How bad was your first home brew?

Mine was pretty horrific and I wanted to know if anyone else was as stubborn as I in keeping with the hobby.

My first brew was a coopers lager. My first mistake was I bought one that had expired a year earlier. Second mistake was that I followed instructions from CragTube on adding brown sugar instead of dextrose.

Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot about equipment and 'how-to's from CraigTube, but after that experience I decided his tastes in beer are very different than mine. Though I have done other things learned from him that worked out well.

Basically the beer tasked like horribly bitter molasses for what was probably a fine beer on it's own. And time would not heal it.

And stubbornness and the unwillingness to admin to the wife that I screwed it up somehow led me to drink my bitter mistakes one by one. And led to my first lesson in home brew: Do it right once before experimenting.

So What horrible mistakes have you drank?

My first actually wasn't too bad, but my next 5 or so weren't pretty. I wish my first was bad because I wouldn't have been so confident and have overstepped my skill on the next few.

Oddly enough, it took me almost 7 years to get my first infection though.

Funny thing for me at least is only the first beer might taste off then they all start tasting better as the night goes on.

I guess I am lucky though since I have not brewed a beer I have not enjoyed yet.

My first one was okay. The Mr. Beer pale ale. My second was an all-grain nut brown (Lil Sparky's) and it was fantastic. I've brewed 2-3 that were okay. None that were BAD. Pretty lucky, but I also researched for about 6 months and started off with tried and true recipes for the most part.

My first was good enough that it made me want to do it some more.
That was 6 years and about 150 batches ago.

Mine was drinkable, but definitely not something I'd want to try again. My third batch was when I finally realized I could make something I'd enjoy.

Mine was pretty good. I read a ton of info that said to wait, use proper temp control, yadda yadda yadda, and did what was said, and the info was right. I even found a bottle of it that was a year old back then and tasted it an it was even more delicious.

First Beer was an Irish Red Ale that never carbed up...it tastes great though, and makes an excellent cooking beer.

My first beer was a brown ale that was actually quite good. Haven't had a bad batch yet (knock on wood).

Mine was a dry-hopped ordinary bitter that was ok. Quite a few people liked it and asked for more, so I don't think they were just being polite, but it wasn't great. I think it was fairly approachable. It was pretty light and bubbly, so it wasn't a huge step away from typical mass-market beers, but it was clearly different, both from the big guys and from the widely available microbrews. It didn't have any significant flaws, either.

Most since have been better, but I haven't had a bad one yet. The worst is my ESB, which is actually ok, but it is way undercarbonated. So it took about 10 tries before anything went very wrong.

My first beer was great. I would have compared it to the Lagunitas hoppy beers, like Sumpin' Sumpin' or Sucks, or even FW Union Jack.

I did a ton of research prior my first brew so that helped. I didn't want to use a sucky Mr. Beer or Coopers kit so I designed my own full volume boil, Partial Mash American IPA. Couldn't have been happier with the outcome.

Simple pale ale with pre hopped LME. Was gross at 1 week.......

So gross that I let it sit. at 3 weeks, it was QUITE good.

First was good, northern brewer chinook ipa kit. The next couple were bad. All uphill after that I'm happy to say.

My first beer was a Fat Tire clone from NB IIRC. I know it was a Fat Tire clone. It was drinkable, friends said it was really good. Recently some who raved to other people about it had my latest CDA and said ok no that is great your first beer was drinkable. I am not sure if the first one they were being nice or if they were being honest.

First batch I did on my own, after a couple mr beer batches with a buddy, turned really sour in the bottle and I thought it was gross. Tried one again after starting to drink sours and now I wish I could recreate it. All of them since that one, about 5 batches in 6 months, have turned out really well.

My first brewing experience was HORRIBLE!

I brewed 10 gallons of Reaper's Mild. Dropped a glass carboy full of it and still have scars. The other 5 gallons got infected due to me not properly sanitizing the disgusting used equipment I bought. Ugghh.

The next brew was 10 gallons of Dead Guy clone. It fermented way to hot and I learned all about fusel alcohols.

I went to 5 gallons batches after that and had to drink quite a bit of beer that was "less than perfect".

My beer nowadays is a far cry from a year ago (thankfully).

