavours you are detecting.

If it stays the same, it is something to do with your ingredients.

Hop flavours can be misdescribed as sourness.

Make sure when you taste beer, you do not sip it. You take a good mouthful and allow it to come into contact with all parts of your tongue, the roof of the mouth and around the teeth. Then, as you swallow it, taste it as it passes over the back of the tongue. Often, just sipping gives poor flavours as the tip of the tongue does most of the tasting work when you sip.

 

[DrewCarey82]

Hmmmmm by the sounds of it, it just might be green.

I might throw them in the garage and drink some of my more mature beveridges, thing is I have only put down about 7 so far, so my stocks are only around 120, but am investing in 2 more fermentors bringing it up to, 4.

So I should be able to eradicate this problem in a month or 2.

Patience is something I've obviously gotta learn.

 

[Weizguy]

Hmmmmm by the sounds of it, it just might be green.

I might throw them in the garage and drink some of my more mature beveridges, thing is I have only put down about 7 so far, so my stocks are only around 120, but am investing in 2 more fermentors bringing it up to, 4.

So I should be able to eradicate this problem in a month or 2.

Patience is something I've obviously gotta learn.

[post="84151"][/post]​

Dude,

Forget patience... brew wheat beer. I find that wheat beer is usually good to go as soon as it's carbonated. Mine is, anyway. True, a batch of DME Weizen tastes a little toffeeish (to my palate) when young, but that's OK by me too.

You might wanna try a wheat kit next. It's been a while, but I recall Brewmaker's (IIRC) imported Bavarian wheat goes well with a Weizen yeast and a brew booster pack.

If U make a wheat beer with the std dry yeast, it will be more like an American style wheat. Less phenolics (prob none, actually) but more quaffable.

Wheat beer is great Summer beer. Don't just take my word 4 it. Try one yourself.

Apologies for the semi-hijack...
Uncle Seth

 

[DrewCarey82]

Thats cool, any advice is good advice.

So keep it comming!