I'll Never Brew That Again

[cyanmonkey]

Tell us about those brews that, even if you wanted to, you could never brew again. Maybe a happy mistake, perhaps something disastrous, maybe you left it in your closet for a decade before you tried it, again.

 

[masskrug]

I'm drinking a wonderful Simcoe ale right now. I had some random bottles in my closet and I ran across this one. I'm trying to figure it out, but it may have been a quick 30 minute extract beer.

 

[madscientist451]

I made a beer from the book "radical brewing" called Mr Squinty summer ale. I tried to age it, cold lager it, just let it sit around, and never liked the flavor from this brew, so I'm not re-brewing. I'm going to
open the remaining bottles and decant into a jug with some hot banana peppers and see if the hot pepper flavor is picked up in the beer.

 

[hunter_le five]

LHBS botched my grain order a while back, and what was supposed to be an altbier ended up being some sort of black ale. I think they just gave me another customer's grain bill. It still ended up being a good beer. I have no idea what was in it, so obviously I can't replicate it.

 

[cyanmonkey]

LHBS botched my grain order a while back, and what was supposed to be an altbier ended up being some sort of black ale. I think they just gave me another customer's grain bill. It still ended up being a good beer. I have no idea what was in it, so obviously I can't replicate it.

That's hilarious. You could always try to reverse engineer it.

 

[SeeMont]

I brewed a Spruce / Ginger ale about a year ago. The malt base was a 2 row, ABA base. The taste is like chewing on a Spruce tree but I am keeping it in the keg to see is it calms down a pit. Timber.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Vanilla Caramel Cream Ale. It was an experiment I was happy to try...and happy not to repeat.

Also, I'll never use 1.5 oz of spruce extract against 10 gallons of beer ever again (asphalt, anyone?). 0.25 oz max, per 10 gallons, IMHO.

 

[cyanmonkey]

Seems like avoiding spruce is a solid idea.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Spruce is a fantastic flavor when it's a subtle background note. It's positively awful when it's overpowering.

To be clear, I followed the directions (even sparingly) on the extract vial, which was sold specifically as a beer flavorant.

 

[ArizonaGoalie]

I got a free Chinook IPA extract kit from Northern Brewer and contrary to my low expectations it was really, really good. In fact, I've tried to replicate it all grain to no avail. Perplexes me.......

 

[cyanmonkey]

I got a free Chinook IPA extract kit from Northern Brewer and contrary to my low expectations it was really, really good. In fact, I've tried to replicate it all grain to no avail. Perplexes me.......

Don't they typically have an all grain version of their kits?

 

[MileHighBrewer]

The "royal" heffe. It was much stronger, but not really imperial stronger.

Slight background, i do 95% of my brewing at the LHBS as brewing demos, so all kinds of different styles and methods.

One day, the owner decided to brew as well. He got his favorite hefe recipe going for 10 gal. Everything started good, so of course the store blew up with customers. I was busy with my own brew, but he asked me to keep an eye on his. Not a huge problem....but then , like always, he sends customers to ask me 1000 questions at the busiest times during a brew. Anyways.....he was doubt a multi step. Protein was done and i light the burner to get up to the sacch rest. But, distraction via many customers. His mash ended up boiling!! We managed to cool it down with a bit of water and vigorous stirring. However, that activity all caused the false bottom to lift off. We tried to sparge, all chunks, clogged outlets.

He was pissed and wanted me to dump it. F that. I happened to have my huge BIAB sack, so i put that in his BK and scooped everything over. Eventually got that all over, pulled the bag to drain and attended to my beer. After a few minutes i got his boil going. This was my first time with a banjo....didn't realize how powerful those are lol. Figured it would take a while to boil, as i was used to. Boil got going, put the spider in, added his 60min addition. Again, turned back to my beer....aaaaaand customers bugging me.

After a few minutes, burner cranked to full 30psi...i hear that unmistakable sound of a boil over starting. I turn around and its mount Vesuvius! HUUUUGE boil over, hops blown out the spider, wort all over.

Get everything dialed back in and moving. At this point the owner said its your beer, do what you want. Hull melon was very new and just arrived the day before so i figured why not.

Rest of the boil was fine. But....

What started as 10 gal of regular hefe, ended up as about 5.5 of 1.065 banana melon royal German wheat beer lol

Owner wasn't impressed, but every single customer LOVED the beer (we have a 7 tap system for samples while you shop and to showcase different styles) and it kicked within a week with little 3-4oz pours.

Could never repeat that beer ever again. I mean...that's what, an 11 gal decoction? Lmao

 

[crashtest22]

lol what a great thread...for me I have two that I will not brew again not because I dont know what it was but because it was ehh...
the first was a british bitter that I got as a all grain kit from my LHBS....it was super light malt and even thought the ibu was only 41 with the light malt it was not that good...I am still drinking it because its a good lawn mower beer but will not brew again....