I kind of eased into brewing. The first thing i ever fermented was a mead, and that definitely should have aged for longer, it was WAY too yeasty. But my first beer was great! My GF got me signed up for a beer class for my birthday through groupon, but since they were booked for a few months I jumped the gun and started myself. Like others I had done a ton of research and the only complaint I had was the fault of the kit. It was a 60-shilling scottish ale and the body was way too thin and it had almost no alcohol (3%). But the flavor was good and I have had a few people ask me when I am brewing it again.

My worst was the one I brewed in that brewing class. I had jumped right into temp control with my first batch, but with the class they insisted on fermenting it at the HBS (for quality reasons). Unfortunately, that beer tastes like bananas since it didn't have adequate temp control. I still have a case after more than a year.

First batch was an amber ale kit from my LHBS. Aside from being cloudy (took too long to cool) it was delicious. Still new to the game, but of all my batches that have finished conditioning, it is easily my favorite.

My first was a American amber ale "all extract" from my LHBS. It came out amazing tbh. As good as the couple of indie brews o bought from the store. Hooked ever since. Today my pipe line is 15 gal and im the only one who drinks beer in the house. The only other is my son who comes over once a month.

With that amount conditioning. My beers come out really well now.

First brew ever was some $25 beer kit I bought from Wally world when I was in college. The instructions were in chinese or badly translated chinese. I didn't know anything about cleaning or sanitation. I didn't wait for the wort to cool and I pitched hot. When I transferred the beer into the bottles I sucked on the siphon hose to get it started. After two weeks carbonating I had swamp water. It was disgusting and I threw the whole thing out. That was in 2004. I didn't try it again until 2009. First beer after that was OK. Second one sucked. 3rd was great. I've only had 1 infected beer since then, but some that I've dumped just because they weren't that great.

My first beer turned out great, I just had to wait for it. I let it sit in secondary too long and had a majority of the yeast fall out of suspension. I bottled it and let it see three weeks before cracking the first one open. That first one was way too sweet and not carbonated enough so I put it back in the closet for another month. After another month of conditioning it was great and I was hooked. That was about a year ago and I've brewed 15-20 batches since and I'm loving every minute of it.

I'll let you know Thursday. We're cracking open a bottle of each Wedneaday night.

Mine was quite interesting, I was over excited to brew and I had no temp control during a summer heat wave. It was an irish red extract kit that ended up a banana bomb, tasted like an irish red and hefe was blended. We dubbed it the irish monkey due to the massive banana flavor.

My first was horrible: a 2 year old Mr. Beer kit with no temperature control whatsoever at the end of summer. Blech. But it got me curious as to how to improve.


My second one is just finishing in the bottles: a 5 gallon Northern Brewer Saison de Noel. I couldn't wait and sampled after just a week in the bottle and it is freakin' delicious. Already carbed nicely and just Mmm good. Looking forward to the extra goodness that a little age will bring it. So much improvement and totally hooked.

I was actually quite pleased with my first brew. It was a Mr. Beer Cali Pale Ale. I went off the instruction sheet on the advice of my LHMS owner and boiled for 15 mins, added 1/2 oz of cascade hops and 1/2 of crushed orange peel. Plus bought a fresh pack of SA-05 yeast. My next 3 batches, all 5 gal batches have been excellent. I was concerned about my Irish Red Ale because at 3 weeks(6 weeks total) it was still flat and blah. Tried one yesterday cause I just happened to have one in the fridge and wow...what a difference! It was excellent at just under 4 weeks conditioning. Just did my 1st all grain Saturday so we'll see if that one lives up.

I had bought a can of Coopers Real Ale, to get my feet wet. I didn't expect much from it but ya gotta start with your training wheels on. My memory is a bit fuzzy, I might've added another can of unhopped extract from Munton.

What I did wrong... everything.

The result: It did not ferment through, was freakishly sweet and would not carbonate.

Next beer was an all DME beer, used only Munton Dark with Hallertau Mittelfrüh and London Ale Yeast from White Labs. Turned out great. I had gotten the advice not to use the dark DME as my base, but rather to adjust colour. But I totally ignored that.

Then I helped my father with some partials, Cooper kits with DME to boost ABV. I think we did 5 or so kits until we moved onto all grain BIAB. Only made one bad beer since, and it was over-hopped with low efficency.

