I am completely dumbfounded by the carbing process of a batch I did. I did a Brett Berliner that was a sour mash with Brett Brux added in secondary. I just threw corn sugar in when I bottled like I do with all my sours which are the only beers I bottle. I tasted it while bottling from what I poured out for the gravity reading and it was fine. I opened 1 a couple weeks later and it was not yet carbed yet, but otherwise perfectly normal. I waited another 2 weeks and that one and the 2 others I've opened recently were carbed, but had the consistency of syrup which I have never had before in close to 75 bottlings. I've ruled out bad corn sugar as I bottled another batch the same day that turned out normal. My best bets are something in the sour mash or Brett Brux since I've never used either before. I've got another sour mash in a carboy so I'd like to figure out what is going on, so I don't have another bad batch.
How old was it? I usually add some neutral yeast at bottling for aged sours(1yr+) No idea on the 'syrupy' issue though
Sometimes sours go through a "sick" phase or "get rope-y". I am just starting to get into sours myself so I'm not sure of the strain dependence. But normally they just give it more time and it clears itself up.
Pediococcus does that sometimes. Makes shampoo beer. It can take a couple months for it to return to normal at room temperature.
My first thought was "sick" beer, but the timing of it was just weird because it didn't come out until after bottling. It was in primary for about 3 months and then I pitched the Brett and let it go another ~6 months. Based off my experience with lambic, I'd expected the brett to have well cleaned up any pedio by now so I just wondered if the corn sugar interacted weirdly. I guess I'll let it sit a few months and see if the brett cleans up whatever reaction was caused during bottling.
Sounds like it could be Pedio, which could have come from the sour mash. I agree that it is weird to happen in the bottle. For some reason, perhaps, Pedio was able to capitalize faster than the other bugs on the corn sugar that you added? As I don't think beer with that consistency would be easy to drink, nothing to do but wait and see.
I've had that happen with several sour beers. I also believe it would be Pedio. In those cases, I let the bottles condition longer at room temperature which should eventually give way to your other yeast/bacterias. I'll typically open them one a month until they clear up.
That's my best guess as well after reading a few responses here. I wasn't completely happy with how the sour mash tasted which is why Brett got added. I did have some ropy stages (though not as thick as my normal sours that I intentionally pitch pedio into) a few months back, but it tasted fine during the sample and after a week in the bottle so I assumed the brett had cleaned it all up. More time it is.
Problem is cleaning up. Just opened one today for the first time in 4 weeks and it's better. Still not quite over the "syrup" stage, but much better than the last one I opened. Much more than straight lacto in the flavor so I'm chalking this up to brett is cleaning shit up
