Home Brewing Beer from Scratch

Before anyone poses the question, "Why put this in the Survival Forum?" I will ask, "How can you expect to survive without beer after the system breaks down?"

I've been enjoying Michigan's craft brews since around 2018 when I began to grow hops to possibly sell to the breweries. Well, the pandemic slowed down the hops farming project, but my research continued by trying to do some home brewing. Last year was my first attempt to brew a small 5-gallon batch of home-brewed beer, it was a great IPA. My recipe came from research into the basics and using the most available ingredients. Because beer requires barley, water, and yeast in addition to hops, I decided to malt my own barley. I've been using baker's yeast instead of brewer's yeast and use pure cane sugar during fermentation.

I could go into the details, but basically, I know what to grow, how to grow it, and when to harvest it for processing into beer. I have acquired the equipment, like brew kettles, fermentation bottles and buckets, bottle capper, empty bottles, and some other basic kitchen items.

This year's brewing adventure has been very productive, with three 5-gallon batches, a little over 6 cases or the equivalent of a half-barrel keg.

I altered the recipe I'm developing in several ways like using half the hops of that first batch, but have standardized my procedures. Each five-gallon batch I made was slightly different, using a little less barley in hopes of each being lighter than the last and it's working out great. The ABV is really good, you only need a couple, I'd say it's at least 6-7% when I compare it with craft beer I like. I'm drinking one now, and I'm feeling pretty good.

I'm keeping detailed notes on the process I'm developing. If you plant spring barley you can harvest it and malt it before hops harvest in September. Once brewed, in four to six weeks you'll have ale toward the end of October or lager a little later.

Now, the math. If you wanted to drink one beer a day for a full year, you'd need a little over 15 cases of beer. It's about the same if you want a six-pack every weekend. To do this, you'd need to make around seven and one-half 5-gallon batches (each batch is 50 beers) or a little over one full barrel (a barrel is 31 gallons). A full barrel as a goal would require as much as 60 lbs of barley and 8 lbs of hops. You'd need 8 times the equipment as well or you'd have to go with a microbrewery system that could make barrel sized batches at 31 gallons.

You have my attention Mr Swampbuck. I would like to learn how to brew real beer properly from scratch.

Along with growing food, cigar making and distillation, valuable skills for bad times. Everyone will need cheering up.

I've been growing and processing my own tobacco as well. These projects often dovetail together as the maple syrup and sugars can be integrated as well. Then there is the wild mints and wintergreen out in the woods, good for making chew or menthol tobacco. Of course, the still is good for menthol as well as making moonshine (for medicinal purposes you understand).

a reply to: TheMichiganSwampBuck Thread of the month. Thanks Mich

Turboyeast+anything sweet

If where at the point I'm using it no one's going to complain

I tried doing a homebrew years back and it wasnt great, but I did make a sparkling white wine that was ok. The wine was bottle fermented, the beer was fermented in a plastic barrel then bottled. The wine we went expecting to be sparkling, and we think it became a sparkling white because we used bread makers yeast not brewers yeast.

The beer was meant to be a larger, but it was more a cloudy ewww and it was that bad I never bothered to try make beer again.

a reply to: TheMichiganSwampBuck



If you have a beer, smokes, a few chickens, and a garden. There really isn't much point in working for money to buy them. The main problem will be thinking of things to do to stay relevant. Even transport is solved by using alcohol as a fuel alternative. The problem will be getting the sugar. If you can grow the cane I guess you have it made, one plant makes a teaspoon of sugar.

a reply to: TheMichiganSwampBuck


If there was a prize for the best thread on the forum, this would surely be it

I had a mate who made his own cider. Proper rocket fuel that stuff was.
He used to make perry as well always thought that they would be good things after tshtf as you don't need to add anything, just juice it all and let the natural yeasts get working. Maybe tip a couple of black rats in to start things off if the old stories are right

a reply to: SprocketUK

A hog;s head of cider, literally had a hog's head thrown in the vat. But on a more sober note, apples make a high-alcohol drink probably about eight percent

a reply to: annonentity


I never measured it with a hydrometer or anything like that, but my mate's stuff was probably a lot stronger, a couple of pints used to put me on my ar#e back in the days when I used to drink a fair bit.

a reply to: TheMichiganSwampBuck

Awesome!

Seems you're working on the steps I haven't been able to take due to space, I just don't have the room for growing my own grains and hops, the rest I've been working out on and off for years... I've been considering making a thread for my next brew when I make it.

Admittedly I'd say wine is a lot easier to produce but beer is where the art is at. It took me 10+ years to have any proficiency at beer/cider production but I can produce you a palatable wine for less than £5, cheaper if the base fruit isn't grape... Cranberry is one of my favourites.

Anyways your beer do you know what type of hops your using and the grains? This is where I had issues in the past as I preferred beers and lagers which pretty much demand water treatment as our local water company likes to put fluorines in the water which can destroy lighter brews. The grains and yeast make a huge difference too. It's due to this reason I tend to make darker brews and ales. Ales I particularly like because they can be made "lager-like" without the months of conditioning, the water doesn't need to be a spot on and it opens up possibilities when it comes to the yeast.

I rarely use extra sugar or anything and I'm usually aiming for 4-6% depending on the brew type. The best beer I've made was a 3.6% ale that I was very proud of, I'd happily share some of my from scratch recipes. Heck I'd even trade you some brews if you lived in the UK.

Nice thread! Someday I hope to repeat what you're doing and truly make some grog from scratch

a reply to: NobodySpecial268

There's a few growers on ATS... I could do with occasional advice when it comes to gardening. Companion planting and natural pesticides are what I need to learn more about.

