How bad was your first home brew?

[Disintegr8or]

My first beer came out great, although it was an extract kit and I had temp controlled fermentation from the start.

To be honest, I've been brewing a little over a year now and haven't made a bad beer yet. I overhopped an IPA, but my buddy loved it so he got them all.

 

[techbrewie]

undrinkable. not sure if i had a contamination issue or if I steeped my grains at too high of a temp but it had this unforgettable metallic after taste that just made you not want another sip. Good times.

 

[LouBrew13]

First was a Mr beer kit and was so gross and not pleasant. I found 6 of them a year later and they were all foam and still didn't taste good. After getting a beginner home brew kit with extract recipes I made some decent and some not so good beers including a ginger bread beer last Xmas. It tasted scorched and awful. Upon switching to ag I've made some really awesome beers and really look forward to brew day...bottling day is miserable and I'll soon keg.

 

[Doongie]

It was not bad, infact it was quite good. It was a Canadian "lager" canned extract kit back in the early 90's, Laaglander, Coopers, something like that, I don't remember exactly. We made several other beers, only one of which was not good, and poured out. It was a winter spiced recipe, and we overdid it on the spices, it really was undrinkable. Since then have had a few that weren't what I wanted or expected, but were not "bad".

 

[CatHead]

Mine had fusels from high fermentation temps. Still not too bad if you can block out that taste. I believe my last one will be better though, it went a lot smoother.

 

[Braufessor]

My first one was pretty decent . . .. but each beer after that was not quite as good, dark ones were better, light hoppy ones were worse. Basically, my sanitation (with bleach and rinsing) was not really a good plan and so, over time, my equipment was not getting cleaned as well as it could have, and my process had flaws. Eventually, I made some horrible, horrible beer at times. Once I really took the time to research, and had access to better resources ( I started brewing in the days before the internet was really "common.") I figured the most important things out about brewing - good sanitation and a good routine.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

morfanckin' putrid! I was a cocky & arrogant 20 y/o making beer. sanitation was crap. all my so called friends lied to me as they sat sipping was was supposed to be a sweet stout. "Mmmmm! This is real good!" did they think I wouldn't find out? I took a sip & immediately spit it into the sink. it sure knocked me down from that horse. but I didn't give up. 13 years later, finally jumped to AG.

 

[brewbeerry]

my first one was pretty bad but the home-brewing part gave me some bias. got a can of hopped pilsner liquid malt extract from a cooking store, not a brew store, and added 2 lbs dextrose like the lame instructions said. used 99 cents muntons yeast and bottled after 3 days when airlock was bubbling once a minute (the fact that i went by bubbles per minute shows the level i was at). after that experience i at least replaced the dextrose with dry malt extract and added my own hops instead of relying on pre-hopped ingredients. took almost a year before i discovered the importance of fermentation temp control, adequate primary time, and good amount of conditioning.

 

[jsguitar]

My first attempt was terrible. It was rocket fuel with a touch of band aid. It was in Houston in the summer with no temp control and bleach for sanitizer that was probably not rinsed thoroughly.

I held onto it for years, but it never got any better so I finally dumped it. That's probably still the worst brew I've made, and I've made a few iffy ones.

 

[twalte]

My first one...last month...was a Red Ale with steeped grains and LME. I think I had an overly aggressive boil, and it was too dark and the alcohol content was ridiculously high. It wasn't undrinkable, but it wasn't something to savor either. I learned a lot on that one.

Belgian White extract kit was number 2 and fantastic! My neighbor is going to start brewing after tasting that one.

Two more grain/extract kits are in primary but early samples of the Imperial Stout seem promising. Russian Imperial Stout is still in my primary for 10 days now (4 months to go before I bottle). American Pale ale is 4 days in.

Brewed my first all grain yesterday with a California Common. Much easier than I expected using a bazooka tube in my brew kettle.

So far, very pleased and learning something new with each batch.

Oh...and one batch of cider that I nicknamed Sui-cider this morning after a very long brew day and some self-inflicted damage. I remember filling the fermenter last night...the rest is a little fuzzy.

 

[brick_haus]

I went to a buddies house and watched him brew an AG Blonde Ale. The next week and $1500 later I brewed a 10 gal. AG batch using a recipe that I got from my LHBS using my new 60qt pots, two of which have false bottoms, heated with 3 Blichman burners, circulated with 2 seperate March pumps (Brutus clone set-up), cooled with my plate chiller and fermented in my homemade chamber. I keged it up, force carbed and enjoyed the hell out of it served from the kegerator that I made from my wifes chest freezer...! I am now drinking my second batch. An IPA recipe that I got from this site, It's also very good. Thanks for all of the advice and the recipe that I got from this site. I have a Blonde Ale fermenting now and have an EdWort's Haus Ale planned next. I plan to put my new stir plate to use and do my first starter with that one.

I've got to go out and buy my wife a new freezer now...

