To drink or not to drink? (w/ pics)

Ok, so I've taken a hiatus from brewing over the past few months and I've been kegging and cleaning all that I've left behind from pretty much the winter.

A little background, I brewed a few beers for a Christmas party last year and one of the lagers had a soapy kind of off flavor to it. SO, I took it out of what was my lagering fridge at that point and sat it on a bench next to it. We can see where this is leading to, it's been there for half a year.

Why has it been there? Primarily because it seems wild yeast has gotten to it. It has a thick pellicle with tons of bubbles. I'm 99% sure I've read somewhere that these bubbles in a pellicle are bad, which is why I'm asking. There's also the degree of cleanliness of my garage to take into account and the mold that seems to have gotten in the airlock :cross: In defense of my garage, it's just very cluttered and hasn't been gotten around to this year. I'll be ripping everything out, power washing, etc in a few weeks to completely reorganize it and hopefully brew inside come winter time.

If you're still here after the read, here's the pictures.
Exhibit A: Garage


Exhibit B: Fermentor


Exhibit C: Airlock


So, should I drink this? Try it? What do you guys think?

Drink it!! And pleeeease let us know how it goes

Oh my. Between your garage, airlock, and the state of your fermenter, you HAVE to try it and report back.

It looks too good not to try

Worst case that beer gets a great trashed garage name for it. Something good will come from this! lol

I beg of you, drink this and make sure to FILM IT and POST IT HERE!

I bet it tastes great!

I'm sorry. I just have to post again to tell you that I love you, man. For a while now I have been feeling pretty depressed about the state of my own garage. well, you have helped me conquer my depression with a single photo. Cheers!

Dirty Garage Ale?

I'd drink it.

Also. Clean your garage! Looks like a place I'd like to brew.

I had a batch that looked like this:


I drank it. It tasted a little funky, but I told people it was "Belgian-inspired" and they seemed to buy it. Even got some compliments.:cross:

Reminds me of Storage Wars also... YUUUUUUUUUUP!

My garage looks like that sometimes. Don't feel bad, there are more important things to do with your time than cleaning!

Hahhaa is that a fertilizer spreader thing just tossed on top of a pile of junk? Awesome. "Fertilizer spreader thing's put away, honey!"

Beer looks good though. Drink and report back... IF YOU DARE.

jagec said:

I had a batch that looked like this:

I drank it. It tasted a little funky, but I told people it was "Belgian-inspired" and they seemed to buy it. Even got some compliments.:cross:

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Looooool!!!! That's just wrong!

I thought my garage was bad!

jagec said:

I had a batch that looked like this:

I drank it. It tasted a little funky, but I told people it was "Belgian-inspired" and they seemed to buy it. Even got some compliments.:cross:

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That is an amazing picture.

I feel like a completely organized individual now. Thank you so much!!! I need to know how that zombie beer tastes. Chug chug chug.....

Had one recently that looked worse. Can't promise about the "soapy" flavor you already had, but my beer turned out fine......great even.

Just try to leave behind as much white as possible.

I'll be taste testing shortly, I just threw a new airlock on it (like that'll do anything at this point) and smelled it. The smell wasn't what I expected, it still smells similar to what it did about a year ago. Also the soapy taste could potentially be there, I saw cheezydemon3 just said that.

I'm planning to re-rack to another 5gallon carboy, just so I won't be disrupting much. I know the pellicles fall sometimes and I'd just rather have one swift motion, who knows I might need to age this more LOL.

Be courageous!

Hey, sour beers are all the rage now...go for it.

The beer is about as interesting as this picture:

On the smell theres definitely a lot of funk. However, that's pretty much all there is. The beer by itself was a basic lager, nothing too special and just drinkable. Tasting it, there really isn't anything. Just very little body, very little flavor. Maybe I'll bottle it and start sending it to competitions as a Wild Lager and see what others have to say, because I really don't get much other than just 100% funk. If someone gave me water fermented with brett I'd probably compare it to this.

