Erisian Brewer's Cadre. Or: How I saw the Goddess in the first place

[Triple Zero]

Saturday I threw together

- 6L (1.6 gal) apple juice (100%, from concentrate, no preservatives)
- 1.8kg (4 lbs) cheap honey
- 3g BIOFERM KILLER yeast

it's bubbling very happily!

the yeast goes up to 16% ABV and is supposed to kill wild yeasts, which is good.

it smells much better than when I use bread yeast, hehehe

It said to use 3g on 10L, which is less than half the packet, which is also good because the shit is about 5x more expensive than bread yeast.

I wonder if I got the amounts of sugar right ... Usually I go with 3L apple juice, 1L water, 1.25kg honey. Now I have 1.5x the amount of liquid, which would be 1.88kg honey, but no water, so relatively more sweet apple juice ... sounds about right, no? What do you guys think? Add more honey, water, apple juice or leave it as it is?


Icey: brewing wine/mead is both cheaper and simpler than brewing beer. but then, I never brewed beer. currently I used the most bare bones approach, as outlined above. The container is an 8L (2.1gal) plastic water jug (glass is better). And instead of a waterlock I used two sheets of plastic with four tiny holes in them and a rubber band. If, in addition, you make sure everything is clean (and rinsed out properly (3x) so there is no cleaning stuff left to kill the yeast (NONE)), then this is pretty much the most bare bonesest way to approach it.

Estimate costs:
- 4x1.5L apple juice = 4 x EUR 0.89 = EUR 3.56
- 4x450g honey = 4 x EUR 1.18 = EUR 4.72
- 0.5x7.5g BIOFERM KILLER YEAST = 0.5 x EUR 2.00 = EUR 1.00 (~estimate, I forgot how much I paid for the yeast)

================== +++ TOTAL

EUR 9.28 = $13.50

I can convert this to dollars, except it makes no sense because the prices in supermarkets are completely different in the US.

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

I really want to try brewing beer. The caveat is that I am so poor at the moment, making rent is priority one. So, what I'm asking is...

What stuff do I need to begin? And by need, I mean bare-bones. And by bare-bones, I mean that each dollar spent is a dedication of my precious, if-ever-exists spending money.

Thanks.

Icey

If you are doing extract rather than all-grain, you will save money on equipment, but your ingredients will cost a little more.

You will need a boil kettle.  This will be the most expensive thing.  Check Craigslist and look for deals.  Your boil kettle needs to be at least 5 gallons if you are doing extract, or at least 8 gallons (10 would be better -- you will have to watch a smaller kettle like a hawk to keep it from boiling over) if you are doing all-grain.  If you have an electric stove, it will struggle to boil the all-grain size.  You would want to use an outdoor propane cooker instead.

If will be doing all-grain, you will also need a mash-tun, which you can build yourself with a cooler and some CPVC.

You will need a fermenter.  You can use a 5-gallon plastic water bottle ($7 + $6 deposit), and all you will need is a drilled #10 stopper ($2) and an airlock ($1).  You can use the water to make your beer, and then turn the thing back in for the deposit when you're done.

You will need a bottling bucket ($15), or some kind of vessel with a spigot on the bottom.  If your boil kettle has a spigot, you could probably use that.  You will need a racking tube ($3) and a 6 foot section of vinyl tubing to siphon the beer from the fermenter to the bucket.  You will also need a bottle filler ($3) and 4 foot section of vinyl tubing to fill your bottles.

You will need two cases worth of clean pry-off beer bottles, and about that many new bottle caps.  You can sanitize them by running them through the rinse cycle in your dishwasher (poor-man's autoclave).  You will need a bottle capper ($15) to apply the bottle caps.

Nice-to-haves are a lab thermometer and a hydrometer.

As far as ingredient costs, the cost depends almost entirely on how strong of a beer you want to brew.  Most normal-strength beers will cost $30-$40 per batch including the malt extract and specialty grains, hops, and yeast.  An equivalent all-grain recipe might be $5 less.

[BabylonHoruv]

I really want to try brewing beer. The caveat is that I am so poor at the moment, making rent is priority one. So, what I'm asking is...

What stuff do I need to begin? And by need, I mean bare-bones. And by bare-bones, I mean that each dollar spent is a dedication of my precious, if-ever-exists spending money.

Thanks.

Icey

A gallon jug, a balloon, some malt, some hops and some yeast.  Oh and a decent pot to boil it all in.

you want roughly 1 lb of malt per gallon of beer for a reasonably light beer.  hops are a matter of taste.  Making beer one gallon at a time isn't something I could do because I'd be frustrated at not having more beer, but it is certainly doable.  The balloon acts as a super cheap airlock, you put it over the mouth of the jar to keep outside air from getting in, you will probably need to let the air out of it periodically.

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

Authentic New Zealand beer recipe:

Brewing barley beer on your own can save you a significant amount of money over time and can be a fun experience that you may want to repeat for years to come. Brewing your own beer not only allows you the satisfaction of saving money from buying beer at the store, but also allows you to experiment with different types of beer to determine which you like the best. While brewing your own barley beer may sound difficult, it is actually quite simple with the proper instructions.

# 1

Clean all of your equipment thoroughly with lukewarm soap and water before using it. This ensures optimal conditions during the brewing process and ensures the beer is safe to drink.

# 2

Place a pot on the stove and add 7 liters of water to it. Bring the water to a boil.

# 3

Pour 10 liters of water into a plastic bucket and let it sit until the pot of water has boiled. Add one 8 ounce packet of malt extract to the water once it is boiling and stir the pot. Allow this mixture to cook on the stove for about 20 minutes.