 

[Robin0782]

Well, it was just 2 cans of LME, one hop flavored and one not, so you can probably guess how that tasted. I drank it, but it was nothing great. My second brew, a stout with steeping grains, was quite nice. In 30 batches, I'd say I've only had 2 that were really terrible.

 

[andvari7]

Mine was one of those Brooklyn Brew Shop kits. The Tea & Toast, which is no longer made. It would have been good, if I knew what I were doing. However, I didn't, and it looked wrong. Cloudy, with...thingies...in it. It carbonated really well. Too well, in fact - when I opened my first bottle, I got some on the ceiling. I drank those first beers, knowing that they were sour, while at the same time disgusting, with stubborn pride. They were mistakes, yes, but they were my mistakes. I earned the right to be repulsed by my beer.

But, I was bound and determined to make this whole homebrewing thing work, so I didn't give up. Good thing, too - my IPA kit turned out wonderfully. My sixth, and subsequent batch is going to be my first all-grain, all-original beer. It will probably be awful.

 

[watersr]

Mine wasn't bad. It was a brewers best robust porter kit. I deviated from the directions a bit and added a lb of honey to it without really understanding what that would do. Turned out a little thin and watery and had a bit of a twangy flavor but not terrible. I've only ever made one undrinkable beer and that was because my fermenting bucket had a small crack in the bottom and it molded where some if the beer leaked out. Other than that everything has been at least drinkable even if some were less than stellar.

 

[Warrior]

Mine was pretty horrific and I wanted to know if anyone else was as stubborn as I in keeping with the hobby.

My first brew was a coopers lager. My first mistake was I bought one that had expired a year earlier. Second mistake was that I followed instructions from CragTube on adding brown sugar instead of dextrose.

Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot about equipment and 'how-to's from CraigTube, but after that experience I decided his tastes in beer are very different than mine. Though I have done other things learned from him that worked out well.

Basically the beer tasked like horribly bitter molasses for what was probably a fine beer on it's own. And time would not heal it.

And stubbornness and the unwillingness to admin to the wife that I screwed it up somehow led me to drink my bitter mistakes one by one. And led to my first lesson in home brew: Do it right once before experimenting.

So What horrible mistakes have you drank?

Nice honest question!

My 1st three batches way back around 1985 were terrible!!! Gave up trying after that. Refinanced the house and found out my well was contaminated with bacteria! When I was topping off the fermentation bucket I was adding bacteria!!! Fixed that problem and started brewing again around 1991.

 

[FarmerTed]

My first (brewed with a buddy) was pretty heinous. It was the intro pale ale recipe from a book, I guess 'The Joy of Homebrewing.' It was pretty bad. Don't ever use the yeast pack on the bottom of a decade-old can of extract!!! Tasted like really gross apple cider. We drank all of it, and didn't get any help from friends, lol.

 

[jonmohno]

Used old extract,I believe. Also fermented too high,didnt know I used hops to "flavor" with doing only a 20 min 1 gallon boil using old extract( I believe) but I kinda was killing a step and simplifying so I kinda new it would flavor and bitter but not flavor to the extent it did. It was fruity-twangy and winey,I fermented too high not to mention,that was fruiter,so at first I actually though my beer was more like wine or something.

I probably also bottled too early,especially for fermenting too high( I was intentionally trying hard to keep temps over 70 deg . I didnt have much of a clue about hop flavoring at the time. It did turn out better over the course of the year though.Especially my Wheat-amarillo extract. It was pretty decent really. But I was very confused about what I made at first not to mention frustrated,turns out it was not all my fault,as it is suggested now, old extract can be twangy or cidery. I think its was more winey/fruity that could suggest the same thing as the twang thing for me. But the hops proabaly gave the fruity part,making it seem so fruity it was more like wine. I just remember,"This doesnt taste like beer" or at least beer that Ive ever had before.So I thought I failed and/or thought homebrew may just not be very good,but was very determined to figure it out,and with time, I did. Now I know.

 

[Bender]

The unfortunates who tried my first beer named it "Old Skunk Piss". I'm pretty sure the yeast in the kit was dead and something else fermented it.

 

[iambeer]

My first was a Mr Beer, whatever came with the plastic bucket. It wasn't as bad as the next few beers which I refuse to dump but can't drink as they are from bad to worse.

But if it wasn't for Mr Beer as the first batch, I wouldn't have been drunk for the most part of May 2012 when I maxxed out two new credit cards to purchase a balls to the wall electric automated mobile all grain brewing setup with pumps, filters, kegs, keezer, etc. I even ripped down the guest house to replace it with a hops farm which apparently was not a great idea in hot DC weather unless you water them every once in a while. You live and learn I guess.

 

[D-MOTITAN]

I started brewing about 20 years ago with a buddy. Only for about a year then marriage and work and kids put a stop to it. When i started back up about 2 years ago with a Mr. BEER my wife gave me for a Christmas gift it was on again. That brew was not good. I knew i could do better. U could call it a re-awakening.

