have you ever burnt a beer?

OK - I've been sitting on this one for a while knowing that I screwed up royally and am somewhat embarassed about it - but what the hell..... June 27th was a Friday night and I was brewing a stronger (export?) version of my Gator Snout Stout to be called Bull Gator Stout. I do 2.5 gallon boils and this was a partial mash. I got an early start imbibing and a late start mashing. So I mash my grains and start my boil and get it rolling with my first hop addition. At 10:45pm I had a nice rolling boil, 40 minutes to go until the next hop addition, hmmmm.... think I'll sit down and watch some of the baseball game. Oops.... the next time I opened my eyes it was 2:10am. Sheer terror followed by a stream of expletives directed at myself. I ran into the kitchen expecting the worst. Fortunately there was no boilover mess, no fire, no real damage aside from the wort being about one third the volume it was, and the hop bag being firmly charred to the bottom of the boil pot. I was gonna dump it all right there but figured I might as well take a lesson learned and finish what I started. I added more water and made the final two hop additions at once, boiled about fifteen more minutes and finished up. My O.G. was 1.072 - lower than what I was shooting for but still good potential. I let it set in primary for five weeks and then bottled this past Monday night. F.G. was 1.022 for an abv of 6.6%.
I tasted the last couple of ounces after bottling (I waited until the bottling was done so I wouldn't be tempted to dump it) and to my suprise it wasn't as bad as I expected. Definite burnt flavor, but akin to espresso - very puckery and somewhat acrid - as if I has used way too much Black Patent. Regardless, I will let this one age for a while and see how it mellows.
Just thought I'd throw this out there as a cautionary tale about avoiding the temptation to "sit for a minute" while you are brewing alone. I guarantee this will not happen again - at least not to me.

Thanks for the warning. As a relatively new brewer who has recently switched over to all grain, I think sleeping will be impossible for me while a brew session is occurring. If my first attempt was any indication, I will be running around, stressed out, while trying to do 3 things at once. Once I get comfortable with the process, I'll be sure and keep your warning fresh on my mind.

wow...that sucks a fat one. but im glad here it turnedout somewhat ok

I've done it twice. I once burnt a decoction, and another time I had a massive fsck-up with heatsticks and a stuck mash that led to scorching.

Stuff tasted like a$$.

Update - I popped one open after two weeks in the bottle hoping for it to be tolerable...... afraid not. You know that nasty smell when you walk into a burned out building? That's what it tastes like. Disgusting. I will dumping them all. I just hope all the bottles aren't ruined too!!

brutal.....

I shed a tear for you.

OK, so what's the prognosis for this? Will it ever get better? I have an otherwise beautiful Altbier for which I burnt the decoction (first timer) almost a year ago. I think the last time I had one was about the 6 month mark... still burnt-tasting. Any hope in the long run, or is it a dumper?

Hard lesson learned, huh.
I haven't burned a beer, but a brew buddy has. He was making a wheat beer of some sort. And with all the gluteny, wheaty spunk that tends to go along with wheat, a bunch of that spooge was somehow trapped underneath the false bottom of his boil kettle. It evidently sat there and charred during the whole boil. The beer that resulted after fermentation was for now known as the ashtray beer, because that's exactly what it tasted like, liking an ashtray.
He even tried to blend it with other beers, but all that did was make it taste like the bottle of beer left over the morning after a party that was used to dump ashes in.