When Good Beer Goes Bad

As a home brewer it is inevitable. At some point you will make a batch of beer that sucks. Wrong ingredients, bad procedure, or whatever. My most recent fails seem to be from the plastic fermenting bucket. My best guess is there was some kind of bacteria or other contamination that gave a very a acidic aftertaste to my beers. My brother just tried using bacon in a beer (seriously, what could go wrong with bacon). It turns out bacon is a little too salty to use straight up.

I have already switched to glass carboys exclusively, and my brother, Roger, now uses an extract for bacon flavoring. But we still have many bottles of bad brew. Rather than waste our strange brew we have some options. Common uses for less than ideal beers:

• Soup stock
• Beer pancakes or bread
• Beer cheese soup
• Marinades
• Reductions/gravies
• ???

Any other uses for off-flavored beers? Post 'em in the comments.