BGates14 said:

The beer is about as interesting as this picture:

On the smell theres definitely a lot of funk. However, that's pretty much all there is. The beer by itself was a basic lager, nothing too special and just drinkable. Tasting it, there really isn't anything. Just very little body, very little flavor. Maybe I'll bottle it and start sending it to competitions as a Wild Lager and see what others have to say, because I really don't get much other than just 100% funk. If someone gave me water fermented with brett I'd probably compare it to this.

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Why are you are sending that to a competition? Is this a joke?

Gross.

BGates14 said:

I'll be taste testing shortly, I just threw a new airlock on it (like that'll do anything at this point) and smelled it. The smell wasn't what I expected, it still smells similar to what it did about a year ago. Also the soapy taste could potentially be there, I saw cheezydemon3 just said that.

I'm planning to re-rack to another 5gallon carboy, just so I won't be disrupting much. I know the pellicles fall sometimes and I'd just rather have one swift motion, who knows I might need to age this more LOL.

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Whatever plastic or rubber that you rack it with could have the potential to become infected.. just wanted to throw that point out.. save the cain and hose you rack with and dedicate it to sour beers if you want to make one intentionally
BTW.. looks delicious.. hope you caught a good bug!!

iambeer said:

Why are you are sending that to a competition? Is this a joke?

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Because it's still a beer I'd like get feedback from. It's not like its horrible tasting or disgusting.

edmanster said:

Whatever plastic or rubber that you rack it with could have the potential to become infected.. just wanted to throw that point out.. save the cain and hose you rack with and dedicate it to sour beers if you want to make one intentionally
BTW.. looks delicious.. hope you caught a good bug!!

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Thanks for the heads up, I actually already do make my own sours so I do already have two. I love sours.

I have tons of ideas as to what I can potentially do with this. For now it'll be sitting in a fresh carboy.

BigEEE said:

I feel like a completely organized individual now. Thank you so much!!! I need to know how that zombie beer tastes. Chug chug chug.....

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"Walking Dead Lager". BRILLIANT!

Surely that lager yeast is dead. Planning on adding more yeast prior to bottling?

BGates14 said:

Because it's still a beer I'd like get feedback from. It's not like its horrible tasting or disgusting.



Thanks for the heads up, I actually already do make my own sours so I do already have two. I love sours.

I have tons of ideas as to what I can potentially do with this. For now it'll be sitting in a fresh carboy.

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I would try racking it onto some fruit. Figure out what kind of fruit would go well with that funk and go for it. You could also try blending it with a more complex beer and let those bugs work on that for a while.

BGates14 said:

I really don't get much other than just 100% funk. If someone gave me water fermented with brett I'd probably compare it to this.

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You've created "Funk Water."

Clifton said:

You've created "Funk Water."

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There's a band called Here Come the Mummies. I'm sure those guys would drink it if you told them it would bring out the ladies. They're all about the funk.

BGates14 said:

Because it's still a beer I'd like get feedback from. It's not like its horrible tasting or disgusting.

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My bad. I misread your description of your tasting, sorry. What I got from it was you didn't like it being watery and funky, but that it wasn't disgusting. Well funky has so many meanings.

I wonder if the judges are forced to drink everything in front of them. Suddenly doesn't seem like such a great gig.

Dirty garage.... check!

honestly had a kolsch that I accidentally racked into a keg that was not rinsed but merely sanitized, but the funk left in it. The kolsch had a hint of funk and was awesome.

So the beer sucks. Oh well. Time to clean out the garage!

I hate anything accept cars in my garage. I bought a large shed to get rid of everything in the garage.

I would dump that batch. Actually, I would dump the carboy too.

Slipgate said:

I hate anything accept cars in my garage. I bought a large shed to get rid of everything in the garage.

I would dump that batch. Actually, I would dump the carboy too.

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Not the adventurous type eh? It's nothing that a bucket full of oxyclean and an overdose of StarSan can't fix. Maybe.