Has anyone ever messed up a batch??

mikfire said:

Every time I start to panic, I keep one thought firmly in mind. We have solid evidence that people have been brewing beer for at least 3000 years. I am willing to bet the Chinese were doing it longer than that. They brewed perfectly fine beer with no understanding of yeast, of the chemistry by which starch becomes sugar, no real temperature control, etc..

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This mik, is sort of one of cornerstones of brewing philosphy...my mantra...just think of all the things that we have that they didn't...

An understanding of germ theory for one thing...basic sanitition, like regularly washing your hands (remember in many parts of the world centuries ago bathing was thought to be EVIL) so those people fishing their hands into their wort to grab their airlock grommets (j/k) really were at a higher risk of infection than we are....

AND yet...for "BEER" to have survived to be as large a part of the world's culture as it is today...even MOST of their batches had to have turned out OK, meaning it tasted good "enough" and didn't make them sick.....Or else beer culture would have gone extinct...people wouldn't have bothered refining the process if ALL THE BATCHES didn't turn out...

Beer would have gone out of society just like Clear Pepsi and New Coke did...

thataintchicken said:

clean clean clean. One can NEVER be to sterile.

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Good point. I pulled out my racking hose a few batches ago and gave it the visual inspection I always give my equipment before use. There was crud in the hose. A quick whiff and I knew it was toast, I must have not cleaned it well. I threw it out and bought a new one before racking.

If it looks clean, smells clean, and it has been sanitized properly, you are good to go...

I brewed a Scotch Ale that has tried to go into the trash can (panic) a couple of times. But, I have held fast and know that no known pathogens can live in alcohol. And after finding this board last night and reading this thread, I had to add in my story.

Malt extract with steeped grains kit from local brew supply store (good store). All went well until I went to fill up the fermenter. Added an extra 1.5 gals of water cause I could not remember here the 5 gal mark was. Starting OG was suppose to be 1.057. I measured 1.020, just right about where it should be finishing. Talked to a brewing friend of mine and we discussed what I did and we could not come up with an immediate cause. Then the idea of dilution came to mind. Called my wife up and asked for the measurements of the fermenter and where the water line was. Found out that I had an extra 1.5 gals of water in there.

The 'fix' was to add another pound of malt extract with another few cups of water, boil for 15 minutes, cool and add to the wart. Finally got around to doing that 5 days after it had sat in the fermenter. Let it sit there for another week and racked it to the carboy. When I checked the specific gravity, it was still 1.020. Tasted really good, no idea of the alcohol content at all.

It has been in the carboy for 24 days now and it has trub (at least that is what I think it is - little white cylinders about the size of two periods stuck together). Sooo, what do I do with the trub? I have a bucket big enough to place the carboy in and add water and ice to chill the wort. How long will it take for the trub to fall out of the wort. Should I rack it when its cooled, before adding the priming sugar or just leave it and work it from the carboy?

Thanks for your help and this is a great forum!

Cheers.

Revvy said:

I would like to know from the lurking noobs if this and/or the new thread is helping...or scaring you further...

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After making a post on here and reading enough, I fear nothing anymore. All my beers look weird and taste great.

mmmm....
Deviled eggs.

OK, back to the topic. I had to think long and hard, but I'm pretty sure I've never dumped a beer. Have I made some nasty beer? Oh Yeah! When I started brewing (20 yrs ago while in college) I had zero knowledge, money, or HBT and winged it. It was a lovely "Australian lager" that was 4 lbs of malt from a can and 4 lbs of corn sugar. Why did I use 4 lbs of corn sugar? Well it came in 4 lb bags silly. Why not use it all. I followed up by fermenting it in less than two days at 85 degrees. It tasted like cider mixed with donkey piss and we drank all but one of them. The last bottle is still in my fridge and one of these days I'm going to give it a try. Since then I've made other great and memorable mistakes. My first AG managed to come in at 1.022 OG. It was an less than extra special ESB, but I drank it. I put way to much vanilla in a porter one time. I drank it anyway. I feel like drinking my poor decisions has helped to keep me from doing it again. Now a days my bad beers are out of balance. It "needs more hops" or has "way to much chocolate malt" and I drink them all. Now that I'm older and smarter (maybe) I mix my bad beers with something else. Take the way to hoppy APA and mix it with a porter and it becomes a strong American brown ale.

I've had a few bad batches.

One was a hefe weizen that I dumped a couple of cans of lemonade concentrate into. Bottled it after about 1 week and surprise, they were WAY to carbonated. Ended up just dumping them all into a bottling bucket and had a swill fest out by the pool.