 

[Ogri]

I too started with Mr. Beer and my first brew was the Englishman's Nut Brown Ale.

I have fond memories of balmy summer evenings sitting in the beer garden at "the pear tree" on Causewayside, just across from Edinburgh uni, drinking various ales, including Newcastle brown from pint bottles, so I determined that my Mr. Beer Nut Brown was going to be a nostalgia enabling, liquid halcyon, time machine

What I hadn't figured on was Osaka's end of summer, mid to late September 2011, heatwave kicking in and shoving the mercury up to well over 35 C in the shade in the daytime and only going down to lows of 27 C - 28 C at night. I'm pretty sure my wort production wasn't too bad as I had fervently read all the Mr. Beer instructions about 15 times. Had also read through as much of the pertinent stuff in John Palmer's online version as I could digest, but didn't seem to realize the importance of, and simplicity of cobbling together, a swamp cooler, so, after cooling the wort down to 21 C, pitching the S-04 I'd located at Tokyu hands, I put my LBK in the drawer of a steel filing cabinet in my garage. I think my average temp for initial fermentation was probably about 29 C. After about three days I managed to get a swamp cooler, of sorts, made up but it was already too late. I had also, at this point, found HBT and, after receiving the general consensus, was expecting a 2 gallon, fusel bomb laced, pile of liquid poo.

When I opened my first bottle, which amazingly enough I managed three weeks primary and three weeks in bottle plus a three day chill in the fridge (actually, now that I recall it wasn't amazing at all. I had been so dismayed by the prospects of how I thought that beer would turn out it was easy to just leave it the f@*k alone for all that time and move on to the next few brews) it actually didn't taste that bad. It poured with a decent amount of head, tasted a little thin, possibly metallic, with a hint of bubblegum, but didn't have that hot, burning alcohol, feel to it, that I could detect anyway didn't produce any migraine type headaches and when I went to drink a Kirin Ichiban shibori afterwards(5%ABV) the Kirin tasted thin and watery after my own so I figured I must have hit about 5.5 to 6%.

Even my wife, who doesn't drink at all, said "it looks, tastes and smells like beer". Best mate was amazed that it was even that good. I was basically "Meh". Have made some good, some great, and some truly excellent brews since then with my most recent batches reaching far higher levels, due mostly to the wealth of info and help to be found here on HBT

Managed to keep a couple of 1 litre bottles of that first brew ageing for a year and, although they did mellow slightly, it didn't really get much better.

 

[mikescooling]

My first was not good, I boiled the grain and drank it after a week in the carboy, it gave me the "runs". It was a Brewers Best Kit.

 

[Haputanlas]

My first was decent, but had a few off flavors from too high of a ferm temp.

I still have an original bottle that I kept from 3 years back. Probably tastes terrible.

 

[boscobeans]

Considering my first homebrew was made in an open crock and consisted of blue ribbon hopped malt and a chunk of yeast from the bakery it wasn't that bad. LOL.

A little yeasty but it was beer and it was more to my liking than most of the canned and bottled stuff from the supermarket.

bosco

 

[Mojzis]

My first was pretty awful. All grain centennial blonde I tried doing on the stove, with a single 4g kettle. Well...I ended up sparging through a strainer and adding water to fill the carboy. Lets just say it tasted like extra watered down bud light.

Two bottles and it was spilled down the drain. Still have one bottle to remind me

 

[zmanzorro]

My first homebrew has been one of the best beers I've made so far. I was disappointed at first because I didn't know English IPAs were not that hoppy, but as I learned more, I really appreciated it. It probably turned out well because I did everything exactly by the book and all of my equipment was brand new and clean. Probably also because it was a Charlie Papazian recipe.

 

[Haputanlas]

My first was sticky, tight, uncomfortable, and lasted only about 30 seconds.

 

[cbehr]

Mine was pretty decent actually, it was a Hefe extract that I got from my LHBS and threw together with their directions. I was surprised how much my wife and I liked it. I still have a few bottle left beting that this was only 6 months or so ago.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

My first batch wasnt very good. Doing little to no reading I came up with my own recipe based on the description of the flavors of the malts and what I thought sounded like a good mix. I didnt understand the portions of using specialty malts or using too many malts to create a muddled and horrible tasting brew. After that I really dug in and studied up on every aspect of the process I could. Brewed a 8% Abv Bog Myrtle Elderberry Pale Ale my 2nd batch a few weeks later, again my own recipe, and knocked it out of the park.

 

[kh54s10]

My first one got too warm on the first day of fermentation. When I realized this I got the temperature down quickly then fermented a little longer and did a secondary. I don't know how much it changed the taste but it was still very good.

My second was one of my favorites so far. (34 batches)

I have not made any yet that were bad. My worst I would still say was pretty good. It was an experiment running a small batch through the grains after getting the original wort drawn off. It was an IPA that was too weak and bitter. It has mellowed nicely with age.