When a batch goes wrong . . .

Yeah, I hear ya!

Brewed a big imperial milk stout a few weeks ago. 13 gallons in fermenter, 1.132 gravity. Pitched 7 packets of US-05 rehydrated. After two weeks stuck at 1.068 FG... even with raising temp to 74F and rousing yeast every day.

Now it’s in barrels at room temp. Hoping the barrels will thin it out a bit over the next few months.

 

Last spring I kegged a tripel that tastes like nail polish remover. My efficiency was very high (which I blame on 1st time using Swaen malt). I then made the mistake of adding 2 lbs of honey before checking SG. The combination of high SG and honey resulted in a tripel that is over 10% abv. This might have been ok, but I fermented it on the higher side of temperature range which drastically increased the solvent/ alcohol flavor. I haven’t dumped it yet, hoping time will mellow it out.

 

My last flawed beer was last fall, a contaminated fresh hop beer. Was amazing until I added the (fresh) dry hop... Something start turning the beer and went completely south. Dumped it right down the drain.

Bummer, as it tasted so damn good before I ruined it with the dry hop. Lesson learned to use those hot side only.

 

Last winter used some home grown hops which were not totally dryed for dry hopping,,,, like 8 oz of them. Great beer,,,,,, if you like drinking something that tastes like grass silage.

Drain pour.

 

What yeast strain did you use? In addition to high gravity and high fermentation temps driving fusels, some of the Belgian strains can make a lot of Ethyl Acetate, which tastes like pears at low concentrations, but tastes solventy at higher concentrations.

 

Early on in my homebrewing career, tried to do a black cardamom Belgian imperial stout. Underpitched, temps got too hot, and way too much black cardamom. Tasted like the stub of a Newport that sat in a shot of rotgut vodka out in the sun for a week. Left the bottles in an alley known to be frequented by bums.

My more recent disappointment has been that between work, fishing, home improvement, and travel, I haven't brewed in over 9 months. Got a smoked stout that's been sitting on bourbon-soaked oak since February that's waiting to be bottled. Fingers crossed on that one.

 

I feel ya, even though it's only been 6 months for me.
In an effort to get a fix I sprinkled a little dry yeast in a half-gallon of peach juice just to remember what fermentation looks like.

 

Fermentation fix has been good professionally. I make yeast-risen dough everyday, and a 5 gallon batch of (mostly)lacto-fermented hot sauce every week.

I'm thinking that until I have the means to a kegging system, I need to lay off doing IPAs. I really enjoy the porters and saisons I make at home more than what I could buy commercially. However, my day to day drink is an IPA, so the call to brewing up a batch versus going fishing or doing all the other stuff I need to take care of, versus having a beer that's just gonna be oxidized in the end has been wanting.

 

Omega Labs Belgian W. Which I believe is the same strain as WY3787.

 

Why not just pitch more yeast at it?

 

Ah. I haven't noticed 3787 to be a particularly bad offender for ethyl acetate.

 

Yeah, I have a feeling I might have been ok if I would have left the 2 lbs of honey out.

 

Back in early spring BEFORE I had a chest freezer, I brewed a NEIPA. I was counting on my nice, cool 58° basement to provide a easy fermentation. However, a 90° heatwave came out of nowhere and foiled that plan....awful fusel mess of a beer went down the drain shortly after.

 

I often think about using an early hop variety on the hot side and then dry hopping with a later maturing variety, but then I think about all that grassiness and potential contamination... maybe if you stuck it in a corner and forgot about it you would have an interesting mixed fermentation beer a few months down the line?

 

My January 27 attempt at something Orval-inspired was an oxidized mess. Drain pour.

 

5 gallons of hot sauce a week?????
Please tell me you sell it or work in a restaurant or something - that's a whole lotta spice juice!!!!

For me the last bad batch was a Brett IPA that didn't quite work out.
It ended up being more sour than IPA - and what IPA was there totally clashed with the sour.
I want to rework that recipe and try again - I have had some Brett IPAs that were quite good.

 

Yeah homie, I'm a foodservice professional.

 

I’ve saved a few high FG beers recently pitching some BE-256 or using just one drop of AG300. Obviously you have to be careful with the enzymes and successive batches in the same fermenter but I was able to get something from 1.022 down to a “relatively” stable 1.012 with it. I’m sure it would have eventually gone lower but it seemed rather stable for a few days and when I crashed and kegged it there was no diacetyl.. I certainly wouldn’t do it if I was bottling.

The BE-256 is interesting as it is a really high attenuator but it’s POF- and non diastaticus, not sure of another yeast out there like it. Anyways it seems petty hardy as just a few grams got me from 1.020 down to 1.015 in maybe 4 days and it stayed there. It also added a really unique ester that paired well with the hops.

Had a few single hop beers with some Hopsteiner experimental strains that stunk cause the hops themselves were pretty terrible. A Wine yeast/Brett IPA that was unique but not necessarily in a great way. Randomly tried a few yeast blends that didn’t really pan out either. Thankfully haven’t had any major disasters in a while.

 

My last brew was kind of a mess. I relocated over the winter and was in an apartment so it had been about nine months since I've been able to brew and I had to do something. I took a recipe that I had previously been tweaking and thought that was a safe bet.

I brewed at a family member's house and forgot a few tools and broke my hydrometer. I made some assumptions in the water quality and with no way to measure pH or gravity I just rolled with it figuring most likely it'd be okay. Except it was a blonde ale and none of the decisions were hidden all that well. Way too sweet and off balance, yeast didn't finish (my first experience with that - but I made lazy decisions here and pitched something I probably shouldn't have), and some awful background taste.

Didn't dump yet, but marked as a lesson re-learned.