How Many Batches Before You Made A Dumper

I have been brewing about 3yrs now and just brewed a batch within the last couple of months that needed to be dumped. I hated to do it, but there was no way I was going to drink 5gal of this swill. It was not infected or anything crazy, but rather it was just a bad combination that was not worthy of being consumed.

How many of you have done the same thing? How long into your homebrewing life before it happened..??

i had the opposite issue. First 4 batches were extract and tasted like **** and from then on they have been good...so far.

Out of 425 batches, I've dumped maybe half a dozen because I just did't like them. But I can't recall exactly when it happened.

The first batch I made fermented at 85 degrees in my upstairs college apartment without air conditioning. So after 3 months of hoping it'd "condition out", that beer went down the drain. Luckily by then I had already brewed my second batch with a swamp cooler. And it was delicious. By the third batch I bought a minifridge and johnson temp controller.

Brewing since Jan 2011 all canned extract with additions. Hop boils added LME/DME

51 good
0 bad
That includes the 'almost swill' TBM cheapo mixes.

I have been lucky? Or only take limited chances with recipes.

As I move on to DIY extract recipes with steep grains, I might get a bad one. I normally ony brew recipes I find on forums that hae been tested. Tend not to go mad scientist.

Dumped a batch that oxidized when we first started kegging, other than that no dumped batches. If it isn't worth drinking, dump it and fill it w/ something that is!

I haven't dumped a batch yet but some of my first I'm imagining were pretty bad and I may have dumped them if I had my current standards. I almost chucked a half batch of a black lager I made but I bottled anyways and it is kind of coming around. Not great, but I'll finish them.

Drink from your mistakes. To hell with learning from them.

GarageDweller said:

Drink from your mistakes. To hell with learning from them.

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Life is too short to drink bad beer.

Knock on wood!

26 batches so far since last July, and there have been none that I didn't like. I am doing a lot more experimenting now. So, I expect that sooner or later there will be a bad one. I am hoping for later.

For me batch number 001 was terrible and I dumped it, an extract Mr. Beer kit. Batch 2 all grain my own recipe was great, the next 43 have just gotten better.

Dumped my first batch . I didn't know what to sparge was, and simply added water until it hit 5 gallons. Worst beer ever.
Next one after that was a Blue Moon clone that I 1) under pitched and 2) over heated (fermented around 85). Awful taste so I let it sit for a month and drank it anyway once it settled a bit. Harsh, but not dumpable.

27 gallons later no need to dump

I dumped on accidentally. Came home to find a leaking beer hose and a empty co2 tank

i dumped my 2nd AG beer.. done a couple dozen since then and none that bad.. so i chalk it up to inexperience

My first 2 all grain. Temps got away from me and I'm sure i under-pitched, they turned into undrinkable fruity ester drain cleaners. Was horrible opening 10 gal of beer in 12oz bottles and dumping them down the drain. Since then I've got temp control taken care of and no problems (yet).

I have dumped one batch from lacto. Out of hundreds!

My first batch never made it into bottles. 'Just followed a bunch of bad advice on that one. I just didn't want to drink it. The second batch was almost as bad. That made it into bottles, but it just tasted like you-know-what). After that they got better, but my extract beers were never very good (seriously browned from boiling on an electric stove, even with mostly late-addition DME--they tended to have a molasses aftertaste, too). I've seen the "never dump a batch" sticky, but I would rather have fun brewing again, correct my mistakes, and drink better beer in the end. It's win-win, IMO. The whole reason I homebrew is because I'm picky about my beer. I want to make stuff that I want to drink.

spannaflicka said:

I dumped on accidentally. Came home to find a leaking beer hose and a empty co2 tank

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I lost the equivalent of a bottle or two of my first batch due to an insufficiently tightened spigot in my bottling bucket. Dripped constantly and quickly. Mad for a frenetic and stressful first bottling experience.

#2 was a dumper because I overcarbed all the bottles, lucky #13 was a dumper due to being just plain ol gross. It was my third all grain, no idea what happened. It was my second run at that recipe and was super bummed since the first one turned out really good. Everything's been spot on since then (fingers crossed!)

I have brewed probably about 10 - 15 batches.........I have dumped 3 - 5 for various reasons....Batch #2 tasted horrible....2 were saisons (discovered too late I dont like saisons)and I had a bad thermometer and had 2 beers in the pipe line brewed back to back that were bad.........so hopefully the bad streak is over...

I have a Northern Brewer Farmhouse going right now (which is similar to saison) and a Barley Wine brewing right now.

