Worst Beer Ever?

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bottlebomber

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I've made probably 20 batches altogether, most of them extract, so I am basically a novice brewer. However I've had pretty good luck with the whole thing, and I've really only had one batch turn out less than great. Many of the bizzare sounding off flavors described by brewers I have never experienced. Not anymore.
The recipe
13 lb 2row
1 lb amber 20
1/2 lb special roast
1 lb carafa 300L
1 lb corn sugar

Brewed it last Saturday, mashed at 148, sparged at 160. Pitched at 65. OG was 1.088. Took a gravity reading this evening, it was at 1.020. What I tasted
Hot hot alcohol that is still burning my chest
Bandaids. Lot and lots of bandaids. (I was always wondering about that one
Old Coffee Bitterness
Butt Funk
And Bandaids.
What in gods name did I do wrong... don't tell me , let me stew. This beer tastes like ****!
 
There should have been no butt funk. I used wlp007 and fermented in the 60s. Someone is probably going to tell me im insane to judge a brew after 6 days of fermentation. Well, I've had some really harsh tasting beers turn into fabulous brewing masterpieces by most standards. But I've never tasted anytthing like this. Im going to let it sit there until I brew again which will be in 2 weeks, and its going into the compost heap
 
What yeast did you use? What were the fermentation conditions?

Sounds like a fermentation temperature issue.

Maybe. But it sounds more like either chlorine/chloramines in the brewing water (if tap water), or a bacterial contamination. I just had a few "cloves" in a beer I did. I had two fermenters side by side, but used different yeast in them. One yeast starter that I cultured must have been contaminated. It started off as cloves, but then added band-aids. I almost cried dumping 5 gallons of beer. :mad:
 
Maybe. But it sounds more like either chlorine/chloramines in the brewing water (if tap water), or a bacterial contamination. I just had a few "cloves" in a beer I did. I had two fermenters side by side, but used different yeast in them. One yeast starter that I cultured must have been contaminated. It started off as cloves, but then added band-aids. I almost cried dumping 5 gallons of beer. :mad:

Good point.

Looking at White Labs website...
WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast
Clean, highly flocculent, and highly attenuative yeast. This yeast is similar to WLP002 in flavor profile, but is 10% more attenuative. This eliminates the residual sweetness, and makes the yeast well suited for high gravity ales. It is also reaches terminal gravity quickly. 80% attenuation will be reached even with 10% ABV beers.
Attenuation: 70-80%
Flocculation: Medium to High
Optimum fermentation temperature: 65-70°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium-High

The temp. stood out to me... ambient temps of 65+ for an aggressive yeast will certainly ferment quite a bit higher. Especially if the ambient temps spiked at all.

The water wouldn't effect the extract brews as much. How many all-grain brews have you done. What is your water situation?
 
Pennsyltucky said:
Good point.

Looking at White Labs website...
WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast
Clean, highly flocculent, and highly attenuative yeast. This yeast is similar to WLP002 in flavor profile, but is 10% more attenuative. This eliminates the residual sweetness, and makes the yeast well suited for high gravity ales. It is also reaches terminal gravity quickly. 80% attenuation will be reached even with 10% ABV beers.
Attenuation: 70-80%
Flocculation: Medium to High
Optimum fermentation temperature: 65-70°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium-High

The temp. stood out to me... ambient temps of 65+ for an aggressive yeast will certainly ferment quite a bit higher. Especially if the ambient temps spiked at all.

The water wouldn't effect the extract brews as much. How many all-grain brews have you done. What is your water situation?

It fermented in the 60s, the ambient temperature was a 60 degree cold water bath. This is only my 3rd grain batch, however before there was only base malt used and that's all. But getting to water, yes this may be an issue. I just bought this house and moved here 6 months ago. First grain batch here. The water did smell much more chloriney than what im used to when I moved here, and I think I just adjusted to it. However I've done two extract batches and they both turned out really nicely. I didn't know that chlorine had an effect on the all grain brewing process besides just adding a chlorine flavor. I should have probably done more research...
 
It fermented in the 60s, the ambient temperature was a 60 degree cold water bath. This is only my 3rd grain batch, however before there was only base malt used and that's all. But getting to water, yes this may be an issue. I just bought this house and moved here 6 months ago. First grain batch here. The water did smell much more chloriney than what im used to when I moved here, and I think I just adjusted to it. However I've done two extract batches and they both turned out really nicely. I didn't know that chlorine had an effect on the all grain brewing process besides just adding a chlorine flavor. I should have probably done more research...

Chlorine can be boiled off, or even if you let the water sit out the chlorine will disipate. But chloramines will not. (Check with your water supplier to see which they use). In any case, an easy fix is either to buy RO water from the store, or to buy campden tablets (potassium metabisulfite) available at any homebrew store. One crushed tablet can be placed in 20 gallons of brewing water (1/2 tablet for 10 gallons) and stirred in well. This will get rid of the chlorine/chloramine. I'd do it the night before, and let the water sit out and then brew the next day.

If it's chlorine or chloramine, that will fix it. I'm guessing it's the water- it sounds like classic chlorophenols.
 
I think you are right... thanks for the advice ill probably just use my folks well water for my batches in the future. It tastes perfect and itll probably make great beer
 
But getting to water, yes this may be an issue. I just bought this house and moved here 6 months ago. First grain batch here. The water did smell much more chloriney than what im used to when I moved here, and I think I just adjusted to it.

There ya have it... 9/10 (or thereabouts) of beer is water. What this tells me is that I need to learn more about brewing water.
 
Pennsyltucky said:
There ya have it... 9/10 (or thereabouts) of beer is water. What this tells me is that I need to learn more about brewing water.

Another option is you could learn to love beer that tastes like beaver piss
 
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