worst beer you ever made

CornyKegs 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
JonM said:
Ugh, it was this horrible dry-hopped abomination (my first PM ever.) I love hoppy beers but this was freakin' awful. It's sitting in the basement in the hopes that the hoppiness will fade.
Click to expand...

What happened? Did it get grassy?
 
I'd say either an oaked ESB or a scotch ale I made. But neither was undrinkable. The ESB was too hoppy for my tastes. I brewed it for a friend of mine who was moving and requested I try my hand at the style. He enjoyed it so I guess that was all that mattered.

As for the scotch ale, I had made it after a short hiatus from brewing so I was impatient and a little overeager. I pulled it out of the fermenter quicker than I probably should have. The beer was overly sweet but it was still drinkable. It probably could have used a more pungent aroma hop too. I know, that makes no sense after saying that i'm not a hop head, but I really think the beer could have benefitted from some extra bitterness.
 
Not counting the two brews that got killed during a heat wave (tasted like garden hose, fermenters were exposed to 100F+ weather).

I would have to say a Dark Belgian that got a stuck fermentation. It was coming along great, fermentation got stuck. I had a Saison going as well, so racked the Dark onto the saison yeast cake. Now it is a Dark Belgian with the spicy sharp Saison flavor, and it really just doesn't work. It is going down the drain to free up bottles.
 
bknifefight said:
What happened? Did it get grassy?
Click to expand...

Grassy, soapy, all sorts of off-flavors. I don't know why - I used Cascade which usually is good but for some reason, this is just awful.

Oh well, I've done 15+ AG batches since then and they've all been great, including some properly hoppy IPAs. Whatever mistake I made in that PM, I've never done it again.
 
:eek:Four words... Too much peated malt. It was a scotch ale and it was like drinking a campfire. It ended up down the drain to free up the bottles.
 
A S'morter (Porter + S'more = basically a smoky porter, but the concept was like, campfire... marshmallows/earthy/etc.). I'd like to have another go at it at some point BUT MY GOD WAS IT AWFUL.
 
I made an oaked porter in Sept, and I brought it to my beer club's meeting last month. The comments it received was it was like taking a bite out of wood. Maybe it'll age out in another year.
 
Just crowned my champion here. My "Project X" Spiced Mocktoberfest Ale. Just too much darned spice. I used 1.5 oz of mulling spices coarsely ground in a mortar and pestle at 5 minutes before flameout. The spices consisted of cinnamon stick, allspice, clove, star anise, and bitter orange peel. Thought it would taste nice (it smelled AMAZING when I dropped the spices in), but something (I think it is a combination of the star anise and allspice) gives it a really harsh off aroma and taste - almost "plasticky" :mad:. The taste lingers too after you drink it, which is not pleasant. It's actually not bad if you mix it 50/50 with a stout, but it's not very good either (and seems like a waste of a perfectly good stout). On top of that, I pitched it on T-58, which can give some Belgian style funk which probably didn't help. I still have it in a secondary right now, think I'll leave it there a few months and see what happens with it.

Other thoughts I had on how to potentially save it, or at least go all experimental R&D on it ;):
1) Add some pumpkin. However, pumpkin doesn't give a strong taste, so I don't think it can counterbalance the spice.
2) Dump or bottle about 1-1.5 gallons, and then put about 1-1.5 gallons of stout wort in there and let it re-ferment. The roastiness and bite of the stout seem to help when mixing it with a sample, maybe it would help in the fermenter even more???
3) Dry hop it to get some hop aroma to counter the spice. This may make it even more nasty though with clashing aroma and taste.

I have never dumped a batch, but this one is making me consider it!!! However, I definitely won't dump it until I let it age at least 3 months and see what happens. Dumping just seems so... wrong!

