Never dump your beer!!! Patience IS a virtue!!! Time heals all things, even beer!

[BobV]

It started innocently enough. My 2nd or 3rd batch was a Sierra Nevada clone from Austin Homebrew. Followed the directions with one minor alteration; at the end of the boil, immediately prior to turning off the heat, I added about a cup of local honey. My hydrometer was broken, so gravity readings were not available.

Pitched a liquid yeast and put the beer in a cool space to ferment. With no activity after the first 36 hours I paniced and pitched another vial of yeast. Fermentation started the next day and was very active for 3 days. After a week in the primary the beer was very cloudy and still seemed to have a lot of activity, so I left it there for another week.

After 2 weeks in the primary, I racked the beer into the secondary (a glass carboy). It was still very cloudy. After three weeks in the secondary it was not much better, but I was scheduled to leave the country in a couple weeks so it was time to bottle. So, into the bottles it went, and they went into the closet to carbonate.

Two weeks later I pulled one out and drank it. I won't even try to describe the taste, but it was not good at all. But I pretty much expected that so I was OK with it. I was starting to learn and understand that patience is a brewer's best friend. But, as you will see, the lesson had not completely sunk in yet.

I left the country for 5 weeks, and had high hopes for my 'skunk' beer when I got back. I was very disappointed to find the taste had not changed at all! At this point I have to admit that I gave up on that batch. I ordered another kit and started the process all over again.

Another month went by before it was time to bottle the new batch. I paid my 18yo son and his buddy $5 each to dump out 'old skunky'. While they were busy, I decided to give it one last check and grabbed a bottle out of the case they were working on, popped the top, and took a sip. It was GREAT! An awesome Pale Ale with just a hint of honey flavor. I told the boys not to dump any more, and they informed me that I held the last bottle in my hand. One of them actually told me that he didn't understand why they were pouring it out since he had tasted one and thought it was pretty good. I chilled the bottle and then poured it into a glass, and it was crystal clear.

Drinking that glass of beer was a bittersweet experience.

 

[BrettV]

Thanks for giving us all hope, Revvy. Here's a question for you: My first brew is currently in bottles in my closet. I fermented for about 2 and a half weeks, and it's been bottled for 3 weeks. It tastes...OK. It's a pretty simple all extract beer, so I didn't expect miracles. But it carbed, and there are no "off" flavors to speak of. I do want to let it sit for a while, though, and see if it doesn't evolve into something a little better. So, when leaving the beer to sit for months and months, is it OK that the temperature of the area changes quite a bit? I live in a second floor apartment in Manhattan, and while my bedroom is cooler than the rest of the apartment, it's still currently 80 degrees in there right now. It will probably linger in the 80s for the rest of the summer, and then dip into the 60s/70s during the fall and winter. But it varies day to day. Will the beer withstand these circumstances? Does time heal all wounds, even if it's not stored under controlled temperatures?

 

[billc68]

I had a kit beer a long time ago like that, tasted like satan's anus... ok maybe not that harsh. Then I moved and had 6 or 12 left and stuck them in ma storage room at my parents, after about 6 more months or so, I had tbe best ever homebrewed beer I have ever tasted. Unfortunately in the meantime, we used many of the bottles as targets for our pellet gun.

Now I am in a similar situation, I have two lagers, my first two ever, I brewed them warm not knowing any better, one is a cerveza and teh other a dutch lager which actually had a lager yeast AND after 72 hours an Ale yeast. Both have weird off flavours, maybe Diacetyl, definitely some esters etc. I have them kegged but with 12 bottles of each as well. every week I do taste an improvemnet but they are only tolerable right now.

I pulled my Dutch Lager out of teh frdige to make room for another keg, it has been sitting at 66-72F for a few weeks now and I haven't touched it. My cerveza is still in the fridge and I am drinkingon as I type, drinkable but only fair. I guess, i will leave them in teh keg until A, I like them or B, I need the keg (or of cours C, when the neighbours decide they like them and can drink the whole keg, as they are Bud/ Labbat Blue/Molson Canadian fans and my undrinkable beer kinda tastes like that .

