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

[smokinghole]

I have an post to the contrary. I made up an all grain batch of BMs Centennial blond. I did a little experiment and use straight untreated/filtered tap water. That beer only got worse. It went from drinkable when young to nasty at month 4/5. I dumped that bitch because I found empty bottles more useful than choking down that noxious tap water tainted beer.

 

[neuron555]

Unfortunately, I have a tale of woe also. My first high gravity beer was a Belgian Strong Ale, OG 1.104. It finished high despite adding champagne yeast, probably caramelized and was too dark, and tasted like it got oxidized from all my attempts to get the ferment to finish. I brewed it September 2007, and kept hoping it would get better. I finally decided last week that if it still tasted like sweet sherry after almost 3 1/2 years, it wasn't going to change. My first drain-brau.

The good news is that I've successfully made Tripels since.

 

[BrettV]

My third brew was a NB Irish Red Ale. I'm pretty sure the yeast crapped out at some point, because the final gravity was pretty off, and my alcohol content was closer to 4% than the 6% is was supposed to be. After 3 weeks it tasted terrible. It was sweet and had almost a plasticy after taste. It's been sitting for almost 3 months now and while it has gotten a little better, it's certainly not yet "good." I'll probably let it sit there for up to a year and see what happens. Fingers crossed.

 

[joety]

Odd that the yeast would crap out at 4%. I'm assuming you're an extract brewery, so we can't blame the mash temps.

 

[BrettV]

It was extract with steeped specialty grains. I can only assume the yeast crapped out, because my original gravity was in the right place. My final gravity was much higher than it should have been, and that beer fermented for a month.

 

[Elisha8685]

Ha! Love it! I had a similar story with a Newcastle Clone of mine. Tasted like butt for the first few months. Then, when I had "tasted" so much there were only about 16 left, something magical happened. It has a happy ending though, I bootlegged the final 12 to some friends at a school picnic and they absolutely loved it. I should've waited longer, patience is so hard though sometimes especially when something tastes bad.

 

[ziplinedown]

I can testify to the magic of time as well!!!! My golden ale fermented too hot, and while brewing it (after consuming a few too many home-brews beforehand) I decided it would be a good idea to dump in some extra corn sugar to up the abv. In addition I think I may have witnessed a mild infection (that one is debatable). But regardless, the beer tasted pretty awful- Definitly a "hot" taste. Well that was December, now this beer tastes pretty damn good! Yeast are amazing little things if you give them time.

 

[AussieBrewerInColorado]

eh, when I can determine known infections, i.e. sour in a red ale that wasn't supposed to be there, etc. I will let it sit a while and see what happens, but if I need the keg or carboy, that thing is getting poured which may be the case for one of mine. BUT someone may like it, in this case that is true, so I may give it away but have them not give any to anybody else ever. lol.

 

[Andrewtherooster]

I have an amber ale that I was going to dump until I read this thread. It fermented too hot (I can tell by the taste) and I put some cane sugar in it to "accentuate" the hops that I don't think helped the flavor at all. It spent about 10 days in primary and it's been about 2 weeks in secondary, I think. I tasted it tonight because I was thinking of bottling it, and I really couldn't stomach it. I'm not bottling it tonight. I think I'll wait another week or two in secondary, bottle it up, and cross my fingers.

 

[Revvy]

I have an amber ale that I was going to dump until I read this thread. It fermented too hot (I can tell by the taste) and I put some cane sugar in it to "accentuate" the hops that I don't think helped the flavor at all. It spent about 10 days in primary and it's been about 2 weeks in secondary, I think. I tasted it tonight because I was thinking of bottling it, and I really couldn't stomach it. I'm not bottling it tonight. I think I'll wait another week or two in secondary, bottle it up, and cross my fingers.

You have to see a beer through it's entire process, and that means bottling and leaving it there for at least 6 weeks before truly judging a beer. I've said it over and over, you can't judge a beer in primary or secondary, the mere presence of carbonation and bottle conditioning alone goes a long way in transforming the beer towards it's final form.....bottle it, and leave it alone. And more than likely you will post that you're glad you listened to us and saw it through....

Read this.

 

[zac]

I've been waiting for my 08-08-08 RIS to finally lose the nasty after taste for what 3 years now? Tried a bottle a few weeks ago, and actually drank the whole thing. Its not great, but its better than it was. 4 or 5 more years, I'll be great!

