Off beer - opinions?

[littlewolfrus]

Hey guys.

I recently picked up a 5 gallon batch of 'bad' beer. This was a beer brewed back in early December and it fermented fine. It's been in the fermenter ever since and my friend never bothered to bottle it....just left it in the closet. He was going to throw it out this week and I stopped by to pick it up on the off chance it was still good.

It's not that bad but there is an off after taste to it. I'm half contemplating just throwing it out as I have three batches of perfectly good beer that's ready for bottling but it is 5 gallons of beer. haha.

Anyone out there have any experience with this? Any tricks to boost it into something drinkable? I read one article online about someone adding hops to it to cover the odd flavor I guess.

Anyhow, thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[Braufessor]

Suppose it depends on the "off flavor"...... what kind of beer and what kind of off flavor. Personally, if I would dump it straight down the drain if it was bad.... especially if I had good beer on hand.
I am not a big believer in "fixing" bad beer. What kind beer and what is the problem with it?

 

[BryceL]

Suppose it depends on the "off flavor"...... what kind of beer and what kind of off flavor. Personally, if I would dump it straight down the drain if it was bad.... especially if I had good beer on hand.
I am not a big believer in "fixing" bad beer. What kind beer and what is the problem with it?

Agreed. Really no sense in keeping it if you have good beer ready to go. Why waste the time to deal with it and drink sub-par beer? Save the calories for good stuff!

 

[wishingiwasfishing]

I would say drink a bottle every now and then. No, you don't have to keep the whole batch...but it could be useful to visit the off flavor every now and then to train your taste buds.

just my $0.02

 

[bobeer]

Yah, whats the off flavor and what kind of beer is it? I too feel bad in wasting beer but if it's truly bad then the beer gods will have to deal with it being dumped.

 

[littlewolfrus]

Update - I dumped it in the garden.

I've been on a brewing rampage lately and have more beer than I know what to do with now. I just brewed two more batches on the weekend also and I'm almost at capacity with my empties (I bottle everything) and decided I can't afford the empty bottles on substandard beer. I probably would have kept a couple of gallons of the stuff if I had bottles to spare. If for no other reason just to experiment. Adding hops would have been interesting.

This batch was a pumpkin ale. I ended up brewing a pumpkin ale a couple of weeks ago - another reason not to keep an off batch when I have a good batch just bottled.

The off flavor is hard to describe. it becomes a generic type of beer with a slight sour note to it? I brewed a Newcastle clone in December and with the holidays and moving into a new house it too was forgotten and went 'bad' and tasted the same as this pumpkin ale. It was the only batch I had at the time so I bottled it and drank all but some 8 bottles I have left which I may or may not drink. It basically comes down to if you want alcohol and there's absolutely nothing else, why not?!