If I have one complaint about my home brewing, it would be that I detect a very faint sour taste in my beers. I've only brewed 11 batches so far. Some of them had the sour taste more than others. I'm not saying they have been drain pours, but just get that very faint sourness at the end. In fact, most of them have been very drinkable beers. The best was a WC IPA I brewed. Maybe the increased hops helped eliminate the sour taste? Or disguise it? Anyway, what would be the first thing you would think of when trying to identify the cause of the sour taste? I do use Bru'n Water for my water profiles. From my own readings, could it be the PH? Can I be confident that the PH estimated using Bru'n Water is accurate? Or accurate enough? I don't have a PH tester, but plan on purchasing one before my next brew. Any other areas/processes I should investigate?
If it is a pH issue (either from the mashes or something happening downstream), your IPA may have been better because hop compounds from dry hopping tend to increase finished beer pH. When you get your pH meter, I'd recommend calibrating it, bringing a sample of your finished beer to room temperature, degassing the beer and measuring the pH.
The other potential cause for sourness could be a bacterial contamination/infection. If you conscientiously practice sanitation on all of your brewing equipment on the cold side this should be a non-issue but... Cheers!
I am extremely OCD when it comes to sanitizing so I don't think that is the issue. I'm not saying impossible, but highly unlikely.
Good for you! When it comes to sanitation there is a fine line between being conscientious and being paranoid. Cheers!
A few investigative questions. Cellaring: Do you botte or keg? how do you clean your kegs/bottles? how do you carbonate? Yeasting technique: dry yeast? liquid? starter? how do you make your starter? do you repitch? what temps do you pitch? do you oxygenate? etc. How do you chill your wort? Do you add lactic acid to your water?
I started off bottling, but am kegging now. When I keg, I completely fill the keg with the correct dilution of StarSan and let it sit full for at least 10 minutes, of course, after thoroughly cleaning the keg. I force carbonate in the keg after doing a closed transfer from my fermenter (Spike Flex+). I have used both dry yeast and liquid. I have only done a yeast starter once, that was my last batch. I follow the instructions from a MoreBeer video. I have a flask, a stir plate, etc. I made the yeast starter 48 hours before pitching and made sure I was very conscientious of sanitizing. I pitched at about 3 degrees warmer than my fermentation temp. When you say oxygenate, do you mean with the yeast starter? If so, no I did not. If you mean did I oxygenate before transferring to the fermenter, yes, I do it by vigorous sloshing before transferring to the fermenter. I use an immersion coil chiller to cool the wort. I submerge the boil kettle in an ice bath at the same time I use the immersion chiller and can usually get the wort down to pitching temps in 15 minutes or so. A little longer when I did my one and only lager. To get that down to pitching temps I have a pump that I submerge in an ice bath and recirculate that through the immersion chiller which worked very well and was able to get the wort down to, if I remember correctly, about 47 degrees for pitching the yeast. Yes, I do add Lactic Acid to my strike and sparge water. In addition to calcium, etc. Whatever Bru'nWater calculates for my water additions.
Do you start with distilled or RO water? I find that when I use a high % of RO water that I only need about half of the lactic reccomended by the water calculators. I only know this because I check the pH as I incrementally add the lactic to my sparge water. I typically only acidify my sparge water. Once you get your pH meter you'll be able to check this. I add the lactic acid incrementally, I never add the full amount calculated. Too much lactic will give you a more tart beer, that could be what you're tasting as slightly sour.
What works for me might not work for you that’s why it’s a craft hobby. I would stop the oxygen stuff your doing on the cold side any weird stuff is on the cold side. Maybe don’t use a pump/chiller. Use acidulated malt rather than lactic other than clean tubes and fermenter do another batch same grain bill. I wish you success!
Why is that? Should be fine unless the chiller has a leak, or a hose-to-chiller connection is failing and letting water into the wort as it's cooling. ETA: OP didn't say but I'm assuming the chiller is being sanitized.
It does sound like a water issue. As mentioned above switching out lactic acid might be helpful. Using phosphoric acid, citric acid or acidulated malt(as @beershrine suggested) is easy and may be a fix. Some people are reportedly very sensitive to the taste of lactic acid. I apparently am not and have used fairly significant amounts in my home brews without any problems.
I believe so….never used it. https://beerandbrewing.com/dictiona...cidulated Malt is a pale,pH value of the mash.
So, maybe the problem is measurement and not the ingredient? I used lactic acid for pH adjustment, and only had a problem when I guesstimated instead of actually testing, calculating, and measuring.
Same here. I add 88% lactic acid according to the software when I brew, I think i’ve never exceeded 5 to 6 ML total in any brew; generally the lighter colored brews need more. A quick review of some brewing threads reveals some brewers use Sauermalz primarily for lighter “delicate” beers such as a helles, where a liquid acid might stand out…. implying that acidulated malt may have a lighter touch tastewise.
It sure is. Though I'd say "on" rather than "in." Maltsters literally spray acid onto the malt. Aside from the Reinheitsgebot, I don't get why anyone would use acid malt rather than adding a much more controlled amount of acid.
I gave up drinking for lent then brewed with some yeast slurry in the fridge that looked slightly off but smelled ok and took the chance. It turned out bandaid and will soon be a drain pour. BTW@HerbMeowing those Northern brewers barely grew and never produced. How did mine do?
