Time for me to beat a dead horse

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

boomtown25

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2010
Messages
384
Reaction score
10
Location
Biloxi
Everyone on here knows that the golden rule is RDWHAHB. I would say the second rule (or the silver rule) is: "Leave it alone, let it do its thing, time works wonders with beer. Well, I have to beat a dead horse on that one. Last week I tried my Cucumber Summer Ale after a week of bottling. I knew it was green, just wanted to see how it was coming along. It was so rancid smelling and they were all gushers (I think I got the priming sugar calculations wrong) that I proceeded to pour out what I thought was all of the bottles (I did this cause I needed the bottles to bottle more beer) without even tasting it. Well I had put a 6 pack of HB in the fridge two days ago that I thought was Dunkelweizen, but I opened one last night only to find out it was some cucumber Ale that had escaped the death sentence. Still a gusher, but had mellowed enough to let me taste it. While it was still green and not my favorite, it had a very interesting taste which if mellowed several more weeks could turn out to be pretty cool. Needless to say, my haste has cost me about a case and 1/2 of beer that MAY have been alright cause I jumped to conclusions- GIVE IT TIME NOOBS. GIVE IT TIME.......
 
I dunno, RDWHAHB and all that crap, but it sounds like you bottled an infected batch of beer (Rancid smell, gushers). By putting the 6-pack of beer in the fridge you just slowed down the bacterial growth causing the rancid smell, etc. I'd drink it quick!

Also: how exactly did you prepare the cucumber?
 
So this is a do as I say not as I do post? lol All of the beer that I have brewed to date is quite drinkable after 1 week in the bottle. I always sample one after a week for carbonation. If it is carbed good then I throw it in the fridge for conditioning.

Are you using a carbonation calculator?
 
It was the first time I used table sugar as I had no Corn sugar at the house. Instead of weighing, I did a volume measure off of someone's rec. on here. If I had to guess, with the fact it was dry hopped with fruit, rancid smell, AND all were gushers- I'm going with infection. But with that being said- they still tasted better after two weeks instead of the fact I could not even stomach a sip after one week.
 
Not knowing most of the details of your batch, it doesn't sound like infection to me.

It sounds like impatience and overcarbing.
 
Did you sample it when taking gravity readings and at bottling? How long did it primary for? Did you secondary it?
 
definitely done fermenting. Primary for 4 weeks (3 involved cucumbers). No secondary. Carboy- undisturbed besides day I addded cucumber. No signs of infection besides smell. Beer was EXTREMELY cloudy but good color. US-05.
 
I cleaned and sanitized my counter, chooping sheet, knife peeler and spoon. I dipped all of the cucumbers in Starsan. I skinned all the cucumbers, cut them in half and used a spoon to scrape the seeds out. I then sliced the cucs up into julian style strips and then fed them through a sanitized funnel into my carboy.
 
Aside from what happened to your actual beer, your silver rule actually falls under the RDWHAHB rule.
 
Last week I tried my Cucumber Summer Ale after a week of bottling. I knew it was green, just wanted to see how it was coming along. It was so rancid smelling and they were all gushers (I think I got the priming sugar calculations wrong) that I proceeded to pour out what I thought was all of the bottles (I did this cause I needed the bottles to bottle more beer) without even tasting it.

:drunk:

You...you did WHAT? You didn't even TASTE it?

6a00d8341c506253ef01156fbcd3b7970c-250wi


Because you needed more BOTTLES? Did you know that there are plenty of sources of bottles that contain non-homebrews in them?

I sentence you to 10 lashes with a 3/8" vinyl tube.

Never crack open another homebrew beer before waiting 3 weeks.
 
I hold my head in shame and promise to never do it again. My self inflicted punishment shall be to drink every bottle I open tonight until I pass out.
 
well, about every batch I've ever tasted of mine after only a week in the bottle was flat and tasted like hammered *******. Give them 3 or 4 weeks and the transformation is amazing.
 
mparmer said:
well, about every batch I've ever tasted of mine after only a week in the bottle was flat and tasted like hammered *******.

Just out of curiosity, what does hammered ******* taste like? Gimme a comparison, because I'm at a loss.
 
mparmer said:
Hammered *******? I thought everyone knew about that.
Kind of a mix between crap and BMC

Dear Lord, I'm gonna regret this, but what is BMC?
 
jr14 said:
Dear Lord, I'm gonna regret this, but what is BMC?

BMC = bud, miller, coors. Used on here to reference most beers that are mass produced.
 
8rnw8 said:
BMC = bud, miller, coors. Used on here to reference most beers that are mass produced.

Oh for Christ's sake. I know that! I completely forgot.

Maybe I SHOULD cut down on drinking.
 
Cut down on drinking? No need to over react here. Brew up another batch of good homebrew and chill out bro!
 
yeah....geeez, going straight for the nuclear option of drinking less is never a good idea. hell, three steps before you do that you need to try to make everyone else drink more...which, in a strange way, makes it seem like you are drinking less.
 
Ok you convinced me. I'll drink the same, if not more. Guess I'd better brew that dunkel I've been dying to try.
 
I dunno man, if you know what is wrong with your beer (infection, procedural), I don't think dumping is the sin everyone else does. A lot of brewing is about learning. Drinking bad beer isn't learning, it's punishment.

Of course there are ways to improve a bad situation, but depending on how bad it is and how much patience you have, brewing more beer (and doing it right this time) might be the best solution.

