Worst beer you've made

[MickDundee]

I've had a bit of a mare with my Golden Ale. I was trying to model it on Inveralmond Ossian and Strathbraan Due South and it's nothing like either.

Firstly I pitched too hot so it's got a slight nail varnish aftertaste. It's also nowhere near bitter enough. My recipe claims 35IBUs but I'd be lucky if it even tastes like 10! I'm hoping the aftertaste will condition out but it's definitely my least successful brew.

I'm just interested to hear about everyone else's disasters.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Not really had anything I couldn't drink, the 'worst' beer I made was wolfed down by the rest of the family - oakey dokey - using muntons aged oaked ale kit as a base. was a cross between stout & hobgoblin but with vanilla tones. I'm not a fan of vanilla or licorice in my beer so for me it was a little disappointing. :-(

 

[Gunge]

Woodforde's Wherry hands down. The last kit I ever made, must've been 5 or 6 years ago during a period when I'd no time to make proper beer.

 

[shepp]

Any kit beer I have ever made.

 

[pms67]

A well made kit beer can be very good,a Cwtch or Youngs IPA well done with temp control can be better than a badly made AG.
But to answer the question, a Better Brew Czech Pilsner fermented at 30 degrees by accident
Horrid

 

[Sadfield]

A well made kit beer can be very good,a Cwtch or Youngs IPA well done with temp control can be better than a badly made AG.
But to answer the question, a Better Brew Czech Pilsner fermented at 30 degrees by accident
Horrid

Sadly, kits are invariably made without such care and attention, in my experience, as the minimalist approach usually carries over to the equipment available.

Worst beer was 20+ years ago, a BrewSack Bitter kit. The reason, 20 years later that I went straight to All Grain for my next brew.

one of these...

 

[shepp]

Looking back at my kit brewing efforts, I didn't have good temperature control, I was also a but heavy handed when bottling so a bit of splashing went on. But it all tasted of beer, just without the complexity of flavour that I need to make it worth drinking.

 

[Slid]

I've had two really horrid chlorophenol brews - one a Cornish tin Miners Ale and the other a Steam Beer.

Still gulped 'em down - it's the aftertaste that is vaguely nasty.

The undrinkable one was a cider kit with dodgy yeast. Went down the drain about a year later. Persevered with it far too long. There are some brews that just need chucking and for a homebrewer it is probably inevitable that you get one, somewhere along the line.

Weak laws of large numbers and all that...

 

[Cwrw666]

Worst beer I ever made was the first kit brew I did after moving into the current homestead. We're on spring water here and I made the kit just like you do if you're on town water. 3 weeks later I had 5 gallons of green snot with what looked like streamers of seaweed in it, and smelling of vinegar too.
So now I boil all my brewing water. Problem solved.

 

[LarryF]

I thought I'd try adding a tin of treacle to a John Bull IPA kit, the theory being is that it'd be a dark IPA. It was dark but that's about as far as getting it right went. It was drinkable, just, but not very nice. Still, it was 7% and with a lemonade top it was drinkable, just and it did indeed all get drunk. But them bad brews can hang on for an eternity.

 

[Mungri]

Sadly, kits are invariably made without such care and attention, in my experience, as the minimalist approach usually carries over to the equipment available.

Worst beer was 20+ years ago, a BrewSack Bitter kit. The reason, 20 years later that I went straight to All Grain for my next brew.

one of these...

I'd forgotten about them brewsacks. Did a lager one and hung it in the wardrobe. It was beyond disgusting.
More recently a beerworks kit tasted like it had a touch of bleach brewed in with it. I followed the instructions, dry hop on day 5 and mix the pellet hops with boiling water. I'm sure the instructions were wrong. Not nice.

 

[MyQul]

I think the worst I've made is the geordie winter warmer kit. I brewed it too warm so it was fusil city. Still drank it though over the period of about 6 months. A bottle here and a bottle there

 

[BeerCat]

Aha, hands on my heart there are far too many to remember. No i don't drink them. :mrgreen:

 

[IainM]

I've had a few rotters. My first kit, I didn't know what I was doing, before I found this forum. I followed instructions and got gushers. I've got a couple of fusally ones in the shed, one of which is drinkableish after 15 months. Worst though has to be an American IPA which got scorched. Tasted so bad I didn't want to put the dry hops in so I bulk aged it to see if it would improve. It didn't.

 

[MmmBeer]

My worst recent beer was a Bulldog Bad Cat kit, which ended up tasting like vomit; butanoic acid I think is the compound in question. Tried drinking two pints, the rest went straight the drain.

I also found about a dozen bottles of beer in my old home brew kit, in my parents attic recently, that I must have made whilst I was at university nearly 30 years ago. It didn't smell that bad, but must have been pretty awful for me not to have drunk it as a student.

 

[BeerisGOD]

Woodforde's Wherry hands down. The last kit I ever made, must've been 5 or 6 years ago during a period when I'd no time to make proper beer.

Did u get the OP confused with the word 'worst' and not 'best' gunge?
Unless u added the kit yeast of course

 

[AlanManley]

Definitely my earlier batch of imperial stouts. Split it into 2. Vanilla and then chilli. Both had a weird undertone. Put it down to infection. Rebrewed and amazing.
It's all hit & miss...

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Covrich]

First ever brew.. Milstone IPA done in July in 25 26c few years back.. along with rookie impatience I think I tried my hardest to cock it up.. had a tcp flavour.. drank it though.. My other beer kits were okay and some good, since going AG they have generally all been good, some great some not as good as I hoped..

Only a recent brew where I decided to do a small batch extract with H&B extract.. Beer wasn;t horrible its okay but well below what I make normally, its disappointing.. I think the H&B extract is at fault.

 

[Linalmeemow]

Apart from one massive infection I've never brewed anything truly undrinkable. I did a black IPA that went solventy when I added the hop tea (think I added it before it had properly cooled and the yeast was not happy) but the flavour faded with time and it became drinkable if not particularly good. Since moving to extract / AG I've done some great and some disappointing but still OK beers but never really bollocksed anything up.

 

[Gunge]

Did u get the OP confused with the word 'worst' and not 'best' gunge?
Unless u added the kit yeast of course

Nope. But I did use the kit yeast.