Retroviridae

Recipes 

And here's some info on amylase activity from bananas from a 2006 Journal of Food Science article (http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1981.tb04183.x):

1. They used the Cavendish cultivar of banana, which is the normal "grocery store" banana at least here in the US. The "yellow" stage of ripeness has the most amylase activity.

2. The amylase activity is in the cytoplasm of the banana cells. The authors of this paper used a blender to homogenize the banana pulp, in order to break open as many cells as possible.

3. The amylase activity is 80% alpha-amylase.

4. The amylase is most active at pH 5.5-7.0, which I think is a little higher than wort.

5. The amylase is most active at around 37 degrees C (98.6 F). The amylase is quickly destroyed above 62 deg. C (144 F). So normal mash temps are bad.

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Random Fact: Human Immunodeficiency Virus particles have approximately the same density of 1.170 wort. I know because I float them on a sucrose gradient in the lab to purify them for research.

Primary: nada

Drinking: Belgian strong golden, Northern Brown, Porter

MacBruver

Recipes 

Interesting stuff. Where did you see the 37C figure? I only see the 62C in the abstract. I've found some other references that state that there is more beta amylase activity in riper fruit (makes sense- more smaller sugars to chew on.) Perhaps a blend of yellow and yellow/brown bananas would yield the best results.

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Secondary: Bee Cave Robust Porter (with coconut)
Kegged: Cascade/Citra Amber Ale

Retroviridae

Recipes 

Peak activity around 37C is in figure 4 of the actual article. This particular article mentions that beta amylase activity exists, but they don't measure it except to say the amylase activity is ~80% alpha. They didn't compare beta amylase activity to fruit ripeness like they did for alpha.

One random abstract I saw while searching, though, did suggest that this alpha amylase is the only amylase in the fruit that is able to disrupt whole starch granules, suggesting that it is one of the first amylases involved in the ripening process.
I forget where I saw this article on banana ripening, but one other factoid I saw said that these banana amylases are naturally inhibited in green bananas by tannins. During ripening, these tannins are removed/destroyed, allowing amylase to sweeten the banana. Perhaps the tannins are why green bananas taste puckery/astringent? Not all tannins are the same, so its an open question whether the tannins from cereal grains in the mash will inhibit the banana amylase.

__________________
Random Fact: Human Immunodeficiency Virus particles have approximately the same density of 1.170 wort. I know because I float them on a sucrose gradient in the lab to purify them for research.

Primary: nada

Drinking: Belgian strong golden, Northern Brown, Porter

MacBruver

Recipes 

I don't think there will be any issues with tannins- I believe they are constrained mostly to the husks of the grains, and anything with a husk on it (besides corn) is pretty hard to find in a grocery store.

I also found this article: http://www.mbaa.com/pdfs/TQfeature/32005Mashing_Unmalted.pdf

The table on page 2 is especially interesting. The two things missing are alpha amylase, and beta glucan. Bananas can take care of the a-amylase... and fortunately there's at least _some_ b-glucan there, so a really long glucan rest and a cereal mash might work.

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Primary:
Secondary: Bee Cave Robust Porter (with coconut)
Kegged: Cascade/Citra Amber Ale

MacBruver

Recipes 

Hmm... wonder whether my grocery store has any of this. It's basically a coctail of every enzyme needed, plus more: http://www.webvitamins.com/product.aspx?id=23816


Amylase
Protease
Invertase
Beta-Glucanase
Alphagalactosidase
Phytase
Xylanase

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Primary:
Secondary: Bee Cave Robust Porter (with coconut)
Kegged: Cascade/Citra Amber Ale

thepyrofish

Recipes 

Ok, so this thread has me inspired. I was at walmart with SWMBO and I figured if I stayed in the grocery/pharmaceutical isles I was basically in a grocery store. I found some Swiss Natural digestive enzymes quite similar to what you're talking about. I also have pot barley, steel cut oats, corn, bakers yeast, a lime and rice. I don't know if all of that will make it into the brew but I'm giving this a shot tonight. Pics to follow!

On further thinking, I don't really have any clue how much of this enzyme cocktail to put in... I'm assuming too much couldn't do a lot of damage, right? They say you can take 1 or 2 caps at a time up to 6 a day so I don't think I'm risking anything by putting quite a few in there. I'll probably start around a half dozen and see.

Also, I thought this would be a great example of post-apocalyptic brewing as I am a noob (2 batches so fat, both extract w/ steeping grains) and have never done any kind of a mash before. If this turns out even remotely drinkable I'll be ecstatic!

Brew-Happy

Recipes 

Haven't been able to keep up with the thread and all, but I noticed something today.

Brewed a porter today, so I had the aromas in my mind. I also roasted some peanuts as well. I get some raw ones from work, so I have been experimenting with home roasting.

