Never dump your beer!!! Patience IS a virtue!!! Time heals all things, even beer!

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I have a feeling I may need this advice in the weeks to come... so glad I saw this thread!

:)
 
I'm going through some temptation to dump a Bier de Garde right now. I read that it was like a bock that you pitch a saison yeast on, so I made a fairly strong beer with pilsner and dark munich malt (OG should have been a little over 1.075), pitched a dry saison yeast on it, racked to secondary after 2 weeks, lagered it in secondary for another 2 weeks, bottled it in some heavy-duty belgian bottles with corks and added some saflager 34/70 and put it in the cool garage, and I justed cracked into one after 2 weeks carbonating and it tasted like my NB 1-gallon pumpkin ale kits, but less alcohol heat and a little peppery.

It isn't that I need the fridge space or bottles right now, I just can't imagine this improving. Will the saison 'peppery-ness' ever mellow? Not even sure that would make it better.
 
I brewed a ten gallon batch of IPA with my neighbor. We are to split it when it's done in a few days here. I have it in a temperature controlled chamber, except when I left the light on, or something bumped the switch to on, it heated up to 92 degrees f. It must have been heating up to that over a period of 24 hours or so.

We were going to bottle his and keg mine. Should I just bottle mine too in case there are off flavors and I need to let it sit for six months to a year?

Should I not worry about it because it had been in there for a week and a half and fermentation was close to complete?

What effects could this have?

Thank you for your time.
 
BadBeagleBrew said:
I finally get to join this thread. Made a stout Og 1.063, fermented with Notty for the first time in a while, I completely forgot how active that yeast is, well my ferm temps must have got high. The taste coming out of the fermenter was completely overwhelming of a hot alcohol taste that I could only think of as a cheap whisky. So I kegged it with some priming sugar and a shot of CO2 and have sent it into the depths of my basement to be forgotten about. I also bottled four 500ml bottles and primed with a little maple syrup that I made from our trees. Hopefully in a few months I can report back with a success story, hopefully headache free.
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Well this is much sooner than I expected to be reporting back on this but, having a vasectomy tends to make one drink FAST and HARD. The first bottle ended up being cracked last week out of pure necessity, to my surprise it was purely amazing. No hot whiskey taste, just wonderful chocolate caramely stoutness. So I decided after a few beer tonight to connect the picnic tap to the warm keg and see what she delivers. It is almost 100% clean of any off flavours, in another week this will be hitting the kegerator for sure. It is turning into everything I imagined it to be, if it wasn't for this thread it may have ended up in the gutter.
 
Hey all. I've just finished drinking a batch that I thought was cooked for sure.

What happened was this - I was brewing, and drinking a few while I brewed. Well, I popped the top off one and never heard the lid land. Didn't think much of it, finished up the batch, set it outside in the brew cave to start fermentation and left it for a couple weeks. I go back to check it and there's this weiiiird stuff on top. I took a sample for a reading, 1.005. Good enough right?

I decided to try the sample - weird. Metallic. I figured a major infection. My first infected batch, damn. Well, having read this thread, I bottled it anyway, and what do you think I found in the bottom of the pail, my missing bottle cap! I left it in the bottle to clean itself up for A YEAR. It cleaned up perfectly, came out a perfect Canadian Blonde, and might have been close to my best batch.

Good thing I read this thread prior to that or I might have dumped it.
 
Kent88 said:
I'm going through some temptation to dump a Bier de Garde right now. I read that it was like a bock that you pitch a saison yeast on, so I made a fairly strong beer with pilsner and dark munich malt (OG should have been a little over 1.075), pitched a dry saison yeast on it, racked to secondary after 2 weeks, lagered it in secondary for another 2 weeks, bottled it in some heavy-duty belgian bottles with corks and added some saflager 34/70 and put it in the cool garage, and I justed cracked into one after 2 weeks carbonating and it tasted like my NB 1-gallon pumpkin ale kits, but less alcohol heat and a little peppery.

