Do you drink your bad batches?

[Stauffbier]

Brew 2.5 gallon batches......you get to brew more, and if you screw up you only have to drink half as much!

That's basically what I do. If it's a proven recipe I brew 6 gallons, but if I'm trying a new recipe or ingredient I brew 1.5 gallons.

 

[eastoak]

i've dumped at least a barrel of bad beer. most of the beer i brew is really hoppy which is not going to taste better 3, 6 let alone 9 months down the line. if i brew something like a saison that does not turn out right i'll wait it out or, plop, in goes the brett. my bottling days are over (thank god, dumping a bottled batch is a pain) so i can't have a keg sitting around for months.

 

[eyebrau]

+1 to letting it age. I've had multiple batches that disappointed fiercely, but with time (as much as a year) aging in bottles, they've all turned out at least decent... Some have turned out surprisingly well.

 

[Cider123]

I've made 2 batches that didn't meet expectations. One was a cider, my first attempt and my namesake even though I haven't made cider since. It started out fine, but then slowly over time it began to overcarb and many turned to vinegar. Those went down the drain.

The second is the English IPA I have in bottles now. It's my last extract batch and I think I got some oxygen in it when bottling because it has a celery/cardboardy flavor. I also didn't add enough priming sugar so it is somewhere between cask conditioned and flat. It's ok, so I am drinking it. My wife says she likes it, but I think its just cause she likes me.

I have high hopes for the BIAB Wit I have in the fermenter now. To sleep, perchance to dream.

 

[eastoak]

+1 to letting it age. I've had multiple batches that disappointed fiercely, but with time (as much as a year) aging in bottles, they've all turned out at least decent... Some have turned out surprisingly well.

not hoppy beers i suppose?

 

[eyebrau]

Well, yes and no... I made an IPA that I brewed using tangerine (a poorly planned and even more poorly executed brew) that came out of the gate with an absurd bitterness from citrus pith, and was undeniable for some time. I didn't dump them out of sheer laziness, and tried one after... I dunno, maybe 8 months? And it actually mellowed out into a tasty beer. Strange, but good. But yea, the others that aged well weren't hoppy in the first place. A porter and a sweet stout.

 

[eyebrau]

Undrinkable, not undeniable. Thanks, autocorrect.

 

[FATC1TY]

Reminds me.. I've got a 11.5% RIS that was too thin, and a bit boozy.. I decided it would be a good idea to butcher it up and add a LB of lactose to it to add back some body.

Then it ended up where I wanted.. but now it's a bit sweet and boozy.. I'll probably sit on it for a long time and see how it ends up. Time can only make certain beers better.

 

[captwalt]

A friend sent some LME and hops and yeast to another freind about 3 years ago. It wasn't used and when his job was up he gave the whole package back to my friend. These are questionable ingredients to say the least. In tvs name of science and fir the sake of brewing I made a batch. 3.3lbs Lme in 3.5 gallons of water. 1 oz northern brewer 7.7% @ 30 min and 1oz liberty 4.1% @ 10. All of these were several years old and went through the mail to Kuwait and not sure how it was stored, then it was brought home and stayed in another guys garage for several months. I dumped this concoction into the fermenter with a packet of safbrew t-58 that was also in the box. I wasn't sure it would even ferment. It fermented so I bottled it and when the time came I drank it. It tasted old in October and I brewed it in sep. It us completely terrible and I will likely give up on it in a few weeks if it doesn't show any signs of progress. This will be my first dump but I Did drink about half of it if that counts for anything.

 

[fergyrock]

My First batch was a cluster of mistakes, I scorched extract (badly), boiled over (3 times) didn't let it primary long enough, added hops and sugar to try to get it going again in secondary. But learned a lot about what not to do.

Tastes bad, really wanted to toss it, but decided I would go ahead and get some bottling experience, then as an additional learning experience, open one a week to see the progress of carbing and see if it gets any better with age. I also set aside a handful to open on my 1st Brew anniversary.