Mine was horrendous....My first experience was with a Mr. Beer my wife got me back in the mid nineties, tried to get fancy with my first brew. Mr. Beers nut brown, added and entire can of cherries in syrup pie filling, and a 1 cup of sugar:cross:.....probably could have used it to dissolve paint. I didn't take a reading but it had an extremely high ABV, tasted VERY cidery and gross. My brother and I muscled down a twelve pack of the stuff one night. fortunately my brewing got better

Countless batches of extract, and then all grain later, I get friends and family comparing commericial craft brews based on my recipes. Very cool

Mine was painful- quite literally, it gave me an instant headache! It was a 1 gallon AG kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop. I fermented it in my closet at about 85-90F the whole time. Nothing but fusel in the flavor- it hurt to drink. That's a mistake you don't make twice.

My first beer came out great, although it was an extract kit and I had temp controlled fermentation from the start.

To be honest, I've been brewing a little over a year now and haven't made a bad beer yet. I overhopped an IPA, but my buddy loved it so he got them all.

undrinkable. not sure if i had a contamination issue or if I steeped my grains at too high of a temp but it had this unforgettable metallic after taste that just made you not want another sip. Good times.

First was a Mr beer kit and was so gross and not pleasant. I found 6 of them a year later and they were all foam and still didn't taste good. After getting a beginner home brew kit with extract recipes I made some decent and some not so good beers including a ginger bread beer last Xmas. It tasted scorched and awful. Upon switching to ag I've made some really awesome beers and really look forward to brew day...bottling day is miserable and I'll soon keg.

It was not bad, infact it was quite good. It was a Canadian "lager" canned extract kit back in the early 90's, Laaglander, Coopers, something like that, I don't remember exactly. We made several other beers, only one of which was not good, and poured out. It was a winter spiced recipe, and we overdid it on the spices, it really was undrinkable. Since then have had a few that weren't what I wanted or expected, but were not "bad".

Mine had fusels from high fermentation temps. Still not too bad if you can block out that taste. I believe my last one will be better though, it went a lot smoother.

My first one was pretty decent . . .. but each beer after that was not quite as good, dark ones were better, light hoppy ones were worse. Basically, my sanitation (with bleach and rinsing) was not really a good plan and so, over time, my equipment was not getting cleaned as well as it could have, and my process had flaws. Eventually, I made some horrible, horrible beer at times. Once I really took the time to research, and had access to better resources ( I started brewing in the days before the internet was really "common.") I figured the most important things out about brewing - good sanitation and a good routine.

morfanckin' putrid! I was a cocky & arrogant 20 y/o making beer. sanitation was crap. all my so called friends lied to me as they sat sipping was was supposed to be a sweet stout. "Mmmmm! This is real good!" did they think I wouldn't find out? I took a sip & immediately spit it into the sink. it sure knocked me down from that horse. but I didn't give up. 13 years later, finally jumped to AG.

my first one was pretty bad but the home-brewing part gave me some bias. got a can of hopped pilsner liquid malt extract from a cooking store, not a brew store, and added 2 lbs dextrose like the lame instructions said. used 99 cents muntons yeast and bottled after 3 days when airlock was bubbling once a minute (the fact that i went by bubbles per minute shows the level i was at). after that experience i at least replaced the dextrose with dry malt extract and added my own hops instead of relying on pre-hopped ingredients. took almost a year before i discovered the importance of fermentation temp control, adequate primary time, and good amount of conditioning.

My first attempt was terrible. It was rocket fuel with a touch of band aid. It was in Houston in the summer with no temp control and bleach for sanitizer that was probably not rinsed thoroughly.

I held onto it for years, but it never got any better so I finally dumped it. That's probably still the worst brew I've made, and I've made a few iffy ones.

My first one...last month...was a Red Ale with steeped grains and LME. I think I had an overly aggressive boil, and it was too dark and the alcohol content was ridiculously high. It wasn't undrinkable, but it wasn't something to savor either. I learned a lot on that one.

Belgian White extract kit was number 2 and fantastic! My neighbor is going to start brewing after tasting that one.

Two more grain/extract kits are in primary but early samples of the Imperial Stout seem promising. Russian Imperial Stout is still in my primary for 10 days now (4 months to go before I bottle). American Pale ale is 4 days in.

Brewed my first all grain yesterday with a California Common. Much easier than I expected using a bazooka tube in my brew kettle.

So far, very pleased and learning something new with each batch.

Oh...and one batch of cider that I nicknamed Sui-cider this morning after a very long brew day and some self-inflicted damage. I remember filling the fermenter last night...the rest is a little fuzzy.