Tankard

Recipes 

My brewing buddy Dave was telling me about some of the bad batches he's had, and what he thinks went wrong with each one.

What's the worst batch you ever made? What kind of beer was it? What do you think went wrong (recipe, infection, other)?

BarleyWater

Recipes 

I had some bad bacteria living in my cardboard boxes. REALLY screwed up a couple batches until I cought the problem. Dried out the beer till it had absolutely no body, and gave the strangest funky flavor, almost like nail polish remover. I sanitized all my equipment, replaced all my plastic, and eventually found the source of the problem in the bottom of 2or 3 boxes that had gotten wet, and had very tiny black/green mold spots growing in it. Barely noticed it them, but once they were gone all was well.

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Fermenting: Nada
On Tap:Cran Wit, Dr Pepper Dubbel, Cascadian Pale Ale, Dark Chocolate Stout, Imperial Stout, Brown Mild, Schwarzbier
On Board: IIPA

www.franconiabrewing.com

Blender

Recipes 

My very first batch was probably the worst. It was a Cooper's can of malt and 2.5 pounds of corn sugar. It was not very drinkable and I ended up pitching most of it. I found out about good all malt kits, adding hops and steeping grains and I was on my way.

I had one or two bad batches that were barely drinkable that I never really knew what happened after bottling. Now that I keg I my beers are way better to drink.

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Gary

BigKahuna

Recipes 

Knocking on wood...never had a bacterial problem...but I did make a beer I don't really like.

I decided to mix 3# Pilsen Malt and 2 oz Fuggles....for a 3 gallon sMasH. It sucks.

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tdavisii

Recipes 

One IPA i made was so bad i wouldnt wish it on my worst enemy. Dont know what i did but it tasted horrible.

Redweasel

Recipes 

Mr. Beer bottled in mason jars. Don't even ask.

Yooper

Recipes 

I've had some beers I haven't liked much, but the worst was a popular recipe on here. It was very sweet and pretty horrible for me. I didn't say much because other people really liked the recipe. I was concerned it would be overly sweet from looking at the recipe, but brewed it anyway. It was like cream soda with beer added. I know my tastes much better now, so I usually only brew things that I know I'll like!

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Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

JustDave

Recipes 

Yooper beat me to it, I was going to post about "that" recipe. I recently found a 12-pack that I had forgotten about, and it was undrinkable.

My first few batches weren't that great -- once I switched to a full boil, it was a totally new experience.

k1v1116

Recipes 

before I learned about water chemistry I followed a recipe from the joy of homebrewing for a porter and added the Tbsp of gypsum the recipe called. The tap water I have here is very close to pilsen water almost no carbonates so the beer had way to low a Ph and has this nasty acrid taste. But thankfully thats the worst mistake Ive made yet.

AnOldUR

Recipes 

Now you have me worried. I tend to be gullible, and have considered brewing most of the popular recipes seen here on HBT. Have to keep my eye out for something looking like it would be "overly sweet." (Or you could PM me a warning )

My worst so far was an old extract batch. Bottled half and kegged half. The kegged stuff went down well, and the bottles were fine in the beginning. As the bottles aged they got worse and worse. Even started gushing. No signs of infection, so I’m thinking it was just bad bottling practices. May be exposed to too much oxygen. I still have a six pack in the basement hoping that it may revert back to being good, but I’m not willing to try it as long as I have good beer in the house.

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It’s best to brew dark beer at night, because that way the darkness gets into the beer. —Bohuslav Hlavsa