So far I've opened 5 bottles, now nicely carbed and I could actually take a decent drink, then dumped the rest. Had a distinct burnt taste initially that is subsiding to over-roasted flavor. maybe in another month I will drink a whole one.

The next 4 batches went great and I am drinking Number 2, a nice hoppy DIPA.

 

[Rwhere]

Are people still on this site? I’m currently drinking a batch of bad apricot seltzer. Even the stench is off. Buuuuut come on 5 gallon batch. I feel like at the nearby beach I’d be more willing

 

[bracconiere]

Are people still on this site?

i'm only here because i'm still waiting for this over hopped keg to kick, so i can hook up one of my other two....then i plan to start brewing true beer!

 

[Rwhere]

i'm only here because i'm still waiting for this over hopped keg to kick, so i can hook up one of my other two....then i plan to start brewing true beer!

cheer to us for reviving a thread from 2013

 

[Beer666]

Hell no. Down the drain. Life is too short to drink crap beer.

 

[Blacksmith1]

It's not just beer. After 2 years of aging I bottled a water melon wine. Choked down one bottle, the rest of the 5 gallons will be dumped. The funk is just too much.

 

[Spundit]

cheer to us for reviving a thread from 2013

Ha. I think I started brewing in 2013...or 2012. I have not brewed a dumper yet but there have defineatly been some batches I thought were dull or missed the style. I also have at least 36 bottles with more than a year of age on them.. it is likely many of those go down the drain. They weren't bad brews but whatever is fresh out of the fermenter always seems more interesting.

 

[bwible]

It depends. I’ve made some batches with old ingredients in the past to use them up. The resulting beers were sort of ok, maybe had a cardboard flavor, something like that. I tried to drink most of those. Also depends on the amount of other homebrew I have on hand or if I want the empty bottles for another batch.

Now if I get an infected batch with band aid flavors that goes right down the sink. Mine and any that anybody else were to give me.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

The first batches I made were from Coopers kits. Four were pretty nasty, but I drank them anyway, then one was OK, but I added some extra LME, the last one was really nasty, but my brother liked it so I gave it all to him.

Since then, I had an infection that I couldn't find and ended up with about eight kegs that went bad and they all got dumped in the ditch. That was 5-7 years ago. I really don't recall the exact timeframe.

 

[BrewChem]

Depends how bad it is… if it’s really nasty, infected crap then I dump it. If it’s just off a bit or not what I was shooting for, I’ll bottle and give it away.

 

[MaxStout]

I do the same. If it's undrinkable, it goes down the drain. If it just has some minor defects, I drink it. All 5 gallons to constantly remind me to up my game on that recipe.

 

[AlexKay]

Just threw out a kartoffelbeer. It was drinkable, but not good — not worth the effort of bottling, not worth the space in the garage, not worth the calories to drink it.

 

[Wables]

I’ve dumped one batch, winter of 2002. I had brewed 3 extract kits and 2 all grain kits by this point, so I was an expert. I designed my own RIS recipe…I don’t recall all of the ingredients, but I remember a full pound of black patent in the 5 gallons. I sampled it on bottling day and it hit the drain.

 

[Oleson M.D.]

Can't say we have actually brewed a "bad" beer. A recent brew had a bit of diacetyl flavor, and it was brought to my attention, addressed the issue and it is now fixed.

Normally if a beer turns out not as I expected, or not to my liking, the entire keg will be given to a friend.

It is actually difficult to brew a truly bad beer, if standard operating procedures are followed, and quality ingredients are used.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

Bad batch?

 

[HVCBrewing]

It all gets kegged or bottled. If I don’t much like it The beer gets set aside while I “hope for the best“ in it future development. If after 30 to 45 days I’ve lost all hope, it goes To the backyard and hydrates the Morning Glories.

 

[Melicious]

Are people still on this site? I’m currently drinking a batch of bad apricot seltzer. Even the stench is off. Buuuuut come on 5 gallon batch. I feel like at the nearby beach I’d be more willing

I'm wondering if it can somehow be distilled down to an apricot liqueur/spirit of sorts...?

