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texasbrewnoob

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Ok, this is my first post on this forum. So hello everybody!

So I will admit I have never brewed a beer, but I have made a couple successful gallons of wine. Well long story short a buddy of mine made me a bet that I couldn't brew a gallon of beer without assistance of any kit. The conditions of the bet stipulate that I can't buy any beer kits or specialty equipment (except the yeast). The sources for my materials are limited to kroger, h.e.b., and walmart. I know what you are thinking, but I'm not trying to win any awards here. I just want to make a gallon of beer that won't taste like piss, if possible. I figured if I was going to ask for help, I might as well ask those who know what they are doing. So how should I go about this fellas?:confused:
 
texasbrewnoob said:
Ok, this is my first post on this forum. So hello everybody!

So I will admit I have never brewed a beer, but I have made a couple successful gallons of wine. Well long story short a buddy of mine made me a bet that I couldn't brew a gallon of beer without assistance of any kit. The conditions of the bet stipulate that I can't buy any beer kits or specialty equipment (except the yeast). The sources for my materials are limited to kroger, h.e.b., and walmart. I know what you are thinking, but I'm not trying to win any awards here. I just want to make a gallon of beer that won't taste like piss, if possible. I figured if I was going to ask for help, I might as well ask those who know what they are doing. So how should I go about this fellas?:confused:
Click to expand...

You can buy malt extract from the store, it's just expensive and probably old. It's usually in the organic section in a jar. So you need to find hops. Or you can brew without hops, depends on your definition of beer...

I know you said you can buy beer yeast but you could actually brew with bread yeast- won't turn out good but can be done. OR, you can harvest yeast from a store bought bottle of beer but that might be considered cheating.
 
Look for Goya Malta. That should take care of your malt. The hops....that could be a little tricky. You'll have to use some other things to bitter it. Not really my specialty, but I'm sure if you do some searches for "gruit beer recipe" you can find some substitutes they sell in one of those places. Yeast is actually easy to find in the supermarket. You don't need brewer's yeast or anything. A packet or two of Fleischman's will work fine.
 
First check out the seasonings section to see if there are hops on the racks. You need hops to make official beer. Check for Liquid Malt Extract. If they have pre-hopped you're in-like-Flynn.

Get some barley. Do a search for malting.

You can do a crush with rolling pin. I have a friend who does this as standard practice. He doesn't use a crusher.

If they don't have a brewing selection, pick up some Red Star brewer's yeast. I just did a batch. It worked reasonably well.

...for the rest, just look though the pages here.
 
Bitter with grapefruit and orange zest (be sure to get some of the white pith, that's where the bitterness is) and ferment warm, 75 to 80, you'll end up with something not too different from a hefeweizen.

And, it may as well taste like a hefe -- without any special equipment or ingredients, it's certainly gonna look like one -- pale and cloudy.
 
Ah, yeah a hefeweizen could be the way to go....at whole foods they sell bulk wheat in those bins...easy to make beer from that, although you'd probably want some kind of filler material in there too just to keep it from turning into a giant sticky mesh when you mash it.
 
Aren't grits a sub for corn in brewing? Might be light, but judging by the size of the BMC companies, I'd guess light is not an unpopular product!

Coriander and grains of paradise are often used in beer for flavor/bitter, as well as orange zest.

Most of the grocery stores have a fair selection of different grains, almost ready to use, in the hot cereal section.
 

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