And now I am ashamed...

For the first time ever, I had to dump a batch. I poured half a keg of cold, carbonated beer down the bathtub last night. I am so ashamed.

It was the Palace Bitter and it had a really strange fermentation. It was normal until I transferred it to the secondary, where it went from clearing out to reforming a really strange, perfectly bubbly kraeusen (looked more like it had a nice head to it than a kraeusen.)

I went ahead and left it for almost three weeks in secondary, but it never did clear - it was very cloudy, so I kegged it, added some gelatin to try to clear it.

It had the "band-aid" flavor to it. I'm not sure why, as I'm very thorough about sanitation and rinsing. I did use bleach, but I'm anal about rinsing everything with HOT water thoroughly. (I'm now a full on Star San die hard!)

It fermented at 80 F and when I opened the keg to pour it out, it did burn my nose with a strong alcohol scent when I took a whiff.

The worst part is, I forced myself to drink half the keg, even though I didn't enjoy it. I was worried about waste, about money, and I was in complete denial. Then I thought I'd drink it as punishment, to make sure I never messed up again. I hoped it would age, improve, etc. But I think it actually got worse.

I poured a pint last night and had had enough. I poured the pint down the sink and I immediately took it out of the fridge and dumped it.

Semi-good news: extra space in the kegerator, and I have a nice Pumpkin Ale that I am now "forced" to put in there for company this weekend.

Live and learn I guess. I still wish I knew exactly where it went wrong.

what kind of yeast did you use????

I dumped recently too, and I felt shame. It was my Rasberry ale that I had A LOT OF TIME AND EFFORT put into. I had put it into tertiary, and left it while I was on vacation. Somehow, I either forgot to fill or it evaporated, the lock was empty....for 9 days. So, I filled it and hoped for the best, but it developed a scum/particulate layer on the surface. I decided that I didn't want to chance it. When I dumped it, the scum smelled bad, but once that flowed off and I was just dumping beer, it smelled great. Boo Hoo!!!!

I will be making it again soon. I hada couple mistakes in the batch too, specifically with fruit handling, so I can correct them.

I grieved by brewing an IPA.

Orpheus said:

Then I thought I'd drink it as punishment, to make sure I never messed up again. I hoped it would age, improve, etc. But I think it actually got worse.

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Been there... you just don't want to submit to the fact that you screwed up somewhere and your beer is no good. It's the worst feeling dumping it all down the drain

I had one brew ferment at nearly 80F, and I had used Nottingham... it was pretty alcoholic, but over time it mellowed a little, but it was certainly NOT right.

Brewpilot

I was curious so I went to John Palmer's site (http://howtobrew.com) and found this

Medicinal
These flavors are often described as mediciney, Band-Aid™ like, or can be spicy like cloves. The cause are various phenols which are initially produced by the yeast. Chlorophenols result from the reaction of chlorine-based sanitizers (bleach) with phenol compounds and have very low taste thresholds. Rinsing with boiled water after sanitizing is the best way to prevent these flavors.

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So I guess it could have been the bleach, or the yeast. Had you used that yeast before?

I've had two batches go weird and one batch that I dumped because it wasn't what I was trying for & I had plenty of good ale to drink. I think the blackberry wine is headed the same way, but I'll give it six months.

I used Muntons ale yeast.

i have had a batch go south on me when my temp got to high using edenburgh yeast and i know of other that have had the same problem...just wondering if it is the yeast was all hmmm dont use dry yeast so i am not familliar with that one

I've dumped a few just because they tasted like crud, no infection just bad recipe or way to hoppy. One was a Scottish 80/ that I used 4oz of peated malt, Homer Simpson would have loved it, tasted like bacon, the next one was a Bitters, I brewed it after the bacon beer and guess what it tasted like bacon as well, even after scrubbing all the equipment, the third was an IPA of my own design, I used to much crystal 40 and was way off on my hops, sweet and way bitter. I've also lost a few to Bleach, tried to choke them down but they just kept getting worse every day.

a couple of things you can do with bad beer. If you have a lawn your lawn LOVES beer. Just turn on the sprinklers and slowly pour beer in front of them. your grass will turn super green and grow like mad. second I have found out snales (like us) cannot resist beer (I dont think there as picky as us) a tin plate filled with beer in the snail infested garden or yard and you will catch lots and I do mean LOTS throught thew night. lastly I brewed a red ale 3 years ago that turned out infected (I was green) anyway I kept it in the keggor on tap as an honsty tester to see who had true honest responses to my beer. if they said they liked it I would make them drink it all. photohand and myself had so much fun with that botched batch of beer it was almost worth it.
Cheers
JJ

jaybird said:

I kept it in the keggor on tap as an honsty tester to see who had true honest responses to my beer. if they said they liked it I would make them drink it all.

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brilliant and resourceful!

Oooops.. I actually used Muntons.

jaybird said:

a couple of things you can do with bad beer. If you have a lawn your lawn LOVES beer. Just turn on the sprinklers and slowly pour beer in front of them. your grass will turn super green and grow like mad. second I have found out snales (like us) cannot resist beer (I dont think there as picky as us) a tin plate filled with beer in the snail infested garden or yard and you will catch lots and I do mean LOTS through the night...

