Tell us about the first time you had to pour a beer down the drain.

[mmead]

Or into the bushes. All the more traumatic when you had babied it through its infancy.

 

[unionrdr]

We've never had one of our own to pour out,but one day I spotted some HB original (the munich Octoberfest beer) in green bottles for the evening's quality time. It was skunked so bad I thought I'd hurl.
Then,so sayeth the SWMBO-thou shalt not by beer in green bottles.

 

[kh54s10]

None of my homebrew so far. I hope I didn't jinx myself.

Commercial. Coors Lite.

A big ado was made when Coors became available in New England. I tried one regular Coors and didn't like it!

I don't know if it was skunked or what, but 3 of us and a 12 pack.
3 cans opened and dumped. 9 cans in the trash. That was in 1983. I have never had a Coors product since.

 

[gunner65]

Lost an AG batch of wit. Lost my chiller due to clogging then accidentally pitched yeast at about 90F. Got the dreaded bandaid taste in the entire batch. Lesson learned no more late night drinking fest while brewing. I will just drink a few till the process is complete.

 

[Brewnoob1]

I haven't poured the entire keg out, but I have definitely dumped about 4-5 beers worth out of my current Mai Bock keg. It changes daily in my keg from being way too sweet to just enough dry finish to get through it. It's a pretty hefty brew at 8%. The sweetness should help keep it balanced, but that just doesn't seem to be the case depending on the day

 

[friday]

One, don't use wheat germ. Bad idea, really bad idea.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Miller Ultra.

even SWMBO couldn't down it.

 

[J8D]

Jumped in a bit to far on my third brew and attempted a lager without the slightest clue about lagers. I had the fridge to control the temp at lager yeast temps but that was about it. The thing bubbled and did "stuff" for around four months. The final sample tasted like bacon. It was never moldy or anything. It was actually crystal clear and looked like beer. I poured it down the toilet. In retrospect I wish I would have still kegged it and tried it cold and carbonated. I may have been onto something.

 

[coastwx]

All of mine so far have been drinkable. I had a couple that were not very good, so just left them alone for a while and they improved greatly.

However, I just poured on down the drain last night because the cap was not secured and it had no carbonation. Almost killed me to do that because this 9% IIPA is the best high gravity beer I've made to date. Should have just dumped it in a keg of one of my other brews on second thought.

 

[wedge421]

Luckily I have not had to dump any homebrew. I usually give my off batches to my bro in law and he drinks them haha. My first commercial example i drain poured was Mikellers Black Hole. An uncarbonated sweet mess of a beer.

 

[Taypo]

One is about to be put down - holiday spiced ale. Lesson Learned?

DO NOT USE PREPACKAGED MULLING SPICES - Cinammon content is overbalanced and creates a mess.

 

[kh54s10]

One is about to be put down - holiday spiced ale. Lesson Learned?

DO NOT USE PREPACKAGED MULLING SPICES - Cinammon content is overbalanced and creates a mess.

Keep it for about a year. The spices might mellow out.

 

[Brewkowski]

Just had to dump my first batch last night, it was actually a wine though. I had tried nursing it back to health over 8 months, but as I ran out of carboys I had to say farewell to the lost cause. The moral of the story that I learned was watch out for nutrient requirements of Lalvin RC-212 and brew belts do wonders to heat things up in a close up fermentation chamber.
During the first few days the fermentation ran out of nutrients and was giving off that wonderful sulphur egg smell and then I noticed the temp in the bucket was about 100 degrees. Absolute Band Aid taste, I tried blending with commercial wine, adding alot of oak and letting it sit for months, but now I've given up and it had to go.

 

[rellot]

Mr. Beer - every batch


Recently, as of two nights ago actually, a two year old barley wine. It was really good after a year, but apparently two years is not good -- even had to wash my mouth out after drinking!

I've never had to do a whole batch though. I don't think I could do it.

 

[Brandt]

I've had to dump two batches. The first and only time I tried a lager, it was overpowered by buttery diacetyl. After a few tries, I had to face the fact that it just wasn't drinkable. The second time, I forgot to purge my corny keg when I put it on CO2 to force carb it. It was so badly oxidized that it was hopeless.