 

[odie]

always drink your "shame"...it teaches you not to repeat that which you did...

 

[cmac62]

Right now I have two 5 gal batches that I used home dried kveik and they are both funky. I may drink one, but unless something has changed in the last month lagering one is getting dumped. The other is just a little sour, and that is drinkable.

 

[Rish]

Just threw out a kartoffelbeer. It was drinkable, but not good — not worth the effort of bottling, not worth the space in the garage, not worth the calories to drink it.

I'd like to see your recipe! Can't seem to find find much about potato beer recipes on the interwebs

 

[Jaybird]

Hell no. Down the drain. Life is too short to drink crap beer.

BOOM! EXACTLY!

Hello thread revival from years gone by! Baaahhhaaaaaaa 2013? REALLY??

Cheers
Jay

 

[dwhite60]

I drink them as penance to the gods of brewing for my lack of attention and care in my process.

A big batch for me is 14 liter so drinking it isn't too horrible a job. Also, if you do it in a session, they tend to taste better as you go through them.

Darker beers in particular really improve with time. Patience with them will pay off.

 

[Beer666]

Would love to see people drink some of the beers i have thrown away. Full on plastic or tcp. Some of it you would struggle to swallow a mouthful let alone finish a pint.

 

[AlexKay]

I'd like to see your recipe! Can't seem to find find much about potato beer recipes on the interwebs

~1.25 gallon batch (glad I didn't make more!)
1 lb. Weyermann Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsner Malt
1 lb. Bob's Red Mill potato flakes
2 g Magnum @ 60
5 g Tettnang @ 15
5.5 g Danstar Nottingham, fermented @ 64 F

Attenuation was low -- I figured the potato starch would already be gelatinized, but maybe I needed a cereal mash? I BIAB, and the bag was an absolute gummy mess that took forever to drain.

And it didn't taste great. So there's the recipe ... probably best to try something different.

This was actually my second kartoffelbier. The first I used actual baked potato cubes, and they took forever to convert in the mash, and the wort was an astringent mess. Only batch I've ever dumped as wort, before fermenting.

 

[jdauria]

Knock on wood, don't have bad batches anymore...but no, it goes right down the drain if it's not up to snuff.

 

[Upstate12866]

Things really do change over time. Somewhere on the internet there are breakdowns of what flaws can and can't be fixed with time. Many issues related to the fermentation can be improved, while I think I recall issues like skunked or oxidized beer can't be.

 

[Iowa Brewer]

Yup! Drinking a pretty bad witbier right now; thin with a lactose infection.
Allow your suffering to hone you into a stronger brewer.
... oh crap, am I becoming a brew-Sith?

 

[mashpaddled]

I started brewing right before law school so at a time when I wasn't working but under a lot of stress I couldn't bring myself to dump gallons of beer if it was at all drinkable. I drank a lot of bad early homebrew batches. With time I brewed fewer crappy batches but with as much sour and brett beer as I brew I'll always have an odd bad batch to dump. I don't mind bottling a less than ideal batch and see if it ages into something interesting but I give a short leash these days.

 

[Toxxyc]

I drink it, if it's drinkable. If not, I distill it, if it's got enough alcohol and a lower amount of hops. If not, I dump it.

I actually dumped a batch this past weekend. Brewed up a batch with some milled malt I got from a guy, he couldn't tell me how old it was. I didn't do a starch test after the hour mash and just proceeded to cube and pitch the next day. It fermented for a few days, and then I kegged it.

Undrinkable, no alcohol, tastes like stale bread. Disgusting. I watered the lawn with it.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

Also, if you do it in a session, they tend to taste better as you go through them.

I disagree, if it is bad, it is bad.

 

[JAReeves]

One of my first Pale Ales was so badly oxidized that we drank it with a slice of lemon. In the words of my sister, "Congratulations, you made Corona!" That'll learn me.