What do you do with bad beer?

I figure we've all done it, or will do it. Sometimes, things go wrong and you make "bad" beer. Sure, it's beer, but it's totally sub-par.

Do ya dump it?

Bottle it and hope it improves?

Drink it yourself so nobody else tastes your mistake?

Share with friends because hey, it's beer?

Personally, I tend to keep it to myself unless I run out of the good stuff and have friends over. Then I distribute it with a fair warning.

Life's too short to drink crappy beer, even if you made it yourself. Dump. I've tried to fix under attenuated beer by using enzymes. All that does is prolong the inevitable. If it's not terribly bad, depending of course on what the flaw is, you can occasionally blend it, but I have found this can rescue a crappy beer from the drain, but it also forces you to mix good and possibly great beer with something crappy, turning it into a mediocre beer.

Dump I vote.

I drink it, but don't share it. But it's been a long time since I've brewed bad beer (medicore beer? OK, sure).

When I was a noob, I drank it in part to see how and if it would change over time.

BTW, the choice of "bottle it" implies making the call way too early (unless we're talking about infections).

I made a saison and it was so phenolic-y that it was not fun to drink. I tried to doctor it up in the glass with citrus pieces, I tried to age it longer (it got clearer, that's all), I tried some other tricks but was delaying the inevitable, as TD said. I dumped it and never looked back. I felt bad at the time but it free'd up a tap for a much better beer.

Drink it as punishment.

I will use it for cooking, too...

Make beer bread, beer batter for onion rings, fish, or fries, possibly make vinegar, baste/braise BBQ with it, bottle it and let it sit until next year, etc...

I've dumped one beer that was just terrible. Then I had a blonde that had a wierd fruity off flavor from fermenting too cold with US05. I mixed it with greatfruit juice and it made pretty fantastic radlers.

bransona said:

I figure we've all done it, or will do it. Sometimes, things go wrong and you make "bad" beer. Sure, it's beer, but it's totally sub-par.

Click to expand...

I had 8 gallons of honey ginger beer go sour and undrinkable. So we killed a goat and marinated the carcass in the beer for a day or so, then pit roasted it for 18 hours. Then we set up the sound system, ate goat, and drank great homebrew. Best goat ever.

Dump it!

I brew because I enjoy the process.

I drink beer because I enjoy the beer.

If I dump a batch, that just means I get to brew another one. If the beer sucks, it means I'm not enjoying drinking it, so what's the point? IMO, there's just simply no sense it choking down bad beer when you can easily brew more.

geejay said:

I had 8 gallons of honey ginger beer go sour and undrinkable. So we killed a goat and marinated the carcass in the beer for a day or so, then pit roasted it for 18 hours. Then we set up the sound system, ate goat, and drank great homebrew. Best goat ever.

Click to expand...

This guy knows how to party.

I drink it and complain about it here. Closest to a "bad" beer I've made is the mild I either over carbed or had a nasty get in the bottles. It gushed like crazy, and a few bottled had a sulphur note. It's gone as of last night.

I roll up a newspaper and swat it. Bad beer! Bad!

Drink good beer for a few then switch over to the lesser. Sometimes i will mix beers to get a more desirable product.

ncsuwerewolf said:

Drink good beer for a few then switch over to the lesser. Sometimes i will mix beers to get a more desirable product.

Click to expand...

I'm doing this right now. Had one already, then mixed a mediocre porter (fermented to 1.006, so it's like porter lite lol) with a pretty awesome Belgian blonde that is just a shade too bitter. It's a solid mix.

I sell mine to Mr. Beer for their recipe kits

M42 said:

I sell mine to Mr. Beer for their recipe kits

Click to expand...

Wait...what?

Cook with it, seriously, if its not burning a hole in a keg/bottles that you need to get empty for another batch, theres no reason to dump it down the drain unless you need the keg/bottle space.

Almost any time you would use water in a recipe while cooking, beer quite often is a better liquid to use, its usually flavorful, it adds a low amount of sugar, and alcohol is a fantastic flavor extractor. Pre-boil brats with crappy homebrew, or use a dark beer that didn't turn out perfect to deglaze a pan while making chili, brown ales are great for beer bread since they add more residual sugars and make it caramelly, an IPA that is getting old/is too sweet is great for tomato based sauces, any beer is a fantastic base for a brine since its already got sugar and the alcohol so brine up some big hunk o' meat before you cook it.

You could also shower with it, I swear I read on here somewhere that beer is good for your hair (and scalp if you happen to be bald). Also a beer shower sounds like lots of fun.

(this is all of course if the beer just isn't good, if its horribly disgusting and tastes like baby vomit then toss it the heck out)

Throw them at neighborhood children whenever they attempt to retrieve sportsballs and frisbees from your lawn as a deterrent.

Edit: Don't actually do that
Edit #2: Just kidding, actually do it, this is seriously something I highly encourage.

hunter_la5 said:

Throw them at neighborhood children whenever they attempt to retrieve sportsballs and frisbees from your lawn as a deterrent.



Edit: Don't actually do that

Edit #2: Just kidding, actually do it, this is seriously something I highly encourage.

Click to expand...

Yeah the kids in my hood would pop em open and chug them.

My first batch ever was a Christmas ale kit. I had the temps shoot way over 80 but didn't think anything of it. It was awful. Fusals through the roof.

However I stored them for a year, I only drank one when my pipeline got low. It motivated me to brew more. they are all gone now.

hunter_la5 said:

Throw them at neighborhood children whenever they attempt to retrieve sportsballs and frisbees from your lawn as a deterrent.

Edit: Don't actually do that
Edit #2: Just kidding, actually do it, this is seriously something I highly encourage.

Click to expand...

Now you tell me.

Wait, I see the hidden message. Winning!

1977Brewer said:

Yeah the kids in my hood would pop em open and chug them.

Click to expand...

You aren't throwing them hard enough.

I knew this thread wouldn't disappoint

Like Slym says, but I wouldn't call it punishment. If you don't experience your failures and feel them fully then how will you respond in proper proportion. No need to dwell on it, but as you drink the swill that you made, it should give you proper motivation and time for relection to understand the fault. Of course you must live to brew again so dump a botulatum, asbestos or sulfuric acid brew.

ArkotRamathorn said:

Cook with it, seriously, if its not burning a hole in a keg/bottles that you need to get empty for another batch, theres no reason to dump it down the drain unless you need the keg/bottle space.

Click to expand...

This.

I had two kegs of blonde last year that somehow got infected. I just set them aside and pulled out a picnic tap anytime I was firing up the smoker, or making chili, or beer bread, or steaming mussels etc. I have a few spare kegs sitting around, so setting them aside was no big deal. Works great, and keeps me from drawing of my normal rotation.