Do you drink all your disasters?

OK....this question will separate the real beer lovers from the amateurs.

When you brew a batch, and it turns out like something from your armpit, do you still drink it?

I still can't justify all that work, all that expense, and all that experience....and then just toss the batch out!

What's your angle?

been lucky so far no pit beers yet
had the first few attempts not perfect but still drinkable

I had one batch that I couldn't drink. I tried and tried, but it was pretty bad. I tried it ice cold, I tried it warmer. I tried it in a frosted mug. No dice- it was awful! I used it in cooking, but that made my food bad! I put it away because I didn't have the heart to dump it. A couple of months later, one of my friends asked me if there was any of that "brown ale" stuff left. I said that there was about 2 cases! They asked if they could have some- and drank up the 2 cases in about 2 months. And brought back all my bottles clean and ready to be refilled!

The problem now? That beer was so bad, I don't want to waste my "good stuff" on them now. If they could drink that, they obviously have no taste buds or sense of smell whatsoever.

Whenever they drink my homebrew now and pronounce it good, I still have to ask someone alot more discriminating! But thank goodness, they drank 5 gallons of swill that I couldn't throw out because it would have broken my heart.

Lorena

My first IPA (the IPA II kit from Morebeer) was bad. I drank about half the batch and then it sat there for about 5 more months. I was about to move and I had to bottle a batch before I moved but I was short on bottles. I decided then that I wasn't enjoying this IPA so why keep it? I certainly wasn't going to let anyone else drink it so it had to be put down.......the drain.

My second batch, a raspberry-maple ale, has been sitting undrunk in the basement for months. At some point, I'll dump it. Fermented too high, plus some other issues. I have another batch I dislike, but that SWMBO likes, so it's still around. If it were me, it'd be dumped, too.

When it's real bad, it's dumped. I've had 1 batch that something got into that made it not quite right but still drinkable and I just tapped that one out yesterday (yes!). My dump history so far:

2005 Anchor Steam Clone - Had it on tap - just some wierd **** going on; bye.

2006 Summer Porter #1 - Racking to secondary is all I knew it was dump time.

2006 Summer Porter #2 - Same deal . Attribute it to crap grain from the HBS.

2006 Apricot Wheat - Tastes of soap, wife doesn't like and it's hers. Dumped yesterday.

That's not a good trend. 60 batches means I had a 93% success rate

I made a dark ale for my second batch and to this day I don't know what went wrong with it. That beer sat in bottles for years before I dumped it out. It was absolutely undrinkable
Other than that, all my batches of beer have been consumed.

I have a disposal unit for bad ale that we will not talk about on a public forum. I've not had a batch needing using in this way yet though. So I've had to brew stuff specifically for it. Tastse like BMC when it's done.

Depends on how bad....

I made a honey-blueberry beer, its not on the remake list. It was drinkable, some people were either polite and said it was good. To me it was too fruity with a beer taste. I pre-empted their opinion saying I didn't like it and told them not to drink it if didn't want to do so. I would say half drank it the others dumped it down the drain. I drank it mainly to empty the bottles. At 9+ months it tasted better.

I currently have a carmel apple cider that's 50% wheat malt... The jury is still out on that. I tasted it and it has a subtle taste of carmel apple. The beer/apple flavor reminds me of what you taste if you belch apple cider!!! Yuck!! I'm letting it sit, its still kind of cloudy, and I don't need the bottles.

I haven't tasted a fruit beer that I like. It might have to be a raspberry porter of some sort. I definately like cider though.

My very first beer was also borderline. One day I'd like it lot another day I try to determine what the odd taste was caused by. I drank it all

I dumped one. I was just awful. I tried to drink it, let it sit, drink it again - wasn't getting better. I figure life is too short to drink bad beer - even if I made it.

Ive never had a "bad" batch....however on my first pale, I ended up with 60 IBUs on a 1.045 batch. Talk about bitter! I ended up drinking every last bit though, I think I lost a couple hundred taste buds that day

I haven't had any true disasters yet. A few of my earlier brews were not that great due to high fermentation temps and alot of extract...but I'm still drinking them. I'm not too thrilled with my "I Wanna Punch Papazian in the c0ck for telling me to dryhop" Oatmeal Stout (too sour from the dryhopping), but SWMBO loves the stuff...so, more power to her.

the_bird said:

My second batch, a raspberry-maple ale, has been sitting undrunk in the basement for months. At some point, I'll dump it. Fermented too high, plus some other issues.

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sounds just like my second batch, a Porter. everytime i go to get a beer, i just never want any of it, so it sits in my pantry, getting old. maybe i oughta give it another chance now after its sat for so long, but my other beers are just so much damn better. plus, i may be imagining things, but i think it gives everyone hangovers, if thats possible

i've dumped two batches in two plus years... they were nowhere near drinkable, due to poor ingredients and poor, prolonged storage.

i've made a few batches that really have pushed the envelope as far as keeping them... i usually end up mixing them with another good beer in the glass so's not to go to waste, or giving them to drunkards deep into their homebrew drunk, so's not to notice the rancid taste

t1master said:

... i usually end up mixing them with another good beer in the glass so's not to go to waste, or giving them to drunkards deep into their homebrew drunk, so's not to notice the rancid taste

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t1master - Remind me not to drink with you!!

t1 master - By the way, where is Clebland Ohio or is that Cleveland?

Dumped two batches in 10+ years...

... a coffee stout that was my second batch...followed some very bad advice and a recipe that said to use 1# of coffee beans in the primary...the beans were bleached white in the fermentor...I bottle and tried and tried but could not drink it.

Second was a recent brown, which I dumped because my hydrometer broke in the thief while sampling the primary and all the lead shot fell in the batch...SUCKED!!!

