How many below average batches?

[triangulum33]

In your career, how many batches tasted like a "C-" or lower grade?

Out of the ~12 batches I've made, I've had 4 that were what I would call a "C-" or below. 2 batches spoiled in the keg and 2 batches that were not very good (but drinkable) due to screwed up fermentation. I've had 3 batches that I thought were excellent, however.

 

[DizzyPants]

If you are not getting what you want take a lot at the whole process. Recipe, sanitation, equipment. This wouldn't be a great hobby and I wouldn't set aside half a weekend it down the line it did not give great results.

Is it cheaper than BMC, no. Is it more fun, yes.

Give us some more info. I just completed a Kolsch on my new set up and I am stoked.

All the best,
~Diz

 

[Walking_Target]

Of the 3 batches i've done since taking the hobby up again, one has been mediocre - my own fault for using one of those silly Cooper's kits without using DME or LME instead of sugar (made tolerable though, by the addition of galena hops)

The ale I did recently was all 'pale' (turned out nut brown...) and slightly less hoppy than I wanted, but quite drinkable and tasty.

my take on Edwort's Apfelwein (3g of juice to 1kg of dark brown sugar) is lethally tasty though. Used nottingham instead of a wine yeast, so it attenuated out at around 1.01 and approx 10%ABV. Slightly sweet, tart with toffee/caramel notes and goes down extremely smooth - as in 'does not register as alcoholic'. Best part is that it was tasty right out of the 2ndary.

 

[triangulum33]

First off, I love this hobby and do it as much for the process as the results.
It seems that if something could go wrong for me it does. A leaky keg that I didn't discover until 2 batches went bad for instance. I have an AG triple that I just racked into secondary that I had hit all the numbers on, that sampled great out of the kettle. Now it has darkened to almost a brown ale and tasted dry and funky. I needed a blow off tube which I replaced with an airlock that I found almost empty of SS when I racked it. I'm guesing it caught a bug somewhere during those events.
I do AG batches, ferment in a temp controlled freezer, keg and am very careful with sanitation yet seem to still have issues. Ill have a batch that is outstanding then the next one will be crap.
So, I was curious how often other guys have less than desirable results.

 

[Beezy]

I have 8 beers that I have actually drank. I am still new to it. Can't expect amazing beer right off the bat. What fun would it be if it was that easy anyway. I had 1 that got dumped. The 8 others I would drink over BMC any day. No major off flavors. Just sometimes they don't end up exactly as I envisioned. Sometimes better than I thought though. If I have to dump one every 8 batches I would say that's not bad although I hope I never have to again.

 

[Rockape66]

After about 20 batches, I haven't had a dumper or infection yet. I had a sage cream ale that was so so until about five weeks in the bottle, and then it was quite tasty. I also had a batch of cider that I thought was barely drinkable. After a year of aging it is very yummy. I only have ten bottles left, sob!

 

[70Cuda383]

good luck here... my first batch ever was a Mr Beer kit with vague and ambiguous instructions. it said to boil 1 gallon of water/wort, then add 1 gallon of "cold" water to the fermenter to "avoid temperature shock" it made no mention of too much heat killing the yeast, or to wait until it was below a certain temp. simply said "mix with 1 gallon cold water, pitch yeast" so, in my thinking, "room temp"water WAS cold compared to 200 degree boiling water! I pitched my yeast with the water temp at around 130-140, and pretty sure it killed all the yeast.

no idea what fermentation looked like, I had no idea if it was working or not, but I let it sit the appropriate amount of time.

I saw no real signs of fermentation.

bottled it.

apparently SOMETHING got to it though. after it aged in the plastic fermenter for 4 weeks, and bottles for 3...it did carb, but it had a very strong, bitter cider taste. it was so bad I didn't finish the other 6 bottles, and I'm afraid to now. I'd rather NOT gag like I did before!

that was my only bad batch though. everything else since then has been great,(with the exception of one "bad" recipe) and I've done about 12 batches myself. the "bad" recipe was a batch of cider where I added a bunch of brown sugar and honey, used a champagne yeast, and it tasted very strong of "alcohol." it's still aging though, going on about 6 months now, I'll keep checking on it after every couple of months and see if it turns out better. it's drinkable, but not what I was expecting or hoping for yet.

 

[dezman]

Ive had about 3 or 4 bad batches. One got infected due to a lid blowoff, one got scortched due to trying to direct heat the mash (dumb idea), a lager fermented with no temp control tasted like banana, and thats all i remeber. Ive brewed probably about 100 batches or so.

 

[badmajon]

About 30 batches in the last year and a half, 2 dumpers (wild yeast/plastic bandaid taste) and 1 that was just a bad recipe I made up myself that I only drank half of... it included a sh*tload of dry hopped Citra on a 1.040 british bitter grainbill... but it was my 4th beer and I had no idea what I was doing.

I would strongly reccomend that everyone on this site get a small chest freezer and a temperature controller for their fermentation. I know that there's some beer gods on here that claim that they still use the frozen water bottle inside a box trick, but it is so much harder. Regardless of whether you use all grain or extract, you still need that reliable temperature control. Your beers will taste so much better. Hot or otherwise incorrect fermentation is responsible for most bad beers.

