Not Great, not Good, but Passable.. What to do?

[libeerty]

I have a dilemma, though not the worst dilemma to have. I have a brew from months ago, a mango blonde, that is not great. It is not good. But it is definitely passable. I almost wish it was a total failure so I could dump it, but it isn't a total failure. However, I have other homebrews now and coming down the pipeline that are substantially better, so I rarely drink it. It just takes up space in my fridge, and uses bottles I could use for a (hopefully?) much better beer. At this rate, it might still be in my fridge by the end of the year.

Has this happened to any of you? What'd you do with it?

What do you do with a passable homebrew?

 

[Grumpybumpy]

Drink it when you're schnockered and don't care about the taste

 

[nukebrewer]

Pass it off to friends and acquaintances who don't know the difference?

 

[MisterTipsy]

use as a marinade?

 

[nukebrewer]

Or you could send some to me and I'll you know if I think it's worth saving

 

[MisterTipsy]

When a panhandler asks for change give him some craptacular home brew instead of change.

 

[gandalfiii]

use as a marinade?

This is not a bad idea at all. My wife cooks things with beer all the time.

 

[broadbill]

either own your failure and drink it or own your failure and dump it (despite all of cries on here about: DON'T DUMP IT, IT'LL GET BETTER!!!!!...sometimes, despite popular opinion, its better to dump)

The key is to own it and move on.

 

[GarageDweller]

mango beer? for the ladies?:fro:

 

[MisterTipsy]

People used to shampoo with beer in the 70s, so why not drink your craptacular beer in the shower AND use the beer as a shampoo?

 

[OldWorld]

My first beer was not great...not good...but not bad...It turned out like a mainstream fruity malt liquor beverage...I made an apple wine cooler and wasn't too happy.

Make others happy...get them inebriated for free. It might be a heckuva lot better beer when the bumping and grinding to the music starts and bra's get flung.

A marinade could be excellent.

Here's my recipe for you to try...

12 ounces of your mango hooch
3TBLS chipoltle powder
3tbls vegetable oil
1 head garlic minced good.
3tbls soy sauce
3 green onions finely chopped
1/4 cup brown sugar...

In bowl mix the chipotle hooch with brown sugar and soy sauce...add garlic, green onions...

in plastic bags marinade 2 nice pork tenderloins...for 24 hours...

Baste tenderloins with marinade once at half hour hour mark.

Cook on grill...add hickory or pear wood chips to smoke...cook slow and indirect of low heat for one hour...slice and enjoy A little pink is okay on the pork.

 

[rico567]

Fortunately, I've never spoiled a batch, but I've had a few like this. I'm too cheap to pour it out, and I have too many bottles to justify it on the grounds that I need the empties, so- I just drink them myself. It's great incentive to brew better beer.

 

[Denny]

I've had several batches like that over the years. To me, the purpose of drinking is enjoyment. If I don't enjoy it, I toss it. I'm not so crazy for alcohol that I'll drink substandard beer.

 

[Braufessor]

I have (had) a wheat beer that sat around for about a year because I did not want to dump it . . . . but I had so many other beers coming along that were so much better that I could not bring myself to drink this one because it was, as you said, passable. Finally dumped it last week so I could clean up the bottles and get them ready for something better. I have a pumkin ale sitting around that is coming up on a year and a half or two years old, that is wasting space too. I have used beers like this in cooking, for brats, and sometimes others like them quite a bit. I had a friend who drank about half the wheat because he liked it. I agree with Denny - Drink it because you like it, or find another use for it, or dump it. I would not choke it down just to avoid dumping it.

 

[eastoak]

i'd do the same thing i'd do with any other thing i cook and mess up, dump it. it's beer, not gold.

 

[nukebrewer]

it's beer, not gold.

Just so you know, you could get shot for saying something like that around here.

 

[osagedr]

Get it out of your pipeline--dump it.

Into a bathtube with a couple 18 year old bikini models, sans bikinis.

Then take some very foamy fun pictures & post them.

 

[dgez]

31 Things You Can Do with Beer (Besides Drink It)

 

[FarmerTed]

You can send some off for competitions; you'll be kissing the bottles goodbye, but you never know, it might do better than you think.

 

[Chap]

Take it out of the fridge and hide it in the back of a closet. Buy some more bottles for the pipeline, in a few months try the hidden beer and see if it has changed for better or worse.

 

[broadbill]

Take it out of the fridge and hide it in the back of a closet. Buy some more bottles for the pipeline, in a few months try the hidden beer and see if it has changed for better or worse.

