Home Brewing Beer from Scratch

a reply to: NobodySpecial268

Perfect.

1gal water bottles is what I used to brew my wine in early days and I never had a problem, if you don't want to splash out on an airlock a you can use a balloon with a pinhole to keep it slightly pressurised as it brews. It helps to keep infection out and foam in.

I'm testing all three batches right now, they are all sweet it seems. The first batch (6 lb malted grain) has a little sourness though, an aftertaste really, like it's part of the carbonation. It's not overwhelming and the alcohol is definitely up there, so I don't think it is getting more sour over time.

The second batch (4 lb malted grain) is a little better. The carbonation is better, it's darker and not as much of that sour note. Perhaps these will get better over time.

I just tried the third batch (2.6 lb malted grain). It's lighter-bodied, cloudy, and not as carbonated as the 2nd batch. The hops stands out more with a drier and peppery aftertaste than the other two. I believe that was the one I used all three hops varieties I had (Chinook, Cascade, and Centennial). Also, no sourness, at least yet as this is the youngest of the batches.

Believe me, the alcohol is up there. Just drank two beers and I'm questioning if I should have a third.

a reply to: RAY1990

I go with the 5 gal containers then. I can fashion a lid with standard airlock. Going to the city for 2 row barley, hops and whatever else.

Our tap water is a tad hard and alkaline, so I'll use RO water (Reverse Osmosis) which gets my water less than 20ppm. Probably let the water sit with an airstone while the barley sprouts.

(I breed chocolate gourami fish which need super clean soft water and a PH between 4 and 5. So I got all that stuff on hand.)

I think that a good rule of thumb would be to use one pound of malted barley and two ounces of dried hops to one gallon of water when brewing. Double the hops for an IPA. So a 5-gallon batch will use 5 lbs of barley and between 10 to 20 ounces of dried hops. A light version of this recipe would be around 2/3 lb of barley per gallon or 3 lb per 5-gallon batch with the same amount of hops as above.

a reply to: TheMichiganSwampBuck

Thanks for that.

So 5lbs of barley it is.

So if a "light" uses less barley, then a stronger flavoured beer would be the 5lbs per 5gal?

I'm not one for watery beer : )

a reply to: NobodySpecial268

That first batch was a little more than 6 lbs and had more body than the 4 lb and the 2 lb 13oz batches, although the 4 lb had a decent body, so I say use 5 lbs after it's dried.

I'm trying to use the least ingredients as possible for a range of tastes and 6 lbs seemed overboard while brewing. 6 lbs of hot wet grain in a bag is harder to mess with then say 3 lbs. Plus I questioned if enough sugar was getting out of that much grain inside the muslin bag, that's why I'd put it in the extra brew kettle with the extra water so I get all I can from it.

I had two of my home-brewed beers in the fridge for two days now and one of them exploded, the light recipe one. There was one of the other ones right next to it and it never blew.

Much of the beer from the one that exploded was frozen, so I suspect that the pressure was high from the carbonation and when it froze it was enough to make it blow. That bottle may not have been a good one to begin with having saved long necks from different beer brands.

And here I am with six cases under my feet at my desk, waiting for an exponential reaction explosion, a nuclear beer blast along with flying glass shards. I'm going to at least cover it with a heavy blanket.

I've thought about the storage, and I may go for the flying glass absorbent styrofoam boxes. I reckon cutting one box in half to add enough height to a second box for 26 fl oz bottles will do the trick. That way there is also a lid.

But I have hit a wall already in the quest to home brew beer from scratch.

A bit of history. Western Australia produces about 20 million tons of grain a year, with barley second to wheat in tonnage. Our grain export is very streamlined. Virtually straight from farm to the port, and that is the problem. There is no retail barley to be found, so far.

So; barley, barley everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

Out my way, the home brew supplies are generally located in the hardware stores. They all said to go to "brew****" - they are the experts and have everything. They'll have barley.

So I gave "brew****" a call today and enquired if they stocked barley. At 150 miles driving there and back, I thought I would check if they had some first.

The call went like this: (and yes, my ignorance of modern home brewing is showing here, but maybe so is theirs.)

Me: "Hello, just checking to see if you have barley in stock."

Them: "Yes we do, what variety would you like?"

ME: "Two row if you have it"

Them: "We only have two row, what variety do you want?

Me: "Huh?"

Them: "We have twenty varieties of barley in stock."

Me: (thinking: I live in a farming area and you're telling me there are over twenty varieties of barley . . . ) So I explained that I wish to brew the beer from scratch and need barley seed, it needs to be sprouted . . . .

Them: "What? You want to grow it? Grow a crop?"

Then I realised that the lady was talking about malted barley that comes in packets from a factory.

ME: (sigh) "Thanks anyway."

So I will keep looking, the organic growers are the next to try.