The second was the White House honey ale.
I did the extract as posted on the site and it was not that good to me at first....I aged it for about 2 months and its better so I will drink it but its not that great

 

[timrox1212]

Mine was a Belgian pumpkin beer. Brewed up a pumpkin beer that I've brewed twice and loved it. Decided hey why not kick it up this time with some Belgian yeast. Went with white labs 500. Turned out awful. Cinnamon nutmeg prunes is the flavor. Not enjoyable. But I powered through the keg like a champ.

 

[Braufessor]

I have done some "second running" partigyle type beers that turned out great. Had a Saison I did off of a bigger belgian beer a couple years ago that was insanely good. Have a "black lager" that is currently lagering that was really good out of the fermenter - it was second runnings from a RIS. Both ended up having some DME in them to bring gravity up a bit. Probably be next to impossible to ever replicate them exactly again - but, I will certainly try again in the future when I do the same types of big beers and collect second runnings.

 

[SharonaZamboni]

A Belgian wit. It turned out really well, but I just hate every Belgian everything I've ever tried. Except waffles.

 

[catdaddy66]

Probably is a mental thing but my first attempt at a SMaSH was horrible. Used old hops and temps got outta control when my a/c broke down for 3 days last summer. Nasty is the only word that describes it, really. Just haven't wanted to try that recipe (Maris Otter and Columbus) again.

 

[sudbuddy]

The "royal" heffe. It was much stronger, but not really imperial stronger.

Slight background, i do 95% of my brewing at the LHBS as brewing demos, so all kinds of different styles and methods.

One day, the owner decided to brew as well. He got his favorite hefe recipe going for 10 gal. Everything started good, so of course the store blew up with customers. I was busy with my own brew, but he asked me to keep an eye on his. Not a huge problem....but then , like always, he sends customers to ask me 1000 questions at the busiest times during a brew. Anyways.....he was doubt a multi step. Protein was done and i light the burner to get up to the sacch rest. But, distraction via many customers. His mash ended up boiling!! We managed to cool it down with a bit of water and vigorous stirring. However, that activity all caused the false bottom to lift off. We tried to sparge, all chunks, clogged outlets.

He was pissed and wanted me to dump it. F that. I happened to have my huge BIAB sack, so i put that in his BK and scooped everything over. Eventually got that all over, pulled the bag to drain and attended to my beer. After a few minutes i got his boil going. This was my first time with a banjo....didn't realize how powerful those are lol. Figured it would take a while to boil, as i was used to. Boil got going, put the spider in, added his 60min addition. Again, turned back to my beer....aaaaaand customers bugging me.

After a few minutes, burner cranked to full 30psi...i hear that unmistakable sound of a boil over starting. I turn around and its mount Vesuvius! HUUUUGE boil over, hops blown out the spider, wort all over.

Get everything dialed back in and moving. At this point the owner said its your beer, do what you want. Hull melon was very new and just arrived the day before so i figured why not.

Rest of the boil was fine. But....

What started as 10 gal of regular hefe, ended up as about 5.5 of 1.065 banana melon royal German wheat beer lol

Owner wasn't impressed, but every single customer LOVED the beer (we have a 7 tap system for samples while you shop and to showcase different styles) and it kicked within a week with little 3-4oz pours.

Could never repeat that beer ever again. I mean...that's what, an 11 gal decoction? Lmao

Story of my life

 

[unionrdr]

This one, my so called "summer ale".

I should've named it Cougarator, as it was a 2 year old Cooper's OS Lager can. It came out the color & flavor of the Paulaner Salvator doppelbock. I sent 2 bottles to Gary @ Home Brewer TV & he gave it the full 3 thumbs up against a commercial ale in episode #38. Unless I find another 2 year old can, it'd be quite difficult to reproduce exactly. And it was only my second brew ever. Too bad too, it was delicious!

 

[brewbama]

Mine was a Roselare Red. I found out I don't like sours.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Let's see....

-Chili Pepper Smoked Porter. I split it 5 ways, and 4 of the combos (4 different peppers) were fine and I would make them again. The last was overkill. So to be specific, smoked porter with 1 whole serrano, 1 whole jalapeno, 1 whole habanero, and 1 whole ghost pepper in one gallon. That was overkill. Of course, most would say the batch that was 1 whole ghost pepper in one gallon was also overkill, but I quite enjoyed that one, and others did too. Point is, all 4 at once was just too much.

-Maple Wine. Basically constructed the exact same way as Mead, but using maple syrup instead of honey. It was a cool experiment with surprising results, but uhh...yeah. I'm not doing that again.

Beyond that, I've made plenty of kitchen sink or use-up-old-ingredients beers, some good, some not-so good. But I'm not in a hurry to try any again and wouldn't be able to anyway.

 

[blackbeer]

any beer i've ever made with ginger, fruit or molasses. never again will i break the Reinheitsgebot.