Sour too “acidic”?

Come over to my house...I got one!

Not directed at you here wasatchback...but acetic definitely gets prominent in a hurry...kind of like phenolics. I caught mine just in time before it got close to the malt vinegar phase, but I notice the acetic is there.

Was just down in Asheville, NC and was really cool to see places (like the Funkatorium) that posted the beer's pH next to the ABV. Think more sour producers should be doing this.

 

I was there a coupe years ago. Some of those pHs would probably remove tooth enamel after a while.

 

seriously...some were like drinking straight lemon juice. I liked having samplers, but couldn't imagine drinking a full glass of some of them without a bottle of Tums as a side dish.

 

I thought most breweries were moving on from that. Moving on from the overly intense sourness. At least you hear a lot of brewers talking about it. For a while it was a race to more sour, just like it was a race to more bitterness, or more Lbs per bbl DH, or more adjuncts in stout’s. Seems like a lot of breweries are trending towards less acidity these days.

I love sour beer but can’t stand incredibly sour beer. Guess I’m just not a big fan or heartburn.

 

Going against the grain here, but while vinegar in general = acetic, I'm not sure that "slight vinegar puckering at the back of the throat" is the same thing. To me it sounds more like an attempt to describe the intensity of the acidity than characterise the flavour - if the beer had an excessive acetic character I'd expect them to say so explicitly.

 

What you're saying is of course possible. But personally, even the most mouth shriveling, super low pH lactic acid sours I've tasted didn't make me think of vinegar at all.

 

You could well be right - it seems like slightly odd phrasing either way. I just wouldn't want the OP to be tearing their hair out trying to work out how to control acetic character in their beer without being sure that it's actually there in the first place!

 

@calir1 It sounds like you are fairly concerned about what the judges in a single competition thought. I would recommend entering in a different comp to see if you get the same type of comment. Or if that's not feasible, do you have a local homebrew club or any acquaintances who are craft beer savvy who could at least tell you if they taste anything vinegar-y? I would try to establish that before looking for solutions.

ETA: I see you covered this while I was typing.