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The bigger question I had watching that show was, could hooch be made with silage? ;)

The answer is yes and no. The dairy I worked on as a kid had a grain silo that was sealed and the grain was put in wet so it would ferment. The cows LOVED eating that grain but oh my did it ever stink. When I say stink I mean gagging putrid god awful stink. Who would want to even try making something to drink out of that.

And yes I tasted it. Lets just say to this day I cannot even stand the smell anymore and would rather eat a skunk from the a$$ end than try eating that stuff again
 
Here's another old timer I've only posted once before,from 1924. From a brewery owned by the late "Big Al" Capone no less! http://www.brewery.org/brewery/cm3/recs/13_30.html
With the protiens in soybeans,this may well produce some serious cold break. I wonder what part of the flavor the soy grits added? Might have to try this one sometime. It's for 5.5 gallons total wort.
 
truth be told, its tastier than i expected
photo87.jpg
 
My dad had a 5 gallon stone crock and I remember seeing the Blue Ribbon extract cans and maybe EDME. He kept cheescloth over it...and what I remember as about 1/8" tubing held on the surface with a floating piece of wood...I think connected to an aquarium air pump. It was 50 years ago so hard to remember...maybe it was the birth of oxygenation :)

Family members say it was pretty harsh...I never was able to talk brewing with him before he died, I was off deployed with the Navy by then.

I think it's great that you were able to resurect this and actually make his recipe.
 
45_70sharps said:
I like the name. You must be near my age with a name like Molly Hatchet.
They were big in the 70's and early 80's when 38 special and Lynyrd Skynyrd were big.
Maybe between your mid 40's and early 50's?

Yup, your right, since 1978 I saw Hatchet 27 times so far. Plenty of stories, picks,sticks autographs, pictures, and a guitar that belonged to Dave Hlubeck founder of the band. Back in the day I listen to them in my '72 Chevelle on 8-track!

Anyhow the beer looks good, I thought about trying a half batch, but maybe it would be worth doing 5 gallon, and toss it in a keg. I love old school family recipes. My grand father made wine, and my grandma made beer. My uncle told me it was the other way around but they found they were better at the other so they switched and all was good. Unfortunately no recipes are available. :0/
 
i wish my pallet was distinguished enough to accurately and usefully describe it to you, but i can tell you this, when i make this again next, i will let it sit in the primary longer for clarity. after four weeks in bottle it was very tasty to me. i think it's clear the prescribed priming sugar is insufficient and i like that i got extra dark malt in there for priming instead.
 
its pretty clear, but with sediment in the bottom, so if i dont nail the pour, it clouds up. more time in the bottle wont help much with that :D

Actually it will, time in the bottle will compact the cake so it doesn't kick up as easy. Though just get used to pouring it like that all bottle conditioned beer will have that sediment.
 
Just picked the DME to make this. I am using 3# dark DME and saf US-05 yeast. everything else per the original post recipie. I might try adding a few hops for balance during, say, a 30 min boil? any suggestions?

I just looked through my hop supply and think that I am going to add 1/2 oz of Northern Brewer for a 30 min boil. Just something subtle to balance out all the sugars.

2-18,

Brewed this today. I did add 1/2 oz of Northern Brewer hops and did a 30 min. boil. This was the recomendation from my LHBS to balance out the sweetness. We'll see how it turns out. Who knows, this could be the next standby quick dark beer!

See you in a couple of weeks.........
 
This just gets better with a little age. After about 2 weeks in the bottle, the Maltiness is starting to mellow slightly and the small amount of hops in starting to come through. Balanced. Not too hoppy, not too Malty. The next time I make this, I will more than likely up the hops to .75 oz, and then keg it for aging. This would be a great one to cristen the kegaradio once i complete it!
 
its pretty clear, but with sediment in the bottom, so if i dont nail the pour, it clouds up. more time in the bottle wont help much with that :D

Yeah, the yeast cake gets more solid and has less tendency to pour off. I still usually leave about an ounce that gets rinsed down the drain when I rinse the bottle and set it upside down to dry.

Here is my dad's capper I used yesterday.

Dads-Capper.jpg
 
There were hops in the recipe?

Based on some research, most malt extract sold back then was hopped malt extract. I added 1/2 oz of northern brewer and did a 30 min boil. I was trying to remain as close to original with today's ingredients.
 
