Happy accidents

[rheffera]

Have you fellas ever had a happy accident?

That is to say, a brew you've made out of leftover bits and the end result was bloody good?

I just cracked a month old bottle of stout i made out of leftovers, and sweet mother of mercy, it's the best thing I've ever made.

 

[QldKev]

When I brew I try and fill my 25L cubes, so about 28L. Then when I ferment, I ferment using 3 fermenters at a time each with a different beer. But the time I allow for wastage, from each fermenter I can fill a keg and about the last 1/3 of a keg worth ends up in the Mongral keg. So from three fermenters I have a Mongral with a 1/3 of each. Sometimes they work out to be awesome and become ideas for new recipes. I'm currently drinking a Aussie Gold + Hop Heaven + Brown/Black Ale mix which is pretty decent.

 

[Phillo]

Yes, several times.

Sorry. I misunderstood the title of this thread. h34r:

 

[Dave70]

I keep a 5L demijohn next to the beer tap. It gets a squirt from the pluto at the start of a session or when I change kegs.
Plus, I dumped a few bottles of geiser like Belgian strong in there before they all went 'pop'. Kind of like ghetto gueuze. As in Calcutta ghetto.
Been going for about four months now. The airlock bubbles occasionally when its warm. If I'm honest, my hopes aren't all that high for it.

 

[cremmerson]

I made an extra strong bitter but made a few mistakes as to timing. It was known as Flying Pig Bitter because it was my first recipe creation from scratch, trying to clone a beer I had never tasted. (Came pretty close...perhaps)

I wanted to repeat it to adjust a few timings and accidentally scorched the wort (about 3kg of DME, eugh). The advice was to throw it out but I bottled...

The Crispy Pig Bitter was sensational. The scorched elements actually enhanced the bitterness and gave it an earth feel. It's all gone now but there are five bottles in the museum stock waiting... waiting...

 

[MartinOC]

AND HOW!!

I hosted a Wort Hogs brew day at my place in 1998. 'Tried to do too much & the boys wanted to make another beer, 'cos my setup allowed for multiple, back-to-back brews on the same day. So, I threw-together a recipe for a 4.2% Scottish Porter that I'd had great success with, but decided to bang it up to ridiculous proportions (OG about 1092!). I just used bits & pieces of specialty grain I had laying around at the time & dumped it onto the yeast cake from a previous batch.

Here's how it did in competitions:

Vicbrew 2001 - 3rd place
AABC 2001 - 1st place

Vicbrew 2002 = 1st place
AABC 2002 - 2nd place

Tri-nations competition (2002) - 3rd place (beaten by Strangler by 1 point!)

It was still bloody good in 2010, when I shared the last bottle with my old man.

Yeah, that one was a happy accident....

 

[djar007]

I keep a 5L demijohn next to the beer tap. It gets a squirt from the pluto at the start of a session or when I change kegs.
Plus, I dumped a few bottles of geiser like Belgian strong in there before they all went 'pop'. Kind of like ghetto gueuze. As in Calcutta ghetto.
Been going for about four months now. The airlock bubbles occasionally when its warm. If I'm honest, my hopes aren't all that high for it.

I do something similar . But I have a vinegar mother in the demi. Draw from the bottom and fill from the top . Shake every now and then and a constant supply of very nice malt vinegar.

 

[lael]

AND HOW!!

I hosted a Wort Hogs brew day at my place in 1998. 'Tried to do too much & the boys wanted to make another beer, 'cos my setup allowed for multiple, back-to-back brews on the same day. So, I threw-together a recipe for a 4.2% Scottish Porter that I'd had great success with, but decided to bang it up to ridiculous proportions (OG about 1092!). I just used bits & pieces of specialty grain I had laying around at the time & dumped it onto the yeast cake from a previous batch.

Here's how it did in competitions:

Vicbrew 2001 - 3rd place
AABC 2001 - 1st place

Vicbrew 2002 = 1st place
AABC 2002 - 2nd place

Tri-nations competition (2002) - 3rd place (beaten by Strangler by 1 point!)

It was still bloody good in 2010, when I shared the last bottle with my old man.

Yeah, that one was a happy accident....

Wow! nice! Aged for 3 years before first comp? That is patience! What volume did you do? Still have the recipe?