Beer Mistakes

I do not buy beer if I don't understand what I am getting. Also, whenever possible I get a single first. But if I can't finish a glass, I do not force it down my throat.

 

To expand on my first post, I have probably drain poured four beers in the last twenty years. One was excruciatingly bad and the other three suffered from production control issues. They were all the same beer and same batch. I took pics of the beers, emailed the brewery with pics and they made it right with new product.

 

pre-COVID, I'd just leave them in a fridge a work... someone would invariably drink on beer Friday. Haven't had a 'mistake' beer in the 5 months I've been wfh. Hoping to keep that dream alive.

 

Give 1 away to a friend who hasn’t had it before and likes to tick beers. Just warn him in advance that you didn’t care for it too much just as a disclaimer and you don’t mind if he doesn’t like it and would rather dump it that it wouldn’t bother you one bit.

 

Because of the pandemic, I got a five month old six pack of jai alai on curbside pick up. I couldn’t bring myself to drink it after the first or second can. But I did find it was an excellent base for cooking chicken in a slow cooker. Two steps: add chicken and add beer. It made for excellent chicken tacos.

 

If it's really that bad I have a next door neighbor who will drink just about anything so that's where it would end up.

If it's just meh and I spent too much money on it, I'll finish it off.

 

Life is too short to drink bad beer.
I have a "rejects" shelf in the beer fridge. My daughter's boyfriend cleans it out occasionally - I guess he drinks it. It's kind of like an ambulatory drain pour.

 

I have 2 bottles that have been sitting on top of my beer fridge for a long time. This thread made me check them. One is a Smore flavored beer that is probably 2 years old. That one might be aged for 10 years before I'm drunk enough to drink it. The other is a cider that I was saving for my wife, I will put that in the fridge and drink it.
I avoided a horrible beer mistake twice last year at Mets baseball games. The beer stand near our seats had Mikkeler cans from the brewery that is attached to the stadium. Two times I had to scream NO, NO, NO and nearly jump over the counter because the vendor was ready to open a Michelob Ultra instead of a Mikkeler. I miss going to baseball games now.

 

Very few beers have I dumped, I have given some away or left them at a party. Seeet baby Jesus, two dip drain pour. Cave creek chili beer I tried but dumped half. Habanero sculpin, it was so hot I had to pour it after a few sips. I still have a bottle or two aging for many years now.

I still have a few bottles of spiced winter beers I can’t drink. They just age and age. Maybe one day they will age the spice away.

Most beer I will drink and maybe not love it. I have no issue dumping a mess of a beer but there are not that many I have tried.

Enjoy

 

Smoking weed brings out some new flavors. If pot smokers can eat a Cheetos and jelly sandwich then I think no beer is off limits for indulgent consumption.

 

It depends on why I don't like it. If its gone bad, as in, infected, oxidized, or degraded due to age to the point of being unpalatable, then I dump.

If it just a 3.0 beer ( solidly good ) then I'll drink it, at some point, as a second or third beer, when my palate is no longer fresh.

Generally speaking I avoid 6 packs and minimize 4 packs to limit this situation.

 

Beer mistake may be too tough a term. Maybe Beer 401

 

Like many here, there are not that many brews I've had over the years that were straight-up drain-pours. If I get a 4 or 6 of something and it seems mediocre at first taste, I might put it aside for a week or two and then give it another run under different circumstances, e.g., not with a meal if I had it with a meal the first time, or as a finisher instead of an opener, just to see if my taste-buds were influenced by something else. I can think of multiple IPA's that I didn't care for the first time around that I warmed up to later.

 

Ive had so few drainpours I can barely remember what they were. I expect the last one was a beer that was almost 1 1/2 years past its canning date. Totally my fault. One of the reasons I like NBS or now NBW is being able to sit and really analyze a beer. Theres been more than a few times where my first impression was meh but I have it again and I may change my thoughts- whether it be something I ate palate fatigue etc. One thing I will not do is cook with a beer I dont like. Just like I wouldnt use a wine I dont like. I will occasionally drink a beer with the food I used it to cook with so I dont want that to be a beer to be terrible.