How many batches have you ruined and how??

[ChickenHops]

I've made several beers that I thought were ruined. Then I tried them several weeks to a month later and found them to be much improved.

In 40 some batches I've only had one that I feel I ruined. It was my second batch of all grain. I took a gravity reading prior to the boil. In my haste I forgot to adjust for temp and volume and thought my efficiency was horrible. So I added extract to the boil. The OG ended up being way high.

The ABV ended up being over 8%. OK for an IPA maybe. But this was a California Common. It wasn't completely ruined. It was just terrible compared to an earlier extract version of a Common, which had been excellent. It took me 7 months to drink all of the ruined Common. Then only because I ran out of other beers to drink.

 

[Hoppopotomus]

So far none......until possibly last night

I made a nice partial mash pale ale with more earthy, piney hop profiles (Simcoe & Fuggles). I have been wanting to experiment with adding cedar spirals to a brew, so now was my chance to make an earthy, danky pale ale to compliment the cedar. I just couldn't decide if I wanted to steep the cedar spirals or soak in rum and add to a secondary. I went to my basement, grabbed a red cedar log that I already had stripped the bark off of for another project, and used my draw knife to obtain 2 oz. of cedar spirals. I made sure to knife the sap wood and heartwood for equal representation.

I decided to steep them and my plan was to put the cedar spirals in a steeping bag, throw it in a gallon of water and steep from cold to 170 degrees, hold for 30 min., remove the bag of spirals, and add to the BK for the boil. I started the cedar steep on my stovetop inside. While preparing the equipment, the mash, etc., I lost track of time and my wife indicated that my cedar steep had just started boiling, so she turned it off immediately, so it only boiled for less than a minut. The cedar tea was an amazing color....a deep amber color (think Tahquamenon River) and since it had boiled I figured what the hell, it's sterile...just add it to the fermenter to top off to five gallons when I was done. I left the cedar spirals in the water for the next 1 1/2 hours while finishing up the mash sparging and the boil, until it fell back to room temp.

So I finished the boil, used my IC to cool it down to pitching temp., topped off with the cedar tea (minus the bag of cedar spirals) and water up to 5 gallons, aerated the hell out of it and took a sample for my OG. My OG was spot on and the wort had a noticeable, yet subtle smell of cedar. I sampled the wort and holy sh*t.......BITTER! Not so much bitterness from the Simcoe, but just a resin bitterness that was strange and dominated the hops. I may throw an ounce of Simcoe and an ounce of Fuggles into a secondary and rack onto that to cover it up to some degree, but I haven't a clue what it's going to turn out like. It's chugging away right now fermenting and the aeroma is of hops and subtle cedar. I assume the bitterness is from tannins released from the cedar.....I hope to hell it tames down with age!

Advice or suggestions????

 

[benstetson]

Figured I'd chime in since I officially just lost my first 5 gal batch.

Did an "Old Speckled Hen" clone. It was in the secondary already, clearing to a nice reddish brown as it should be. I wasn't able to check on it for a few days and my daughter shut the door to my pantry allowing it to get too hot. I think the Irish Ale yeast mutated and it started fermenting more. I bottled anyways and it tastes like water and alcohol. The yeast chewed up almost all the sugar.

Another batch way back was a Belgian something or other, supposed to be around 8.5% and ended up being 10% instead. Wasn't really bad but what a sweet alcoholic kick! My buddy passed out after half of the party keg.

 

[schoellhorn82]

Ive had a batch that was infected by something terrible. Still dont know what. I tried harvesting yeast from the dregs of a couple of bottles of Rochfort 10 and stepping up with a starter. Started out looking great in the primary but after a week i got a wet cat food aroma (open up a can of friskes and you'll know). I let it ferment for a while but it never really stopped. I went to transfer it, still smelled like cat food, made the mistake of tasting it, rotten cat food. I almost puked. A recent blonde ale that i used US-05 with turned out tasting belgian.

 

[slothorentropy]

Man I didn't ruin my hefe last night but I came damn close. My dumb ass thought that I could step away from the siphon going from kettle-->fermenter for two minutes to feed the cat, and when I came back there was about a gallon of my six hours' hard work on the floor. Cleaned it up swiftly so no mass stickiness, but only ended up with about 4.25g in the fermenter. Oh well.

 

[kpr121]

One batch, and surprisingly I was able to save half of it. 10 gallon Summer Ale I brewed this past May. All pilsner malt as base. Propane ran out at around 35 minutes into the boil, I didnt want to go get more. On top of that I didnt want to chill it because I was TO'ed and a bit drunk. So it went into the fermenters hot and chilled overnight. The next day I could smell the cooked veggies as soon as I went into the garage. Pitched anyway.