Oh well, it was an experiment to begin with - live and learn I guess!!! :eek:
 
I was brewing with a friend years ago splitting a Belgian Dubbel. It was a recipe from Zymurgy and had alot of specialty malts in it. Somehow there was confusion during grinding and instead of a very small amount of roasted barley, we ended up with a whole pound going in. I tried to call it a Belgian Stout but it was just wrong. Hoped it would get better with age but actually got worse.
 
cyclonite said:
Just crowned my champion here. My "Project X" Spiced Mocktoberfest Ale. Just too much darned spice. I used 1.5 oz of mulling spices coarsely ground in a mortar and pestle at 5 minutes before flameout. The spices consisted of cinnamon stick, allspice, clove, star anise, and bitter orange peel. Thought it would taste nice (it smelled AMAZING when I dropped the spices in), but something (I think it is a combination of the star anise and allspice) gives it a really harsh off aroma and taste - almost "plasticky" :mad:. The taste lingers too after you drink it, which is not pleasant. It's actually not bad if you mix it 50/50 with a stout, but it's not very good either (and seems like a waste of a perfectly good stout). On top of that, I pitched it on T-58, which can give some Belgian style funk which probably didn't help. I still have it in a secondary right now, think I'll leave it there a few months and see what happens with it.

Other thoughts I had on how to potentially save it, or at least go all experimental R&D on it ;):
1) Add some pumpkin. However, pumpkin doesn't give a strong taste, so I don't think it can counterbalance the spice.
2) Dump or bottle about 1-1.5 gallons, and then put about 1-1.5 gallons of stout wort in there and let it re-ferment. The roastiness and bite of the stout seem to help when mixing it with a sample, maybe it would help in the fermenter even more???
3) Dry hop it to get some hop aroma to counter the spice. This may make it even more nasty though with clashing aroma and taste.

I have never dumped a batch, but this one is making me consider it!!! However, I definitely won't dump it until I let it age at least 3 months and see what happens. Dumping just seems so... wrong!

Oh well, it was an experiment to begin with - live and learn I guess!!! :eek:
Click to expand...

I overspiced two christmas ales two years in a row. I cracked open a bottle of the 1.5 year old stuff last month -- still terribly overspiced. I wouldn't wast my hops (or time) on it if it is truly overpowered with spices.
My .02.
 
I wanted to experiment with Yerba Mate and thought a Witbier would be a perfect compliment (thinking tea + lemon, etc.) Added enough Yerba Mate to make each 12oz serving contain a full cup of tea. WAY too much Yerba Mate.. you could drink about one and your heart would be racing. The tea flavor was also way too strong. I let it sit for 6 months or so to see if it would mellow; it never did. Dumped it about two weeks ago. Gonna attempt it again with half the Yerba Mate. I call it "Witty Mate."
 
I had a brewers best ( I think) ipa kit, and when it was in secondary I had moved and the water in the airlock got sucked back in and the batch I think it was infected. I left it to age for 4 months while I was deployed and it never got better so I chocked it up to being infected.
 
Ive brewed 7 or 8 batches thus far. All of them have been very drinkable, but I was least impressed with my most recent hefeweizen. I wanted something light (OG was 1.048). The batch seemed to dry out too much, though. FG was something like 1.007. Had a nice banana flavor, but was lacking malt flavor. Too thin.
 
My only dumper was also the only beer I brewed in Fl. It was intended to be an English Mild. Not sure what went wrong, but it was thin, sour and overcarbonated. Might have been high fermentation temps, it was Fl after all.

Other hits were mostly attempts at using too much simple sugar, but those mellowed enough to at least drink.

Sadly, I'm now drinking a 6 year old mead that I brewed to be a buddy's 1-5th anniversary present. It's starting to go to vinegar, but hell it's the last bottle. Inspired to crack one open, as they're celebrating their 5th anniversary tonight.

So my first post here is:

Go Josh and Steph! Happy Anniversary!
 
My only dumper was a red that I fermented too high. In addition, the hop bags weren't sanitary enough and created post fermentation infection.

Tasted terrible, however, I added some oak to help detract from the off flavors. It worked, but still barely tolerable. After drinking half of the batch, I dumped the rest. I was forcing myself to drink it and got tired of it.