Based on some research, most malt extract sold back then was hopped malt extract. I added 1/2 oz of northern brewer and did a 30 min boil. I was trying to remain as close to original with today's ingredients.
I didn't use any hops in my batch, and I omitted the potato.

The resulting beer is... not good. I'll hang on to some for posterity but the rest will get dumped as I need the bottles for other projects.

If I were to try this again I would either try to find pre-hopped extract or add a small amount of hops.
 
i made another 10 gallons of this last night in my giant crock with wooden spigot. i'm planning to individually prime each bottle before pouring direct from the spigot. last time, the bottles were pretty overcarbonated, as i more or less guessed about how much priming DME to use. i made two incorrect assumptions. one was the amount of beer i was actually priming, so too much priming DME for too little volume. secondly, the bottle priming calculators seem pretty straight forward, but the variable that i'm hung up on is the volume c02. i'm pretty much just picking a number out of a hat on that one. . . :eek:
with the last batch i had to crack the lid a bit in the sink, and let the c02 escape for a minute or two before opening it completely or else it would shoot up to the ceiling.

sanity check, is 2.2 volumes c02 appropriate?
public math, dont laugh. . .
.355 L in a sam adams bottle, approx 65-70 F temp at bottling, so. . . a hair under 1 tsp DME per bottle? anybody with experience that doesnt involve beer staining the ceiling, feel free to chime in.
 
Batch number 2 brewed today. Everything per OP, (including the potato) only this time, I added a full ounce of Northern Brewer for 30 minutes and an additional 1/4 ounce with 5 minutes left in the boil. This is going to be one of the two inaugral beers for the new kegaradio! Here's to tapping it in about a month! Tasting notes to follow!
 
yeah, i've got to get some gear so that i can add some hops to this. without the prehopped malt, there is no way to add the hops without doing some sort of boil, which i hadnt done in the past.
 
yes, last time i primed the whole batch in the bottling bucket, but this time, my primary is basically also my bottling bucket so i dont want to stir up all the sediment for priming, thats why i'm thinking to individually prime each bottle.
 
yeah, i've got to get some gear so that i can add some hops to this. without the prehopped malt, there is no way to add the hops without doing some sort of boil, which i hadnt done in the past.

You could make a hop tea and add it to the fermenter. Boil your hops in a pot with some water, cool and toss in.
 
i wondered if that would have the same effect as boiling the whole thing. THANKS!
think it would be too late after the most active fermentation is complete? the sugars are just about all fermented by now. the hops dont contribute any sugar to that process so adding a hoppy flavor after fermentation should still work to balance out the sweetness a tad?
 
Easy enough with what you might already have in your kitchen. I have a 12qt stockpot, add 1.5-2 gallons of water, add all fermentables and bring to a boil. Add hops for desired time, cool, transfer to fermenter and top off to 5 gallons and pitch yeast. Simple as that.
 
yes, last time i primed the whole batch in the bottling bucket, but this time, my primary is basically also my bottling bucket so i dont want to stir up all the sediment for priming, thats why i'm thinking to individually prime each bottle.

Decant into a clean 5 gallon bucket for bottling? Leave the trub behind.
 
Decant into a clean 5 gallon bucket for bottling? Leave the trub behind.

My bottling bucket is a 5 gallon from lowes. I put in a plastic spigot and attach my bottling wand with a legnth of tygon tube. Just disolve your priming sugar in some water, dump it into your bottling bucket, and transfer your beer into it with a racking cane or auto siphon. Simple and easy.
 
i understand what you guys are saying, i think i'm just doing a horrible job of explaining what i did. i'm fermenting in this
photo66.jpg

so i'm thinking of the max relax (although far less precise) approach of bottling straight from here by bottle priming individually. weather i do that or as you guys suggest, my question is still the same, how do i decide how many volumes co2 i want?
 
Did gram-pa have something like this laying around with his system? It might have had nails in place of screws and a black rubber hose instead of clear vinyl.

86760d1354596521-bottle-filler-really-necessary-imag0154.jpg


86761d1354596521-bottle-filler-really-necessary-imag0155.jpg


...how are you going to get the beer out of the crock? I have used one of these with great sucess, but I decant and place the priming sugar in the bottling bucket.

Bottle filler thread
 
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