None of this violates RDWAHAHB, it does not break down at the subatomic level into ghosts and shadows ;)
 
I dunno man, if you know what is wrong with your beer (infection, procedural), I don't think dumping is the sin everyone else does. A lot of brewing is about learning. Drinking bad beer isn't learning, it's punishment.

Of course there are ways to improve a bad situation, but depending on how bad it is and how much patience you have, brewing more beer (and doing it right this time) might be the best solution.

None of this violates RDWAHAHB, it does not break down at the subatomic level into ghosts and shadows ;)

I completely agree and don't think it's a sin at all. I trust my palate and what I've personally experienced in the past more than advice on the internet.

This was just a couple weeks ago:

http://www.fyurl.com/rr.php?c=2&site=www.homebrewtalk.com&url=http://i.imgur.com/mfFbz.jpg
mfFbzl.jpg


I'd rather just brew it again and learn, than drink ****ty beer.
 
I completely agree and don't think it's a sin at all. I trust my palate and what I've personally experienced in the past more than advice on the internet.

This was just a couple weeks ago:

http://www.fyurl.com/rr.php?c=2&site=www.homebrewtalk.com&url=http://i.imgur.com/mfFbz.jpg
mfFbzl.jpg


I'd rather just brew it again and learn, than drink ****ty beer.

I'd never dump a beer after only letting it sit in a bottle for a week. There's no harm in letting them sit in the bottle for two more months and then trying them again. Crappy beers start to taste pretty damn good after giving them time to grow up.
 
My first beer (A stout) has been in bottles since April 2nd. It's still horrible, but I have this shred of hope that one day it'll magically be cured and will taste great. Until then, I still drink the horrid stuff as a reminder NOT to screw up the next batch.
 
I'd never dump a beer after only letting it sit in a bottle for a week. There's no harm in letting them sit in the bottle for two more months and then trying them again. Crappy beers start to taste pretty damn good after giving them time to grow up.

Depends on if you know what went wrong with the beer.
 
I'd never dump a beer after only letting it sit in a bottle for a week. There's no harm in letting them sit in the bottle for two more months and then trying them again. Crappy beers start to taste pretty damn good after giving them time to grow up.

As I said, from experience with some off-flavors, I know some that just don't "age out." This was high in phenolics, and they weren't going anywhere. I have better beer to put in the fermentor.

Even if crappy beer starts to taste good after a while, I still didn't succeed in making a good beer to start off with. I don't brew to have gallons of beer around, I brew to make the best beer I can. Having limited space and storage capacity, I will always pick emptying the fermentor and brewing again to gain more experience, rather than sitting around playing a waiting game.

The scientist in me throws out this analogy: waiting for off flavors to go away is like treating a disease, but I'd much rather prevent that disease from happening in the first place.
 
As I said, from experience with some off-flavors, I know some that just don't "age out." This was high in phenolics, and they weren't going anywhere. I have better beer to put in the fermentor.

Even if crappy beer starts to taste good after a while, I still didn't succeed in making a good beer to start off with. I don't brew to have gallons of beer around, I brew to make the best beer I can. Having limited space and storage capacity, I will always pick emptying the fermentor and brewing again to gain more experience, rather than sitting around playing a waiting game.

The scientist in me throws out this analogy: waiting for off flavors to go away is like treating a disease, but I'd much rather prevent that disease from happening in the first place.

I'm too poor to be tossing beer. And I believe in miracles, so I don't think I'll ever toss a batch without waiting it out.
 
so, psuedochef, with that analogy tossed into your argument, if one of your kids gets a disease, you would just kill 'em off and have another right?

fact of the matter remains, we all strive to avoid infection....as your analogy states, but when you actually have one, time can be your friend.
i have had to dump beer before, but only after waiting. i consider that to be a big part of the learning process in and of itself.
 
I love a good ad hominem thrown into the mix.

People seem to not be able to grasp my point. I realize that it falls outside the hivemind mentality of HBT, making it harder to sink in, but as I stated before, I personally feel that if I have off flavors at the end of fermentation and a small maturation period, I haven't brewed the best beer possible. I would rather spend time brewing again, and having the practice, and potentially drinking a great beer rather than wait it hope with the hope that it might someday get better and drinking a mediocre beer.

I am not saying waiting is wrong. I am just saying I feel I don't benefit from it.
 
fact of the matter remains, we all strive to avoid infection....as your analogy states, but when you actually have one, time can be your friend.

An infected beer doesn't get any better with age. Infected batch = dumper. Since this is a beginner forum, we should keep the misinformation to a minimum.

I agree that if an non-trained person suspects an infection, a wise course of action may be to wait and see.

However, if a person with the type of training that pseduochef has concludes that their batch is infected, he is probably correct!
 
i completly agree, just took interest in the analogy. i actually agree with him, i dump beers i don't like because i didn't get into homebrewing to drink beer that is sorta ok.

but for beginners, in order to learn how the flavors change over time, even with an infection, i like the idea of buying 20 bucks in extra bottles and letting those sit for 6 months.
and some infections, especially in cider, can really become awesome with age, as long as we are speaking in truisms.
but if you dump every batch that doesn't taste perfect out of the gate, how will you ever learn? not speaking to the OP, but to the point in general for folks who have not picked up on this stuff yet.
 
Back
Top