So I poured out a batch the other day...

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RadicalEd

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It was very, very sad. But I needed the keg more than the beer in it; I had a porter that needed to get out of secondary.

It was one of my first AG brews, Edwort's Haus iirc. But I must have been imperfect in my sanitation that day (too worried about the mash etc.) for it developed a twangy off taste. So I did what any good home brewer would do: I left it in keg for a good 5 months, hope that it would improve. Well, it got a beautiful carbonation and fantastic clarity, but that 'licking a washboard' taste just didn't disappear.

So here's a toast to the downed soldier. :mug:
 
I did the same with a brown ale about a month ago. Something just went weird with that one and although it was drinkable, I really dreaded drinking it (I had been trying to finish it up quickly before the funkiness got worse and to free up the keg). I got about 1/2 way through and said enough was enough and dumped it. I'll have to brew the recipe again in memory of the lost batch sometime. :(
 
I've got about 1/2 keg of a brown that soured. Much as I love sour food, I don't like sour beer.
 
Did the same with my first ag batch too. Sucked. I missed my temps as I broke my thermometer. Tasted like carbinated grain husks.

But bad beer is bad beer. I mean REALLY bad. Cause I can drink some foul swill.
 
Yep, I've dumped one before. A spiced ale that I'd prepared for last Christmas season. Soured it real good.
 
I can only imagine haveing a batch of beer go bad because I never have had a bad batch in 36 years. I guess I have been extremely lucky. I am very cautious about being sanitary. I try to think as I go along during brew day and after the boil and chiller I make sure that everything that touches the beer is sanitary. I do not get in a hurry and make any rash decisions that could jeopardize the beer. I use a counterflow chiller and a pump and run hot water through it and then PBW and more hot water then sanitizer. This could be done with gravity as well. The cooled wort (80F) is transferred from boiler to sanitized carboys and I put sanitized aluminum foil on the carboy's imediately. Then they go into the Ranco (R) controlled freezer set at 65F. They get O2 and the proper amount of rehydrated yeast or liquid yeast when they are still at 80F and that is when I add the clean sanitized blow off tubes. The carboys ferment 2 weeks (no secondary). I then clean, sanitize and purge keg(s) with CO2 fill and age 3 weeks minimum. I get NO off flavors of any kind. Dry hopping has never infected my ale or lagers either.
 
You boys need to git yerselfs a good still. Bad batch? Into Old Bessie she goes!

Not really. But seriously, though, it's too damn bad we're not allowed to do that. It would be a fabulous alternative to wasting it.

Cheers!

--Finn
 
Well Finn, I figured it wasn't gonna be worth the massive ensuing boil over that it would have caused (alcohol+carbonation+heat= bad) for the small amount of spirits it sould have generated. Plus, hops add a burnt rubber smell to distillate.

Figuratively speaking, of course. ;)
 
I feel you pain. I dumped two cornys at the same time earlier in the winter. I tried an Irish Red Ale that just tasted like cardboard.

The other was a Sierra Nevada Clone. I attempted to create the recipe myself. Yeah....didn't turn out so well needless to say.

So, I tried to brew the Irish Red Ale again, but changed the recipe a bit. It's a bit better, but still not my favorite. I need to force myself to drink it.

Maybe it's just Red Ales........

Anyhow, gotta make some mistakes along the way in order to get better I suppose.
 
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