The silver lining is that you never quite learn a lesson like when you learn it the hard way.

 

[JonM]

Second or third batch, which was a porter. Didn't know about temp control, so I pitched yeast when the wort was 90-ish degrees and then let it ferment in ambient temps that we're in the 80s. It tasted exactly the way Tri-Flo bike lubricant smells, or maybe like wood furniture polish.

I read up and learned about temp control and also read the whole never-dump-it stuff too. However, after 8 months or so it still tasted like crap and I really needed the bottles, so down the drain it went.

 

[Saxomophone]

I've dumped three batches so far.

One when I first started brewing. For some reason it wouldn't carbonate and had a nasty aftertaste. In hindsight I think I didn't rinse all the bleach out of my equipment. I don't use bleach anymore.

Second was a double chocolate stout. I tried to use unsweetened cocoa powder. I decided that if a little was good, more would be better. Nope. Turned into a big sour mess.

The last one was a graff I tried to brew without reading all the way through the process. I missed the whole thing about not using cider with preservatives in it. Had to dump all 5 gallons right from the primary after about 3 weeks of failed attempts to get it to ferment.

 

[motobrewer]

1. big lacto infection. really sour. like my 4th beer.

2. really bad medicinal taste in an oktoberfest. not really sure what caused it. i remember having to do last minute changes to water modification because i ran out of a particular salt. i think it pushed my chlorine levels up way too high.

 

[Riopel]

My first red... was real bad, dump it (second, took 6 months wasn't so good, then every other red have been nice)

Then an another time, I just needed to brew, but the store was close so I did not even use brew smith, took every thing I got and made a monster, tooooo much specialité grain not good!

 

[cimirie]

Only two I've ever dumped haven't been beers.

1) hard lemonade. It was drinkable, but nobody liked it and it tasted like sherry.

2) a cider I'll dump this weekend. It too tastes like sherry.

Lesson learned: using foil to cover the mouth of a carboy is NOT an effective method of keeping out O2 when active fermentation isn't going on. Only 2 I've ever done it on.

 

[weirdboy]

I made a witbier that ended up having tons of chlorophenol. That was the last time I ever used bleach to sanitize.

I took a case or so of it to a party and the folks there drank it all up, but I still had another 12-pack stuck in my house that I finally ended up dumping because I couldn't bring myself to drink it.


I have also dumped the occasional mystery bottle that I have had sitting around for a few years and have no idea what it could be. Some of those turn out to be really good, and some of them are just awful.

 

[badhabit]

In over 45 years, not one.

 

[dmckean44]

I had to dump my second beer I ever brewed. It was an english bitter with toasted oats, but I missed my gravity by quite a bit and ended up at 2.7% alcholol. It wasn't completely undrinkable but it didn't taste good and was taking up valuable bottle space and it was also overcarbed.

 

[daksin]

I SHOULD have dumped my first batch, but it was only a gallon that I drank it all anyway. Fermented around 85 for a week and then straight into bottles. So much fusel I got headaches halfway though a bottle.

Hey, it taught me to control my fermentation temps!

 

[cimirie]

I'm viewing this site on the HBT app on iPhone. I almost laughed when I first saw this thread. It cut off every word after "had." So the title as I read it was "tell us about the first time you had..." Needless to say, the thread went in a very different direction than where my mind went!

 

[kyleobie]

This summer I had to dump a beer I stupidly brewed right before a Chicago heat wave with no A/C. It fermented at 95! So sad.

 

[limulus]

I was going to post in the thread about my oldest beer and saw this one just above it. Just 5-min ago, I had to pour out approx 3L of Ed Wort's Haus Ale. I had 9L in TAD bottles and took one to the lake this summer. I brought the 3L that I did not consume home to put back into the fridge. However, I forgot and it sat in my garage for a couple of weeks and of course with the 90+ degree weather, it had to be ruined. I have 12 TAD bottles and three taps so I did not immediately need that bottle or the tap. But today, I did. I was unscrewing the little 8g CO2 cylinder and it hissed. When I removed the cap, it really hissed and when I poured it down the drain, it foamed up like it was dish washing liquid that I had shaken up in the bottle. Now that's head retention.

