Confession Of A Home Brewer

[vchead]

Hi All,

I have been withholding a secret for some months now and feel it's time I revealed it to my fellow homebrewers. I cannot carry the burden of secrecy any longer.

My secret is: I pour beer that I have made but is not to my taste down the drain!

My problem started when my more recent brews started to mature to drinking age. The more recent brews, those made after I discovered local HBS, Hops, forums and quality ingredients, all taste great and I gulp them down. Trouble is they made my first brews taste like washing up liquid in comparison.

I knew that am important principle in homebrew was that you never waste beer. I struggled through drinking bottle after bottle of early beers until I started to hate them. I tried Isohop drops to liven them up a bit, tried drinking them after I was already pissed, tried drinking them when I had a cold and my sense of taste/smell was poor but nothing worked.

Finally one weekend evening a few months ago when I was hanging for a cold beer after a hard days work, I opened an early brew, took one sip and was appauled at the flavour of this gastly potion. I immediately poured all 750 ml down the sink.

I was angry that my first sip, that great first sip you look forward to all day, was ruined by the lame flavours and aromas of this amateur ale. Each time after that as I tried and tried to get through my stock of early brews I knew that if it wasn't to my taste I could always just poor it down the sink. Once I had done it that first time, each one became easier.

While the action of pouring beer down the sink became easier, the guilt and shame I felt was increasing with each dump. Everywhere you turn on forums the advice is to NEVER waste beer. I have struggled with my shame for long enough now and feel compelled to confess my betrayal of the values the HB community holds dear.

I feel better now at having confessed my sin. I throw myself at your mercy and ask that you don't judge me too harshly.

Regards,

Rodders

 

[Weizguy]

Have you thought of adding it to your cooking/food?

I'm hoping that you won't get judged harshly here, as the only judges likely to be here will be Beer Judges and you should be acquitted of "Justifiable Birrocide" due to mitigating circumstances.

I think the only other judge you might find here is a judge of dancing skills/style from a popular television show involving amateur dancing by TV celebs (you know who you are :lol: ).

Seth out

 

[kook]

I've got no problem with getting rid of beer if I think there is nothing I can do to rescue it. I haven't had to do it since I started brewing again, but back when I was doing kits it happened more than once.

 

[petesbrew]

Yep, it's happened at my place more than once. Usually I manage to get through at least two-thirds of the suss batch before I start to think "geez, this really is crap", tip it out, and crack a bottle from a different ,and hopefully better brew.
On the up side, my empty bottle collection builds faster, therefore meaning the next brew day's not far off!

 

[Fatgodzilla]

Yep, it's happened at my place more than once. Usually I manage to get through at least two-thirds of the suss batch before I start to think "geez, this really is crap", tip it out, and crack a bottle from a different ,and hopefully better brew.
On the up side, my empty bottle collection builds faster, therefore meaning the next brew day's not far off!

Agree with you man. A couple of batches had chlorophenylitis (or whatever the $#(&%^ it is) when I sure I used TOO MUCH bleach to clean my fermenter and ruined it. That said, Ive got a Tooheys Real Ale that I'm drinking that deserves the sink, as well as an ordinary Cooper Lager that will get me gaoled for pollution if it went west. Then there's the Cascade Golden Harvest that tastes like something you would poison rodents with.
I find if things are desperate (and I think I've some good extracts that are just waiting for a spring / summer to come upon me that I want to keep maturing) I have even found a usage for VB and Tooheys Red and Hahn Light that people seem to leave in my fridge. I mix it with the bad brew to make something passable. As the brain cells die, I fool the living ones that what I am sending down the gullett is good stuff. It doesn't fool them for long, but it empties another bottle that will eventually harbour a drop worth, well, worth bottling. Don't be hard on yourself men. Shit happens and sometimes I bottle it. But I'll perservere. :super:

 

[Enerjex]

i felt a similar shame when i did it. by reasoning was that i'm not going to enjoy the beer, infact it made my face screw up when drinking it so why occupy the precious longnecks bottle i bought and not have them free for future batches that taste great.

 

[petesbrew]

Shit happens and sometimes I bottle it. But I'll perservere. :super:

:lol: Classic comment, Fatgodzilla!

 

[RobW]

or you could tip it into the bath :super: :

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1415257.html

 

[frogman]

If its that bad get yourself another fermenter and tip it out as youll need the bottles soon enough.
Or get a keg system then you can blend.
But why spoil a good beer by blending it with a bad one.