I bought a kit that had the wort preboiled in a bag. The only beer I've ever had that got worse the longer it was in the bottle.

They were all drinkable though.

Revvy said:

I would like to know from the lurking noobs if this and/or the new thread is helping...or scaring you further...

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Scared? I'm half tempted to TRY some of these shenanigans!

Saccharomyces said:

Good point. I pulled out my racking hose a few batches ago and gave it the visual inspection I always give my equipment before use. There was crud in the hose.

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Ditto. Apparently i forgot to rinse and dry everything after bottling my last cider, and for some reason put the siphon tube in the bucket before putting the whole lot away. When i dug out the bucket to start my current batch, i found a nice hairy mass in there, and my clear tube was now completely opaque, and scarlet red. Needless to say the tube got binned*, i nuked the bucket with about 3/4 of my remaining sterilizer (about 10x the normal dose).

3 weeks later, my beer has hit target fg, i'm leaving it for another 3 weeks because i know from (limited, 4th batch) experience what the extra time does for the final product, which should give it 6 weeks to sit in bottles before my birthday, and the 1st anniversary of my first brew.

* Here's the sad part. I have an awesome microscope, with a nifty USB camera attachment, that i'm always looking for something unusual to examine, and that i only remembered existed the day AFTER the bin was emptied. I cursed. A lot.

I have had my first unintentional infection the Octoberfast in my sig . Everything went well and when I went to take a sample it was infected. I believe its a lacto infection . Its all powdery and white on the surface. I am just letting it go to fruition no sense dumping it now. I'll let ya know in a few months if its screwed.

I have ten gallons of a saison I made sitting in a big steel fermenter in my garage. I don't think I am going to keep it, but I am so not ready to dump it out. I used a strain of yeast that was actually a blend, and I think somehow wild yeast came into the mix. The beer dropped to .997, and I'm not really sure what's going on with it now. The initial taste was not great. It has gotten better, but it really would only be worth saving for my less discerning friends.

I just don't know...

I made one batch that I dumped most of and two I dumped all off. The first was off flavor from a vinyl hose. The other two were temp related I think, could be contamination but I did make another batch pitched with yeast form one of them that turned out great (I want a microscope.) I got the chest freezer going right after those two and now I can make ales as clean as lagers. Not a dumper since.

15 gallons out of about 400, a 3.75% dump rate. I could live with that but I'm only getting better.

Haha figured id bump this thread back up to the top and give all you vets a break.
I personally am on my second batch of cider two 5 gallons carboys. One has been perfect on had rhino farts added some yeast nutrient farts went away ... came back three days later. Added more nutrient (quite a bit) and went away again. Still the off gasses don't smell as sweet as the other carboy which has smelled sweet since the beginning. Also the "good" carboy has healthey krausen at the top whereas the difficult one doesn't. Almost like its fermenting at the bottom. Strange since both were prepped and filled exactly the same. Im not sweating it. Just see what happens. And if it comes out awful then i figure ill throw it outside in the ten degree weather and decant the next day ;-)

Oh yeah figure its noteworthy to add that both are still bubbling happily away at one per three seconds two weeks into primary

As a new homebrewer whose first batch is now bottle conditioning, this makes me feel more confident lol. Think all brand new homebrewers should read this thread. Summarized in one sentence, if you sanitize properly, your beer will turn out fine!

pursuit0fhoppiness said:

As a new homebrewer whose first batch is now bottle conditioning, this makes me feel more confident lol. Think all brand new homebrewers should read this thread. Summarized in one sentence, if you sanitize properly, your beer will turn out fine!

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Actually THIS is the thread I encourage noobs to read... it was inspired by this very thread....

After several batches under my belt, I must admit that I tasted a pineapple APA I am brewing while transferring to secondary (and adding pureed pineapple). It was absolutely horrid tasting. That being said...I know it will still turn out okay. Still lots of time left before consumption...and as many have said...it all comes out in the wash basically.

May not be exactly what you were anticipating, but unless it was an attempted clone...who cares? Still tastes decent and gives you the warm fuzzies.

Cheers!

I haven't messed up a batch yet. 8 batches in so far and I'm beginning to believe what they say about beer being hard to mess up.

I'm not 100% sure I remembered to sanitize my bucket before I put this last batch into it. Pretty sure I didn't, in fact. Might have had a few too many of the previous batch during that session. Still, the beer is fine. I dumped some gelatin and vanilla beans into it just a few days ago and it looks and tastes perfect so far. I'll hopefully be bottling that one and brewing the next one this Saturday.

slheinlein said:

Granted, I am new to this forum but have spent quite a bit of time the past few weeks reading many, many threads. It always appears that when someone has major problems (at least to me) with a batch, someone (who knows much more than I) replies with...

