Good versus Bad Beer Ratio

[SouthBounds]

Hello Brewers! Do you always get it right?! Dump a few batches? Mend and fix?

Background - Of the last 4 brews I did 1 came out not to my liking. It just wasn't good. That would put me in the 75% good brew category. I haven't dumped it yet but it is a candidate.

So what's your brew success ratio?

 

[RPh_Guy]

I use Untappd, so I have data!
Since I started brewing, 57% of my beers/ciders/meads are 4 stars or higher. For comparison, 24% of my total is 4 stars or higher.

 

[balrog]

I experiment. I am not afraid of failure. That said, I always do certain recipes over and over also as I expect success. So. Yeah.

 

[Redpappy]

so far in my 2 years of brewing, I have not dumped anything. Some of my beers have been a so/so...and so far i do have a batch of cider that i am hoping that will turn for the better with age, it is my first batch that is from fresh juice and is not carbonated and a different yeast(3 batches all together from what i am gathering from my other posts, bad note taker on this).

With more i learn, and more I brew, I look back, and i probably would have dumped a batch or two. but then again, that is part of the learning process.

So the question comes to mind, is what do you consider a bad beer? is it a beer that has an infection, that got some oxidation due to transferring it? or a beer that...well does not turn out like you wanted it to, maybe because of lack of experience.

OP says there is 1 beer that is not to their liking. was it because it was a different style that you tried out? Was it a beer that you made once before that you liked, but the 2nd time around didn't come out right?

There are a lot of variables that should be considered before calling a beer bad.

 

[BruceH]

I've had beer that didn't turn out well but wasn't infected. When that happens I mix it with something else. A good rescue for so/so beer is Henry Weinhards, it's under $10 for an 18 pack. Mixed 50/50 with a so/so tasting homebrew and everything is better.

I also have a habit of mixing my homebrews. Not sure how many people do this but I like to mix different varieties of beer in the glass.

 

[archthered]

I put 90% but it really depends on what you mean. I dump less than 10% due to infection etc so 90% is good enough to drink. But I experiment alot and not all of it is stellar. I would say 75-90% is good, but most of the rest isn't bad, it's just meh.

 

[Bobby_M]

The only way to grown in the hobby is to experiment a lot. For that reason, I only count dumpers that were repeat brews of a recipe I was already happy with.

 

[SouthBounds]

Wow, great posts!

I put 90% but it really depends on what you mean.

I set my standard at did I enjoy drinking it. 3 of the last 4 I was super happy with. The 4th I was experimenting heavily with and it just didn't work. It's still beer and drinkable but certainly not something I would share without a "preface".

 

[SouthBounds]

When that happens I mix it with something else.

I might try this. I have a great Pacific Coast IPA that might fix the less than ideal American Ale.

 

[bkboiler]

Made a few tweaks in the past year and been closer to the 80% range. First several years it was much lower, probably more like 40%.
Amazed I've stuck with it this long...been brewing 9 years now...

 

[kartracer2]

When I was more actively brewing I can only remember one beer I might have dumped. ( I didn't, I trudged right through that bad boy.) That's not to say all the rest were 100%. I did learn one thing because of that bad one, "If you don't know how it's "supposed" to taste like, it's hard to judge it. It came to be that "bad" beer was of a style, to this day, a style I didn't care for. It still might not have been a 100% good beer but try a store bought style/version first, to make sure it fits into your "flavor profile", I hope you get my drift.
Same goes for trying someone else's recipe, make it as close to "as posted" as you can before you go tweaking it and then complaining about it or saying "it's junk".
Hopefully each brew gets better, that's another thing I found out, as my brew count went up so did the quality.
Brew on, poor beer is better than no beer IMHO.

 

[SouthBounds]

It came to be that "bad" beer was of a style, to this day, a style I didn't care for.

I like this thought. In fact I was trying to do a better job of a commercial beer i didn't care for. Maybe I just dont like that kind of beer, ha!

 

[jready]

Rarely do I dump a beer that being said I would say 80% of the beers I make I love 10% I like and 10% either cook with, share with friends who will drink anything or eventually dump to free up space.

 

[Calder]

I checked 90% because there wasn't anything higher.

It has probably been 20 years or more since I last dumped a brew ...... It was so memorably that I can still remember the vinegar taste of the beer. I don't think I have had a brew that I would consider bad since then. I've made a number of spiced beers that I have not liked, and no longer experiment with 'holiday' beers, but the basic beer was OK.

For at least the last 10 years (probably longer), I've had zero dumpers and I don't think I have had any beers that I would be embarrassed to serve to a friend.

I did have one mistake/contamination/issue last year that could have resulted in a problem. I tried to brew a Duvel clone, but the fermenter was contaminated from the previous brew with Brett. I left it in the fermenter too long, and the beer developed Brett flavors. Fortunately the result was a beer that was close to Orval, and was pretty good. Not what I was expecting, but a pretty good beer in the end. I got lax with my cleaning routine ..... This set me straight.

 

[Soulshine2]

Hello Brewers! Do you always get it right?! Dump a few batches? Mend and fix?

Background - Of the last 4 brews I did 1 came out not to my liking. It just wasn't good. That would put me in the 75% good brew category. I haven't dumped it yet but it is a candidate.

So what's your brew success ratio?

ive only dumped 2 beers out of a total of about 14 over 5 years .
one was the gluten free beer i made for my dad that turned out tasting like seltzer water and the other was an extract kolsch that i used a higher than thought chlorinated water, so it was terrible. every other brew has been great.

 

[Dland]

I had to dump a few due to a persistent infection a while back, since improved sanitation, only dumpers or kegs I could not finish were result of trying "farmhouse" yeasts recommended on this forum.

Everything else has been tasted very good or great to me. Seven bad or weird out of 86 batches in last 30 months, but have not had enough coffee to do the math.

Blending is a great way to make decent beers even better. Mostly I've had to do this when trying specialty malts that end up making beer too sweet for me. Have even brewed extra dry batches intentionally to mix with overly rich ones.

 

[fastengine]

I see this as a loaded question.. I have never had a detectable infection, only had 1 imperial stout that oxidized, but had batches that tasted off due to poor choice of yeasts. I did burn a marzen mashing on the stovetop once that was a dumper many years ago but most batches that I would deem as off or not so good were tried and true recipes that I couldn't get my choice of yeast for and some friends thought those were very good beers.