So brewing beer from scratch really does belong in the survival forum.

The knowledge of how barley is malted to brew beer seems to be lost knowledge to the retail experts. When the brewing shops are empty after the SHTF there will be no more beer unless someone learns how to malt the barley.

That secret alone may be priceless.

a reply to: NobodySpecial268

The only "problem" I can see with using those water bottles is leeching but I don't know enough about that. Always seemed to be a long-term use problem with poorer quality plastics whereas those bottles I'd imagine to be high grade PET. I'd say 1 time use is absolutely fine and for long term use check the grade of plastic.

Sometimes the local water company will post the most recent analysis of the water, from my talks with other Aussies in the past it seems like you can request a report for free too. Water treatment isn't something I've worked much on yet but I do know demineralised water may need additives. Generally speaking darker beers require harder water. My water averages 150-220 ppm apparently, it's caused issues with lighter brews but the stouts and porters are always on point.

Homebrew is big business down there and I'm surprised they don't have unmalted barley I did find this link although it seems they'll only supply it unmilled at 25kg+ which would be enough for 3-4 brews I'd imagine.

Swampbuck, do you check the PH on your brews? Usually the choice of 1 grain can have the PH out of whack slightly. I tend to use about 5% acidulated grain, phosphorus and lactic acid can be used too. PH wise a beer is usually around 4-4.5. You might need alkaline additives nobody...

Figured y'all might be interested in this :
Homemade acid malt

I think I'll try this next year... It didn't occur to me that raw grains have a much longer shelf life.

a reply to: NobodySpecial268

After the pandemic was in full gear, I was looking around here for a supply of barley for planting or for use as livestock feed. There used to be a farmer's co-op in almost every town here about until after the pandemic, then I had to travel 25 miles to find one still open. They didn't have barley for planting or feed any time of the year claiming there wasn't a demand for it up there.

So I ordered around 40 pounds from a place in Wisconsin (or Minnesota) that was for planting. The sack had a label that said it wasn't for human consumption, only for planting. So I emailed the company to see if they were making it inedible by treating the seed. They replied and told me they didn't treat the seed, it was that they didn't test the seed or equipment for fungus and mold that cause mycotoxins to accumulate in the grain as it goes from farm to table. Tests needed to be done to legally sell it for human consumption and they told me that I should plant it and use the harvest to brew with. Well, that company is probably a middleman, a grain broker rather than the farm that produced the grain. I used it to brew with anyway and I haven't had any signs of mycotoxin poisoning (yet).

The barley I planted from that seed did very well, but considering how the heavy rains beat the ripening grain into the muddy ground just before harvest, it could have been infected with fungus at that point (I do live in a swamp). How could I know without testing my homegrown barley to find out if it was within the toxin safety limits that the FDA set?

So you might run into that deal where it hasn't been tested and certified as safe for human (or animal) consumption. Even if it was, it has to be properly stored to stay safe. I'd say that unless the grain is damp and you see mold or mold spores on the grain, it's probably OK to brew with it. The problem with mycotoxins is that they build up in the grain and in the animals and people who consume it, so you could theoretically get poisoned eggs from a chicken fed with infected feed.

ETA: That is why in my notes I say to rinse the grain three times before starting the malting process (sprouting). Tested and certified or not, keep things as clean as possible at every stage while making beer this way.

a reply to: TheMichiganSwampBuck

Thanks for this advice. I can see your reasoning.

Back in my younger days I worked on the farms and in grain sampling at the bins. I've grown and tested a lot of barley.

We had the problem of late rains ruining the barley with a mould. That was all down graded from malting to feed.

So brewing begins with growing the grain. Or at least paying attention to this stage and the seed.

I have about a third of an acre I could grow my own organic barley and hops. Here, six bags of barley to the acre is reasonable. So two bags a year for me. That is a lot of beer.

Aye the cleanliness is so important as you point out. Starting with the grain.

It us harvest here now, so fresh grain should show up. The weather has been kind to barley too. A dry spring. What thunderstorms we have had were mostly dry.

This delays starting yet gives me time to prepare properly. Especially with thought to storage. We have 100 degrees plus for most of summer. Even under my house gets hot when the wind blows. The house is on stumps a yard off the ground. We have a swamp box air-conditioner. Maybe a vent in the floor to a small area for the air-conditioned air to keep the beer cool.

RAY brought up a good point about residues on the brewing containers.

a reply to: RAY1990

The bottles are good quality, and are supposed to be returned to the supplier for reuse. I use five of them to keep water in for very fussy tropical fish. My fish breeding hobby can share with beer making. Though, good point about residual after brewing.

I'll buy a brewer kit for the bucket with tap and airlock. Been about fifteen years at least since making a brew.

a reply to: NobodySpecial268

Best of luck!