Damn shame
 
I thought a SMaSH was a great idea when I heard about it, so i decided to do a pale ale with a little crystal 10 and a lot of Magnum hops early and late in the boil. Lets just say I really learned an appreciation for balance and drinkability in my beers.
 
Worst beer was a smoked porter I made up. I added way too much of the Briess Cherry smoked malt, somewhere around 45% and that beer tasted like a campfire. Nasty stuff, we poured it out. I made some pretty bad Cherry Wheat before I got temp control and it fermented too hot and tasted a bit banana like, uggh.
 
The 1st Belgian I ever brewed was a Belgian Abbey Blond. It tasted so bad that it got the name Belgian Dog Butt Ale which stuck. Very astringent aftertaste which did not mellow with age. I have no idea what a dogs butt taste like, but I assume it's very similar to this brew. I brewed other Belgians since and they all came out fantastic.

rcsld3.jpg


beerloaf
 
I made a beer with munich and pale base, fermented cool with pacman....it was shaping up to be really nice. Then I went ahead and used a ton of Argentine Cascade hops in it. Made it taste like earthy, dirty, cardboard. Not good.
 
I have a beer members of our club lovingly refer to as fizzy pine sol. I tried using some spruce extract when I was still fairly new at brewing and failed to follow directions or use the recommended amount. It's a pretty nasty beer that I still have bottles of. Every holiday party we break one out just to see what new layer of hell it has evolved in to.
 
jdlev said:
This is easy...a honey brown that tasted like a sour cube of old ass sugar
Click to expand...

I made a honey ale once. It was so bad that we used it as a penance for anyone who committed a party foul.
 
I took a perfectly good Janets Brown Ale kit and decided to add coconut to it for something different. The blend of cascade and coconut has done it zero favors as it's got older - hardly drinkable.
 
My 1st beer. I had brewed 1 Mr Beer kit Pale Ale at the time and decided I was jumping into all-grain and writing my own recipe. Well, it wasn't a simple recipe as I decided to make a Brown Porter with Coconut and Chocolate Nibs. I didnt use any clarifying agents, used WAY too much roasted malt, boiled my coconut flakes for 20 minutes, and used 2 lbs of cocoa nibs. Well, its way too strong of roast, cloudy with some sort of floating particulate in it, tastes nothing of coconut, and probably too strong of chocolate. Truth be told, if it wasnt so damned ugly to look at, it could be drank...but I cant get it past my eyes...
 
In my early days of brewing I was ending up with lots of leftover ingredients, some older than others. Lots of dark extracts and dark/roasted grains, a few different spicy hops, and a 4 strain Lager/Ale yeast from White Labs.

So i just threw them all together to see what would happen. Beef jerky isn't so great when it's liquid and carbonated.

I can't bring myself to ever dump a beer so I drank every last glass. mmmmmm.....
 
Mine's a two parter: add one whole diced green pepper per gallon of wort, what could go wrong? Turns out if you drink it before ~4 months aging, it tastes like brown hell. Wait another few months, it actually starts to taste good! All in all, I'm not sure the experience was worth it...
 
I'm not sure, but I have one that I'm afraid to keg, and refuse to spend the time bottling.
I have transferred it twice, and it hasn't improved in flavor!
Honey wheat plumb beer. I am not a sour beer drinker so I think it taste lite crap. I bet if I entered it as a sour, it would take a ribbon, bur I cannot stomach it!!
 
So far my worst beer made is what was supposed to be a Hefeweizen. I was really looking forward to this beer... but life had to teach me a lesson in fermentation temperatures. I let it ferment way to hot @ 76ish degrees (room temp) and what I ended up with was something that tasted like banana malt liquor. It's drinkable but the banana flavor won't leave even after 3 months and it still has that nasty cheap beer taste in the background. Gives the worse headaches the next day also.
 
Brewed a Black IPA for a contest on short notice. Because I wanted it done so quickly, it was designed to be a low ABV (~3%). I did reduce the hop quantities but I guess not enough. The beer was bitter.....very bitter. My first sip I though "Oh, this is good, this might have a chance at.....OH MY GOD! MY THROAT IS CLOSING!! WHAT IS GOING ON! AHH! WHY AM I SWEATING!!!"

