Making beer and other alcohols with very simple ingredients

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balibrew

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Hey guys,

Great forum here, so much information to be had. I'm a beginner, only got 2 brews under my belt (ginger beer) but have been having a lot of fun. My main problem is the place where I currently reside (Bali) doesn't have many resources for brewing. Shipping in items through the mail is also very difficult.

I don't have access to hops, brewers yeast or any of those other luxuries. My ginger that I have made twice so far consisted of half a kilo of ginger, 6 kilos of sugar, a bit of lemongrass and lime juice as well as bakers yeast. The 6 kilos of sugar made it extremely strong, well over 10% I would guess, but no complaints there.

Anyways, even though I like my ginger beer recipe (but would be open to hearing improvements on it) I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for some other recipes that could be made without special brewers yeast or hops. I'd like to try a whole bunch of different recipes as I just got my hands on a bottle capper.

Thanks
 
Get some dry yeast sent in and then brew cider using long life apple juice. I am sure it will beat that hooch you are brewing at the moment.
 
Short of finding a place nearby that sells brewing ingredients, it sounds like your best bet, while maybe not the cheapest, is ordering online. You really need the basics like malt and hops if you're looking to make beer, but like el_caro mentioned, there's some tasty things you can make if you are able to find some quality yeast. Maybe some Apfelwine is in order?
 
Thanks guys but I should have clarified, ordering online is not really an option, customs and other things make all of that really difficult and expensive if the package ever even arrives. I took a look at the Apfelwine, it looks tasty but requires a special yeast that I haven't found here so far. Also, juices like that are quite expensive here, I wonder what the results would be using fresh apples.
 
If you want some more exotic yeast, I suggest you look into harvesting some wild yeast from your local area, it could be as easy as leaving some pressed apples in a small vessel outside til dome fermentation began. This would, after a few generations, give you more of an interesting yeast to brew with.
 
Ah, I see where that creates a bit of a problem. Well as I understand it it's possible to harvest brewer's yeast from commercial beer bottles. I haven't had a chance to try it myself yet but here are a couple links that explain how it's done and which beers it can be done with. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable about it tcould explain the process better.

How to Brew - By John Palmer - Yeast from Commercial Beers

Yeasts from Bottle Conditioned Beers

Other than that I'm afraid I can't think of anything else. :confused:

That being said, when I was younger we did make some passably good hooch with baking yeast and fresh fruit.
 
Thanks for those suggestions I'll look into them.

So far from what I see my main ingredients are limited to granulated sugar and bakers yeast. To be perfectly honest my ginger beer came out tasting very nice and everyone I gave it to really liked it. Guess you couldn't really call it a beer officially but it was tasty. I'd like to try it out with other flavors like different fruits like you said. Just worried about fruit spoiling and giving a bad flavor thus producing something undrinkable.

Hopefully there is something that can be used, for all the troubles I might have here procuring real brewing products I can find fresh fruit, vegetables and spices for next to nothing. I know I won't be able to brew anything really award winning with these products, but as long as it tastes decent and has a bit of alcohol then no complaints from me.
 
Don't forget raisons! Many winemakers swear that raisons give their wines some body, and also some nutrient for the yeast to feed on...Also, some black tea can help increase the tannin content...

I know I know,,,tannins are a flaw in beer in most cases,,,except this isn't a traditional "beer".
 
You're not the only person interested in homebrewing on Bali...I didn't think you would be....

I just went to google and typed in Homebrew Supplies Bali, and came up with this info not a lot, but at least some folks to contact.

There's at least 2 people on this forum who are doing stuff, Andre and Jiin, in THIS thread. Jiin even mentions some bottle conditioned beer in Bali that the yeast can be harvested from.

He also writes a blog evidently called Home Brewing in Bali, and he talks about alternative ingredients that can be used.

I would contact Jiin and Andre on here to try to hook up with them.....

Jin even has a recipe for a millet based beer on that blog.

In this forum, and guy named Sammi in Bali is brewing cooper's kits, so he must be getting them someplace.....

One thing I would do is let this thread die, the title is too Obtuse, and I would start a new thread with a title like "Homebrewing in Bali/Indonesia" or "I'd Like to Homebrew and I live in Bali, help!" and asking for info, help and connections. The title of this thread is going to cause it to be ignored for various reasons (like you're making hooch, or you are a cheapskate) threads like that don't get a lot of traffic. But if you have a title that is more specific people who have info, and can help would be more apt to see the thread. We have 40,000 members on here worldwide, and with this thread title here, you are only going to get a few folks on here.
 
Look up baking supplies. Chances are one of the suppliers has malt syrup...
 
Have you tried the Homebrew shop at Ventura's Surf Brewery? Looks pretty nice.

Oops.. I saw Ventura, CA.. and I misread Bali as Ball, CA.. where the city leaders were so corrupt.. sorry about the mixup.
 
Revvy said:
You're not the only person interested in homebrewing on Bali...I didn't think you would be....

I just went to google and typed in Homebrew Supplies Bali, and came up with this info not a lot, but at least some folks to contact.

There's at least 2 people on this forum who are doing stuff, Andre and Jiin, in THIS thread. Jiin even mentions some bottle conditioned beer in Bali that the yeast can be harvested from.

He also writes a blog evidently called Home Brewing in Bali, and he talks about alternative ingredients that can be used.

I would contact Jiin and Andre on here to try to hook up with them.....

Jin even has a recipe for a millet based beer on that blog.

In this forum, and guy named Sammi in Bali is brewing cooper's kits, so he must be getting them someplace.....

One thing I would do is let this thread die, the title is too Obtuse, and I would start a new thread with a title like "Homebrewing in Bali/Indonesia" or "I'd Like to Homebrew and I live in Bali, help!" and asking for info, help and connections. The title of this thread is going to cause it to be ignored for various reasons (like you're making hooch, or you are a cheapskate) threads like that don't get a lot of traffic. But if you have a title that is more specific people who have info, and can help would be more apt to see the thread. We have 40,000 members on here worldwide, and with this thread title here, you are only going to get a few folks on here.
Click to expand...

Thanks a million for this response. You are right, I should start a new thread and I will contact Jin as well.
 

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