Ive got several kegs of acer taste beer that im waiting on, but not having high hopes for them....

 

[Ceej1978]

I'm pretty new at home brewing, but I too have witnessed the wonder of time and yeast. I only have about 5 batches under my belt. On my first AG batch I got ahead of myself and decided not to brew a kit or a known recipe, but to use BeerSmith to make my own sweet stout recipe. Looking back it was almost doomed before it started because I didn't adjust for my equipment and really didn't have a good idea of how to create a recipe in the first place.

So anyhow, I had horrible efficiency and didn't get near the OG that I needed. As if that wasn't enough, the previous batch had a metallic off taste that I didn't take any measures to correct. It sat in the primary for two weeks. I tested the FG, and it came in around 3.6% abv. Not near what a sweet stout should be as far as I'm concerned. It was also very cloudy. Just like the previous batch. The taste.....metallic with a slight hint of caramel. I almost dumped it. As a matter of fact that night I ordered a kit from NB and had planned on dumping it and using that primary for the kit. Luckily I ordered a better bottle along with that kit and decided to secondary my so called "sweet stout".

Good thing I was patient and did that because WOW! It cleaned up very clear. Instead of a sweet stout though it turned out to be a beautiful amber. It actually looks exactly like Sam Adams Winter Lager and tastes similar. With the low ABV it will be a nice dinner or session beer. It's definitely something I'm going to serve to family and friends.

Cheers!

 

[dbldd]

... oops ...

 

[ENS]

brewed a NB German Alt back in March and left it in the primary for 3 weeks and then moved it to the secondary. While in the secondary I noticed some strange little things floating on top or just below the surface. They looked like off white octopuses with stubby legs. First there was one and then each day I would find another... after a few days, there were, I don't know, maybe 5 or six in there. I think i had it in the secondary for nearly two weeks. I racked it to my bottling bucket on April 29th and sampled it and it was awful, tasted like medicine. I was ready to dump, but couldn't bring myself to dump it and bottled it. I am not going to touch it for a few weeks, hope it surprises me. I love German beers and was really excited about this one.

A few days later I racked an ESB to the secondary. When I was getting ready to put the auto-syphon into the carboy, I noticed one of my wife's hairs sticking to my hands. I tried to wave it away and rub it onto my pants. I thought i succeded. I washed my hands and continued. While cleaning the auto syphon, I found the hair stuck to the bottom of it, covered in yeast cake... doh. A few days later, that beer had those weird octopus looking things floating on top and just below the surface, as well as some mold looking slicks on top.

I racked it to the bottling bucket, sampled it, it tasted fine and bottled it. The ESB looked worse than the alt. I had a bad feeling when I saw that hair. I should have been more careful. I hope they both come out ok.

 

[janivar123]

Had a brown ale that seemed to be wayy to bitter and funky just a few months ago
just tryed a bottle last weekend, lambic, gueuze call it what you want but not bad at all

My first sour ale was not intentional but it turned out ok after all

 

[GreggZ]

I have dumped a handful of batches in three years of homebrewing. All were deffinately infected and most were in the infancy of my obsession (sanitize, sanitize, sanitize). I dont doubt maybe one or two might have turned into something "interesting" but I figure life is too short for medicore beer. However I did drink one batch that, I assumed, got infected with some wild yeast. A fat tire clone brewed with notty under temperature control that deffinately had tons of esters. It tasted like a belgian amber and was a pleasent surprise.

 

[pm5k00]

I made a Light-IPA that i made from a second runnings of Barley wine. It tasted like water and yeast, and that was after 3 weeks of bottle conditioning for carbonation (used table sugar). So i set it in the closet for two months and now its great, you cant even tell its a light beer, and the hops come through with a very bright flavor.

 

[alenub]

I've got two recent "did I ruin it" stories to share - my most recent two batches!

