I had to pour out an entire batch of beer this morning…
Deepest condolences. 
Hasn’t happened to me yet, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.
I’m sure you just made a septic tank or sewer line VERY happy!!
Ron
Edit: This wasn’t the batch that wouldn’t carb, was it?
I feel your pain, I just dumped 2 batches a few weeks ago. I think mine went bad from some old/bad/contaminated yeast, I’ve made 3 batches since then that are great so I’m getting over the pain now that my kegs are full again.
About a year ago I had to dump 5 gal of my favorite IPA after fermentation, because of scorching on the bottom of the kettle. I was angry and sad. Haven’t made that mistake again.
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Why?
I was racking it to secondary, and tasted it. It tasted like vinegar. I’ve never had that happen before in the 6 years I’ve been brewing.
You should have brought it down south here in Windsor Paul, and brought some of your other stuff.
With your stuff and mine we could have givin’ it a decent burial!..B.C.
I would be careful using anything that touched that beer! Especially plastic parts.
The only plastic thing I used was a better bottle 6 gal carboy.
Life is too short to drink bad beer. I poured out most of a batch a few weeks ago. I just didn’t like the way it tasted. If I have to force myself to drink the beer, something’s wrong.
After talking to a judge, I think I have it nailed down to either bad yeast, or a leaky rubber carboy bung.
[quote=“Denny”]Life is too short to drink bad beer.[/quote]True that.
If I have beers that aren’t working out I’ll take them off the tap and let them sit for a few months then revisit them, if they’re still not to my liking, down the drain they go.
Life is too short to drink bad beer. I poured out most of a batch a few weeks ago. I just didn’t like the way it tasted. If I have to force myself to drink the beer, something’s wrong.[/quote]
+1 to this! I have dumped 3 batches in the last year, none of which were infected. Two were fermented too warm and another had way too much oatmeal.
I’ve only had to dump 2 out of almost 100 batches.
For the first, I was adding some fresh zest (lemon and lime) to a batch and wasn’t paying attention. Instead of zesting 1 lemon and 1 lime I think I zested 4 or 5 of each. The wife was going to make sangria so I bought 1 each for me and 3 each for her. I was obviously not paying attention and ended up zesting all of the fruit! Probably a baseball size mound of zest straight in the boil. As it was pouring in I thought “Gee, that sure looks like a lot of zest”. Had to dump that one. It tasted like lemon pledge.
The second one was a Vienna lager. This one really pissed me off due to the time involved with making a lager. I reused the yeast from a Classic American Pilsner. I believe it was Budvar lager yeast I got from my local Iron Hill Brewery. The CAP was fantastic! Could not have been happier. The Vienna lager however had a ton of diacetyl and another off flavor. It was the first time I tried a different fermentation/lagering method which I assume was what caused the problem. I tasted that beer probably 10 times over 4-5 months and it never got better. I eventually dumped it with a tear rolling down my cheek.
I’m getting ready to pour out a red ale I kegged a couple weeks ago. This will be the 4th 5 gal batch I’ve dumped out in the last 2 months.
The good news is I’m pretty certain it’s sanitation related and all 4 bad brews can be traced back to one step or another being performed on Dec 11, 2013. The date on which my bucket of starsan was apparently beyond it’s useful life.
I hate pouring out beer but I couldn’t agree more with Denny, “life is too short to drink bad beer”.
Yeah it sucks. I dumped 2 batches last year. Both due to bad fermentation temp control. But I chalk it up as a learning experience. Like others, I would rather dump a batch than drink bad beer.