CHUCK IT. THE LAWN WILL LOVE IT.

FROGMAN

 

[Muggus]

I've always wondered if it were possible to brew a beer from old beers.

For instance, make yourself up a batch of wort of some description in a fermenter and fill it up with your unwanted brew.
Not sure if it'd work, in fact i'm almost convinced that I wouldn't, but hell, if you're going to throw it out anyway, why not experiment a little.

 

[ratchie]

I've always wondered if it were possible to brew a beer from old beers.

For instance, make yourself up a batch of wort of some description in a fermenter and fill it up with your unwanted brew.
Not sure if it'd work, in fact i'm almost convinced that I wouldn't, but hell, if you're going to throw it out anyway, why not experiment a little.

I empty the bottles into a fermenter add dextrose+yeast.Ferment for six or more weeks then bottle into twist top or PET bottles and give them to the itinerant people

 

[matt white]

So you make a bad one here and there...so what? Overgassed/got your specialty malts ballsed up/got an infection? Chuck it out and move on. As long as you arent doing it too often you have to let some things go (I know it is hard but some things are best off down the sink).

 

[jimmy01]

Yep also guilty of tossing bad beer.

Someone gave me a carton of crown lager and I poured it on the roses.

Only jokin - gave it to the old man. He doesn't know any better

Cheers
Jimmy

 

[PSB]

Yeah I will come out of the closet on this one as well.

I have gone to the trouble of carbing up a keg, pulling one beer, tasting same, and removing keg from fridge and pouring contents down the drain.

Some may say that this is a waste.

But I brew my beer to enjoy it. If I can't enjoy it because it is inferior in some way then I dump it. I think that the important thing is to isolate the cause of the inferiority and to learn from it.

To me brewing is an evolutionary process and my aim is to constantly improve. If I have to sacrifice a little second rate product along the way then so be it :beer:

 

[Tony]

I made a 50 liter batch of IPA a while back

I tried to filter it as the yeast wouldnt settle but it didnt work well.

It was all out of ballance and wasnt very nice in seconday but i though...... a bit of gas and a couple of weeks in the keg.... sheel be right.

Well a dozen schooners down i found myself buying beer cause the IPA was horrid. It was cardboardy, too malty, the hops i used were old and stale...... it sucked.

So i upended a 50 liter keg ot it over the drain that led out onto the street and down the gutter.

It was all out and i thought... i wonder if i made a ness out front.

I went to look and found my next door neghbour chasing his grandkids out of the froth running down the street in fornt of his house

OOps

plenty of bottles have gone the same way...... either crap beer or over carbed, out with the crap in with the gold

cheers

 

[matti]

repent thy selves you beer wasters.

I have been dry for 4 days, shift work, hey...

As coming to pour beer out,
Once upen a time not very log ago I brewed many K+Ks and spent many day cleaning bottles because of failed brews.
I reckon I brewed 300 Litres in 2005 and threw out about 150 litres.

most were either flat, oxidized, tainted or just plain foul tasting brew.

I did throw out 4 bottles of last brew.
ouch!!

It was a really nice bohemian FWK but some how these 4 turned infected.
Ah well only got my self to blame.

Got a partial fermenting and and ag aging right now.

 

[Keifer]

Never made a bad or even average beer, im all class





lol yeah right

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I too have feed bad beer to the lawn

Due to a number of factors

* Drank to much and screwed up the recipie
* Got some weird white stuff on top
* Got drunk and screwed up the recipie
* Used to much Roast wheat malt....way to um...bitter/yuck
* Got drunk and screwed up the recipie
* Used to many hops and got it unbalanced
* Got drunk and...well, you know the rest


I have brewed bad beer , and am proud of it

 

[Muggus]

I've done quite a few drain pours in my time with sediment laden bottles of beer. Often i'd just pull out a random bottle of brew, give it a chill, pour it out and realise that I was dumb enough to get one of the sedimentary bottles.
I've learnt the error of my ways and avoid bottling the sediment where possible.

 

[Tony]

Never made a bad or even average beer, im all class
lol yeah right

Your not trying hard enough

step out of the square dude

your not a real brewer till............ B)

cheers

PS.... stu..... i put amber malt in a pale lager once to give it an "amber hue" as per the malt spec.

you know the rest..... gloop gloop, gloop

thats how we learn what works and what is more wrong than dog poo