Do you Drink Your Bad Beer?

My first all grain batch did not turn out so well for a host of reasons. I learned a ton and won't make those mistakes again.

My problem is that I have a keg of beer that while drinkable, doesn't taste very good. Do you guys suck it up and drink it? Dump it? Pawn it off on friends & neighbors? Donate to the homeless? Frat party?

I don't think I can drink five gallons of Dishwater Blonde Ale.

Dump it and don't look back.

If you want to wait to see if it gets better, go for it. I dump really quickly without remorse. It sucks much more to have a bad beer sitting around than than dumping it.

The LAST thing I would do with a bad beer is to let someone else drink it.

GoodDogShelby said:

My first all grain batch did not turn out so well for a host of reasons. I learned a ton and won't make those mistakes again.

My problem is that I have a keg of beer that while drinkable, doesn't taste very good. Do you guys suck it up and drink it? Dump it? Pawn it off on friends & neighbors? Donate to the homeless? Frat party?

I don't think I can drink five gallons of Dishwater Blonde Ale.

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Short answer-no! Long answer, maybe a couple glasses worth over some time to fully evaluate what went wrong so I don't screw it up again, fortunately it's only happened once

passedpawn said:

Dump it and don't look back.

If you want to wait to see if it gets better, go for it. I dump really quickly without remorse. It sucks much more to have a bad beer sitting around than than dumping it.

The LAST thing I would do with a bad beer is to let someone else drink it.

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This... It was hard early on, but have done it three times and it's easier as you do it. Just gives you another brew day and a chance to get it right.

Life is too short for bad beer!

Yes, usually waiting for the next beer to age right.

I have thrown out 2 batches because I thought they tasted like crap. I gave them some time but after a while I saw no reason to keep beer that I had no intension of drinking arround. Just like when I make dinner if no one likes it we do not eat it.

Well put!

makomachine said:

Life is too short for bad beer!

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Indeed!

Cook up some brats in it

yeah, i've yet to dump a batch. but I've got a batch of amber that snagged an acetobacter infection. I'll probably turn it into a malted vinegar and make a basting sauce or something with it. And cream of 3 crops, I'm just not at all a fan. Maybe in a few months it will be better, or maybe it will just be my mediocre fill-in-a-pipeline-gap beer. If I run out of room, they'll be going down the drain.

ChuckCollins said:

Cook up some brats in it

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Huge +1! There are so many ways to use beer it would be a shame to just dump it.

Mediocre beer makes a great base for beer cheese soup. I typically omit onion and dijon for the gf but the beer makes a great broth substitute.

A quick google search should give you some great results for marinades.

I've had one batch - an ag czech pils that I made as an über n00b that ended up at 8.5 percent alcohol and fermented at ~80 degrees by accident - where I could drink about 1 of the 2.5 gallons and the rest made great drain polish. I tried cooking with it but the rocket fuel fusels made everything it touched awful.

So do what you need to do but maybe consider some alternate avenues.

It's called an abeertion. No point in suffering through a batch if it's not enjoyable for you. Just learn from your mistakes for your next batch. It can be discouraging but keep trying to improve and it will be well worth it.

I just brewed an awful pale ale. I rushed the fermentation process because I was afraid of high temps while out of the apartment. It's bottled, with the hope that the yeast will get another chance to finish the job. I am going to give it a month and after that it's good bye.

passedpawn said:

The LAST thing I would do with a bad beer is to let someone else drink it.

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Well, that depends on who the other person is.

I've been brewing since 1974 and have only dumped 2 batches.
The first one tasted great at bottling time, but got an infection in the bottling bucket. It tasted (and smelled) evil when I sampled a bottle about 1 month later. I sampled several other bottles over the next several weeks (just to make sure I didn't have a bad bottle). They tasted and smelled progressively worse, so I dumped the batch.

The only other batch I dumped was immediately after the mash. I had a lot of problems with the mash, and got a stuck sparge. It was getting late, so I dumped it rather than wearing myself out unsticking the sparge, and not getting to bed on time.

I've had a few batches that didn't taste too god early on, but which were fine after leaving them for another month or so, and a few more batches that weren't up to my normal standards, but which were drinkable. In fact, some of those tasted quite good after some aging (just not what I was expecting).

-a.

I muscled my way through 2 batches I thought about dumping. I havent dumped one yet and seriously doubt I will any time soon. I did have more of an appreciation for the specific off flavors presented in each batch after drinking 10 gallons of the stuff. Great idea to use it for cooking though!