 

[billc68]

I wouldn't bother topping off when you secondary unless you plan on aging it for months. You should get enough off gassing to blanket the beer just by transferring it.

I often wondered about that too... so what if I am aging it for months? wouldn't there still be a blanket of CO2? it is heavier than air and shold stay on top of teh beer.

I racked 2 gallons to day in a 3 G carboy, I blew a little co2 in a pitcher and imagined myself pouring invisible water into my carboy... I plan to let it sit for a few weeks maybe longer, however, i noticed an hour later a disitintively clear layer of beer in my carboy, so it may npt age too long after all.

 

[Hilbert]

Ok so i have my first batch that will test this theory. I would have dumped this beer but then i remembered about this thread. I'll report back in a year if this beer is salvaged.

Here's the story:

My first 10 gallon batch and my 3rd all grain batch overall. I decided to make BierMuncher's Cream of Three Crops recipe.

Sick of getting 50% efficiency I changed multiple variables all at once:
- Added extra grains to the recipe (i.e. entered 50% efficiency into beersmith)
- I crushed my grain extra fine
- Increased my mash in temp
- Did a 90 minute mash
- 10 minute sparges (At least that was my plan)

Here's what went wrong:
- During both sparges i got pulled away from my mash tun. The first one went 20 mins. The second sparge went about 35 mins.

I ended up with an insane efficiency in the high 90's.

Because i knew i way overshot my gravity I tried to boil the hops longer since I didn't have any additional hops to add into the boil.

I split the 10 gallons into two 5 gallon batches. One has Nottingham dry yeast the other had a homemade blend of San Francisco and Nottingham yeasts.

When I bottled the batch they both tasted like molasses. The first taste test of the carbed up Nottingham batch tasted like rubbing alcohol. I tasted the homemade blend last night and it was at least drinkable but still very strong rubbing alcohol flavor.

The plan is to let the cases sit untouched and try one bottle every 3 months. I'll report back if these end up drinkable at some point.

 

[ksbrain]

- 10 minute sparges (At least that was my plan)

What do you mean by this? Is this the amount of time you're letting each batch of sparge water sit with the grains before running off?

 

[GaryJohn]

Ok so i have my first batch that will test this theory. I would have dumped this beer but then i remembered about this thread. I'll report back in a year if this beer is salvaged.

Well, it probably won't turn out like you planned, but I am predicting this will turn out to be a mighty-fine beer.

Glad you didn't toss it!

 

[Hilbert]

I hope it turns out good. If it does mellow out it may end up being a wicked brew.

 

[Hilbert]

What do you mean by this? Is this the amount of time you're letting each batch of sparge water sit with the grains before running off?

Yup. Add sparge water. Stir real good and let sit for 10 mins. I figured that would extract any remaining sugars that the first 60 didn't get.

 

[Olddog]

This is a great thread. My own story of a beer I thought about dumping concerned a wheat ale I fermented too hot. When I bottled it, I was concerned over how it tasted but went ahead and bottled it anyway. A week later, I popped one open to see how carbonation was going and was even more concerned over the smell (it smelled like what I can best describe as bile) but figured it was still green and left it alone.

That was about a month ago. I opened one this morning and it actually tasted pretty good. Good enough to put a few more in the fridge to drink this weekend.

I'm glad I didn't dump it and decided to wait it out!

 

[Newton]

Back in March, I brewed an amber ale...third batch...didn't really know what I was doing. I ended up making my grain bill about 25% amber malt. After 2 weeks in the bottle, this stuff tasted so pungently strong that I posted a thread here on it. It turns out that the "amber malt" in my recipe was supposed to be pale malt that was toasted in the oven, not the out of the bin "amber malt". Anyways, people told me to just let it sit and see what happens. I tasted one the other night and and the strong roasted flavor had mellowed out substantially and the beer looks beautiful. I think I'm going to let it sit for another month or two before I start drinking more of it. When I found out that I had hosed up the recipe, I had a strong compulsion to dump the batch...glad I didn't.