Check the laws on growing tobacco.

I think the laws are kinder where you are for distillation that said using air stills apparently work really well and are an easy way to get into distilling without jumping through hoops or the risk of blowing yourself up.

a reply to: RAY1990

Aye, the local laws can get one busted. Here in Australia one just does things quietly without too much noise and money making. I give my fruit to a fellow up the road who makes wonderful lemon cello. Sharing knowledge and teaching within our neighbourhoods and of course ATS is I reckon what life is all about.

One must understand beer was drunk hundreds of years ago because most of water was undrinkable. So now think, you're a brewer 400 years ago they had no copper containers, no hydrometers etc.. Having brewed beer I find wine is vastly easier to make as beer really has to have specific ingredients for the taste. But wine, you can make wine from virtually anything and if you get things right it virtually makes itself. It's also one of the easiest thing to "still" wine if you want the rocket fuel stuff, but the authorities don't want you to know that.

Ive been homebrewing for 15+ years and distilling for over 10, working on getting a plot of land so I can grow some of My own stuff.

a reply to: NobodySpecial268

Agreed 👍

I was thinking a few weeks ago the survival forum on ATS is a bit quiet, beer making is a funny one when it comes to survival because I suspect it needs a society without the aid of machines. It's a real coming together of many talents that I find to be reflective of society and culture. Beautiful really, no matter where you go you'll usually find someone looking for a drink or smoke... All that variation of what is, it all starts with a "could be" and I just find it all a bit magical tbh lol.

I always figured thread wise I'd be preaching to the choir round here when it comes to beer making, gardening or even foraging.

Great responses. It looks like many members want a few more details. I could put up my notes, but that is way too much, so here is some more.

I'm using a variety of spring-grown, two-row German Barley that you plant in early spring just before the thaw. There are also 6-row, spring or winter varieties as well. The spring variety can be harvested and malted before the hops are harvested around or just before Labor Day. I've been growing three varieties of hops, Chinook, Cascade, and Centennial. The Centennial is harvested a few weeks earlier than the others and doesn't grow as tall. The Chinook and Cascade do really well here, with Chinook being the tallest and most robust variety I grow. Six bines (not a typo, they are called bines, not vines) will produce about a pound of dried hops.

You will need between 4 - 8 pounds of malted barley per 5-gallon batch. You malt the barley by sprouting the grain for about a week. The grain will have rootlets and just barely begin to sprout leaves, not even coming through yet. You dry the malted grain. I have used a fan and heat lamp to naturally dry the malt for a pale color but if you use an oven and dry it at not more than 170 degrees F, it will lightly toast the barley for a darker brew with a toasted flavor.

The dried malted barley will have lost around a pound and a half of weight, so eight pounds is more like 6 & 1/2 pounds. Roughly grind the dried malted barley in a blender and put it in a muslin bag. Use a large brewing kettle that can hold at least 5 gallons of water. The barley will displace one gallon, so fill the brew kettle to four gallons and have another gallon and a half of water on to boil to add back in later. Brew for an hour and a half at between 150 and 170 degrees F adding the hops (8-16 oz dried hops) after one hour and then again near the end.

Add the extra gallon of boiled water to the wort to bring it to 5 gallons and allow the wort to cool to at or below 100 degrees F. Now add the yeast (1 & 1/2 packets if using bread yeast) and one cup of sugar if you want to boost fermentation. After around 6 hours the wort will begin to ferment in the fermentation bucket. You could add another few cups of sugar, like one a week, to keep the ferment going and to get the ABV percentage up there. There should be enough sugar in the malted barley to not need extra sugar, but I want to make sure it ferments quickly enough to not go bad and turn into vinegar.

After two or three weeks siphon off the beer into a secondary fermentation bucket or 5-gallon bottle and let it ferment for another couple of weeks and then bottle it after priming it with 2/3 cup of sugar. Allow the bottles to finish off at room temperature for two more weeks and it's done. It will take longer in the secondary fermentation bucket at cooler temps to make a clearer lager beer. I'm not sure of the shelf life after all this and the batch could go bad between fermentation and after bottling. Also, too much priming sugar will cause the bottles to explode with some force, shooting glass fragments when it does.

Brewed for a few years and really enjoyed it. Didn't enjoy some of the logistics (cleanup, wort-cooling, conditioning) but worth the time spent.

Homebrewtalk.com is THE resource out there for homebrewers.

It's a total rabbit-hole hobby though, akin to golfing. You never have enough equipment and there's always something shiny and new that you want .

There's a lot of great recipes out there as well.

Example: Take the leftover white rice you get from Chinese takeout. Once it's cooled, put it into a sterilized mason jar. Add some crushed up yeast (yeast balls can be found at Asian grocery stores), cover the lid with a cheesecloth and screw on the ring (NOT the lid) so that air can escape the jar.
Put that jar in a dark closet or area sans-light and not too cold/hot and within a week or 2, you'll see some funky stuff growing in the jar. Let it sit for at least a month and finally you'll see a bunch of liquid. That, my friends, is sake.
Strain well and enjoy, although be warned..it will be Very sweet

a reply to: TheMichiganSwampBuck

You have a great system going. I really like the true "organic" approach.
Remember though...Barley isn't the only fermenting base out there. Sweet Potato much?

a reply to: Raptured

I am of a similar past with brewing and everything in this post is 100% accurate (rabbit hole, shiny new things, etc) HAHAHA!

Also second the shout out to Homebrewtalk site. Good folks....good info and good pics of some of that shiny new stuff.