and down it goes...

well after 4 years of brewing beer at home i finally had to dump a batch down the drain. It was the first one i just couldn't choke back!

 

What? Thats the stuff you keep for people you don't want to share your homebrew with!

 

You should have donated it . . like, to an orphanage or something.

 

how long has it been sitting? I've got about 4 cases of bombers that are heading for the drain - aging 3 months now and still taste like vinigar, might be good on a salad?

 

I feel your pain - I've got three batches that all have the same nasty problem. I haven't brought myself to dumping them yet, but I may have to. one batch has been bottled, hoping for the best, the other two are still in the fermenter for several months now.

 

Cook with it! My 5 gallons of vinegar made for some mean pulled pork.

 

I am a proponent of dumping bad batches (as long as they are giving more then sufficient time to age). Dump it and it gives you another chance to brew. Life is too short to drink bad beer.

 

It was Ginger Saison I brewed last year and had in bottles for a year now...Every month (or when i had no beer) I would crack a bottle in hopes that it mysteriously got better. I think this beer had just about everything wrong with it. Off-flavours from bad (repitched) yeast and poor fermentation, vinegar....my eyes would even water from what seemed like a solvent. I probably would had left them longer but i was actually getting worried of bottle bombs, since whatever infected this beer was still eating away. this stuff was like drinking 120 Octane.
I thought about cooking with it but didn't want to ruin a good smoked pulled pork sandwich!

I've put myself on a time-out from brewing until i've thoroughly sanitized everything.

 

That's never a good time. This past summer I poured 5 gallons on the front lawn. My fermenter lid had gotten knocked off by the (damn) cat while I was away for the wkend. I let it finish fermenting but man was it ever a sour batch.

 

ouch!

 

Dusty, if that was me, the cat would be end up missing one day...

Pretty basic equation...
Animal screws up brew = one dead animal

Luckily, I don't have any pets where I am...

Of course, I do have to ask how strong this cat was to have knocked the lid off. Or did you use a bucket, and not have the lid seated fully/properly? I do so hate using buckets for primaries (or even secondaries)... Thankfully, I have enough carboys to not need to use the bucket anymore. I even have one corny that I can use for aging... Plan on getting at least one more corny for aging soon. Probably get another carboy for primary (6 gallon most likely)...

 

That's a strong cat!