 

[android]

i brewed a dortmunder back in june. tried my best to ensure a good brew day, cooled down to proper temp, pitched a ton of yeast (WY 2206), had a nice, controlled fermentation, lagered for 3 weeks (probably not enough) and tapped it. i just wasn't happy with the flavor from fermentation and yeast. i could have sworn it had a detectable amount diacetyl in it somehow, despite my attention to detail. i was unhappy with it, my wife thought it was OK and drank a few pints over a month or so to humor me and i avoided it as i had other good beers on tap.

fast forward a few weeks... i brewed a cream ale that turned out great and didn't have an open tap for it, so i pulled the keg of dortmunder and replaced it with the cream ale. i decided to put the keg of dortmunder down in my basement to chill for a while and i kinda forgot about it.

fast forward to about a week ago, almost 4 months after i brewed the dortmunder and the cream ale and another that took it's place kicked. i decide, what the hell, and put the dortmunder back in the keezer. holy **** is this a nice lager now... i was ready to forget about brewing lagers, but this one really has me excited again. honestly one of the best beers i've ever brewed and all it took was 4 months...

 

[Gtrfrk182]

ive read this thread several times as well as your other "dont toss" threads, but i think 2 of my 3 batches are serioulsly messed up. one is probably 5 months old and the other is 6 weeks and they are both terrible. i poured the 6 week into a glass, hated it, poured it out and rinsed the glass several times before adding delerium nocterium to it and that made my commercial beer taste horrible!
i hate to think that sanitation is a problem because im very thorough. it could be my fermentation techniques with a swamp cooler but not sure. its gettin pretty frustrating at this point. any ideas? should i change something? both the "mess ups" were a stout and a porter if that helps.
thanks

 

[NorthRiverS]

That story brought a tear to my eye . . . . . . Thanks Revvy ! ! ! !

NRS

 

[Poolshark0156]

This is my second post I believe? Anywhoo, I really like the story, and just today had a similar experiance with an old porter i brewed back in march with a friend. Three weeks into the bottle age we tried one, tasted like bitter rank old coffee. Being a new brewer, I deemed it a failure, and put it away in the closet never to be seen again. Probably the smartest (unbeknown to me at the time) thing I could have done. Tried it again out of curiosity back in september, same result with no change. Then today, 3 december... I happend to be short for bottles on a new nut brown I had brewed about two weeks ago. (has a spider web white in color on top i might add, prior to racking to my bottling bucket.) Anywhoo guess where I went for a few more bottles?

I went and got a few of the left for dead porter I had all but forgotten about. I cracked one, and was about to pour to the sink and thought awwww what the hell... Poured a bit in a cup, and took a mouthfull swig, swished it around a bit and was stunned at how mild it was. Though there was little carbination it was suprisingly mild, with a strong hint of the dark malts which I was hoping for with that brew. All and all, not perfect... But by far a drinkable, enjoyable brew.

 

[BigBlueBrad]

Great read. I brewed a Blue Paw clone in August. Used a yeast starter like normal. Hit the right OG, but the joker never took off with fermentation. So a week into it a sprinkled dry yeast on top. Five days later, still nothing. I am a big Middle Tennessee fan and big tailgater. I just left the beer in the primary in the fermenation fridge and forgot about it.

We played our last home game last week, so I was bored and wanted to brew a Holiday brew this week. I grabed the Blue Paw clone to dump it, but it looked great four months later. I measured the gravity and it was spot on. I tasted it and it was good. So, I went ahead and kegged it and it is in the kegerator as we speak.

Glad I waited.