It's been aging for a while; bitterness has slightly faded. I drink one every now and again. My throat doesn't close anymore but it is still way too bitter.
 
I've brewed 7 extract batches and all that I have tasted were good (1 batch still fermenting) except for a BeerMakers XXX Bitter, my 4th batch. Tasted like band aid/ garden hose.
The kit was expired, (date on can 2008),and I brewed w/ dextrose only. I rehydrated the yeast, it appeared dead but I pitched it anyway. After 3 days the yeast was not looking active in the carboy so I pitched another packet of yeast.
Fermentation began and let it sit for 3 weeks.
Tasted bad at bottling time and after 2 weeks in bottles it was just (barely) drinkable. It was thin and fizzy with a bit of cider flavour (duh dextrose) but the band aid flavour stayed, it was mellowed some (3-4 weeks bottled) but still there. I drank them all ice cold....but I drank them.
I have since found out my city uses chloromine, last few batches I used campden tabs, no more band aid, so far.
 
My second All Grain, first 5 gal all grain, I call it "Nutmeg Lite".
Holiday Ale kit from More Beer.
I got pitiful efficiently, likely due to a poor crush.
On top of that I made 2 gallons more than I should have, Beer Smith over estimated my boil off and my notes from the previous 10gal batch didn't scale well.

Now I have a lite beer that tastes like Nutmeg even though nutmeg was not used in the creation of it (I think the flavor is from the all spice used). Hoping the spices mellow out by my Christmas party and someone will help me drink it up so I can make room for something better.
 
I got late notice for a competition at my girlfriend's work. I split a Wheat recipe. One was a blueberry wheat which was purple and tasted like nothing. The other half I used too much orange peel and it tasted like ass. Chicks really like it, but I can't stand the stuff.
 
this thread is fantastic!!
worst beer to date was an irish red that i forgot about and left in primary, at uncontrolled temperatures, from july until midnovember. found it, sampled, fought the rising bile and poured it down the drain. never again will i leave a comrade for so long unattended.
 
I've had a few "learning experiences" over the years...my absolute worst was brewed in 2001 and became known as the "Gatorade of Beers" by my Marine Corps brothers.

I attempted to brew a Wit and wanted to put a "hint" of orange in it, but didn't know what I was doing at all. I grated zest off of an orange that I had in the kitchen and ended up with way too much orange in the beer. Needless to say, I couldn't drink more than 1/4 of a cup of this stuff. Horrible stuff!

Thankfully, there were a few women that actually liked it...fed them the entire batch...
 
Hex said:
Don't try this at home, kids.

DateBeer.JPG
Click to expand...

What sort of beer did you use that in? I've used date sugar in a Belgian Dark Strong, and it turned out great.


Worst beers:

-A "lambic" that some friends and I made without knowing anything about lambics. We made some extract recipe, fermented with a pound or so of assorted frozen berries, and worst of all, used a rinse sanitizer that we forgot to rinse out.

-A tea beer in which we over-steeped several bags of the cheapest black tea we could find and tossed the tea into the boil. The result was an astringent mess that makes me cringe whenever I think about it.

-The second or third beer we ever made involved my friend and I going to the LHBS and choosing random herbs/hops/malt extract. It contained "mugwort" and "irish moss" simply because we thought they sounded cool.
 

Similar threads

Clint Yeastwood
Can you Make a Really Good Lager with Corn?
Replies
15
Views
2K
DuncB
D
M
9.2% BGSA bottle conditioning inconsistency 3 months after fermentation began, 2 months after bottling
Replies
1
Views
247
JohnSand
JohnSand
G
Reusing a wild culture
Replies
6
Views
1K
McMullan
McMullan
Hoochin'Fool
made my first lousy beer
Replies
22
Views
2K
lumbergh
L
Clint Yeastwood
My Undrinkable Beer Got Better
Replies
24
Views
3K
corkybstewart
corkybstewart
SSBrew 300

Latest posts

Back
Top