It isn't that I need the fridge space or bottles right now, I just can't imagine this improving. Will the saison 'peppery-ness' ever mellow? Not even sure that would make it better.
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Six weeks isn't too old for a big beer, give it some time. Also two weeks primary for a 1.075 beer sounds pretty short to me...
 
@Bosh I tried another bottle not to long ago and it improved a little. I also found a small brewery that had a Bier de Mars on tap so I tried that and now I think the issue is more my own taste buds. I haven't had many beers that turned out that dry before. Besides a few attempts at milk stout, some bockish lagers, and my pumpkin ales most of what I've brewed has been pale, light stuff that probably isn't far off from mass produced commercial beer.

Might enter it in the contest at the fair, just to get an unbiased opinion from people who should have a broader palette than I do.
 
Hey guys was gonna make a thread but maybe I'll ask for help here..

So I brewed my 2nd ever beer, a stout last Thursday. The first 6-12 hours it was going crazy in the fermenter but ever since, pretty much nothing.

Is this normal or what? I did take the OG and haven't taken it since but I will probably tomorrow. How will I know if its good / done or not? Will 1 reading be sufficient at this point or still take 2+ ?

Thanks guys! Glad I took the OG this time bc first time I didnt.
 
I've got my first potential dumper in the works after probably a hundred batches. Was trying really hard to have a batch ready for a certain date, rushed a Blonde too quickly and I believe it's got acetaldehyde. Was odd because before I cold crashed the samplers were fine but yeasty, while at bottling it was way off. Never tasted that before, but I'm perceiving green apple. It also used US05 at a tad too cold, which I hear can lead to fruity esthers. Three weeks in the bottle and it's diminished a tad, but not much. Going to give it another month probably. Need the bottles.
 
Haha hey guys, another case of Let It Sit, and RDWHAHB! Brewed a pilsner extract kit, and while I was putting in the airlock my lid cracked badly, enough to have huge open cracks in it. I put the airlock in as loose as I could to keep the cracks as small as possible, but by the time a week and a half, two weeks had passed, I went to bottle and it was getting the thin white skin and had a real sour smell to it. I bottled it anyway. I cracked one (now two :D ) and it's beautiful, a month later. Hang on to that brew guys, you worked hard for it!
 
brewed an all grain bitter based on northern brewer 'the innkeeper.' went from primary to bottling bucket after about two weeks (very early) and the transfer was super dirty.....lots of stuff in suspension in the bottle. I got anxious and tried it two days after bottling and could not finish it.

I did NOT pour it out, but let it condition for a couple weeks. Cold crashed it for a few days and tried it again. It turned out pretty darn tasty; toasty, a little fruity, good hop balance and clean finish. Only issue was that I had to leave about an inch in the bottle to avoid the trub and junk.

never give up.
 
I brewed the "common room" esb recipe here back in January or so. It had gotten way too warm for s-04 at a few points even with trying a swamp cooler and he beer ended up with a sour apple flavor that is overpowering. It's carbed nicely and looks great just has that flavor, my plan is to periodically try them until January and if it isn't better by then I'm dumping it.
 
What about a band aid or medicine flavor? Brewed a batch about a month ago and my IC sprung a leak. Water from the hose-in sanitized of course- got in the half chilled wort. I figured I would just go with it but when in tasted it..... Puke. NyQuil. I haven't dumped. I haven't even pulled it from the yeast cake. I am hoping against hope that this flavor will fade. Anyone have any success with waiting that flavor out? Cheers!
 
first started diluting and conditioning my tap water a couple months ago. Used a cheap scale and realized during the mash that the scale was not accurate with measurements that low. I now have a wonderful fall spiced brown with a nasty salt water aftertaste. First batch so bad that I probably have to dump it.
 
ejf063 said:
What about a band aid or medicine flavor? Brewed a batch about a month ago and my IC sprung a leak. Water from the hose-in sanitized of course- got in the half chilled wort. I figured I would just go with it but when in tasted it..... Puke. NyQuil. I haven't dumped. I haven't even pulled it from the yeast cake. I am hoping against hope that this flavor will fade. Anyone have any success with waiting that flavor out? Cheers!
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No. Those flavors probably won't fade. Chlorophenols (from chlorine in the brewing water) don't go away.
 