I vow to never again by a hydrometer...I've gone through about 6 of them!

Evan! said:

I'm not too thrilled with my "I Wanna Punch Papazian in the c0ck for telling me to dryhop" Oatmeal Stout...

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ROFLMAO!!!

I've dumped three batches. One was ropey, one badly scorched, and one that just didn't work out. I have plenty of good beer, I'll drink that. My current Mild may get dry hopped again or dumped, haven't decided.

rdwj said:

I dumped one. I was just awful. I tried to drink it, let it sit, drink it again - wasn't getting better. I figure life is too short to drink bad beer - even if I made it.

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I agree to that. I have dumped two brews over the last 4 years. Crappy beer is crappy beer. Why drink it?

clebland is cleveland oh... the b is to emphisis the latino pronunciation...

I haven't had a bad batch so far. My first was meh, but everyone else seemed to like it, although most people I know like light beers, and this was fairly mild in every way. I've been worried about my two most recent batches, but they have been okay on flavor in the carboys so far, so I'm hoping for the best.

My last two are in bottles now. They are way overhopped and are a real hard swallow. I'm going to let them sit for a few months and let the hops fade. After that, they should be awesome.

I made an ESB last year where I used my finishing hops for bittering and bittering hops for finishing. It tasted like grass.


The real sad thing is though, I know what grass tastes like.

I have not had one yet since I started back up after my 7 year sabbatical, but if I did, I would find a way to use it in cooking. Chili perhaps, boil brats in it, marinade, etc.

I recently dumped a brew after months in the bottle hoping it would get better. It was a Fat Tire clone that was a little weak to begin with... but the real kicker is I mistakenly topped it up to a little over 6 gallons when it should have been more like 4.5 gallons. It tasted similar to pouring half a glass of beer and filling the rest with water...

I had one batch I had to dump: Palace Bitter. It had a really funky fermentation, taking off with another krauesen after a week in secondary. It had the medicinal/band aid taste to it. I drank half the batch and dumped the rest in disgust. I tried but it was completely undrinkable. I drank it more for pennance than for anything else. I figured it would teach me to be lax in my sanitation (which I really wasn't.) Still not sure what happened, but I don't sanitize with bleach anymore because of this.

I'd happy to say, this is also the next beer I'm brewing (1/21) to officially put the incident behind me.

Orpheus said:

I drank it more for pennance than for anything else. I figured it would teach me to be lax in my sanitation (which I really wasn't.)

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I like that! Teach you to be more careful next time

Orpheus said:

I figured it would teach me to be lax in my sanitation (which I really wasn't.) Still not sure what happened, but I don't sanitize with bleach anymore because of this.

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I think bleach is the culprit. I rinse & rinse until no smell of bleach inside & out. (I had some residue on the ouside, unknowningly that is, and kept rinsing over and over.) Rinsing the outside helped. :cross:

After the bleach-water rinse off I use Idophor or One-step. For me, bleach is only for carboy storage. Soaking off krausen and stopping any unwanted growth.

If it don't smell like sewer, it's drinkable! You throw it away and Satan gets a mark on his cue stick against you!

I made a Wit that just was terrible. I got excited and formed my own recipe too early. Ended up with all sorts of fruit juice, honey, 9lbs of DME and all sorts of other crap. I still have a few bottles in the garage, but they're 1.5 years old now.

Made a 80/- that I ended up giving away. I don't like scotch ale.

david_42 said:

I've dumped three batches. One was ropey, one badly scorched, and one that just didn't work out. I have plenty of good beer, I'll drink that. My current Mild may get dry hopped again or dumped, haven't decided.

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can you elaborate on ropey a bit for me pls?

Seems to be a common theme that most of the disasters were the result of people going off the reservation, so to speak. I tried experimenting with ingredients too much on my early batches. The main issue with the raspberry-maple was the fermentation temp, but my mocha stout just had too much of everything, because I didn't know any better. Seems like others have had similar experiences. Once I went back to making BEER, the end result improved very quickly.

I have made a few fairly awful batches...especially in the beginning. Luckily, I know some folks who seem to be lacking taste buds and they will consume anything, no matter how bad.

One recent batch turned out just sorta bland and just isn't doing anything for me from a palate/flavor POV....this I may trash.

All of my batchhes have been at-least drinkable--only a couple have turned out anything less than very good, so I guess I've been lucky.

I still have over a case of berry mild I breweed mostly for SWMBO. She claims to like it, but she just insn't much of a beer drinker. I guess I should have given more of it away (it's now past it's prime, although it still tastes about the same as it always has to me), but since I don't like it that much, I guess I'm a little hesitant to give it away, since *to me* it doesn't reflect my best work.

The only batch I bottled but didnt drink had turned into bottle bombs.

Im determined to make it through the chili beer that I made almost a year ago. Theres about five of those left. They're beyond awful.

Other than that, I havent had too much trouble drinking all that I have brewed. Most werent perfect, but all were at least palatable.

- magno

I tanked my attempt at a Sam Adams Winter Lager clone...under-carbonated, over-spiced, and watered-down....I sucked down ever last drop of it as a reminder of what NOT to do...it worked, too. My last batch, Dry Irish Stout, is nothing short of AMAZING!

If I brewed a batch that tasted exactly like bud light, I'd throw it away. I wouldn't even insult some poor putz by giving it away.

all these horror storys are making me nervous. I bottling my first batch on Sat. IM starting to expect it to tast like poo.

No no, don't worry. The VAST majority of homebrews come out tasting at least pretty good, and often great or fantastic. I'm six for six so far, and I think the average failure rate is probably less than 5%.