off flavors

[kosmokramer]

Who drinks their bad beers? so long story short when i was brewing my galaxy extra pale i dropped and broke the thermometer in the carboy. Local shop said it was toxic brew it out and see what happens. I did, has fruity smell and bitter flavor,,, does not taste like the sample they had. even the head looks like it clups wierd....

should i drink it or dump it,,what do you do when you have a bad batch

 

[DannyD]

what was in the thermometer?............(answer: dont know)......want to drink that?

 

[smagee]

Was it a mercury thermometer? If not, it was (almost certainly) an alcohol-based liquid with red dye inside. Not saying you should or shouldn't drink it; I've consumed plenty of batches that turned out less than optimally, but I'm always of the opinion that if you *hate* it, dump it. If you don't mind it much, it actually may age into something you like.

If it was mercury, however, (which is highly unlikely) dump it and restart.

 

[kosmokramer]

it was red ethanol or alcohol spirits they said,,, didnt taste horrible till i got it into my head that it was bad,,,, now i look at it funny...lol

 

[smagee]

I'd be willing to bet that if yours tastes off, the trifling amount of liquid in the thermometer wasn't the cause . Now, if you busted a bunch of glass shards into the batch, you might want to take special care before drinking it, but a filter/baggie on your siphon should take care of that. Otherwise, give it some time and see if it continues to taste off. If it does, you might be infected; if not, do what you would with any other batch of beer.

 

[kosmokramer]

ya, i think its soome sort of infection... i will dump it tomarrow but drink it tonight...lol

 

[smagee]

I'm not sure you've given it enough time to verify an infection yet. Some photos might help though, as well as a statement as to how long it has been fermenting now.

 

[kosmokramer]

Right now its 3 1/2 weeks but the guys at more beer (my lhbs) said it should be ready in 2. Ill put some pics up this afternoon