Why isn't this the 1st item for new Brewers ( like me )to read ? I'm a total complete noob to Brewing beer , I've read extensive books , magazines & this forum to try & do a good job brewing , well being new I have been WAY to impatient to sample my efforts & have dumped 5+ small batches down the drain thinking I botched it up until my last beer ( simple am wheat ) opened 1 wasn't good at all , had to leave town came back 2 months later popped one open & eureka !!!! It tasted like a real beer , I vow to be patience & wait
 
Excellent article! I'm hoping mine does the same. In my case though, I think I may have over boiled the wort or did the cold break too slowly, as it seems like I may have had less liquid to add to my water for an extract kit I made (first brew day ever!). 3 weeks in and it was very thin for an Irish Stout. Like it tasted diluted. Lets hope time and yeast improve the beer!!
 
nicknerd27 said:
Excellent article! I'm hoping mine does the same. In my case though, I think I may have over boiled the wort or did the cold break too slowly, as it seems like I may have had less liquid to add to my water for an extract kit I made (first brew day ever!). 3 weeks in and it was very thin for an Irish Stout. Like it tasted diluted. Lets hope time and yeast improve the beer!!
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My first beer was supposed to be a stout. I screwed up on several counts. I didn't temp control, at all. It went nuts overnight and while I didn't get any blowoff ambient in my condo was at least 70 - 72 so it definitely was too warm. On top of that I got my water volumes wrong when topping up my 3 gallons to 5 after the boil and I think I diluted mine as well.

Initially it was drinkable, but had a very tart finish. I have some bottles that are now about 6 months old and while it'd not an amazing stout (probably closer to a porter) it's quite drinkable.

-- Nathan
 
alexnova said:
It'd have to be clearly spoiled for me to dump a batch. Your costs are sunk, so might as well let it ride. Drink your mistakes!
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And sometimes even bad batches can have merit... I have a buddy who has sold beer "malt vinegar" at outdoor markets, he keeps some nice bottles with ribbons and stuff on hand for when there's a bad batch. He got the idea from a local micro (who was notorious for making crappy beer anyway) who would sell their stuff. Luckily the bad brewery got bought by someone else and they've actually improved things immensely.

But it's funny, we can't sell our homebrew, BUT we can sell our aecetobactor infected ones. :D
 
Revvy said:
And sometimes even bad batches can have merit... I have a buddy who has sold beer "malt vinegar" at outdoor markets, he keeps some nice bottles with ribbons and stuff on hand for when there's a bad batch.
Click to expand...

Funny you should meniton making malt vinegar now. A friend of mine who has a podcast Fuhmendaboutit in Brooklyn recently had a guest on talking about that and I'm planning on giving it a go.
 
One flavor that really does fade over time is brown sugar bite. Was nasty and harsh a few weeks after I brewed it last July but damn did it taste good when I just drank it.
 
I finally have a few success stories to share, and it all starts with a kettle soured berliner weiss.

I figured that the berliner weiss would be best young because it is such a light beer. After I tried one I was thinking "oh crap, I'm dumping this", but I'm lazy enough that I just left it in the cooler that I leave bottled ales in. A few months later it got a lot better, it didn't just taste like commercial beer that had been left open too long.

Then I made a SMaSH lager with Schill Kolsch Malt, just to see what it is like. After bottling I noticed that it looked gunky at the surface of the beer and I started wondering if some of the lacto from the BW had survived the brief boil and set up shop in some of my plastic (since this I have replaced some of my equipment and bottled another batch, looks clear!), again I was too lazy to dump it, and somehow it made its way into the ale cooler, but the "gunk" never really messed with the flavor, and now it seems to be settling out. If it was the lacto from the BW, my theory is that it couldn't handle 20IBU.