Yeah I had a feeling they'd be recyclable, they really do seem perfect. The water treatment supplies I got were from an aquarium place so you probably already have everything you need water treatment wise

I love it when things just come together like that.

a reply to: RAY1990

The water treatment supplies I got were from an aquarium place

(stern look ; ) We're probably not supposed to say anything about using aquarium chems for human use. But I use a product called 'Acid Buffer' by Seachem to lower PH in water for my fish. It changes phosphates to carbon dioxide dropping the PH.

What you said before about PH was interesting and got me wondering what the perfect PH is for starting the brew. Have you tried rainwater for beer?

Late to the show, but happy to be aboard. I've learned a lot from just reading the thread. Thanks for the thread!!!!

Some things I found along the way:

1) a drop of sweat at the wrong time, might make your brew taste like bandaids smell. EW!
2) No matter how vile it tastes, it is unlikely that human pathogens survive the process
3) ANY result of fermentation can be distilled into ethyl alcohol; you could theoretically ferment your gym socks and still distill the result into nearly pure alcohol. Okay, maybe not The Swamp Buck's socks, but nearly everyone else's.

Distilling is science. It's a no-brainer.

Fermenting is an art, and it needs be approached as an art, with grace, and superlative hygiene, and it doesn't hurt your craft if you play rock anthems as you brew.

4) If you order your supplies, they will grow food weevils if you store them for long enough. Eggs of weevils are a by-product of processing. I'm sorry to tell you all that you've been eating flour weevil eggs all your life. So, if you don't intend to use your supplies immediately, and you live in a warm climate, freeze them. Why? Because weevil eggs are a part of processing, and freezing them will cause the eggs to expand, and burst. Only have to freeze your supplies for a day. After that, they can be stored indefinitely.

I cannot grow barley where I live, however I can ferment a bunch of different fruits.

5) If you find a yeast that works well, preserve it. Research it, because different yeasts preserve differently. YOu WANT this yeast, you NEED this yeast, and you won't always be able to get it. SAVE it.

6) Ambient yeasts are better than none at all, however they often produce quirky results, particularly with the low-temperature fermentations, such as some lagers.

7) What you make will always taste better than what you can buy.

8) Bottom-fermenting carbonated beers store better in ambient temperatures.

Okay. That's just what I have found that works here, in the tropics. For years I had a broke-down refrigerator that would only chill to 50 F, which was perfect for lagering. Sadly, it died a decade ago.

9) - MOST IMPORTANT -- keep meticulous notes. Every little nuance that you change makes a difference. One day you will hit upon the perfect mix of variables, and if you haven't documented it completely, you will kick youself in the ass. Yes, you will.


Thank you Sir, for this very important thread.

a reply to: TheMichiganSwampBuck

p.s. I totally get why you post this in the Survival forum. Where else? If TSHTF, fermentations MATTER. Not just as a means of getting a buzz, but of medicine, and as barterable goods. It's not just that life without beer is dismal, it's that beer is growth, because it represents change and work in the same way that growing things does.

Lots of good information guys, thanks.

Just thought I'd mention something about that one bottle exploding in the fridge.

I went looking through some beer bottles to find a couple of replacement long-necks. I want bottles with no embossing and few marks, so I look them over pretty closely as I clean them and remove the label. I happened to notice the bottles I was cleaning had "no refill" at the heel around the bottom. I was surprised as I thought all returnable glass bottles were refillable. I don't know how they determine the difference between a refill and no refill glass container. Those bottles did seem cheap, thin sided and the mold seams were more pronounced.

Also another beer froze in the fridge, it didn't explode this time, I figure that was a refill bottle vs a no refill bottle.

a reply to: TheMichiganSwampBuck

Good point. I just looked at the bottles I was saving and "no refill" printed near the base. Hmmm.

a reply to: argentus

Hi ya argentus. Yeah, sweating into the ferment is probably not a good idea. : (

That reminded me of wine making and stomping the grapes in the classical fashion. I think I would prefer the feet of buxom young maidens, rather than hairy old men.

On a more serious side, I was thinking about the temperature too. It is summer here in Australia, and we have had a week of 100F / 40C, and it will get hotter.

a reply to: NobodySpecial268

I hate to put it this way, but I'd rather very clean feet of hairy old men vs. buxom young maidens that had been walking on the boardwalk and didn't particularly care about their foot hygiene.

Fermentations operate differently in different temperatures. It is part of why I always take very good notes. Right now, here in the Caribbean, out ambient temps are in the low 80s F to high 70s F. Last year, at this time, we were in the mid to low 70s, and that required a different fermentation protocol.

I haven't made beer in 10 years, because I couldn't rely upon precise shipping schedules. I can, however, ferment various combinations of fruit, and not all of them are sweet . I can also distill those offerings with a fractionating still, and that is wonderfully pure, or almost so.