 

[kyleobie]

My sympathies!

 

[JonM]

This summer I had to dump a beer I stupidly brewed right before a Chicago heat wave with no A/C. It fermented at 95! So sad.

This is why I love saisons in the summer. I put mine in the un-A/C'ed crawl space during that same heat wave. It's AWESOME!

 

[Bradinator]

I have poured a couple out, one being a very nasty pineapple wine I made (imagine eating a lot of pineapple, throwing up and eating it again) but this was the most memorable.

 

[scrambledegg81]

Smashed my thermometer into 80-degree (i.e. ready to pitch) imperial stout. Set me back $40 on ingredients, $15 on a new (non-glass) thermo, and a load of pride.

 

[runningweird]

I have had several belgian saison batches that tasted like swass. They get too old and really go down hill. But the first was a franziskaner clone,

 

[iWillbrew]

So my wife bought me a mr beer kit which catapulted me into homebrewing. I took the 2.5 gallon container and concocted a horrendous extract brew which i thought would be great. Pitched the yeast at 10 pm and by 6 am i had an extremely active fermentation. I put so many fermentables and yeast into the container that mr beer fermenter would not sit flat on the counter on account of the pressure. In a fit of panic in my kitchen i turned the lid about 1/4 turn and the top shot off like a cannon and splattered my kitchen ceiling with hops and other chunks. That was about 6 months ago and to this day that container sits in my basement (wort and all) as a reminder to think about what the hell im doing

 

[devilbrewer75]

I dump batches all the time. If there not perfect they go down the sink. Gives me more brewing time.

 

[sacrifice]

I have thrown individual bottles down the drain because they were not ready. I have taste issues with porters I make - they usually suck until I open the 2nd bottle 6 weeks later when they tend to shine. The only batch of any alcohol I threw away was come crappy Ancient Joes Orange Mead - even my wife would not drink it......

 

[BigUgly]

After 3+ years of brewing - none (thank GOD!)

I don't venture very far from proven recipes and I am a clean (sanitary) freak when I brew.

 

[daniels]

good heavens man does this happen? look u can keep a not as good batch around and have a bottle now and again. but for the love of all ive never tasted a batch of my homebrew that tasted as bad as a corn sugar impregnated brew. ive went as far as infecteting bad batches with brett. but i do not throw it down the drain like a common glasss of water. after all theses yeast have done for you shame on you. shame

 

[daniels]

So my wife bought me a mr beer kit which catapulted me into homebrewing. I took the 2.5 gallon container and concocted a horrendous extract brew which i thought would be great. Pitched the yeast at 10 pm and by 6 am i had an extremely active fermentation. I put so many fermentables and yeast into the container that mr beer fermenter would not sit flat on the counter on account of the pressure. In a fit of panic in my kitchen i turned the lid about 1/4 turn and the top shot off like a cannon and splattered my kitchen ceiling with hops and other chunks. That was about 6 months ago and to this day that container sits in my basement (wort and all) as a reminder to think about what the hell im doing

aging is a beautifal(drunk as hell on home brew) thing on big brews

 

[frailn]

I just dumped my first batch. It was my 13th batch and was supposed to be a christmas brew. I WAY overcarbed it in the bottle. Surprised I didn't get any bottle bombs! Pop the cap, and look out for the geyser about six inches above the bottle.

I put Ikea gingersnap cookies in the mash, so the oil in the cookies killed all head retention and left an oily sheen on the top of the beer.

Plus the flavor was bleh and I ended up with cookie flour floaties in the bottles despite best efforts during my bottling.

But, this wasn't a true dump - wife and I popped the bottles and poured them in a pot and marinated a chicken with it! Turned out yummy.

And, I manned up, took the remaining few bottles, poured whatever didn't geyser out into a pitcher and stuck it in the fridge. That evening, I choked it down to teach myself a lesson (and catch a warm fuzzy beer buzz, I must admit).

 

[FatherJack]

Every single brew I make gets poured down the drain...

After I send it through my biological filter that is.