Sour Stout

[Craigerrr]

Ugh...
I brewed a dry stout last Sunday, by bed time it was chugging along, by morning there was a good head of krausen on top, and the airlock was very active. By Wednesday morning the air lock activity had completely stopped. I left it until this afternoon, still no airlock activity, and now no krauzen. Decided to check the gravity, I am so upset, I don't remember what it was. I tasted it, and it was so sour and bitter that I nearly spit it out, still have a bad taste in my mouth.
BIAB
Recipe
6 gallons strike water, recipe called for 167F strike temp
60 minute mash @ 150F
10 minute mash out @ 167
sparged enough to replace lost water
OG target 1.049
FG target 1.012
4.85 ABV
6 lbs Crisp MAris Otter Pale Ale
2 lbs OiO Barley Flakes
1.25 Simpsons Roasted Barley
2 Oz East Kent Golding Hop 60 minutes

What happened

When I added the grains the temperature only came down to 160F, took 35 minutes to get temp down under 152.
left it for another 60 minutes at 151.7.
I did not know that I could add water to cool down to mash temp... so I just waited.
Pitched Safale S-04 @ 67F
Actual OG was 1.048, at this point it tasted really good.
I was very diligent with sanitation (StarSan), at least I feel that I was.

I checked the gravity on my pale ale after discovering the sour porter, gravity appears to be where it should be after almost 2 weeks, and it tastes great.

Any idea what would cause the failed ferment, and the sour taste?

Thank you, Craig

 

[Craigerrr]

Well, I guess I have answered my own question with a google search... sanitation, wild yeast, or bacteria, causing the sourness.
Very dissapointed...

 

[Hogarthe]

Even if you use sanitizer sometimes a wild organism can get in. Happens to everyone sooner or later, although it sucks when you were really forward to the beer.

 

[Hawkbox]

That sucks dude, but maybe you can pass it off as a fancy experimental beer.

 

[KC]

You remembered to empty out the StarSan first, right?

 

[GFHomebrew]

give it some time maybe itll come good or as suggested above age it some.

 

[Nosybear]

But please DON'T try to sell it to a judge as a Belgian whatever. We're on to that.... Maybe it will become something good over time.

 

[Hawkbox]

I say try it! See if those smarty pants judges actually can tell.

 

[Nosybear]

If you do ^^^^^, please make sure it's a "clean" funk. I like nothing worse than giving someone a score of 20.

 

[Hawkbox]

My ginger beer got a score of 13 in the last competition. Bunch of pansy judges couldn't handle a little ginger.

 

[jeffpn]

I think the only thing worse than getting a score of 20 would be having one less beer to drink.

 

[Nosybear]

I think the only thing worse than getting a score of 20 would be having one less beer to drink.

Getting a score of 20 means you're happy to have one less beer to drink.

 

[jeffpn]

Nah, I brew what I like, and I like what I brew. Judges would probably hate it. I’m ok with that!

 

[Hawkbox]

If I legit got a score under 20 I'd probably have poured out the rest before I got the score sheet.

 

[Craigerrr]

Well, say a prayer, I brewed this again, it is in the fermenter now, hope I don't have any sanitizing issues... Go Yeast Go!

 

[Craigerrr]

After 12 days in primary I popped this in the fridge for a couple of days then bottled it. It tasted pretty decent at time of bottling.
The krauzen did fall but was pretty chunky on the bottom. My fermenter volume was approximately 5.5 gallons (20.8 litres), the actual yield was only about 4 gallons (12 x 330ml and 22 x 500ml = 14.96 litres). There was a crap ton of trub and muck and gunk left in the fermenter. Is this normal?
BTW, being new and inexperienced I brewed this batch with soft water, and had no idea that the PH could affect the flavor. I also struggled with getting the mash temperature down.
I will probably brew this same recipe again to compare the results using good water, and more accurate strike temperature.
Cheers

 

[jeffpn]

Many times, I’ll see about 1 1/2 - 2” of trub in the bottom of my fermenter. You can’t count that part as wort!

 

[Hawkbox]

I lose about 3L to trub in every batch I do. 6L in the one I fermented on an existing yeast cake.

 

[Eyeball]

We had something similar happen to a couple batches, we changed primary fermenters and made sure that we fermented at the proper temperature and it hasn't happened since. We hypothesize that the slow yeast growth from the cool room in the basement allowed the other bugs to get a head start.