if you have a undrinkable,disgusting batch of beer there is really nothing that can be done right? I brewed a duvel clone and man o man is it terrible, i followed the recipe to a T, pitched a nice starter, temp control, proper sanitation, i remember years ago on another forum some guy said be patient and put your bottles away if they do not taste good and some conditioning will improve the beer, the way the beer tastes i have a hard time believing it will magically start tasting good with conditioning/aging, anyway i threw the bottles in my beer cellar which remains a steady 50-55F, the bottle are carbed already, im gonna leave them there for 4-6 weeks before i try one again, i dont have any hope this beer will ever be drinkable but why not see what happens, anyone ever have a bad beer turned good with cellering? im just thankful it was a 2.5 gallon batch, just to mention the beer does not taste sour or funky due to contamination but it just has a a bad flavor, not one thing in common with duvel exept the appearance
I bottled a BGS ale recently. Not specifically a clone of Duvel, but close. Which yeast did you use and what are the tastes and flavors that you are getting? I used WY3878 Westmalle. It came out great and I even let it ferment into the low 80’s.
i used wy1388 belgian strong, pitched at 63F and over the coarse of 2 weeks ramped the temp to 78F, its hard to describe the flavors, if i had to guess i’d say highly estery and too sweet, it hit FG a little high then i wanted, i mashed at 148F for 90 mins, to be honest im not really sure what it tastes like but i do not taste pilsner malt, i do not taste hops, it tastes like an undrinkable sweet strange concoction with alcohol in it, alcohol is not hot at all
If I have the kegs and/or space, I’ll keep it around a long time (months…a year) to see what happens. But I also have no problem tossing a batch that I don’t think will shape up. It’s a judgment call.
FWIW, I have dumped beer a few times before, sometimes simply due to space limitations (I keg, so when I have a batch of beer that is ready to be kegged, I will dump what is left of an “old in the tooth beer” that has “gone off” after time…better to get great tasting beer on tap than to fight through finishing off a beer that has stuck around beyond its welcome).
It is a fairly rare instance, but I am facing that soon, because I brewed a lot for holiday parties and those are taking up space in primaries due to lack of availability of kegs…and before anyone says, “why not just buy more kegs?”, I have 17 kegs and only 2 open ones with 25 gallons ready to keg for upcoming parties. (I started offering to bring some beer to friends’ parties years ago; now I get “orders”, usually starting in mid-October and running through the Super Bowl).
yeah i was concerned about the high temps, but i was just following the recipe, the yeast temp range is 64F-82F so i figured i would bring it to the upper range without exceeding the recommended temp range for the yeast in attempt to keep the yeast active to dry it out without creating too many by products, needless to say it did not dry the beer out lol, my next go at this im not exceeding 72F
i love this hobby/lifestyle/addiction and i will never be discouraged and or quit EVER but disappointment seems to be a recurring thing i face but im on a mission to brew the best beer in the world and i will never stop lol
My experience has been to take those temp ranges with a grain of salt. I often prefer to go lower than the low end listing and never get near the high end. When Wyeast took on 1450, I told them the temp range where I felt it worked best. For some unknown reason, they raised both ends.
Denny, just out of curiousity, if you were brewing a belgian golden strong(duvel clone) what would you ferment at? what would your fermentation process be?
Considering I just finished a keg of exactly that, I can tell you what I did…recipe was pils malt and 17% table sugar to an OG of 1.071. Mash at 148 for 90 min. 30 IBU Hallertauer Mit. 1388 in an overnight, 1 qt. SNS starter. Ferment at 63 for a couple weeks, raise to 72 for a few days, crash to 33 for a week maybe. FG 1.002, 97%AA, 9.12 % ABV
Wow, thats attenuation, amazing, im gonna give your process a go on my next attempt, you added the sugar to the boil right? some people talk about adding it to the fermentor, just a 1 qt starter sns? impressive
I recommend you might consider lowering your sights to brewing really good beer. If you’re trying to brew the ‘best beer in the world’ (as if we’d agree on one) you’ll never reach your goal and end up a very frustrated brewer. The ‘golden mean’ is the desirable middle ground between two extremes: perfection and crap.
“Don’t Cling to a Mistake Just Because You Spent a lot of Time Making it.” — Aubrey De Graf.
Life’s too short to drink bad beer. Toss it and remember it no more. Try again using your gained knowledge to refine your processes.
i appreciate your input but i will one day make the best beer in the world (aka perfect beer to me) best beer in the world is subjective, frustration is just part of the journey not worried
