Homebrew #7 & #8: Two I would rather forget

There are no pictures and no recipes for the next two batches for one simple reason: they just didn't turn out well at all. One batch was supposed to be almost identical to the previous, the National Championship Brew. It didn't even come close, and I think the problem was that both primary and secondary fermentation took place in one of the 7.5 gallon bottling buckets. Up till this point only one beer had actually gone through primary fermentation in one of the plastic buckets, and that was the irish stout, but it didn't go through a secondary. The result of secondary fermentation in the plastic added a taste very hard to describe, but I was pretty sure it had to do with oxidation. The beer was still drinkable, just not up to my expectations at the time.

The other batch was supposed to be my first Imperial IPA. It was modeled after Stone Ruination IPA (which I had only recently discovered; if you haven't tried it yet and like IPAs, stop what you are doing right now and go out and buy one), and I was very excited about the outcome. Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, but even with my meticulous standards for sanitation, the batch became contaminated. This result was discovered by the many gushers and over-carbonation of the beer. It was truly sad. The beer actually tasted good too, but opening the bottles as time went on became dangerous. There might still be beer dried on the ceiling of the kitchen to prove so. This is the first batch I actually had to dispose of. At least the ducks in the lake appreciated it.