 

[virginiawolf]

Thanks Revvy,
I always keg but now you've got me wanting to bottle a certain percentage of everything and age it to see how it transforms over time. I've become a more patient brewer but having a quick turnaround recipe on tap helps that. I'm lagering 2 batches right now. I'll probably bottle some liters of it. If I do I'll report back with my results. I'm guessing it will be supreme.
Thanks,
Virginia Wolf

 

[jonmohno]

thanks for this post i had tried a beer( which i think i may have botteled to soon and was worried about bombs but given the recipe on a brew calculator my finish gravity was pretty close to what it was) i tried one after 2 weeks and it open poured and looked as good as a micro brew from the store but it had a fruity appely taste that made it not taste like a beer. even the buket smells like fruit.is this normal. ? i decided to wait a third week refrigerate one then test it again hopefully it will become a beer and not a wine.

 

[GaryJohn]

thanks for this post i had tried a beer( which i think i may have botteled to soon and was worried about bombs but given the recipe on a brew calculator my finish gravity was pretty close to what it was) i tried one after 2 weeks and it open poured and looked as good as a micro brew from the store but it had a fruity appely taste that made it not taste like a beer. even the buket smells like fruit.is this normal. ? i decided to wait a third week refrigerate one then test it again hopefully it will become a beer and not a wine.

This is pretty normal, depending on the yeast and recipe. Mostly, if the beer ferments on the warm side, more fruity "esters" will be produced. Also, if the beer is too young (which yours is) it will have a young "green" taste, sometimes descried as tasting like green apples. It's very possible you have a combo of both!

The good news is both of these off-flavors can mellow out or disappear in time. Let it age another 6 weeks from now, then refrigerate one, then try it. I bet you'll be suprised!

 

[smizak]

Never really had esters "mellow" out. They tend to stick around.

 

[GaryJohn]

Never really had esters "mellow" out. They tend to stick around.

That's what I've heard as well, but it has happened to me. A RIS fermented too warm, and tasted more like a bannana stout when I first bottled it. The bannana is almost gone now, having aged several months!

It is possible that the other flavors just melded together though, offsetting the esters rather than than the esters actually "going away." It was still a noticable effect though!

 

[jonmohno]

yeah thanks . this is what i have learned since searching and i know its mellowing out because i just tried one and it is going away and starting to taste awesome.that is if i dindt have my tastebud goggles on after drinking 4-5 beers.6 weeks? boo-hoo.ha.gonna refrigerate one this weekend it will be three weeks then test that one.

 

[jonmohno]

so maybe keeping my primary vessel by the heater at 70 in the winter is not a good thing since it can be 10 degrees higher inside?.maybe this is my problem with the fruity tastes.maybe ill stick it in my closet? where its 5 +degrees cooler?

 

[SkylerChaBro]

I botched my second extract brew up pretty badly. Fermenting temps were high, I added too many fermentables, scorched the wort in the partial boil. When I finally conditioned it for 3 weeks, it was awful!

Well guess what, it's over a year later and now it's pretty damn good! You never know.

 

[ksbrain]

I made a cider like three years ago. I don't remember the exact recipe. I think I just rescued a half gallon of local cider from the drain and added some US-05 to it. I left it for a while, and it never cleared up in the gallon jug fermenter. I bottled it up and got three half-liter bottles. Tried a bottle and it was insanely tart, sour. I figured it was infected or something and would always be intolerably sour. I kept the other two bottles around for emergency purposes, just in case I ran out of everything else.

I tried the second one maybe a year and a half ago while reducing bottle inventory. It was still super tart. No change really.

Well last night I tried the third one. I'm trying to be patient and let my three carbonating kegs get carbonated before I start drinking them, so I'm scouring the back of the fridge for bottles again. It has completely changed. It's clear and clean and fizzy and really sweet apple tasting. In fact, it tasted almost just like the Harpoon Cider I had the night before (another back-of-the fridge deal). It is amazing to me. I had figured it would have either been super sour or turned into vinegar or something. But it was now perfect. And of course that was the last one.

Patience is a virtue. It's too bad I'm not normally all that virtuous.

 

[Praiodan]

I brewed a coconut milk stout for my fiances birthday beer. Everything went well, numbers were all good and fermentation was active within hours. Well, I came home from work and checked the closet where the beer was fermenting and the darn thing had blown it's top. Beer all over the basement, and it was lava flowing out the top!