The first week of April I bottled up an experimental ale. It was at a time I was really hurting for bottle donations, and without realizing I ran out of bottles about 3/4 of the way through a 23L batch. I drove down to my local HBS for help and ended up buying a wide-diameter cap press and caps so I could use empty champagne bottles the missus had from a party a few days prior. Saved! In they went and to the closet for aging. I crack one open 3 weeks later. Plenty of head, beautiful colour... but something was wrong. The head was overly-metallic, the brew tasted off. Soapy. I dumped it and tried another from a longneck. Same taste. My heart sunk! Whatever I did, I must have ruined the batch. Or so I thought. I gave it another couple of weeks and gave some to the boys at work. They reckoned it tasted great! What the...? Then I give one to a friend of the missus. "Fabulous, tastes like a Fat Yak lite. How'd you manage it?" he says. So I pour a glass. Looks about the same as before, but this time the smell of hops and slight floral notes have replaced the "bag of coins" aroma. Mouthfeel is good. Finish ain't bad either. I'm keeping this one in the closet for another month or two at least after realizing I was panicking and not letting the beer do its thing.

The most recent batch was started one month ago. After two weeks of the FG not where I thought it should be and a holiday coming up fast, I decided to leave it sit in the primary until I got back. It was only until today that I thought I should check on it. I opened it up to take a gravity reading and there was a thin white film over the top of the wort, the beautiful aroma that used to permeate from the surface had been replaced by a musty, almost stale aroma. Guess what? My heart sank again, thinking "infection is one of the few reasons to dump." But this was a Munton's Gold kit and I'm a tightarse, so something in me decided to give it a taste test. I poured an ounce into my snifter and looked at it. Crystal clear with a beautiful deep brown hue, simply beautiful. The smell and taste weren't as... satisfying as when I last checked on it but it still tasted pretty good without any clear off taste or sour notes. I figured, maybe it's just a surface film and hasn't penetrated the wort deep. So I say screw it and start bottling, tasting a bit after every 3-4L with still no change. I stopped bottling just before the surface got too close to the spigot. Something tells me this beer is going to surprise me just as the last one did. Just gotta let the yeasties do their thing and trust them.

Never ending +1s to Revvy for his timeless advice, it hasn't steered me wrong!

 

[PIGMAN]

I brewed an American Amber from an extract kit. It tasted fine when I bottled it two weeks ago. I broke out a bottle last night, even though it was only two weeks, and it had kind of a chemical smell to it as well as an aftertaste of the same nature. It had good color and head retention, and showed no visible signs of infection. I was wondering why the change from bottling day to now. Way too soon to give up on it, but has anyone had the same experience?

 

[alenub]

Yes - practically everyone that has posted before you ;-)

 

[Noobrew]

I like to think my pallate is adventerous, but some might call it unrefined. I know what I like, but I can't necesarily tell you why, and i often appreciate the experience of the flavor just as much as the flavor itself.

That said, I'm very encouraged that rhe only way to f up a beer seems to be lack of sanitization. Everyrhing else seems to be a matter of taste. And who's really drinking beer for taste here? Us addicts have a funnybway of justifying things.

So how do you tell the difference betwen off flavors and off beer- that might make you sick to drink just one?

 

[jsweet]

So how do you tell the difference betwen off flavors and off beer- that might make you sick to drink just one?

If it's beer, it won't make you sick. Period. Well, there are a few things that could go wrong that might give you gas or in extreme cases even have a laxative effect, but that's the absolute worst that could happen, and that's pretty rare from what I understand. So don't worry about beer making you sick; if you can force yourself to drink it, it's fine.

That said, there are things that can permanently f up a beer besides sanitation... the most common are too-hot fermentations, oxidation (from too much splashing and shaking), and skunking (from exposure to light). You typically won't get an undrinkable beer -- though my understanding is that a beer that has been oxidized has a pretty short shelf life before it becomes undrinkable -- but they will "f it up" in a way that time won't necessarily heal.

RDWHAHB anyway. There's very little you can do -- and this includes screwing up the sanitation -- that won't usually result in a drinkable beer anyway.

 

[janivar123]

If it looks like mold or taste strong of vinegar it should probably be dumped

vinegar: use your best judgment for what is too much

 

[jsweet]

If it looks like mold or taste strong of vinegar it should probably be dumped

vinegar: use your best judgment for what is too much

I've heard of skimming mold off the top of racking from underneath and getting perfectly serviceable beer. Knock on wood, I've never done it, so don't ask me.

