Happy Accident or Terrible Mistake?

This episode we’re tasting a couple of homebrewed beers that had some sort of “oopsie” in their creation, and we’re going to decide if the mistake was a happy accident, or if it was a terrible mistake.

Why would we talk about homebrewed beers that we messed up on? Well, you should know by now, we like to show warts and all. No one is perfect, especially not us, and that doesn’t make the hobby any less fun. Revel in your mistakes!

Now, onto the beers!

We’re both really big fans of Schwarzbier, and think they’re one of those styles that really deserves some more attention. Today we’re trying it’s American cousin, the Kentucky Common. Here in Colorado Springs, there was a brewery in town, Brass Brewing, which used to have a really great Kentucky Common as one of their flagships. From what Mike heard second hand, the brewery lost the recipe after a brewer left. If you know the actual story, feel free to reach out and let us know.For our second beer, during big brew in 2023, Pikes Peak brewing created a generic wheat wort for our homebrew club, an we could take it in any direction that we wanted. Jesse decided to turn his into a German Pilsner.

For our second beer, during big brew in 2023, Pikes Peak brewing created a generic wheat wort for our homebrew club, an we could take it in any direction that we wanted. Jesse decided to turn his into a German Pilsner.

Here’s the fun part, what were the mistakes?

Well, for the Kentucky Common, Mike went to a homebrew store he doesn’t frequent often, and wasn’t super familiar with the location of the ingredients. To make matters worse, he got into a enthralling conversation with a homebrew club member, Scott. Mike is easily distracted, and he mixed up either the flaked rye, and flaked corn, or used some oats, frankly, he’s not really sure.

The recipe he intended to brew is at the bottom of this page.

It was based on this recipe from the American Homebrewers Association (membership required):
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/dreaming-creek-brewery-1792-kentucky-common/

With Jesse’s German Pils, the beer wasn’t bad, but it did have a good amount of fermentation character, it came across as fruity. Which of course isn’t very suitable to a German Pilsner. Jesse decided he would dry hop it with about 2 ounces of Cascade. The strange part, is that with all the additional hops, the beer smells and tastes like sweet grain. Cascade hops are supposed to taste floral, with elements of citrus and notes of grapefruit. Where did all that go and where did the grain flavor and aroma come from? Who knows.

Is it drinkable? Sure. Is it a happy accident, or a terrible mistake? We think it’s somewhere in the middle. Mike liked it, but Jesse said he’d probably dump it.
Do you have a happy accident or a terrible mistake you’d like to share? Feel free to leave a comment somewhere, or even reach out to us!

If you have any ideas for show content, or other ideas, feel free to leave a comment somewhere.

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