It has the outlook of most newspapers around the country - bleak!
It's happened to most of the brewers I know. I personally believe that no home brewer has gone without one. Oh, there are those who claim, with a bold stance, their voice deep and stoic, "I've never had one, and I've been brewing for 125 years." It's the dreaded DUMPER!
Five gallons of sweet liquid not fit to drink*. Nineteen liters of wonderful fizzyness not worth consuming*. Forty pints too repugnant to stomach*. Six hundred forty ounces of golden goodness better off put down the drain*.
"Reporter Red", a red ale, tasted fine when it was racked into the secondary fermenter, it tasted fine when I bottled it, but after three weeks conditioning in the bottles... Blah. The beer has a sour finish very much like a traditional Lambic. Perhaps my house is teaming with a strain of Lactobacillus I didn't know about when I bought the place. There is no doubt some people I know would kill for this type of brewing environment, but not this guy.
I've popped three of the six, 16oz bottles and one of the ten, 32 oz bottles only to find the same sourness in each. Some had a very strong off aroma, others rather faint, but all had at least some sourness, especially at the finish.
I've brewed batches before this that turned out fine, I've brewed batches after that are great, so why this batch? I'll bring a few bottles of this to some of the upcoming brewing events and share some of the funk in hopes that my fellow brewers can help me identify where I went wrong. It's either that or relabel this as "Red-Faced Reporter - bitter with anger"
*there are those who would say stick it in the 'fridge. It's cold, wet and will get you drunk, don't dump it.