I'm seeing the same kind of gunk in a "smoky" (smoked malt isn't coming through) maple lager, but it is again settling out with time and age is helping the taste, too, as originally it was too sweet. Note to brewers, when you split a batch between fermenters, take separate gravity readings.
 
I have no idea of the problem or solution, but I brewed a Brown Ale and a Pale Ale on the same week. I fermented them in a chamber in the mid sixties. One used S-04 and the other US-05. At kegging time I tasted and took gravity readings. Both were at about 1.022. Both tasted sweet but I had already transferred to kegs. I couldn't decide on what to do with them, so they sat. 10 months later I took a gravity reading of both and they were both at 1.008. The brown was good so I just put it in the kegerator. The pale ale was way over carbonated so I vented it several times a day for a week. It's hop flavor was gone so I dropped 2 ounces or Willamette into the keg and put it in the kegerator. They both are quite good. I have no idea how much different from what they could have been. They were both fly by the pants recipes.
 
Sometimes though if it's infected by a wild yeast it may get worse over time. I had that happen and I guess the wild yeast fermented the unfermentables so it probably got down to 1.000. It was ok at first but eventually it got pretty bad. Also a buddy of mine once had a batch with something growing on it and we campden bombed it before kegging. Worked out pretty good but we drank it fast so it didn't grow back
 
Not really a story about not dumping but more a corollary story about long term conditioning... Brewed an imperial stout and spice bombed it on purpose... Because I had planned not to seriously drink it for 12 months... Sure enough at 3 and 6 months it was awful... At 12 months I had people who hated dark beers tell me it was one of the best beers they had Taster... So yep don't dump it unless you get an acetobacter Infection but equally for some big beers with spices etc you should almost go crazy on the levels of spicing if you plan to age for 6 to 12 months as they will fade and balance and most importantly rdwhahb!
 
I was just searching the forum about how a beer should taste like before carbonation and stumbled upon this story. Inspiring. I already set aside a bottle to be drinked next year. I bottled my first batch ever today. Bit insecure about the taste and smell of it. Smells like red wine and taste like a flat stout with a strong aftertaste . (muntons irish dry stout kit) let the wait begin.
 
TO ALL NEW BREWERS DOING THEIR 1ST BATCH, DO NOT UNDER ANY RHYME OR REASON THROW AWAY YOUR BEER! I am no expert and have only 30 gallons or so beer under my belt but, about 3 months ago, I found a bottle in my fridge of the very 1st beer I made. Now up until this point, My 1st batch did not taste good and i ended up bottling only 12 bottles (half i think got poured down the sink). Another batch or 2 didn't taste good at all so I dumped them. After having 3 failed batches I was disheartened and did not go back to brewing. UNTIL I FOUND THE BOTTLE the months ago (kinda like finding king authors sword, about a 6-8 month hiatus). I opened it up. It was lightly carbed but didn't taste too bad. It was very drinkable, more importantly, the wife didn't think it was too bad (this is quiet a compliment just FYI).

From that point on i regretted not bottling the whole thing and pouring 6 bottles down the drain. Do not do what i did. More importantly don't be discouraged, good things come to those who wait. Since that time I made a very good sweet cider, a very bad apple cider, 10 gallons in a secondary (I know not necessary) and 5 gallons fermenting.
 
I was wanting to brew bells amber clone. Can you share your recipe and instructions with me
Thanks
 
I've dumped one batch. It had a serious chlorophenol problem. Aging will not improve that.
 
i guess this is an positive way to approach this hobby but i made a beer that sat for over 6 months and never got better....it is possible to make bad beer and sometimes just gotta learn and brew on.. not every batch will turn around for the better
 

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