I don't agree with cooking with bad beer. Food is supposed to taste good too. So cook with good beer I read something recently about making belgian waffles with belgian beer. Good belgian beer.

I have used bad wine in cooking and it comes through... terrible.

I actually dumped half a bottle of good champagne in a soup mirepoix last night. When it goes flat, no reason to dump it. But it's got to be good.

The answers here surprise me, at least the ones that say dump it. I would drink it as punishment for brewing a bad beer. Now bring a pint to your room and think about what you have done.

hansen_sh said:

I would drink it as punishment for brewing a bad beer. Now bring a pint to your room and think about what you have done.

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LOL, that's hilarious... I guess it depends on how you define "bad". I've yet to dump a batch but I have trudged through some not so great ones. I just save 'em for after a few good beers, then they magically taste better

hansen_sh said:

The answers here surprise me, at least the ones that say dump it. I would drink it as punishment for brewing a bad beer. Now bring a pint to your room and think about what you have done.

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A pint or two, sure. But 5 gallons?

Hansen... Hilarious!

I've only ever dumped one batch, but that was mostly because I had just moved and didn't have all my equipment yet, but really wanted to brew. So without my normal equipment, my process sucked hard. It was supposed to be a pale ale and the OG was 1.025 with the originally planned hop bill. Yeah, it was basically like drinking grass. That one got dumped quick. Every other batch has been consumed. I even had one beer (a red) get an infection and go sour on me. Technically speaking it was a "bad beer," but it turned out being delicious and all my craft brew loving friends loved it.

I don't drink bad beer unless there is nothing else but I have "friends" that will drink carbed cat piss and can finish off a corny in a few hours Even if it tastes like the water I boiled the crabs in so I never dump out

I also thought I would always drink my mistakes so I wouldn't make them again. That happened the first couple times. I haven't had to dump many but I have dumped a few. It's not worth the calories or dissatisfaction to drink crappy beer. If the batch came out mediocre I will still drink it but anything worse either goes down the drain or it finds an alternate use.

One thing you could do with bad beer is dump it in your yard. Yeah, it will probably attract some bugs but all the nutrients in beer = fertilizer. It's certainly not doing your plumbing any benefit.

I have suffered thru some bad beers, if only to hope they would improve with age...but if they get WORSE after about 6 weeks in the bottle, I reluctantly empty the bottles

Unibrow said:

I have suffered thru some bad beers, if only to hope they would improve with age...but if they get WORSE after about 6 weeks in the bottle, I reluctantly empty the bottles

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I would save all my bad beers in a giant tub, I mean giant. around 200G tub. then when its full empty out your neighbors swimming pool and fill it with beer. Now that would be a pool!

passedpawn said:

Dump it and don't look back.

If you want to wait to see if it gets better, go for it. I dump really quickly without remorse. It sucks much more to have a bad beer sitting around than than dumping it.

The LAST thing I would do with a bad beer is to let someone else drink it.

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This.

my 2nd batch had a soapy aftertaste. it wasn't horrible, but it was noticeable and it wasn't good. i drank it all, but a little slower than my other batches. it was still better than bmc.

I invite some buddys over. Usually when I wake up it is all gone!

Thankfully I have not had that choice to make. 30 batches so far.

Oh Damn! I just jinxed myself again!

I have not dumped a batch of beer yet. How long has this beer been in the keg? If you need the keg for another beer I would say pitch it, otherwise it may turn around with time.

I try to, but batch #2 got a stuck sparge and that freaked me out so bad I burned the LME. Dumped it all into primary to see what came out, maybe a nice rauchbier? Nope, when I went to send it to secondary, it tasted like drinking a bottle of blue moon someone had used as an ashtray. I decided that this was not a beer I was interested in drinking... Down the sink it went.

Punishment? I should be punished for my noob mistakes? Someone has mommy issues, sounds like. (joking!) Brewing that beer in 102 deg heat was punishment enough!!

I think I'll compromise and keep it around until I've got something else ready to go into the keezer. Honestly, it is sitting next to a tasty Raspberry Wheat so I don't think too much of it will get drank.

Punishment? I deliver that stuff to the product, not the other way around! I'm a Sadist, as evidenced by my behavior towards innocent malt, hops, and beer. Grains? Bring out the crusher! Hops? 60 minutes of boiling wort for you! Beer? Solitary confinement for you! Air? Ha! Pure Co2 Is all you get. Like it in the dark? Too bad! You're cold in that metal cell? Bwah ha ha!!!!