3 weeks later I decide I want to bottle half of this and keg the other. No sense in either taking up 2 kegs or bottling the entire batch if it turns out crappy. A couple weeks later, same taste and aroma in both keg and bottle. So I dryhopped the kegged batch hoping to cover up the smell/taste and it actually turned out drinkable (actually my mothers favorite batch to date).

Bottles have been relinquished to cooking beer. And even then you can taste the veggies in most foods if I used too much beer. I've gone through about half of them so far between cooking and hopeful testing. Havent needed the bottles so I dont plan on dumping the rest.

Now that I think about it I may try to add some hops to a couple bottles and see what happens. What does everyone think - pellets or whole leaf?

 

[passedpawn]

... ... Now that I think about it I may try to add some hops to a couple bottles and see what happens. What does everyone think - pellets or whole leaf?

I honestly couldn't figure out what the heck you were talking about.

 

[dgez]

dump #1: my first lager, a pilsner, i used a half-a@@ rinsed gallon milk jug for the blowoff container. As the wort was cooling in the fridge it sucked up some milky water into the blowoff tube and subsequently into the carboy...fermention smelled like sour milk. bottled it anyway, 6 months later it still tasted like sour milk.

dump #2: was trying to make a clone of new belgiums skinny dip. ***** lime leaves are used. I looked online for the best way to use them and put together what I thought would add a subtle lime leaf flavor. I shreaded up 6 leaves (an ounce was like 60 leaves) and threw them in during secondary. It ended up tasting like citrus windex. Let it sit in the keg for a few months, never got any better.

 

[ravensbrew]

I've only dumped 2 batches to date thankfully

#1 Way too much crystal. I added 3lbs of crystal to an attempt at an Irish red. Came out too cloying and tasted like drinking a toffee bar. A few people claimed to like it, but I think they were just being nice

#2 Had a digital thermometer go wonky and read about 20 degrees low. Missed my mash temp by a pretty large margin w/out realizing it on an IPA. Turned into bitter hop water.

 

[kpr121]

I honestly couldn't figure out what the heck you were talking about.

Sorry. I have DMS in bottled beers. Should I try to mask few test bottles by dryhopping with pellets or whole leaf hops?

More clear?

 

[MNDan]

I scorched the heck out of an IPA this spring (left burner on under the mash tun between mash & sparging), and it still hasn't mellowed enough for me to like it. I believe it will be heading down the the drain as soon as I need some extra kegs, though my friends don't mind it as much. I just hate the flavor of scorch.

 

[eltorrente]

I've brewed maybe 150 batches or so, mostly 5gals and several 10gallon. The only batch that was undrinkable was because of too much ginger-root, and it was just horrible.

Never had an infection ruin anything, and any time I messed up fermentation temperature or mash temp or whatever, it just gave the beer character and was still drinkable. Maybe not contest winning quality, but always solid, drinkable beers.

 

[captflyer]

My first batch is a Hefe....Has a decent taste but seems a little "watery"....Haven't figured out how to fix that yet.....Getting ready to bottle an "extract" kit...It came with all my equipment. Curious how that will turn out.

 

[DUNDASJ]

I've dumped one and once I get CO2 I'll know if I have to dump another. Both because of cidery taste. I hate dumping beer especially when what causes cidery tastes could be a number of things.

 

[rjwhite41]

I had one batch of stout when I first started about 13 years ago with way too many roasted grains in it. It was as thick and black as oil and tasted like coffee grounds. First lager I ever did, I couldn't get the temperature down for the primary until several days in. Tasted terrible and it was full of fusels. I'm finishing a keg of Wit right now that was terrible when I first tapped it. Way too much coriander and I zested the oranges myself, getting a lot of pith in it (I'm a Chef so that's inexcusable). But after a couple of months it now tastes pretty good. So I guess the answer is 2 ruined batches in 13 years. Not all have been great but only 2 were dumped.

 

[gestyr]

Okay, after several years I am ready to admit this. I went overboard with a batch. It was an extract pale to which I added way too much fresh ginger root and 4 oz of spruce essence. This stuff tasted the way a bar of Coast soap smells. Foul, but I did drink it as an object lesson to myself. :rockin:

 

[ksbrain]

Worst ever was wormwood.

Next worst was a Duvel clone with too much sugar that was very sweet and flat.

Next was a Barleywine that oxidized in a poorly sealed keg while aging.

Next was the smoked with waaaay too much smoked malts.

Least ruined of these was the winter warmer where I scorched the LME. Fortunately it was not too much out of place for the style.

Oh there was also that one where I forgot to treat the water for chlorine or else over oxygenated and the American Wheat was all clovey or something.

Oh yeah and the one where I tried to toss it a bunch of Xmas tree branches into the boil...but that was an experiment.

I guess I've botched more than I realize... LOL

 

[kh54s10]

3 finished extracts + one in bottles and a PM in primary and no bad ones yet.

