My Worst 12 Hours in Homebrewing

It has been a bad week in my homebrew adventure. Over the weekend I finished off my Stout, so last night I decided to give my AHS Fat Tire clone a try. It has only been in the keg for 2 weeks, but I figured it would be close enough.

IT WAS HORRIBLE. The beer tasted pretty good when kegged, so I am pretty sure that it is not diacytl, but whatever it is the beer was bad. I managed to struggle through a half pint trying to figure out what the off taste was before giving up.

To clear my pallet and calm down I went to my keg of Apfelwein. This one is on a picnic tap since I was out of taps...I filled a pint and closed the lid to my kegerator.

This morning I wake up and there is a stream of liquid running from the kegerator down the garage floor....Uh Oh -- Apparently I had pinched the picnic tap by the lid and drained my keg of Apfelwein inside my kegerator.

Hopefully my British Bitter will be ready soon. I am going to keg and force carb it tonight hoping it will save the day for my party next week in case the Fat Tire doesn't work out.

Sorry for the length of the post, but I had to vent, and I know you guys can feel my pain.

Damn dude, rough stuff! At least you got some stuff coming up, plus an excuse to brew some more!

Look on the bright side... you can always make more

Agh, that's painful to hear, bruvah. I can definitely feel your pain. I've ruined my fair share of batches...infections...too much dark grains...bad harvested yeast...you name it. Live and learn, they all say. Knock on wood, I haven't had a bad batch in...what, 22 batches now? I'll knock on wood a few more times for good measure.

Cheers, things will pick up. I've been in your position, wondering what in the hell I'm doing trying to brew. But then you learn from your mistakes and have a streak of awesomely perfect beers and you're on cloud 9. Good luck to ya...

Man, I hate to hear that. What was wrong with your Fat Tire Clone, though? I had an IPA that tasted great going into the keg, awful a couple weeks later, and then improved drastically over the following weeks to the point of downright awesome. When it was horrible, it was all dry, bland, and alcoholic. It smelled more like vodka than anything else. I was about to toss it out but gave it a week. Do the same (or a couple weeks) and see if it improves.

I'm sure the ants enjoyed the apfelwein.


TL

TexLaw said:

What was wrong with your Fat Tire Clone, though? I had an IPA that tasted great going into the keg, awful a couple weeks later, and then improved drastically over the following weeks to the point of downright awesome. When it was horrible, it was all dry, bland, and alcoholic.

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That pretty much sums up my Fat Tire Clone taste wise. Smell wise it actually still smells really good. Malty, with a hint of the biscuit and aroma hops. I poured that first glass, smelled it, and was like oh yeah this is going to be good....

I am going to let it sit for another week and try one more pint...then again a week after that until its good....if after 4 weeks in the keg its bad, I will just pull the keg from the kegerator and let it sit til I decide that I need the keg cleaned.

rugged, nothing worse then losing homebrew, like losing a member of the family. Hopefully the fat tire will age out. Interesting that TexLaw had a similar experience.

Sorry to hear that Jonnio, May the beer gods smile upon your fat tire clone and make it into awesomeness in a few weeks like TexLaw had.

Yeah, that sux......

I drained my keg, but it was all planned 1 glass at a time

I have a Petes wicked clone about to go in the keg in a week or so...

now it's time to do something else....guess another trip to the LHBS for supplies this Saturday....


We'll have to do a swap of beers, since were in the same town....a good way to have a no-biased person check them....

I ask my wife, and "It's ok...then later....well it WAS your first beer....I didn't wan;t to hurt your feelings......" hahah


Chad

Tradeforcash said:

I ask my wife, and "It's ok...then later....well it WAS your first beer....I didn't wan;t to hurt your feelings......" hahah


Chad

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Gotta love the honesty

If I ever make a beer my wife likes it will be amazing! (she does like apflewein when it isn't squeegeed off the floor)

Yeah, let me know sometime if you want to trade beer. I have a few that should be maturing in the next month.