The freezer/controller build only costs $140 ($100 for the chest freezer off of craigslist and $40 for the ebay aquarium temp controller and the radio shack parts).

 

[bad coffee]

Once in a while I get a sub-par batch. In the three years I've been brewing, I've had a couple of beers turn out thinner than I thought, but they're still drinkable. The keg just happens to last much longer than the good beers do.

I've also brewed a couple that I thought were gross but The Lady loved them. Does it make it a bad beer? NO WAY! It just makes them 'her' beers.

I've (luckily) only had one dumper, and one that just got funky so I dumped the last half gallon or so.

The dumper was my pumpkin, that never flocc'd, even after cold crash, gelatin, and waiting a month. It didn't quite taste right either.

The odd one was a really great FWH Centennial that tasted awesome and then one day just tasted like thrown-up-grass-clippings. It was the bottom of the keg, so I didn't worry too much about it.

b

 

[Beezy]

My dumper BTW stalled and just couldn't get it to go. I let it sit for quite a while and eventually it got infected. I think it would have been a tasty brew had the yeast not pooped the bed.

 

[bomberman]

I'm a fairly new brewer, so i am expecting more less-than-average brews in my future. My first brew came out pretty bad thanks to poor fermentation control. Strong cider/astringent flavor that wasn't dying down with conditioning, so I dumped it. I think I will be investing in a ferm chamber soon just for that reason.

 

[mychalg9]

All 4 of mine have been pretty bad (by my standards). Two were extract and two were all grain. I just made my 3rd AG and I am cautiously optimistic about it. The airlock was bubbling away after just 12 hours after pitching so thats a good sign. My friends seem to enjoy the two extract batches more than I do, which is good I guess.

 

[jfr1111]

I've had a few bad batches at the end of last year, when I got too confident and started screwing around with weird recipes and processes. Things like pitching on cakes, using old grain, ultra low gravity beers, etc.

I've toned it down and gone back to the basics: simple recipes executed well and all my beers have been good to very good this year.

 

[Bobby_M]

By law of logic, about half of my beers come out below average. Haha, I couldn't resist. Actually, my beers are all about average in my opinion with a few exceptional on the high and low end.

 

[HollisBrewCo]

I dumped my first 2 batches. By the third i had done enough research on HBT that i got a handle on the process and it come out good. I feel like generally I'm well above average and most of my friends agree. I do have the off batch here or there though, usually do to bad recipe formulation.

 

[birvine]

I just had three sub-par batches that I may soon dump for lack of space. So little time to drink the crappy ones! Fortunately, I think I traced it to one bad batch and washed yeast from it.

In general, now, because of HBT I find that pretty much each beer I make is quite good with the odd mediocre. Bobby_M is absolutely correct with the 'average' idea, but I think more in terms of median, I guess, and my median is currently quite high.

Brent

 

[kpr121]

One batch out of probably around 40 or so I would classify as a C- or worse. It was a summer ale brewed with a lot of pilsner malt, my propane burner went out at around 35 minutes into the boil, and I had to be somewhere so I gave up and just let it cool naturally overnight. Tasted of straight cooked corn, and other veggies, not very appealing as a beer. The funny thing is that I kegged half the batch, and when I dryhopped with 2 oz of cascade, the beer was actually drinkable. The other half was bottled (no dryhop) and its been 5 months and that taste has yet to go away. I have the box of bottles stashed away in the basement and use the beer to cook with and it actually went into a really good chili the other day.

 

[triangulum33]

Bobby_M is absolutely correct with the 'average' idea, but I think more in terms of median, I guess, and my median is currently quite high.

Brent

I should've been more explicit in that I meant all the beer, homebrew or commercial, that you've had.
I'm sure that due to varying tastes and experience with different commercial styles would really influence peoples grades of their own beer. A BMC guy might grade his pale ale much different that someone that has had, and enjoys, a wider range of craft brew.

 

[scottland]

C- or less, I've only had one. I dumped it. I really try to brew every batch I make exceptionally, but they don't always hit the mark. So my idea of 'below average' is actually a 'B' in my book. Every batch I brew I intend to be an 'A' batch.

My first brews with a new recipe usually wind up 50/50. 50% turn out excellent, 50% end up in the 'it's a good beer, but needs some minor tweaking' category. I don't think I've ever had a re-brew that missed the mark.

If you want to improve your average batch, focus on your process. And most importantly, quality fermentation. Pitch the right amount of healthy yeast, and temp control the ferment. You can make some mistakes during wort production, and you'll never notice in the final beer, but any flaws during fermentation are hard to miss.

 

[birvine]

I should've been more explicit in that I meant all the beer, homebrew or commercial, that you've had.
I'm sure that due to varying tastes and experience with different commercial styles would really influence peoples grades of their own beer. A BMC guy might grade his pale ale much different that someone that has had, and enjoys, a wider range of craft brew.

And even then, my tastes ebb and flow depending on the full moon. Well, maybe not quite, but they vary.

The more variety I make and the more variety I try (which keeps getting better as craft brewers become more numerous) the more my tastes change. Yesterday at the restaurant the group ordered C Lt - I was shocked with how different the perception from the last time I'd tried it.

What does all of this have to do with quality and taste? As tastes change and/or develop, our 'template' of what makes a 'good' beer changes.

Brent