DAMN. I just jinxed myself.....

 

[gtwarren1966]

Two. One was a smoked porter that I put way too much smoked malt in, nasty, tasted like a campfire. The other was a Tripel that just didn't attenuate enough and was cloyingly sweet to the point of undrinkable, it got dumped too.

 

[ToddO]

Had 3 wild yeast infections in my first 16 batches including my first. Almost quit. Switched to Star San from Iodophor and have not had another one since in over a year.

 

[ashplub]

I have 2. Well, really 1.2. My first ugly was my 3rd batch. A chocolate dry stout with 8 ounces of cocoa powder. I decided, last minute, to get a few bags of raspberries for secondary from the grocery store. I racked onto them without treating them first. I got some nasties. I tasted it and it did not taste all that bad but I dumped it scared.

The second was a nice hoppy 7% stout with 2 ounces of cocoa powder. It was a killer beer. I racked 1 gallon into mint leaves straight from the pkg. That one went fuzzy on me also. I rationalized the alcohol content for no treatment this time and it bit me again. I racked this one into another growler, chilled overnight then into my glass and it was a most excellent day. FWIW I also racked 1 gallon of it onto a few cups of port that I had left over from a racking....wow. The best beer in the neighborhood. Highly recommended.I’ve learned my lesson. Vodka and campden are cheap.

For the record I do not put cocoa powered in every batch and I brew other styles...

 

[Hoppopotomus]

Hmmmm. I've been using Iodophor since I started brewing and never once have I had an infection. Maybe you just have become a better brewer with better overall sanitation and brewing processes? Just a thought, but I find Iodophor to be an excellent product and I don't get the excessive foaming that I find with Starsan. I know....the foaming does nothing to the beer profile or taste of the beer, but racking into a foamy carboy just wierds me out for some reason. My 2 cents.....

 

[rjwhite41]

I go back and forth between Iodophor and Star San. I read an article years ago that recommended changing every once in awhile so that the baddies don't begin to tolerate one or the other. Don't know how true it is but I switch anyway. Star San foams, Iodophor stains, but I have never had an infection with either.

 

[builderguy]

Well, I posted early just one. Now I need to add another. Ruined and IPA when I put a plastic wine thief into the kettle to take a pre-boil gravity reading...the wine thief came out soft and deformed. It didn't really "melt" so I kept going. Beer has been in primary for 2 weeks, just tasted it when I took a gravity sample....tastes like solvent. Must be the plastic.

 

[hibbleton]

I ruined my last porter by overcarbing. It won 2nd place in a competition early in its life but it is now a gusher (I suspect it didn't finish fermenting as it stopped at 1.020 even though I repitched, raised temp, etc). It still tastes good if I give it a chance in the glass but the mouthfeel is ruined.

I've actually overcarbed a few batches now so I think I'll just stick to the standard 4oz of priming sugar for a while.

 

[m750]

I've only got 4 batches under my belt, but the third, a cider is so dry it's biting. Even after being back sweetened. I only made 3g. I'm thinking I might be able to save it, if I pasteurized it, and sweetened with something fairly mild. Maybe add some mulling spice to add tanins.

 

[doughaas]

Oh man... I think I've had four or five dumpers in the past ten years...

The first was a cherry wheat. Nothing wrong with it but it taught me to keep fruit out of my beer. I just didn't like it. I drank about half of it before I couldn't stand it any more.

The second was a mild that got infected, in a not good way.

I tried to brew a lambic 5 years ago and it just didn't come out well - all sour, no funk. I probably could've salvaged it with some blending but it got dumped due to a cross country move.

The most recent were my first two attempts at using pilsner malt and lagering. One was a czech pilsner and the other a dortmunder export. I learned about DMS the hard way - extended, violent, uncovered boils are important. Wimpy stovetop boils that require the kettle be half covered just lead to cooked corn. No matter how long I let them sit it never went away. I wound up dumping them both at 2 years.

I haven't ventured back into the realm of pilsner malt since. I've never had a DMS problem with pale ale malt and I'm not well set up for lagers anyway.

 

[Majafoo]

2 so far,

The first was a bourbon barrel porter that I put 4 ounces of oak in for 2 weeks. Tastes like chewing on wood. I'm letting it sit for a year or so to see if it gets any better.

The second (lesson learned) was a waaaarm fermentation that turned my Haus pale ale into a banana bomb with all sorts of underlying off flavors. I dumped this one. Not exactly crisp, clean quaffable.

 

[heywolfie1015]

One true dumper. A Belgian quad where I (a) underpitched dramatically, and (b) pitched when the wort was 90 degrees. Solventy as hell. Undrinkable.

 

[DeRoux's Broux]

15 gallons lost to Hurricane Rita. Bitch.