What I noticed is the dark roasted peanuts were REALLY similar to roasted malts, especially the chocolate malts.

My suggestion is buying some raw peanuts in bags or bulk and trying some different roasting times for flavors. I would not put the shells into the mash but the peanuts should work really well.

These were unsalted raw peanuts btw.

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Fighting Texas Aggie Class of 2003!!! Whoop!

samljer

Recipes 

It took me litterally 3 hours to read this thread, in a way where i wasnt skimming and took in ALL the information from start to finish.
First off, wow, this thing is very old too

Grats to Tenchiro for getting this going, its a very usefull skill to have i think
Grocery store brewing. With wine being easy to do!
"Crush almost any fruit and natural yeast will do the work 90% of the time lol"
but beer is of course, a new story. anyhow....


From what i got from everything in this thread this is what i plan on trying:

Grain Source:
Raisin bran, Frosted flakes, and Wheetabix "in about a 3:1:3 mix ratio"

Malt Source:
Malted Powder Milk or Malteesers (Stout or Amber choice really i would think)
(But thats just color, malteesers probably wont make it a "STOUT" lol)

HOPS source
Alphalfa Sprouts (Had lots of options but this one just HAS to be best id think)

For sugar, I would expect white or dextrose is the easy way out lol
so ill be using Molasses "Which would probably mix better with the maltesers option as well, but still undecided"


My grocery store has bulk bins with both PEARL and POT barley
but since 90% of them dont im going to go ahead and avoid using it
plus it feels like cheating :P
Ill also not be adding any malty goodness "beverages of malt like ppl did here"
I dont think it cheating, but i want to see what the flavor will be with JUST local goods" They also carry something with a red label and the only thing writtin on it says "Malt Syrup 455ml" in black, i will not be using that either. (the bottles also seem to look like they been there since woodstock but i wont go there...)

For yeast, the only thing they carry is Flechmans 8g packets and "Active Dry Yeast" in the bulk area. Since most stores dont have bulk, as before ill stick to the packets.
i do have top fermenting ale yeast off hand, but ill stick to grocery store stuff.

For bitter ill be using citrus option, rather then spice and herb.

Reason for this is herbs and things often are medicinal and many should not be
taken with alcohol either like St John Wort (which by the way is bitter as anything if someone else doesnt care about medicinal things) simply remove some of the powder from the capsuls. grocery stores have it in the dietary supplements and pharmal sections. lol its properties is anti-depresant and blood thinner so yea. anyway...


Ill be adding 1 banana. yellow with brown spots for enzymes, and ill be doing the wort at 65*F "perfect for banana born enzymes" will take 4 hours at least because im using just 1 banana, not alot of enzymes at work. but it WILL work.

alphalpa wont be added till boil is done, "last minute only"
Going to pitch bread yeast at 25*C if im not mistaken...?


I will post results as They come, and i will not give this one up!
Sorry for long post.
IF anyone has ideas/suggestions i wont be doing this for 2 more days.
and ill check here often.




EDIT TO ADD FINING INFORMATION
Oh people, btw, grocery store Gelatin (plain) makes a great agent to clear your stuff "fining i think its called?"
so wouldnt be cheating if you wanted to start clearing your experiments for whatever reason.
just i do it with wine all the time and since nobody here discussed clearing i think this information
is a fantastic addition

samljer

Recipes 

For grain I used Raisin Bran alone

1) Sat it for 1 hour in hot water @ 85*C "there was (some) activity with enzymes"
without having to add anything else, like beano. which was great.

2) Then added more hot water and melted in maltesers for the maltiness
then boiled lightly for 45mins, then for 2mins boiled with alphalfa sprouts (Apparently lots of danish beers use it, it was AWESOME too!) It also got alot thicker after this.
And the hop taste it added was terrific. and the smell too, was shocked actually. anyway.
Also put 1/4C white sugar during boil.
I filtered everything out for the boil, some ppl leave it there, i didnt.

3) lime peel for bittering.

now i have 2x2L bottles brewing "carboy is 25L capacity and didnt wanna make that much for an experiment"

Wort tasted like a holiday stout with a hint of chocolait and raisin (i know im bad;p )
Mouth feel was smooooth like a butter rum.
It wasnt terribly sweet, but enough to let you know that the enzymes worked.

I was pretty impressed, expecting about 4.5% ABV
I cant measure gravity, dont have tool, but i can measure final
ABV I can post what it did come out to when its done
its on day 2 of fermenting.


Going to use 1tsp of dextrose to bottle for carbonation.

brewmonk

Recipes 

hmmm. a raspery ale or framboise, with a lavender bouquet.spiced with mint, anise and wolfsbane. then aged in a watermellon!@

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