I have a batch of brown ale that somehow got contaminated and didn’t turn out very good. I primed and bottled.
The way I figure it’s still beer. I put in the money and time and damn it!!! I’m at least going to get a buzz off it even if I don’t enjoy it.
I’ve had a batch or two like this that I mostly gave away, and the recipients all say things like “I liked it!!!” or “I’d buy that!!” I’m betting it’s just because it was free.
This got me wondering what other homebrewers do with their bad batches. Share if you have any stories.
Life’s too short to drink bad beer. I dumped about a gallon each of 2 batches a month or so ago. They just weren’t doing it for me.
I’ve also given bottles of beer I thought was bad or contaminated to friends who just wanted beer and they thought it was good. Different perspective I guess…
Bad beer I can drink… but won’t give it out unless someone wants to try it. But I did make an undrinkable beer once. I spaced while adding some lemon and lime zest to a Witbier I was making. Added 3x what I wanted to. It was terrible! The best description I got was it tasted like drinking pledge. I called it ‘Pledge-Wit’. After about 3 months of trying one every now and then I did the unthinkable… dumped about 2 cases. At that point the bottles were more important to me than trying to salvage a terrible beer. I’m gonna give it another shot this spring, but will be sure to get the zest right. I’m even cutting back from my original recipe, which I never did get right.
I’ll make marinade outta my ruined batches. Did a nice chicken marinade out of a botched peach saison.
I’m with Beersk…no way am I gonna drink anything that I don’t enjoy. You only have one liver…destroy it wisely!
I recently had a small batch of rye APA develop a skim of wild yeast on top, I quickly kegged and carbonated it and put it on tap. The stuff is quite good, no sign of vinegar or anything funky. If it had tasted bad I’d be the first one to dump it, but I’m glad it turned out well and I hope yours does the same.
Dump it into a container with lots of surface area and cover with a dishtowel or coffee filter. 1-gallon glass jars work well. Exposed to air, it should form a film on the surface (mother) and turn into malt vinegar. Don’t give bad beer away!! :x All you’re doing is prolonging the misconception that homebrew is strong, nasty stuff.
Give samples of your best beer.
My recent batch of Rye IPA (20g) is slightly off to the point where I won’t drinkit. Its not contaminated but the fermentation temperature got away from me. Still, I keep it on tap and many people say they really like the Rye IPA. I usually gve them a growler for the road.
+1
Unless it’s a truly heinous disaster, the marinade idea is great. If you are a carnivore, an unintentionally sour beer, for example, actually makes a very good meat marinade. In the past I have liquified some onion, garlic, and herbs in the blender and added it to the beer with some salt and pepper (and sometimes some Pickapeppa sauce) and marinated a variety of meats in it prior to a slow roast on the grill (indirect fire) or in the oven.
don’t make bad beer. :lol:
That’s a lot of marinade
That’s a lot of marinade[/quote]
5 gallons of bad beer
2 tbl spoons of spices
1 chicken.
YUM!
Due to a failure in mixing my bottling sugar I ended up with an ample supply of flat honey hefe. I’ve been marinating with it and intend on making a big batch of beer/cheese dip and kryovac 1 pound portions. Perfect dip for the holidays IMHO.
Best answer yet. :mrgreen:
I have a case of chocolate milk stout i’ve been sitting on for a year, hoping it will get better. I guess it’s time to make it into something awesome. (chile, ice cream…) It’s just too cloying to drink.
Chili, boiling brats, beer bread etc.
mole? and i don’t mean the rodent.
i bottled a bad batch. since i’ve used a pint and spices in my crock-pot when making pork
delicious :cheers:
Have you considered opening the bottles, adding sugar, and re-capping?
I have a t-shirt that says, “Life is too short to drink shitty beer.” Words to live by IMO.
I haven’t had a bad batch in a while, but tried a friend’s oatmeal stout a couple weeks ago and it had a high fusel taste going on (clearly fermented too warm). Not to be deterred and trying to help the guy out to finish what he brought to the neighborhood campfire, I ended up having about 4 pints of his stuff.
Big mistake - head banger by the middle of the night! I agree with Denny and Sean on this one - clean windows with it if you like, but I ain’t drinking the stuff anymore. If it tastes bad enough, you should be willing to be honest. The killer is my friend actually said - “if you don’t like it, pour it out.” I should have been honest with him. I have adopted a new mantra for beer tasting: “Nice guys get headaches”
:cheers:
