How to make malt liquor

BrewSwag 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
C

cdubb2010

New Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2010
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Location
michigan
Hi everyone,

I did a thread seach yesterday and found a thread that died out in 2008 so i desided to start my own:ban:. Anyways I want to try my hand at brewing beer now and malt liquor is my favorite kind, colt .45 being the best. Now i saw on that old thread where the guy was given some crap for brewing malt liquor at home and that its a waste of money to brew it at home: To which I say, I like the way cheap beer tastes and i want to make beer i like, it may not appeal to all of you but everyone is entitled to a opinion.

With that being said I am looking for a recipe that will make me something compareable to colt .45, not aimming for exact since making a unique taste is half the adventure, right? Also what kind of materials are needed to brew beer? All I have at the moment is a pressure cooker and some small copper tubing that i used to make one batch of potato vodka with (yes i know it illegal, it was one batch as a test and it turned out very well), will this do me any good for beer? And what kind of contanier and temprature do you guys recomend for the frementation process?

Thanks in advanced
 
Not trying to be rude by not answering your question, but you are basically asking us to explain the entire process...I think it would be much easier if you just go here:

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

This will explain it all in the simplest manner.
 
Lots of corn, a little 2-row, maybe add some dextrose to jump the ABV a bit, then you're good to go. I would guess that would cover off your primary ingredients.
 
If you like cheap malt liquor, you're probably going to be better off buying it than trying to reproduce it yourself, unless you're really set on DIY and the process. Depending on the size of your pressure cooker, it may work for brewing. In general you want a pot that can hold 3 or 4 gallons of liquid MINIMUM for a normal size extract batch. Your copper coiling is not needed unless you're going to turn it into an immersion chiller (attach some tubing to both ends and connect it to a sink faucet or garden hose) for cooling your wort. There's no distilling going on in the brewing process, which is why it's not illegal.

If you really want to do this right, you're probably going to need to buy a fairly significant amount of equipment, or do small batches (same amount of work, less end product). That's why I say you'll be better off buying the malt liquor, since you'll be able to buy a LOT of it for the cost of the equipment and ingredients. As said before, read at least the "extract" section of How To Brew on the website linked above and see if this is something you really want to get yourself into.
 
If you are serious about this, you need proper equipment (ie. not a pressure cooker). Read "How to brew" to get the basics done, like everybody and their mother did when they first started, and buy the needed equipment (fermentation vessel, brew pot, etc.).

Malt liquor needs to be mashed or at least needs a partial mash since you cannot steep flaked maize (THE secret ingredient) and expect it to do anything. You'll also need to lager it, so that means a fermentation chamber and a way to lager for extended periods of time. A few weeks in a fridge is the usual method. So not only will you be jumping into home brewing, wich is an adventure in itself (albeit a fun one), but complicating matters further by going AG and having to brew a lager.

I'd wager that you are looking at several hundreds dollars minimum in initial investment to recreate something that can be bought for 2$ and you haven't bought a single pound of 2-row. If you are serious about brewing beer, you can always start with something like a cream ale and up the maize and sugar to bump the gravity in order to get something you will enjoy. But you need to be realistic here: lagers are equipment, labor and cost intensive for most people and are REALLY unforgiving. You need to have your process (sanitation, temp control, pitching rates, etc.) down real good before you start messing with them.

But that doesn't matter since you are 99% trolling and your first post was about potato vodka.
 
you know funny you say that, i was just for fun looking for recipes yesterday. This was because i make fun of one of my brothers friends every time i see him for drinking OE instead of real beer.

He claims OE is his favorite "beer" or what you want to call it of all time (sad i know) so i thought it would be funny to give him 5 gallons of the crap, if i had the spare cash.
 
I've had batches that tasted like malt liquor. That was back before I was able to control fermentation temps. Had a cream ale that went WILD with the fusels (fermented in a room where the temp went up to 80*F), plus I put WAY too much corn sugar in it.

Tasted like a$$, and would give you a bad headache. But, it would also knock your socks off.

:drunk:
 
I was going to suggest a blonde or cream ale and add a bunch of sugar. Malt Liquor is going to be tough for a first beer. Are you sure you wouldn't rather have a nice IPA or Imperial Stout??
 
Papazian's Olde English 800 Malt Liquor recipe is legendary...

