Best beer you can't make again?

[NoCornOrRice]

I did an IPA many years ago, and the brew day was an absolute disaster. Nothing went to plan. I was using some borrowed equipment, different water, and had all sorts of issues throughout the brew day. I almost dumped it, but decided at the last minute to add yeast... anyways it was one of the best beers I ever made.

 

[Wables]

I have many that I can’t replicate. I lost my hard drive with 15 years of BeerSmith recipes. I had 5 printed recipes from some prior brew days. Everything else is gone.

 

[bracconiere]

edit: just in case you pop in after a year....

ah reminising....

i had to post to this thread, and say...recently i HAVE been brewing beers i wish i couldn't brew again.

 

[pfmeyer]

Charlie P’s Rocky Raccoon Honey Lager, about 30 years ago. Used a packet of dry ale yeast, who knows, could have been Edme. Bottle conditioned. Came out amazing. Made a few attempts over the years. Like chasing a ghost. Oh well.

 

[IslandLizard]

I have many that I can’t replicate. I lost my hard drive with 15 years of BeerSmith recipes. I had 5 printed recipes from some prior brew days. Everything else is gone.

Ouch, that's awful, I feel for you!
Any backups? Cloud storage? Depending on your BeerSmith version/account, it may have uploaded the recipes to their cloud.

If the drive is still working, (many) files could be recovered. If it crashed, it's more difficult and at a steep price.

Remember, there are 2 kinds of hard drives: those that have crashed and those that haven't yet. Always have a backup of stuff you care about. 2 or 3 backups are better, using the 3-2-1 paradigm.

 

[Wables]

Ouch, that's awful, I feel for you!
Any backups? Cloud storage? Depending on your BeerSmith version/account, it may have uploaded the recipes to their cloud.

If the drive is still working, (many) files could be recovered. If it crashed, it's more difficult and at a steep price.

Remember, there are 2 kinds of hard drives: those that have crashed and those that haven't yet. Always have a backup of stuff you care about. 2 or 3 backups are better, using the 3-2-1 paradigm.

I had a backup drive that I learned after the fact was not backing up several of my folders including that one. I was able to fire it up with windows on a thumb drive. I got my wife’s stuff, but my BeerSmith files were gone. It was version 1 so no cloud backups.

 

[IslandLizard]

I was able to fire it up with windows on a thumb drive.

You were able to fire up the crashed drive?
Or the backup drive?

Over the years I've been able to successfully recover "critical data" from a few bad drives, as long as they still spinned up and allowed access to the recovery software. But rely on backups mostly, more now than ever before, with ever increasing drive capacities.

I got my wife’s stuff,

Those are the most important, of course. And keeps you out of the doghouse...

but my BeerSmith files were gone. It was version 1 so no cloud backups.

Damn! Murphy's law prevails way too often.

I still print out recipes before brewing, as I find it easier to make notes along way, including tasting notes.

 

[Wables]

You were able to fire up the crashed drive?
Or the backup drive?

Over the years I've been able to successfully recover "critical data" from a few bad drives, as long as they still spinned up and allowed access to the recovery software. But rely on backups mostly, more now than ever before, with ever increasing drive capacities.


Those are the most important, of course. And keeps you out of the doghouse...


Damn! Murphy's law prevails way too often.

I still print out recipes before brewing, as I find it easier to make notes along way, including tasting notes.

I booted up the computer from a thumb drive, and was able to get on the C drive and transfer files to the thumb drive. Some of the files were missing. It’s a handy trick. I learned it when my kid fell for the ransom ware scam.

 

[IslandLizard]

I booted up the computer from a thumb drive, and was able to get on the C drive and transfer files to the thumb drive. Some of the files were missing. It’s a handy trick. I learned it when my kid fell for the ransom ware scam.

If you still have the crashed drive and the missing files are worth the effort, there may still be a chance for recovery. Sometimes the file index gets corrupted, but the files are still there.
A simple CHKDSK (w/repair) can restore the index. If that fails, a "raw scan" with recovery software can reveal and restore them. As long as nothing has been written to it since the crash chance of recovery can be very decent.

Drives that click need surgery.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

I once brew a beer that I called "The Big Monster RIS", it was ~18%, I still have a few bottles left, I think. I opened one a couple of years back and shared it with several that were there and all said OMG this is amazing, sell me a bottle or two they said, nope, no can do. It was a couple of years prior to that I had opened one a shared it with several friends as well, all had a similar reaction.

I fellow came over and the plan was to brew a RIS (10 gallons), and he kept asking "What can we do to make it bigger/stronger?"
Well more grain and more molasses would make it bigger, it ended up being 80+ pounds of grain and who know how much molasses, also did a partigyle and got 10-15 gallons more of smaller beers, I don't recall as I gave them to him. We started out with WLP006 and ordered several vials of WLP099 and I added them when they came in, amazingly the beer did finish, it was truly awesome.

When he took his share home, I told him, this needs to age for at least 3-6 months. He came by a couple of weeks later, saying he was going camping with his re-enactment group. He told me that he was taking beer with him to share. I asked did he have some of the big beer with him, I knew he did, he responded, why of course, he pulled out a container and poured me a bit, and complained that it was flat. It was mighty tasty at that time. I then reminded him that I had told him that it needed to age 3-6 months minimum, on gas so that it could continue to meld and carbonate. He was like, well I just wanted some. No self control what so ever. Really big beers need so much longer to carbonate.

I've tried a time or two to get something close, it was never the same. One was highly under attenuated, I tried everything I knew to get it down, it just didn't happen. I gave some away, bottled some, there may be a few bottle around, and I believe that I dumped some as well.

 

[Komodo]

Really big beers need so much longer to carbonate.

This is so true. I've got a 15%+ RIS that continued to improve carbonation for a very long time. My two year old bottles are noticeably better than even last year.

 

[50calshooter]

I had a registered weed grower living next door to me back in my home brewing days. He gave me a few pounds of clippings and stems. I made a light hopped pale ale and made a strong weed tea and added the weed tea to the pale ale. I called it Stems & Seeds. Best pale ale I ever had. Had a great flavor and was the perfect color. Never documented the weight of the clippings or anything. I can't make it again, I own a brewpub and have a liquor license and a micro brewers license to protect. Between not having the desire to brew on my one day off and not documenting the beer it will only be a memory. RIP Stems & Seeds.

 

[JAReeves]

The first RIS I ever brewed, it never finished. I dropped in two other yeasts to push it a long, including champagne yeast and no dice. Decided it was done, primed and bottled it. Waited a few months, cracked one open and no gas, just sugary malt. Made a second RIS batch, put the new one on the yeast cake of an American Stout, and then poured every bottle of the previous RIS into the fermenter at high Krausen. It is the most amazing beer, everyone loves it and I am down to just a couple of bottles that are two years aged.