Ratio: Good brews vs Bad brews

[bernerbrau]

Used to be I had only ever screwed up one beer.

Lately that tally is going up, up, up and up. Something in my kegs, I think. Gonna get me one of those drill keg scrubber attachments.

 

[daveooph131]

Lately that tally is going up, up, up and up. Something in my kegs, I think. Gonna get me one of those drill keg scrubber attachments.

I may have a similiar issue that I feel may be kegged related? What king of issues are you having?

I've brewed about 80 gallons since starting . I would say first 25 good and drinkable except for 2 that were dumpers.

Other 65 gallons good with 10 gallons awesome. Both of which were Ipas.

 

[theveganbrewer]

Since going all grain I'm 5 for 6. 1st extract was decent, 2nd was pretty bad but drinkable, first AG was good.

 

[passedpawn]

50% superb, 40% alright, 10% meh. I haven't had a dumper in years (I've dumped meh batches, just to make room for the alright/superbs).

 

[overdbus]

I really don't know yet , to the four other people that tried it
they said it was good ,one wants a refill on the growler already.
I am workin on my third glass tonight ( it keeps gettin better)
and this is my first batch it's an allgrain ipa at first I was not
real happy with it but as so many have said "give it time"....

 

[Waynep005]

I have brewed about 15 batches over the last year. About 5 were good to really good, 8 were ok to good, 1 was not very good at all, and 1 was so bad it was almost undrinkable.

 

[cehlo]

About 20-25 batches so far with one that could've been tossed and one rescue mission in progress. I'd say 5 or 6 have been really exceptional and the rest were average or better.

>80% have been original recipes including several that were rather ambitious in style, recipe or process with almost all turning out as expected.

 

[drathbone]

I've had 1 batch out of maybe 20 that was bad and it's because I fermed way too high. It was my 3rd batch of apfelwein I made and tasted thick and caramelly. I dumped the whole batch because it was virtually undrinkable to the point I still couldn't handle it while being intoxicated. I've drank some nasty stuff (earthquake anyone?) and this was hard to keep down.

 

[Calichusetts]

I only have IPAs and Tripels under my belt...never had a bad one, but only about 10-20% have ever been a wow! Still trying to nail down my own recipes for these two so I'm not too concerned

 

[SlimeyBooger]

I started brewing a couple months ago and have brewed 7 batches. Out of the 4 that I've tasted, I'd say that my second batch was fairly good, the third and fourth are mediocre, and the first one was not good.

 

[bernerbrau]

I may have a similiar issue that I feel may be kegged related? What king of issues are you having?

See this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/my-keg-tastes-terrible-283838/

I never had a dumpable batch before I started kegging. And believe me I've given these brews ample time to improve.

 

[Matteo57]

one batch of half cider half beer that... well just don't make half beer half cider. It just doesn't seem right.

Know exactly what you mean... Made one also and .... I am still letting it sit hoping it will get better and so far.... Not so good. I just threw in a small amount of AJ concentrate to sweeten it a bit so hopefully people will start drinking it.

 

[Homercidal]

I've had a few that were great, plenty that were decent beers, and a few that were subpar or just not good at all. I currently have a Centennial Blonde in a keg that will be dumped as son as my other beer is ready to go in there. It won't be long!

Lots of times I brew up a beer, and on first taste think it's "ok", but not as good as I'd hoped. Then a few weeks later it's gotten much better.

 

[rmaloney86]

Seems to me when I have a bad batch I'm experimenting with something. I haven't had something bad yet otherwise...

 

[AdamPag]

about 95% of my beers are good - great, on a rare occassion I nail a perfect. I think Ive only had maybe 1 alpha recipe for a belgian white than I didnt really like much, but it conditioned out and and I drank all of it anyway lol, thats at a rate of brewing about 20 gals a month

 

[swallace]

I'm just a beginner but I've dumped 3 out of 4 of my batches so far. 2 were due to some cheap tubing my LHBS sold me (made them taste like plastic) the other I just didn't like. The one I kept was drinkable but not amazing.

Kegging 5th tonight, fingers crossed.

 

[duboman]

I'm just a beginner but I've dumped 3 out of 4 of my batches so far. 2 were due to some cheap tubing my LHBS sold me (made them taste like plastic) the other I just didn't like. The one I kept was drinkable but not amazing.

Kegging 5th tonight, fingers crossed.

Read this:
These flavors are often described as mediciney, Band-Aid™ like, or can be spicy like cloves. The cause are various phenols which are initially produced by the yeast. Chlorophenols result from the reaction of chlorine-based sanitizers (bleach) with phenol compounds and have very low taste thresholds. Rinsing with boiled water after sanitizing is the best way to prevent these flavors.

How are you sanitizing? What temperatures are you fermenting at. The problems you are having are easily solved with better practices so you don't have to keep dumping beer! It most likely was not the tubing

 

[VonAle]

1:10 good to meh

Maybe I'm just extremely picky...could be a sucky brewer too.

What he said.
I think my beers are ok, but still room for improvement.
I would have to say that 1 out of my 11 batches was fantastic, the others... meh

 

[divrguy]

I brew experimental 1 gal batches and when they are great, make a 5 gallon batch. All have been drinkable but a few not by much. I didn't like them but others did so it worked out. I have only had one that I seriously thought of dumping and it's been bottled for a year. Even now it's getting better. It was a high octane brown that I fermented too high by mistake. Took about 9 months to calm down the high alcohol taste.

 

[Hackwood]

15+ extract kits and above par if not very good to great. The only batch that has come out par or lower is a Brown Bag LHBS Weizen that I ended up sabotaging with some old old malt I had laying around and decided to throw in for the hell of it. I should have thrown it away, but figured, Eh! WTH! That won't happen again.

On to All-Grain now and none of the 3 are ready yet. Just bottled 1 up Sunday that is a Summer Ale and right along side it I did my last extract of the same. Going to compare side by side and see.

1 out of 15+ isn't bad at all to me. Especially because it probably would have been fine without me messin' with it.