Sucess rates....

[dpagan]

So tell me guys (gals?)....what kinds of success rates have you experienced?

 

[mb82]

Define success rate?

So far in ~30 batches I have had two issue batches. One was due to using a fermenting bucket that was Dad's old one and apparently the reason he quit was due to an infection issue( thanks for telling me this after I brew my first batch). Second was a fermenting WAY too hot issue. Both were drinkable, just not great.

Or do you mean tastes amazing vs not amazing. That is like cooking, sometimes you make something and it is amazing, next time you do everything the same and it is meh.

 

[phenry]

Success being defined as...

I've been successful in making beer every time I've tried, but have I always been successful in making great beer? No. But obviously those failures and less than stellar batches haven't convinced me to give up this hobby.

 

[dpagan]

Guess that was way too vague. Success being a "decent" drinkable beer. Failure being watering the grass with it...

 

[mb82]

Then 100% success for me.

 

[Big_Cat]

I also will have to say 100% ....as long as you are cleaning everything and sanitating well there should ALWAYS be drinkable beer...if you don't clean and sanitize then you end up with something similar to drinking vinegar

 

[BBL_Brewer]

100% with the occasional, I'll drink it, but I'm not doing that again.

 

[dpagan]

Very reassuring. Starsanned everything either directly or in ss and water bathe.

 

[kh54s10]

100% for me also.

I have one experiment where I ran a small batch from the grain after the initial mash. It is thin weak and highly hopped. (IPA) Not great but drinkable.

33 batches BTW.

 

[dpagan]

First batch. Looking forward to the next batch already. And enjoying the first of course.

 

[Xpertskir]

Guess that was way too vague. Success being a "decent" drinkable beer. Failure being watering the grass with it...

I dont define success as decent in anything I do.

I just poured a beer from my 11th batch I think. I am positively giddy with the results. I would say that by my standards i'm 5/11. Onwards and upwards.

 

[bigpapadave]

I'm making Russian Imperial Stout Using the Pac-Man yeast. The yeast has been on the batch for eight hours. And no bubble action. Any ideas

 

[KarlHungus76]

I'm making Russian Imperial Stout Using the Pac-Man yeast. The yeast has been on the batch for eight hours. And no bubble action. Any ideas

Wait another forty eight, though i bet youll be going in under 23. And make sure you have a blowoff tube. PacMan and RIS will be violent and awesome. RDWHAHB

 

[bigpapadave]

Thanks, this is my second brew. First was a New Zealand IPA and I used pacman yeast and it took off right away. Must be totally different brews..was worried something wasn't right?? Thanks for your support.

 

[unionrdr]

I've never had a bad (read infected) batch. But some were not as good as others. Especially when the electric stove burners started goin south. Hop utilization went south with'em on my last 2 batches from late spring. But the new cheaper burners I got off amazon workin way better than the originals finally give me the good boil I needed. This latest,1st PM should be the best one yet. Gotta look up the name of the company that markets the burners I bought. Still have the packaging just in case. They heat up faster & more evenly than the stock GE ones ever did that costs some 55% more!
So all in all,it's been a matter of degrees.

 

[Mongrel]

Wait another forty eight, though i bet youll be going in under 23. And make sure you have a blowoff tube. PacMan and RIS will be violent and awesome. RDWHAHB

If it's taking you 24-48 hours, there's something wrong. Not enough yeast, not enough oxygen, or both. That's not to say it won't turn out, but something to keep in mind for future batches.

 

[strambo]

"Decent, drinkable" 100%. Most I would call good. One or two very good. A few just decent, one "so-so". This is in about a dozen batches or so.

 

[weirdboy]

I have had a couple of infected batches.
One time was a small 2 gallon batch that was in a fermenter that had lots of potential places where bad stuff could hide. It was a very convenient form factor, though, so I kept using it. I had used it successfully several times previously, but I knew eventually something would get in there that I wouldn't be able to effectively clean out and sanitize, so when it finally happened I just threw that fermenter away and forgot about it. The other one got infected in the keg thanks to some gunk being stuck in the dip tube that I hadn't caught when I'd cleaned it out. I dumped both of those batches, and when I dumped out the kegged one I also changed out all the tubing in my kegerator.

