How To Deal With "unpalateable Beer"

[albrews]

hi, a topic in the "downey beer manual" is a method of dealing with unpalateable beer and has someone read the section.? i looked up unpalateable and it means "not nice tasting"

at a guess a method of dealing with it is to throw it out. any ideas?

cheers alan

 

[chillamacgilla73]

Offer it to uni students in return for washing your car. Or, save drinking them till towards the end of a session when you won't tell the difference....or cook heaps of chilli/curry so your taste buds are numbed and you're really chasing any cooled liquid..

In seriousness, depends what is making the beer unpalatable. I had an english bitter that lacked bitterness(What do you call that?) and I was around Ashers place and he put a drop of isohops into our glasses and it tasted much better....not great but better.

Cheers

Edit: Crap spelling

 

[AngelTearsOnMyTongue]

..... an english bitter that lacked bitterness(What do you call that?) .........

Unbitter..ey??? :blink:

I have been very dissappointed in the last couple of brews I have done. I attribute it to a couple of unexpected days during the period where apon returning home the fermenter was at 28 C. Also my bottle conditioning beers seem to have suffered (I now have a brewing / conditioning fridge).

In any case, I just cant seem to bring myself to ditch them and keep hoping they might come good, but every bottle brings me closer.

Could I just add some shampoo ingredients and sell it at the local markets as "Beer shampoo"?

ATOMT

 

[Vlad the Pale Aler]

I had an infamous beer nicknamed 'Fusel Surprise' for obvious reasons.
I found a couple of bottles 2 years later, and guess what, bloody marvellous!
It came joint first in strong ale at last years SABSOSA and sixth in the nationals.
So hang on to them, you never know.

 

[wedge]

I supplied 3 kegs of beer to a mates Engagement Party. But one of them was infected....

SO i just put the first two on tap first then put the unpalateable one on last.


I got more claps on the back for the last one than the first! :blink:

 

[Sammus]

give it away to people who live of beer like new or vb. You'll either impress them at how great your unpalatable beer is, or reinforce the misonception that all home brew is crap so they'll never scab any off you in the future

 

[deebee]

If it's unpalateable because of an infection ditch 'em. An infection often tastes sour. Or the taste is something entirely "unbeer-like". It gets worse with time and, if bottled, they are ticking timebombs.

Otherwise hang onto them if you can spare the keg/bottles. Like others, I have had bad beers become drinkable with time. Some others just stay bad.

 

[Ziege]

What to do with bad beer....
From first hand experience, here's an idea NOT to try....

"Distill it to salvage the alcohol."

Don't bother un-CO2-ing it, diluting it or part-filling the pot.
It still morphs into a big Mr Frosty inside the condenser, spewing forth globules of the same bad beer, albeit in a concentrated form. Truly evil incarnate.
If you happen (after 60 litres) to perfect the art of avoiding Mr Frosty, you'll get the same amount of alcohol which induced you into such a ridiculous idea in the first place.

 

[mika]

If I end up with a beer that doesn't taste quite as good as it should (but not infected) I generally do a 50/50 mix with some megaswill of some description (Toohey's New Springs to mind), generally takes the edge of it and makes the Tooheys taste better

 

[The King of Spain]

If I end up with a beer that doesn't taste quite as good as it should (but not infected) I generally do a 50/50 mix with some megaswill of some description (Toohey's New Springs to mind), generally takes the edge of it and makes the Tooheys taste better

I do the same. After first few AGs its getting harder though. I've already tossed about 50 bottles. Even 50:50 mix does not even come close

 

[PostModern]

So long as the yeast is alive, there is hope. (Did I just coin this or steal it?)

For beers beyond hope, I have found for pale: a dash of Cascade Raspberry Cordial does wonders; for a dark, a dash of lemonade; for infections: a dash to the loo.

 

[sah]

I haven't tried it but how about massive dry hopping the keg? It might mask the flavour. It would certainly work for unpalatable beers like Corona. Just like those lemons do.

regards
Scott

 

[Finite]

When I was about 16 my dad made a woolies lager kit up...I wasnt a brewer then so I didnt really notice but it must have been infected something serious because all i remember is it comming out a fizzy dark brown colour and tasting like shit.... I kid you not my dad went out and bought a case of VB and mixed half VB and half HB and drank it like that.

 

[Steve]

I have a very disappointing Bramling Cross ale at the moment. Its so fruity its "almost" impossible to drink. Buggered if I know why. I also do the 50/50 mix with something from the bottle shop. It helps.
Cheers
Steve

 

[KoNG]

STEVE...!!!!
mine is kinda the same... 100% bramling and it has this sweet/sour/perfume/fruity thing goin on... hmmmm. i guess we need another thread for that though.

i've had a beer that turned out drinkable but not great, it became a great summer beer by adding some Stones Green ginger wine...
seemed to mask alot of the issues, but gets you rather tipsy quickly!

 

[Voosher]

I do the blending thing as well, though generally with another home brew. It's amazing how often two disappointing brews combine to produce something drinkable, sometimes even very good.
Generally I try to blend with a brew to balance but if desperate I'll try almost anything. I recently blended an overly dry Brown Ale with an overly dry English bitter and surprisingly produced a beer which was far more drinkable than either of its component brews.
If you've got the patience you can actually brew something specifically for blending to balance.

 

[user 1153]

I decided to do a 'step back in time' and brew a simple Coopers and Kilo of dextrose a few weeks ago.

I filtered and kegged it and it tasted like shite. Normally with my dodgy beers I keep them to the side and drink them slowly myself but with this one even I couldn't bear it so when I needed the keg I turfed the whole lot down the drain.

I have another ESB 3KG pilsner that for some reason has a lack of bite. I am keeping that one aside for a while in the keg in the vain hope that it improves, but it will most likely go the way of the K&K brew from hell and visit the drain god.