Rook

Recipes 

Guys, I just wanted to share with you. I was getting really depressed with my brews and was pretty close to just giving up and going back to commercial craft brews recently.

Until yesterday, to date, I'd had 1 successful batch, my 5th. It was good beer, a beer that I'd be pretty happy with if I was served at a bar.

My 4th batch wasn't good, and my 6th batch, at 3 weeks in the bottles(when I had last tried it) was pretty gross. I was getting a little disheartened. I'd put a ton of time into making all of these beers, been really careful with sanitation, they didn't tasted contaminated/infected, the just didn't taste good! For the fruits of my labors, I had just shy of 2 cases of beer to enjoy, a bunch to choke down and one batch to dump.

I tried my 6th batch again yesterday, and its now pretty damn good. My ratio is still 2/4 : Good/Bad, so I've got some mileage to go until I reach a 'mostly successful' ratio, but I tell yah, I was getting pretty sad about the beer, and had no idea what was wrong.


How many of you had good beer right from the beginning?? Ever feel like your beers just weren't that good?

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Rook

david_42

Recipes 

My first two were brew-in-a-bags, really bad. They were gifts. I've had three bad batches since then; two infected (I'm not certain the ginger beer was actually infected, but I wasn't taking any chances) and the other one was so far from what I was trying to do that it got dumped. Many of my batches are on the odd side, but they were designed to be outside the style sheet.

I spent years trying to perfect a porter. Made a Rogue Mocha Porter clone and tossed my recipe!

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Remember one unassailable statistic, as explained by the late, great George Carlin: "Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!"

"I would like to die on Mars, just not on impact." Elon Musk

DeathBrewer

Recipes 

my beer's pretty much always been drinkable and most of them are damn good. where do you think you are having a problem?

are you using kits and what are your recipes? also, fermentation temperature is VERY important for having a good quality final product. have you had a cool and consistent temperature for your primary?

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Easy Partial Mash Brewing - Stovetop All-Grain Brewing

"Death is always with us." - Brewpastor

We will remember...

homebrewer_99

Recipes 

I don't think I had an UN-acceptable (to drink/share) brew until my second year, but I will admit that I had 2 of them just last year.

Wait one...I just checked, make that 3 out of 32 were bad enough to not share, but I am certain I did pour out some bottles.

Do you have any brewers in your neighborhood willing to assist you in your procedures/process? I know we all think we are doing everything right all the time, but maybe they can assist you and tell you where you are going off? I know I called my SIL to come over and hold my hand my first time, so to speak.

I've brewed more batches last year (32) than he's done all 14 years, but he has 2 going right now. He was over last week and I gave him some extra hops and yeast I had.

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HB Bill

Rook

Recipes 

I honestly wish I had an INKLING as to where my faults were. I haven't made any kit beers, just recipes, 2 with steeped grains, the rest partial mash's. Frankly I'm starting to think that its not me. As I said, 2 of the last 3 beers have been good, so things are definately looking up, I just don't know if it has been my process (I know I scorched the crap out of some of my malt extracts) or if I'm making beers that maybe just don't taste good.

My primary has generally had a very consistent temperature, usually 68 to 71 degrees, although it is getting warmer now and I'm going to have to move any future beers downstairs to the garage to keep those temps consistent.

When I cracked batch #6 yesterday and it was good, it was a huge weight off my shoulders.

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Rook

Willy Boner

Recipes 

Take your brewpot off the burner to stir in your extract and stir till completely dissolved. I also went to putting a little of the extract in at first and the the most of it at the last 10 min of boil to sterilize, but make sure you take off burner first and dissolve.

Orfy

Recipes 

I've just checked on a brew and I'm going to have to dump it. It's got an infection.
maybe the second in 30 so far.

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GET THE GOBLIN
Have a beer on me.

Whelk

Recipes 

Maybe consider moving to do some nice, simple extract kits. That way you know the recipe is at least drinkable, so you can see if the problem is with your process. Take it nice and slow, triple-check everything, and just go through the simplest brewday you can. Then it'll be easier to form good habits and see where your bad ones are.

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Nothing until I figure out if I can make it happen over in the UK.

Ryanh1801

Recipes 

I have had to dump one brew out of 6. Just stick with it, maybe order a kit from AHB. Do a few kits until you are comfortable with your process.

dibby33

Recipes 

Maybe you should try making a different type of beer? Maybe you don't like the taste of the ones that you are currently making?

I didn't really like the taste of my earlier brews but that was because they were straight out of tins with sugar added.

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Primarys : empty.
Secondary : Mead (2 gallon trials)
Bottled : all drunk
Drinking : A Lot.
Next Up : Pumpkin Ale