As far as vinegar, either dump it, or use it as vinegar Vinegar is just wine that has been infected with Acetobacter, beer that tastes like vinegar is just beer that has been infected with Acetobacter. The French might even call it "bierager". (Sorry, etymology joke) It's still "safe" to drink in the sense that you won't come to any harm. You won't actually want to drink it, any more than you'd like to do a shot of household vinegar (a good quality balsamic is actually pretty tasty to drink straight, but I doubt you'll match that with your accidentally-vinegarized beer). But if you did, the worst that would happen is acid reflux

 

[Noobrew]

How am I supposed to RDWHAHB when my first batch is still in the fermenter??? Love the acronymn, though. It's now going to work itself into my regular vocabulary. I really am a n00b

 

[jsweet]

How am I supposed to RDWHAHB when my first batch is still in the fermenter??? Love the acronymn, though. It's now going to work itself into my regular vocabulary. I really am a n00b

Hey, no complaining. I'm temporarily off the beer in order to get a jumpstart on this diet my wife talked me into. So when I brew, it's "Relax. Don't worry. Have a seltzer." :cross:

 

[MartyMSU]

Revvy & other folks posting in this thread.

I almost dumped my beer last night as I was transferring it to secondary fermentation. I've got about 11 gallons of a Piraate Ale clone (actually had so much I had a half pint I poured into my mug as "quality control" as I was racking.)

Took one sip and about racked it down the drain, but I had the fermenters sterilized & everything so I thought I'd keep it & pray it settled out in secondary. This was my first attempt at a decoction mash (a triple decoction at that!) and was wondering if it would be worse to drink 11 gallons of beer that tasted like bubblegum or dump out a 12 hour brewday. I decided to keep it.

I went to the index of every beer book I own looking for "bubblegum." Nothing. I even drank that mug of beer (which went from 1098 OG to 1010 in 2 weeks in primary with ambient temps never going over 70 deg, used Wyeast 1214.) I stayed up until 1am researching in my books and trying to keep my head from spinning from the high alcohol beer. I didn't find anything. I thought, maybe I'll send Charlie Papazian a facebook message asking what he though. This morning as I sip my coffee, I punched into google "my hombrew tastes like bubble gum." Up comes this thread.

Thank you guys for posting this info. Not only will I not dump this beer now, I will let it sit in secondary fermentation for 4 weeks, then I will bottle it and let it age for 2 months before opening my first beer. And if there's still some bubblegum flavor I will not dump it, I will continue to let it age, years if I have to. And I have confidence that someday, the bubblegum flavor will get cleaned up and I will be able to taste the malt, the sweet orange peel, and the coriander, and I will think in my head "Man, am I glad Remmy told us his story, otherwise I would have dumped this beer."

Cheers to you!

 

[AleFred]

revy is that man.. hands down i've learned more tricks and tips here than anywhere else..thanks to everyone on this site whose here for each other...

 

[Diver165]

I've read a LOT of posts on here and there is one thing that I have picked up: Time cures a lot of issues with the way your beer tastes. Brothers and sisters, I have seen the light!!! Can I get an Amen!?!?

I brewed up a Bourbon Barrel Ale from Midwest in September 2010. Dunno why, but the kit caught my eye so I tried it out. It has been my only beer that I racked to secondary too. I transferred it to a bed of bourbon soaked oak chips for 3 months. After that it went to bottles which carbed up nicely. I was kind of disappointed to be quite honest at a 2week taste. It was like taking a shot of bourbon and taking a swig of beer at the same time. Heavy bourbon flavor with a vanilla finish. (no vanilla was used). I presume that was from the bourbon soaked oak.

Disappointed I pushed the beer into the back corner of the basement until I could figure out what I was going to do with 2 cases of Bourbon Barrel Vanilla flavored Lighter Fluid... I mean Beer.

So flash forward almost a year after I brewed it. I was grilling lastnight and went to fetch a brew out of the beer fridge. W/O thinking I grabbed the first one I could reach and popped the top. You guessed it...Bourbon Barrel Ale, DAMNIT!!! Apparently there was one left in the fridge and SWMBO ruined my beer classification and filing system around post fridge cleaning....anyway. I thought, "oh hell...may as well try it." To my surprise, wow... Smooooth. The harsh bourbon tones have calmed waaay down giving more of a sweet mellow bourbony splash with a mild vanilla finish tempered by hops.

So, either it was really good or I was too ****faced to care. But I didn't burn dinner or set fire to the garage so I don't think it was the latter. Time cures a lot with beer.

 

[PricePeeler]

Are you aging it longer at fermentation temp or at serving temp? both? If my batch comes out poorly I have some room in my beer serving fridge to let a keg sit for a while.