Olde English 800
5 Gallons

OG: 1.055 (13.5)
FG: 1.004 (1)
ABV: 7%
Color: 4.5 SRM
Bittering Units: 14

3.5 lbs. American 2-row pale malt
3.75 lbs. American 6-row malt
3 lbs. flaked corn
2 HBU (56 MBU) American Cluster hops (pellets) - 105 minutes (bittering)
1.5 HBU (43 MBU) American Nugget hops (pellets) - 105 minutes (bittering)
1/4 tsp. Irish moss
Wyeast 2007 Pilsen Lager yeast

A step infusion mash is employed to mash the grains. Add 10 quarts (9.5L) of 130-degree F (54.5 C) water to the crushed grain and flaked corn, stir, stabilize and hold the temperature at 122 degrees F (50 C) for 30 minutes. Add 5 quarts (1.9 L) of boiling water. Add heat to bring temperature up to 150 degrees F (65.5 C). Hold for about 60 minutes.

After conversion, raise temperature to 167 degrees F (75 C) water, lauter and sparge with 4 gallons (15 L) of 170 degree F (77 C) water. Collect about 6.5 gallons (25 L) of of runoff, add bittering hops and bring to a full and vigorous boil.

The total boil time will be 105 minutes. When 10 minutes remain, add Irish moss. After total wort boil of 105 minutes (reducing wort volume to just over 5 gallons), turn off the heat, then separate or strain out and sparge hops. Chill the wort to 65 degrees F (18 C) and direct into a sanitized fermenter. Aerate the cooled wort well. Add an active yeast culture and ferment for 4 to 6 days in the primary at 55 degrees F (15 C). Then transfer into a secondary fermenter, chill to 50 degrees F (10 C) to age for two more weeks, then lager for two to four more weeks at 40 degrees F (4.5 C).

When secondary aging is complete, prime with sugar, bottle or keg. Let condition at temperatures above 60 degrees F (15.5 C) until clear and carbonated, then store chilled.
Click to expand...
 
Homercidal said:
I was going to suggest a blonde or cream ale and add a bunch of sugar. Malt Liquor is going to be tough for a first beer. Are you sure you wouldn't rather have a nice IPA or Imperial Stout??
Click to expand...

Well ive never had any of those before but i have heard cream ale is quite easy to make even for newbies like me. I would like to make malt liquor but if its going to be a tough brew Im all for starting with something easier. Cream ale sounds like it could be pertty tasty how can i make that?

And thanks revvy, i saved that recipe on to a word document
 
cdubb2010 said:
Well ive never had any of those before but i have heard cream ale is quite easy to make even for newbies like me. I would like to make malt liquor but if its going to be a tough brew Im all for starting with something easier. Cream ale sounds like it could be pertty tasty how can i make that?

And thanks revvy, i saved that recipe on to a word document
Click to expand...

What part of MI are you from, Tex?

It is possible to brew on the cheap without putting a ton of money into brewing. Read as much as you can.
 
cdubb2010 said:
Well ive never had any of those before but i have heard cream ale is quite easy to make even for newbies like me. I would like to make malt liquor but if its going to be a tough brew Im all for starting with something easier. Cream ale sounds like it could be pertty tasty how can i make that?

And thanks revvy, i saved that recipe on to a word document
Click to expand...

Cream ales are pretty simple. Here's an easy one (from Jamil Zainasheff):

3.3 pounds pilsner LME
3.3 pounds light LME
1.7 pounds rice syrup

1 ounce liberty hops (4%) for 60 minutes
.5 ounce liberty hops (4%) for 1 minute

Use S05 yeast, and ferment at 65-70 degrees.
 

Similar threads

orgenomescii
Brewing like a Barbarian: Ancient Irish Descriptions of Malting & Brewing
Replies
2
Views
1K
McMullan
McMullan
BrewingWisdom
How to make liquid malt extract ?
2
Replies
51
Views
2K
DBhomebrew
DBhomebrew
3 Dawg Night
FotHB XIX: Legal to Drink in Canada
2 3
Replies
86
Views
3K
3 Dawg Night
3 Dawg Night
P
What happened to IPA?
2
Replies
49
Views
3K
Clint Yeastwood
Clint Yeastwood
G
New member
Replies
5
Views
396
ncbrewer
N
BrewSwag 300

Latest posts

Back
Top