So I've Done Just About Everything Wrong...

Read someone's post a while back about trying to ruin a batch of beer. Here's my random saturday bored experiment attempt to create a beer without a style and incorporate multiple yeasts and maybe some wild yeast/bacteria. I did use sanitizer on all my equipment but generally did not put so much care into cleanliness as I normally do.

Starting with a Mr. Beer kit that I got for $7 at my local pharmacy I added the 2 lbs hopped LME (one was a pale ale and one was a english brown ale) then added some old hops (1 oz columbus) that I had sitting in the fridge along with 3 lbs of DME and an oz of Sterling pellets (leaving me with an OG approx. = 1.070).

I let the wort cool in the kitchen sink with no lid and opened a nearby window which let in a nice breeze.

The yeast was a combination of rehashed slurries from bottles of La Fin du Monde and Long Trail's Belgian White, (both of which were sitting in jars on top of my refrigerator for the past week) and of course, the Mr. Beer yeast packets... and then I threw it in the carboy all over the yeast cake from my latest racked batch as I was worried that either the bottled yeast or the mr.beer yeast would die.

It is fermenting vigorously now after just a few hours... lots of Krausen and yeast clumps flying everywhere.

I don't think this beer could be said to have any particular style... it's a monster... Mr. Franken-beer. I'm thinking of adding raspberries to the secondary. Frankenbeerry!!! :fro:

lol, that's awesome. i'm sure it will be drinkable

Sad thing is, it's going to be the best beer you'll ever make. And you won't be able to duplicate it.

Anxious to hear what the result is going to be. I'm thinking an infection of some kind, but still drinkable. Keep us posted.

If it comes out great, it will be the best proof to the n00bs just how hard it is to ruin beer.....

I would imagine that any wild yeast/bacteria that managed to get in there would be massively overwhelmed by the other yeasts added, especially the cake. An interesting experiment would have been to leave it at the window, uncovered with out adding any yeast and see if you could get the wild yeast to ferment it.

Definitely sounds like the cure for cancer

I forget which brewer it was that was on the sunday session one week (maybe new belgium?) but he said for his lambics he just took all the wort and sat them out overnight uncovered in his driveway to introduce the wild yeast. I always thought that was pretty cool.

I like that fact that you threw in two yeasts that you harvested from commercial brews. That even further adds the unknown factor to this experiment.

Well it fermented down to 1.02 after just a few days and upon tasting it seems to have a DMS (vegetable) aftertaste I'm thinking that my last batch probably had some kind of bacterial infection that is now just more noticeable. As of now, it's not undrinkable... any chance the DMS-flavors will age out?

Maybe will dry hop or add fruit to combat this flavor by introducing some new more powerful flavors!!! :cross:

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the Mr. Beer kit had a recommended freshness date of July 2006.

RLinNH said:

Anxious to hear what the result is going to be. I'm thinking an infection of some kind, but still drinkable. Keep us posted.

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i've done many lazy brews in my time, and have never once had an infection.

i always leave the top off when cooling (when doing PM in my apartment) and have used yeast that has been sitting in the fridge, simply with foil, many times.

sometimes i'm careful, and my sanitation is usually pretty good, but sometimes you just want to have a lazy, drunken brewday...enjoy cooking it up and not worry about the end product too much. it usually turns out good anyway.

i seriously think an infection is very difficult when yeast is combatting it, unless you have something seriously lurking.

from what i understand, if you get an infection in your premises it may be very hard to get rid of.

EDIT: The DMS taste will die down. i doubt that's an infection either...this is still green.

from howtobrew:

When caused by bacterial infection, DMS has a more rancid character, more liked cooked cabbage than corn. It is usually the result of poor sanitation. Repitching the yeast from an infected batch of beer will perpetuate the problem.

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is that how you would describe it? or is it just a vegetable taste?

That's weird. I screwed up two brews once by pitching a Wyeast Propagator yeast instead of an Activator. Long story short, I was seeeeeriously under-pitching. As a result I got a double whammy of DMS and sweet, sweet band-aids. Mmmm. Had to dump those bastards - they weren't even worth the bottle caps I used on 'em.

I don't think you under-pitched, but I guess you left your stuff open to wild yeast involvement, just like I did by under-pitching. : /

Interesting experiment I suppose but I've made some mediocre beer while I was trying hard NOT to screw it up. RDWHAHB is fine only to a point... and then you get tired of making beer that gags.

jzal8 said:

I forget which brewer it was that was on the sunday session one week (maybe new belgium?) but he said for his lambics he just took all the wort and sat them out overnight uncovered in his driveway to introduce the wild yeast. I always thought that was pretty cool.

I like that fact that you threw in two yeasts that you harvested from commercial brews. That even further adds the unknown factor to this experiment.

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If you're at all interested in spontaneous fermentations, take a look at this thread.

DeathBrewer said:

is that how you would describe it? or is it just a vegetable taste?

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Well, it doesn't taste like corn but it's not rancid.
So I'm gonna pull out my brew-weapons and try to salvage it.
If all else fails it will be nicely paired with my cabbage soup recipe.