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is my brew infected?

Hi, on Sunday afternoon I set a honey raspberry ale fermenting, and by nightfall it was blowing the water out of the airlock, and for the next 24 hours or so it was simply foaming through the airlock. There were even bubbles forcing there way around the gromit.

Just before I had sealed the fermenter I tasted the brew, and it was fruity and very sweet and tasted great. By Tuesday morning it was foaming less and I was able to keep water in the airlock, though it was 'filthy' with ale, froth, and whatever.

Today I've just racked it into a clean secondary fermenter, and I had a taste of it but it tastes very sour.

Now I immediately thought that it was infected but I've been told that it could be the citric acid in raspberries (I used 1.25kg).

Now if this is the case, it'll probably be too sour to drink, is there anything that I can do to neutralize the sourness?

Richy

Reply to
Richy
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Others may have different ideas, but here are a couple: * Add sugar syrup at drinking time. * Brew another similar brew (without fruit) and mix.

Derric

Reply to
Derric

Sounds to me like it was the raspberries. I did a raspberry wheat about a year ago that wound up so sour that I could not drink it at all. The citric acid suggestion sounds very reasonable to me as that is what my beer tasted like. If I do this again (fruit in beer), I will probably use an extract of some kind.

Reply to
Melville

I have used the raspberry extract (available at several online homebrew shops). I think it is the way to go. You can add more or less according to your taste. The beer was a light wheat style and I added the raspberry extract to the beer just prior to kegging/bottling. Everyone agrees that it is a nice summer beer, very light. I do wonder about your beer, though. Time will often mellow out a beer that has a harsh flavor... Maybe just bottle it and set it aside for a while.

kev

Reply to
beerboyfeelgood

Would adding lactose help to sweeten and therefore neutralize the sourness or would it make it more undrinkable?

Reply to
Richy

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