I had one batch several years ago with chlorophenols. I had been sanitizing my equipment with a diluted bleach solution & rinsing with boiled water, but that convinced me to change my ways and spend the extra $15 or whatever it was on a bottle of starsan. Which, by the way, let me just say a bottle of starsan will last you a tremendously long time so long as you aren't trying to make 5 gallons of it every time you want to sanitize something. So saving $12 or whatever to skip the stuff designed for brewing equipment is just being penny smart and pound foolish. I just had to learn a lesson before I figured that out. The chlorophenol batch, surprisingly, I think mostly got drank. I didn't drink it myself, but I had a friend who liked it for whatever reason and he drank them all--or at least all except a few bottles I tried and dumped.


I have made some batches which I consider "average" or "decent". Stuff that I would score in the 20's in a competition. I will drink them if I don't have any other beer, but generally what happens is I'll have a few and then something else will come down the pipeline that tastes much better -- more like a 35-40 beer instead of a 20's beer -- and I will stop drinking it. Those beers end up either dumped or if there's some kind of big party type of thing, I'll take the keg there and let a bunch of strangers drink it for me.

 

[Gameface]

Dumped the last gallon or so of a 5gal batch of porter that was around 11%abv, fermented WAY hot (80s), had the lid blow off the bucket during the crazy hot fermentation and was a misconceived recipe to begin with. One of my early brews.

I also had a batch that fermented a little hot and may have had chlorine in the brewing water. It had hints of plastic/band-aides. It wasn't overpowering so I drank it, but it is what led my to buying a chest freezer for fermentation and using campden tablets.

It's been a good long time since I've had a "bad" batch.

 

[dpagan]

Thanks for all the replies. Guess I just had newbie doubts about the result. But it sounds like I've taken proper precautions and used sound steps. And by the sounds of it. The success rate is pretty high for everybody. While I didn't get in this to brew mediocre beer. It's good to know that even the bad batches will not be terrible enough to pitch. And if I can hit a 60% good to Great rate. I'd be pretty damned ecstatic.

 

[Golddiggie]

100% success rate as defined. No bad batches, or dumpers. One or two styles that I won't brew again, but they were still good brews (to style).

I've had many great batches to date, with a good amount that went beyond excellent.

Doing up batch 39 tomorrow, and 40 next weekend. Been brewing almost two years so far. I would have more batches brewed, but there were some pauses in brewing due to other factors (brew-buddy's availability, the weather, etc.). Working on getting set up so that unless it's brutally cold, I'll be able to brew. :rockin: Also, now that I'm living in a place with a basement, I don't have any worries about fermentation temperatures. Or storage temperatures (either bottle or keg).

 

[DoctorMemory]

I guess I'm around 100%. Brewed a Brooklyn Brewshop Trippel that didn't seem to ferment (no kraeusen, no airlock activity), but I went ahead and bottled it anyway. Had one and it tasted kind of sour, so I took it to my local homebrew club and people there said it was great. So I guess it went OK, although I didn't personally enjoy it (glad it was just a one-gallon kit!) The rest of my brews (only six so far) have all been good, though!

 

[TromboneGuy]

100% here. One batch had a bit more sediment in the bottle than usual, one somewhat overcarbed, and one that I nailed the style I was aiming for, I just wound up not liking it very much 5gallons later.

 

[Big_Cat]

Thanks for all the replies. Guess I just had newbie doubts about the result. But it sounds like I've taken proper precautions and used sound steps. And by the sounds of it. The success rate is pretty high for everybody. While I didn't get in this to brew mediocre beer. It's good to know that even the bad batches will not be terrible enough to pitch. And if I can hit a 60% good to Great rate. I'd be pretty damned ecstatic.

As long as you have been doing the cleaning and sanitizing you will hit that drinkable 60% without a doubt ... keep us updated and post pictures of your progress...

 

[Tarks]

I have 11 batches under my belt and all but one have exceeded my expectations. The one that didn't, I had a sparge issue. My stainless, braided filter collapsed and I had zero flow. I spend hours trying to resolve the problem and in the end I had to abort and toss the batch. Needless to say, I was pissed. It was an 11 gal batch of oatmeal stout.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

I have been brewing for 10 months now and you could say 100% success rate in that I could drink what I made, although my first batch fermented hot (I'm in AZ and hadn't found this forum and the importance of temp control) and had some off flavors. Everything since has been really good to great and I have just begun entering competitions and every brew I have entered so far has gotten a medal. If you keep things sanitized, control your fermentation temps, pitch the right amount of healthy yeast, and follow decent recipes with fresh ingredients you will make great beer.