Oh the Humanity! I'm out of BEER! (a homebrew tragedy)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

What a catastrophy!

I while back, I brewed up an “ESB” (Extra Special Bitter) and was hoping to put it into rotation this last weekend, and not a moment too soon, either. I drank the last of the Sierra Ale and now have only it to fall back into. (I’ve been bottling up reserves to take on vacation to share with friends, and so my “weekend” stock is short)

I crack one open and notice great carbonation. Take a whiff and it smells like beer. I whipped up an ESB before, but from a different kit, so had an idea of what to expect.

First sip…Jesus Carpenter Ants! It tasted like burnt rubber! Second sip…This ain’t gettin’ no better!

I couldn’t even finish a single glass. I recapped it (I use them fancy EZ-Cap bottles) and gave it an over-nighter in the fridge. Next day, same results. I ended up dumping the whole liter.

Which brings me to my problem. I ain’t got no homebrew to drink this weekend! I have two batchs in fermenters, but none ready to go! I’m gonna have to BUY BEER!!

I’m giving the ESB one more chance tonight. Maybe I got a bad bottle or maybe it was too young, but I’m not holding out much hope.

I’ll have to invite some Limey bastards over to help get rid of it, cause I don’t think I can dump out another 16 liters!

Or maybe I’ll drink 3-5 bottles of Newcastle first, then suck down the offending ESB whilst in a drunken condition. Ah, always the optimist!

2

‘ow’s it goin’, mate? :smiley:

3

And just why am I implicated in your thread title?

Ya got nuthin’ on me, I tell ya.

4

Poor logistical planning.
Poor brewing technique.

This is not only a tragedy, it’s a travesty

I think you should fire the brewmeister, right after you give him a good ass-kicking. :smiley:

5

I was thinking make him do it over and over till he gets it right.

I’ll let you know how the 2nd attempt at the ESB goes after 4:30 PST.

Homebrew, you are “uppercase” H, so you are not indicted in the issue.

How is Rap like Porn? Both are better with the sound turned off.

6

Never known a homebrewer (myself included) who didn’t have to buy beer. In my experience at least, careful timing and rotation never amounted to much more than a nice fantasy.

7

Okay, now a serious answer. I’ve been researching and I can’t find a way to fix the problem, most likely autolysis. Autolysis happens when the beer sits on the yeast bed too long after fermentation is complete and the yeast cells start to eat each other. Don’t let the beer sit too long in the secondary before bottling (or kegging as the case may be).

8

Thanks for the tip! I have been doing about 1 week in the plastic primary, then 1 week in glass secondary before bottling.

I’ve decided I’ll just have to get into the beer I set aside for vacation and brew even more prior to leaving. But then I hear Newcastle is on sale up the road…

45 minutes to the taste test.

She told me she loved me like a brother. She was from Arkansas, hence the Joy!

9

4 people tried it. 4 people agree. There is something wrong with this batch of beer. However, it wasn’t nearly as bad as last week and a buddy says he had a batch do something like this and after a few months, it wasn’t too bad.

Off to the store to buy Newcastle!

Somebodys gotta go back and git a shitload of dimes!