When this blanket advice is parroted again and again, it does no one any good. The OP has some sort of blonde ale (low alcohol, low hop, session beer)....forgetting about it for a year would not do even a properly brewed blonde ale any good, why do we expect a poorly brewed one to do any better?

Aging can correct some problems but not all of them.

 

[Chap]

When this blanket advice is parroted again and again, it does no one any good. The OP has some sort of blonde ale (low alcohol, low hop, session beer)....forgetting about it for a year would not do even a properly brewed blonde ale any good, why do we expect a poorly brewed one to do any better?

Aging can correct some problems but not all of them.

Really? No one any good? Does it hurt? Why dump when you can hide and try it again in a few MONTHS (never mentioned year). Bottles aren't expensive and the beer is already brewed.

 

[DannyD]

Use the alchohol , drink lots,one after the other...quickly!!.... Get a friend to help. That way the bottles gets empty, the alcohol gets used and the beer.....well......it ends up in the toilet anyway???

(+ u might see if your local emergancy room can still "pump" a stamoch)

 

[broadbill]

Really? No one any good? Does it hurt? Why dump when you can hide and try it again in a few MONTHS (never mentioned year). Bottles aren't expensive and the beer is already brewed.

Straight from the OP's mouth:

However, I have other homebrews now and coming down the pipeline that are substantially better, so I rarely drink it. It just takes up space in my fridge, and uses bottles I could use for a (hopefully?) much better beer.

He doesn't like it, he won't drink it, he wants the bottles for something else and doesn't have the fridge space...I say dump it and move on.

The OP has said the beer is mediocre. Aging can take a beer that has potential and make it good. It can't take a mediocre beer with little potential and make it good.

 

[libeerty]

I have little faith it will get better with age. It really tastes exactly like it did 4 months ago.

So, I think I am going to take the advice from this thread and use it: to marinade with, as a shampoo, to give to my friends who don't know better, as a foamy dump over strippers, etc.

Mostly, of course, my subconscious really just wanted others to say "That has happened to me, too," so thanks!

 

[iowabrew]

Mostly, of course, my subconscious really just wanted others to say "That has happened to me, too," so thanks!

Just did this with 16 bottles last night, smoked wheat beer that came out cloyingly sweet and not very good. Used some in the smoker water pan and dumped the rest.

 

[meat803]

I keep a few growlers and when this happens I start funneling a growler a day to one of my mooch friends. I have a few that even when I give them half infected or esterrific beer they bring back the growler begging for more. I have an irish blonde at the moment that turned out tasting more like a wit that I am about to do this with. That beer will be gone in less than a week.

 

[GarageDweller]

Get it out of your pipeline--dump it.

Into a bathtube with a couple 18 year old bikini models, sans bikinis.

Then take some very foamy fun pictures & post them.

Just did this with 16 bottles last night......

Except I used a bathtub instead of a bathtube.

 

[libeerty]

Going to keep this thread alive with more passable stories... My second ale was an Octoberfest. Yes, I said that right. Before I knew what an Octoberfest was, I brewed a recipe kit from somewhere, using ale yeast, not knowing wtf I was doing. Not good, not bad... passable. .

 

[eastoak]

When this blanket advice is parroted again and again, it does no one any good. The OP has some sort of blonde ale (low alcohol, low hop, session beer)....forgetting about it for a year would not do even a properly brewed blonde ale any good, why do we expect a poorly brewed one to do any better?

Aging can correct some problems but not all of them.

amen. beer, in some sense, is sacred but bad beer is not sacred. drinkers of bad beer = apostates.

 

[ktblunden]

My first batch turned out mediocre (more the fault of a lackluster recipe from my LHBS than a mistake on my part) and I was really not very happy drinking it. I shared it out with friends and family every chance I got and used it in cooking. I kept trying them periodically, but while it did get a little more conditioned it didn't improve that much. I managed to burn through the batch pretty quickly by sharing and cooking.

Just recently I really screwed up my efficiency during the sparge of an IPA and ended up with a 3.5% beer hopped for a 7% beer. It was undrinkably bitter coming out of the fermenter so I ended up dumping it rather than bottling. In hindsight I kind of wish I had just put some in a bottle without carbing it to use it for cooking, but I don't regret dumping it at all. I made room for my Saison to go into the fermenter and don't have to struggle through a batch that didn't turn out good. There is wisdom in seeing how a beer will change after some time in bottles, but some are never going to improve much.

 

[iceman1988]

I had the same problem.After time I hid a couple of bottles in the attic like Anne Frank.The taste does get better.DO NOT DUMP !!!Rome was not built in a day, neither is the best tasting beer.