# 4

Pour 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of dried barley into the boiling water and stir the pot until the ingredients completely dissolve. Once dissolved, pour the mixture into the bucket containing 10 liters of water. Continue by adding tap water to the top of the mixture until the bucket reaches approximate room temperature. Sprinkle in 4 teaspoons of yeast so that it reaches all parts of the brew.

# 5

Cover the bucket and let the mixture sit in place for six to 10 days. Only tighten the lid to the bucket a little bit. If the top is tightened too much, the mixture could explode because of the carbon dioxide that is being produced as the beer ferments. After six to 10 days, place the hydrometer into the beer to determine if it is ready to drink. A barley beer should have a hydrometer reading around 1.000 when the fermentation process is complete.

[Triple Zero]

this recipe looks like it's mostly water? is it a joke?

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

this recipe looks like it's mostly water? is it a joke?

I don't think it was intended as a joke, but it's funny nevertheless.

It says the hydrometer reading will be about 1.000 when the fermentation is finished, but I'm pretty sure the hydrometer reading will be pretty darn close to 1.000 before it even starts.

I also wasn't aware that "dried barley" dissolves in boiling water.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

2 teaspoons of barley!  What? You're supposed to stir the pot until the barley completely dissolves. And what's with the half a pound of malt?

[Luna]

I'm feeling inspired.  Let's see how this works...



Spiced apple cider.

[Suu]

Where did you get the cider? Is the good stuff already out?

[Luna]

Where did you get the cider? Is the good stuff already out?

Not yet, kosher apple juice.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

My saison that I started on July 4th weekend is finally done.
I'm going to pick up a bottle of Saison DuPont today to compare it side by side.

So far it's fucking delicious, clean and simple as it should be.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

Mine is on the left.

The colors are very similar though the head retention on DuPont is WAY better than mine, in that their bubbles are smaller and stiffer.

The smell is almost there, but not quite. Mine still has a lot of young funk and slight sulfuric twang.

The taste is really really close, but mine still has a funkier taste where theirs is sweeter.

Mine is stronger.

All in all, it was very close, but theirs is really difficult to duplicate in that they have a mineral build up in their fermenters that I will never have, they bottle for 8 weeks so mine is younger and they speak french which has to make a difference somehow.

My opinion- thought I love Saison DuPont, I really love mine too. On a different level, but it's really really good!

[Triple Zero]

hey I recently read about that you can harvest the yeast of a commercial beer by adding some apple juice (or sugarwater) into the bottle after you poured the glass, on top of the tiny yeast layer in the bottom. Shake vigorously and create a yeast starter that way.

I did this with the leftover bit from yesterday's quadrupel. It smelled like yeast today. Tomorrow I'm gonna make a brew with it. I think I'll just do a 1.5L (0.4 gallon) bottle and just my regular apple honey mead, I don't want any other unknowns, to see how it works out.

[Jenne]

HA!  Awesome tip, Trip.

I'm going to convince my bro to let me brew at his place.  He knows the drill and has brewed cider, guinness-type stuff, etc.  I'll front a lot of the shit because I wanna get started but don't trust myself to do it right yet.

Will post results when I has them...but I'm gonna start off with a cider and an IPA-type to begin with.

[Triple Zero]

Saturday I threw together

- 6L (1.6 gal) apple juice (100%, from concentrate, no preservatives)
- 1.8kg (4 lbs) cheap honey
- 3g BIOFERM KILLER yeast

it's bubbling very happily!

the yeast goes up to 16% ABV and is supposed to kill wild yeasts, which is good.

it smells much better than when I use bread yeast, hehehe

It said to use 3g on 10L, which is less than half the packet, which is also good because the shit is about 5x more expensive than bread yeast.

I wonder if I got the amounts of sugar right ... Usually I go with 3L apple juice, 1L water, 1.25kg honey. Now I have 1.5x the amount of liquid, which would be 1.88kg honey, but no water, so relatively more sweet apple juice ... sounds about right, no? What do you guys think? Add more honey, water, apple juice or leave it as it is?


Icey: brewing wine/mead is both cheaper and simpler than brewing beer. but then, I never brewed beer. currently I used the most bare bones approach, as outlined above. The container is an 8L (2.1gal) plastic water jug (glass is better). And instead of a waterlock I used two sheets of plastic with four tiny holes in them and a rubber band. If, in addition, you make sure everything is clean (and rinsed out properly (3x) so there is no cleaning stuff left to kill the yeast (NONE)), then this is pretty much the most bare bonesest way to approach it.

Estimate costs:
- 4x1.5L apple juice = 4 x EUR 0.89 = EUR 3.56
- 4x450g honey = 4 x EUR 1.18 = EUR 4.72
- 0.5x7.5g BIOFERM KILLER YEAST = 0.5 x EUR 2.00 = EUR 1.00 (~estimate, I forgot how much I paid for the yeast)

================== +++ TOTAL

EUR 9.28 = $13.50

I can convert this to dollars, except it makes no sense because the prices in supermarkets are completely different in the US.

BTW I poured off 2L of this brew today and while I thought I had used too much honey, it's too little. I'm going to add 2-3 more jars (@450g) to it, and top it off with apple juice. I'm assuming the yeast will start up again by itself.

The 2L I put in the freezer for jacking, which improved it somewhat, but isn't as good as the previous time.

Of course I'm impatient and didn't crash the brew or anything (it's not cold enough outside and the container doesn't fit in my fridge) to make it settle. It'd probably be fine if I let it age for a while but it would turn out very dry.