Dumped brew #2, added fruit syrup to the primary, the finished result was nasty, tried mixing it, adding lemon juice, hot sauce, and even 50/50 BMC, nothing worked, finally dumped it with a tear in my eye. Only had one more iffy beer since, drank it just to punish myself for brewing a yuk beer. Made me pay attention to my subsequent brews. Everything else so far (40 gallons) has been good, or great.

I brewed about ten before I dumped two batches in a row that got gusher infections from some non food grade tubing that was infected. Sucks cuz both batches were excellent for a short while before the infection set in.

restarted brewing Sept 2011, one batch I didn't like out of 8. It was the NB Smokey Amber Ale.....way, way too smokey. Having a party at the end of July, hoping someone likes it (they're gonna have a case of beer so damn fast)

I brewed a rye pale ale that was great at the start. It slowly developed this metallic flavor I couldn't stand so I gave it all away. That's the only beer I consider truly bad that I've brewed.

#3 and 4. First was an English brown that fermented way too hot, second was a Irish red pitched onto the same yeast. Learned about the importance of fermentation temps and how much of that flavor will carry over in the stressed yeast and trub.

Since then eveything has been great.

Never had a dumper yet... But the marris otter / willamette smash I brewed on the fourth could be my first. Everything went perfect during brew day but the weather has been brutal and my temp controller I ordered didn't arrive in time for this batch. I tried my usual water bath with frozen water bottles but this heat is just too much for that.

Batch 3 came out "hot",bottled in Jan 2012 will let ya know in Dec 2012,
batch 13 came out with a sour note to it ,in to bottles it went ,let you
know in three months. Caps are cheap and have lots of closet space.

My first ever brew. A prehopped malt extract beer. I was using it for cooking but needed the bottles so, down the drain it went.

Havent made a dumper yet...however i did screw up on a batch of tropical strong ale, bottled it while having a brain fart and forgot the priming sugar...so now i have 40 bottles of flat (very little carbonation) beer. Been thinking of maybe uncapping, drop a carbonation tab in, and recapping to see if that would do it...but not sure at all.

I haven't dumped yet after about 50 batches over 1.5 years. But...on a batch about 6 months ago I used the founders breakfast stout clone recipe on HBT and decided to change it by toning down the ABV and also enhanced the chocolate by 'dry nibbing' with chocolate nibs and then adding chocolate extract when kegging. It is good but way too chocolatey and so I bottled with my beer gun and every now and then will have one. But man, the chocolate! What was I thinking!?

Correction: more like 35-40 batches, I don't brew that much! (or do I?)

I made one bad extract batch in the last fifteen years that I dumped. But my all grain batches have all been awesome!

never dumped - some just better than others

I haven't dumped one yet, but my first batch was not good due to lack of understanding the importance of temp control. It was only a 2 gallon MR Beer batch and I punished myself for making bad beer by drinking it. Only did a few more MR Beer kits before diving into AG and each batch is better than the last now thanks to all the wisdom on this forum.

My first batch was extract with specialty grains. Came out great. Second was a partial mash. It got infected and was undrinkable. Since then I have gone all grain with no problems. Well, my son did a Guiness clone kit with my supervision and its got the plastic taste. I won't drink it. He might ;-) A couple of mine have been "interesting" experiments but they seem to get consumed. Only up to about 20 batches so plenty of opportunity left for failure. ;-)

my 3rd or 4th went down the drain

This year I have had an issue with sanitizing. Maybe I just got lazy but it has not been fun 35gal went down the drain. The up side is my septic field is hammerd drunk. Micro organizams just having party's down there.

Brewed a bock that caught a contaminant and tasted like bandaids. Gave it time to see if it would "clear up" and cracked one every so often. I've done that through an entire case and I just poured a bottle of 98% foam. Bandaid tasting foam.

At least I have a HB IPA to drown my sorrows while I watch the rest of these swirl down the drain

Batch #101 and counting...no dumps. Did have to age a BoPils for like 5 months to get all the spices to settle, no idea what I was thinking, added like 7 spices. After it mellowed, it was a slightly cinnamon pils and quite delicious.

No dumpers or infections, but I have had a couple out of a couple dozen total that were just meh.

I dumped #6 due to having 5 gallons of vinegar bottled. (#7 came out good, so I think it was bottle or bottling bucket sanitation that got me).
#8 is unknown (Highly inaccurate thermometer resulting in mashing at about 180 degrees) - about another week in the keg before I know for sure. Hopefully it will be a good low alchohol sweet beer).