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It's illegal to bait snails...you have to wait until they are in season...then add garlic and butter to taste! Voila!!

Brewpilot said:

I had one brew ferment at nearly 80F, and I had used Nottingham... it was pretty alcoholic, but over time it mellowed a little, but it was certainly NOT right.

Brewpilot

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I wonder if the same is what happened with one of mine. I had a Brewers Best Amber Ale kit that turned out funky...using Nottingham at nearly 80F.

It has a thin, tan colored head, slight alcohol taste, and a strong wheat taste? It literally tastes like a dark wheat. So far this odd batch is my brother's favorite. It was good to know that someone can appreciate a brew that didn't come out right.

If this wasn't a result of the yeast then it is likely because I let the temp get too hot when steeping. Perhaps a combo of both.

No one likes to admit to having made bad beer and they try to drink it anyway.
Not me. I have dumped beer that was bad with no regrets other than a sense of loss of beer.

I like the sig of someone on one of these boards which says...Life is too short to drink crappy beer.... or something like that. Anyway, I make enough good beer that if I make a crappy one, then down the drain it goes.

Some one once said on here "rack it to the drain".
If your gonna use bleach to sanatize use cold water to rinse.

Well, add me to the club. I have a brown ale with "ring around the neck". It looks like small dark specks clinging to the neck of the bottle. I am forcing myself to drink it as penance and I keep going over in my head what part of the process is not sanitary. It's odd, only some bottles taste bitter to the point of being called astringent. Other bottles with the ring taste fine.

Things that I have narrowed down as being the culprit:
siphon hose - threw it out and bought 20' for about $3
I forgot to sanitize the bottle caps until I had all the bottles filled. I dunked them in bleach water for a couple of minutes and rinsed (probably not very well).
Oh, and then there was the cat hair I found in the secondary fermenter when I racked to the bottling bucket. :cross:

Anyway, thanks for starting this thread. It makes me feel better that people that have been brewing for awhile still get the occasional funky batch. It also feels better to admit my problem. Hello, I'm Engelramm and I have an infection.

Man, y'all are scaring me. I've got three batches going, one I just bottled, one in secondary, one headed for secondary on Friday. I am sooooo looking forward to drinking them and really being pleased and amazed with my brewing abilities... I'm gonna cry if any of them taste bad.

homebrewer_99 said:

It's illegal to bait snails...you have to wait until they are in season...then add garlic and butter to taste! Voila!!

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FRENCH ALERT!!! FRENCH ALERT!!! :fro:

I just distill any bad beer. 5% of 5 gallons is 1 quart of 190 proof. Any bad taste is left behind.

I usually make rum out of the result. The rum spices cover anything that makes it through distillation.

Never waste alcohol!

I've got one that I'm seriously considering dumping. I'm going to give it another couple weeks to see if it improves, but I don't have much hope for it. I know I put a bunch of work into it, but I refuse to choke down something that I don't like.

Life is too short to drink bad beer.

rdwj said:

I've got one that I'm seriously considering dumping. I'm going to give it another couple weeks to see if it improves, but I don't have much hope for it. I know I put a bunch of work into it, but I refuse to choke down something that I don't like.

Life is too short to drink bad beer.

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Isn't it always the ones you put alot of time and effort into?

I've got a punkin brown in secondary right now, and I swear it has a chemically smell to it. Nobody else that has smelled or tasted it can recognize it, but I can. So I've left it sitting in secondary for an extra month+, even added KC finings.

My problem is, I won't know if it's truly bad until it has some bottle conditioning time. I don't do kegging. Which means that it's not as simple as just kegging a batch and dumping it if it sucks. I'll have to go through the entire bottling process, plus a couple weeks past that of conditioning, just to find out it it's any good. Ugh. Not looking forward to that.

Evan! said:

...Which means that it's not as simple as just kegging a batch and dumping it if it sucks. I'll have to go through the entire bottling process, plus a couple weeks past that of conditioning, just to find out it it's any good.

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That would make it a bit tougher. Thankfully I keg everything. Dumping bottles would even make the DUMPING hard - lol!

rdwj said:

I've got one that I'm seriously considering dumping. I'm going to give it another couple weeks to see if it improves, but I don't have much hope for it. I know I put a bunch of work into it, but I refuse to choke down something that I don't like.

Life is too short to drink bad beer.

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I'm pretty sure I know which one you're talking about. I'm pretty sure I've heard of others who have had the same issue with that recipe, but that after a LONG period of aging, it was good (like, upwards of a year). Unless you need the keg, I'd stash it in a corner and forget about it until next summer.

the_bird said:

I'm pretty sure I know which one you're talking about. I'm pretty sure I've heard of others who have had the same issue with that recipe, but that after a LONG period of aging, it was good (like, upwards of a year). Unless you need the keg, I'd stash it in a corner and forget about it until next summer.

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Thanks for the advice - I actually don't need the keg, but I will eventually need the spot in the fridge. I don't think it has a year, but it probably has a month or so to show improvement.

rdwj said:

Life is too short to drink bad beer.

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especially when its so much fun to just make some more