I cleaned up what I could, washed the airlock out and resanitized everything. A couple days later, I pushed on the carboy (6 gallon BB) which I often do to get a smell of the brew, and this one was rancid! Smelled like rotting fruit. I attributed that to the fermentation blowing up and just assumed that some nasties from the air got in there while the beer was exposed to air.

Three weeks goes by, still smells bad, but I have an obligation to complete this birthday brew, so I rack it into a secondary over 3 pounds of toasted coconuts. A couple weeks pass, each day I smell the airlock, same fruity smell, very astrigent. Christmas comes around, it's already past her birthday and I've given up on the beer, but I don't want to dump it...so it sits in there for another couple weeks on the coconut.

Finally I needed the bucket it was in for another brew, so I decide to just deal with it. I dipped in a sanitized tasting glass, and swirl it around in my mouth and who would have thought that it actually cleaned itself up, and while the taste isn't perfect, it's very much a drinkable brew now! The beer sat on the coconut for so long that there is no doubt what the beer is; it's blasting with toasted coconut flavor!

On tap right now carbing up; and one lesson learned; give it time, and use a blow-off tube in the future.

 

[BrewersKaramazov]

I love this thread. It gives me hope for the future. Last night by faith, I bottled a first attempt at a Berliner Weiss. It had one redeeming quality, it was wet. Not sour at all, and an off flavor that was not encouraging. But into the bottles it went and once a month I will chill one and see how it tastes. I do not intend to put this in the fridge until it tastes right, is that ok?

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

I can finally add my $.02 to this thread. Time cannot heal a severely scorched IPA. I tasted one bottle a month for a year and a half and all that happened is it lost all traces of the hops and now it's like drinking a scotch ale out of a well used ashtray...

I think I'm finally dumping the last 3 bottles of it...

 

[bgrubb7]

Just thought I'd add my experiences...

I brewed a Honey lager once with some Safelager S-23. This Beer has no idea how close it came to the drain... After 3 weeks of Primary/Secondary fermentation in the upper 50's I bottled and let condition for 3 more weeks. Beer was so bad it wasn't drinkable. Very fruity, almost like a bag of Jolly Ranchers accidentally got spilled into the secondary. After reading about other brewers having similar results with this yeast, I was ready to chalk it up as an experience in bad yeast and call it a loss...

However, I wasn't in dire need for the bottle space, so I just stashed the stuff back in the basement and left it alone for 2 more months.... and wouldn't you know it... a completely different beer. Overpowering fruitiness was almost gone. While it still wasn't one of my best beers, it was quite drinkable. After another month, the stuff was quite good.

Another batch that narrowly missed it's apparent fate with the drain, was a leftover batch I made. I had built up a collection of leftover grains and hops and wanted to purge my inventory, so I crafted up a Amber ale recipe the best I could and gave it a whirl with some US-05... The recipe isn't really important right now, but what did occur was after my normal 3 weeks of ferm and 3 weeks in the bottle, the beer was downright embarrassing. Bitter in a bad way, Huge diacetyl butter bomb flavor and an almost ashtray or dirt undertone. Now this time around I didn't want this monstrosity taking up the bottle space for 3 months, but remembering the results I had with my Honey lager I summoned the will power to leave it alone. Sure enough after 3 months of bottle conditioning in the mid 50's to mid 60's this stuff was amazing! Perfect blend of carmel, nuttiness and hoppiness. It was almost like a rich man's Fat Tire, without the shortcomings. Took it to some beer tasting events and it was hands down a hit with many a beer snobs, beating out many critically acclaimed commercial craft offerings.

Most off flavors will mellow out or even go away entirely with time, yo just have to have the patience to wait.

 

[Danbreeze]

I am glad i had read this thread before dumping my last batch of Vanilla Stout. I decided to add vanilla extract before bottling instead of vanilla beans in the secondary and the first 3 months after bottling, it tasted like only vanilla extract.

That has since faded and the roastiness of the stout is the main flavor again.

I guess time does heal all wounds...