"And your beer is fine. Don't worry."

Now, I am curious how many people out there have actually ruined a batch and the reason it was ruined. I am sure there has been at least a few ruined batches. This would give us Noob's some valuable good information on what not to do. Maybe the top 10 things to avoid would be good. I don't want to be the first thread that reads...

"Worry! Your beer is NOT fine!"

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I've about 20 batches (20L max), and the only batch I tossed so far was a small batch of graf. After bottling, I realized I didn't correctly rinse out the active oxygen detergent/sanitizer granules from the bottling vessel... I found the risk too high, no way I was going to drink or serve detergent.

My lesson from that is that brewing is a bit like cooking a somewhat complicated meal. You have to be on top of things and aware of what you're doing and going to do.

This thread made me go from lurker to joining. I've started my second batch and am encouraged by the stories in this thread. Thanks guys you all rock. All noobs should read this.... wow.

I have had 2. My first I put the grains right in my kettle and try to get the sugars that way. I had forgotten what I had done the time before. Needless to say the beer had scorched flavors. Tossed.

The other batch was a wheat beer. I had probably 10 brews under my belt at that point and I believe I mashed too high so my mash gravity was awful. I knew it was going to be a weak beer. Then I went to chill it, walked inside while my immersion chiller was running and it had leaked another gallon. My oh was about 1.03 at that point but when I tasted it out of the keg it was just watery. Pitched that one too.

Yes

I used to grow my own hops. And every year I would make a home grown IPA.
This one particular batch I dry hopped with them.
The entire batch got infected with something. It smelled like puke and looked even worse.

I never did that again.

First batch I brewed tasted like sweet banana anti-freeze after 3 weeks - I racked it in to a polypin as didn't think worth bottling (did bottle a dozen) - 2 weeks on and it's starting to taste like real beer

I keep reading people say give beer time - but I've convinced my wife all this kit means I don't need to buy any more beer - so I have to drink it whatever right now

Forgive me Revvy for I have sinned. The first 6 weeks I started brewing I dumped 2, yes 2, 5 gal batches. But I have seen the light, I have learned, keep good notes,(keep them were you can find them) and dump nothing. About 2 months in I threw together some left over stuff and Belle Saison yeast. Month later it smelled so bad I could not get it close enough to my face to taste it. But I left it. 2 months now no better, I racked to a keg. Went on vacation, Thought I should try Belgian beer. Bought some Leffe, I can drink it if I have to. Anyway I ran across that keg 5 months after brew day, pulled the ring to vent the keg, thinking I'm dumping it. Wow, it smells good, threw it in cooler, carbed it up, tasted it. Leffe, my palate can't tell the difference. I kept notes, still looking.

Past me: "Hmm, if Crystal malts add nice flavor, I should add 5 lbs of it instead of the 10 oz the recipe calls for."

Undrinkable.

jwalk4 said:

Past me: "Hmm, if Crystal malts add nice flavor, I should add 5 lbs of it instead of the 10 oz the recipe calls for."

Undrinkable.

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Been there, done that....yuck

Friday, I used almost twice the strike water I should have. Had a brain cramp and forgot how to do math. Naturally, batch came in at 1.044 instead of 1.052. About 58% efficiency. @#$%!@ me

I ruined a batch once. OG was way low so I added a bunch of table sugar then heard that was a bad idea so I dumped it. After I dumped it it was definitely ruined.

I've dumped a few. Mainly because I had pitched the yeast too hot and got some seriously nasty off flavors. Also did a huge batch of a cream ale that wound up chunky. Yes, chunks of white stuff floating in it with a nasty sour flavor. That one was bottled, and a major PITA to dump and clean 52 bottles of it. I've had a good streak going lately, though I am considering dumping a full keg of a brown I did last month. 10 gallon batch, one keg force carbed which turned out decent, and one keg sugar carbed which has resulted in what I can only call a REALLY sour brown. It's drinkable, but only marginally. I've learned from HBT that every batch is a learning experience whether you've just started or have been brewing for years. As long as I keep that in mind I haven't been tempted to throw in the mash paddle yet. This weekend I'm attempting something I haven't yet done; I'll be mashing as for a 10 gallon batch but splitting it into two kettles for a blonde and an IPA that will be boiled at the same time in different kettles. I love challenges and this one will be fun.