Strange find

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C'mon Chester,

Your killing us here, it has been 5 days already. Spill on what you have found?
Suspense, suspense, suspense.....:mug:
 
+1 subscribed. Anyone find it odd that Chester hasn't posted in a few days. I'm guessing it's probably 1 of 2 reasons.....either the stuff was really, really good or really, really bad.
 
IXVolt said:
Lets hope Chester didn't die...
Click to expand...

For real. I thought for sure by page 12 there would be a conlcusion to this! Very very cool find. I don't find it creepy at all. At the very worst you got a sweet carboy find. But you might also have a major wine score. I can't wait to see how this ends up.
 
You guys do know that rather than post "subscribed" 100+ times, there is an option under thread tools that says "Subscribe to this thread"? I'm just saying, it's there if you ever want to use it...
 
Ok dude, if you're scared to taste I'll volunteer my tastebuds.

Of course... that'll mean a large portion of the wine/ beer is mine if it's aged gracefully.

Unless, of course, it was acid and you drank a pint and died.

Just sayin...
 
Sorry for the delay. Its been a long week... We finally got the green light to work on this house. We have to get the place cleared out before we can work and unfortunately the basement hasn't been a priority. I did get to investigate some of the carboys though. It is mostly wine - white concord grape some flavored with plum, blackberry, and pear, at least that is what I could make out on the labels. Its mostly vinegar now. He used natural cork stoppers taped in with several wraps of masking tape. They pretty much crumbled at the touch. Some of the carboys have lots of bugs floating in them. The one that I found that was beer (I think) had a good layer of mold on the top. I've only had the nerve to try one so far, It was a plain white concord grape. It was a pretty sour and musty, It smelled better than it tasted and not something I would drink. It was way worse than Manischewitz..

I found a couple hydrometers, a couple Erlenmeyer flasks, a copy of "tested recipes with blue ribbon malt extract", a copy of "A Treatise on Lager Beers", the remnants of a couple wine art wine kits, some mimeographed beer recipes of the "1 can malt, 4 lbs sugar warm water and stir" variety. there were no other books on wine or beer in the whole house. I also visited the old mans farm this week and discovered the source of at least some of the grapes. There are about 5 grape vines that have engulfed a crumbling arbor and half of the garage it is attached too.

I got some of the story through our contact. He said that the old man didn't know that white concord grapes don't make the best wine and gave up after awhile.

Hopefully I will get authorized to buy the carboys from the estate and deal with the mess next week.
 
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Bummer. Kind of makes sense though. I wouldn't call 1970 the peak of home wine making. If he was a serious wine maker, and it was good wine, that stuff would have been bottled and stored properly.
 
Hang onto the directions for the Blue ribbon stuff, including the mimmeographes sheets. I just listened to one of the intenet radion broadc asts thursday during my 10 gal brewday, and they were talking about how the company (before legality) would send you a set of recipes for muffins, etc. - then a bit later, with no return address, would send actual beer recipes on mimmeographs. Could be worth collecting. :mug:

I'll take them if you want to send. PM me if interested.

Dave
 
Chester said:
I found a couple hydrometers, a couple Erlenmeyer flasks, a copy of "tested recipes with blue ribbon malt extract", a copy of "A Treatise on Lager Beers", the remnants of a couple wine art wine kits, some mimeographed beer recipes of the "1 can malt, 4 lbs sugar warm water and stir" variety. there were no other books on wine or beer in the whole house. I also visited the old mans farm this week and discovered the source of at least some of the grapes. There are about 5 grape vines that have engulfed a crumbling arbor and half of the garage it is attached too.
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Actually the "tested recipes with Blueribbon Malt extract" and the mimeograph sheets are a prettty cool find if you are a homebrew historian. Those are "Pre-Prohibition" finds.

A little of their history...
There were also those who sold beer-related products with a wink and a nod. For instance, Premier Malt Products shipped malt extract under a variety of names - Blue Ribbon and Banner were two of them - out of Peoria Heights, Ill., starting in 1925. And when Prohibition ended, Premier Pabst Corp. went immediately to making beer in Peoria Heights.
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They were the company that if you wrote requesting baking recipes, they sent you that book;

167f810ae7a09215f4379110._AA240_.L.jpg


THEN if you were interested in the "other" things you could make with their produc , this is what happened.

Around 1975 or '76, the first time I got interested in brewing, I bought a can of the mysterious Blue Ribbon malt syrup. The label invited me to write to Premier malt products for a recipe book, and I did. A few weeks later it arrived: a well-produced, four-color print job with recipes for using malt syrup in cakes, cookies, biscuits and the like, but not a word about making beer. A few weeks later a plain brown envelope with no return address appeared in the mail. Inside were two mimeographed sheets of beer recipes---including this recipe.
Ingredients:
1-3/4 pounds, sugar
1 can, Blue Ribbon hop-flavored malt syrup
yeast
Procedure:
Dissolve sugar and malt syrup in 6 quarts of hot water. Stir until dissolved. Pour 14 quarts of cold water into a crock that has been scoured with Arm & Hammer baking soda and rinsed with clear water. Add hot solution of malt, sugar, and water. The temperature should be about 65F. Dissolve a cake of compressed or dehydrated yeast in a small quantity of luke warm water (about 8 ounces of 75F water) and add to crock. Stir thoroughly. Cover crock with clean cloth and allow to ferment 4 or 5 days. Skim off foam after first and second days. Siphon beer into 12 ounce bottles. Before siphoning, place a scant 1/2 teaspoon of sugar into each bottle. Cap and allow to remain at 60-70F for 7-10 days. Cool and consume.
Things to remember: Cleanliness of utensils, including bottles, siphon hose, crowns and crock is essential for good results. Wash everything in soda solution or detergentbefore and after each batch. A 7 or 9 gallon crock can be used to prevent messy foam-over.

Many consumer failures can be averted by using a starter consisting of: 1 package of yeast, 2 ounces of sugar, 1 pint of 72F water. Let starter stand for 3-4 hours before mixing into crock with malt solution.
Click to expand...


If you want to hear about actual homebrewers who used it in the 70's (including charlie Papazian) listen to this Basicbrewing podcast from a couple years back.

Charlie Papazian shares a bit of homebrew history 30 years after legislation legalizing home brewing passed Congress. Also, home brewer Robb Holmes talks about brewing when it was breaking the law.

Just click to start listenning.

http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr02-14-08history.mp3
Click to expand...

I know it's not as exciting as several hundred carboys full of drinkable wine...but it is pretty neat.
 
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i need a find like that so bad lol, if i had 20 carboys i'd use my buckets for household cleaning jobs. i have so many wine and mead ideas and haven't started doing many of them because of my lack of carboys. great find, i hope you give those beauties a good home and keep them safe, happy and full of homebrew and or wine. thanks for posting such an awesome find
 
Glad to hear some news- even if it wasn't as wild and crazy as we hoped...fingers crossed you can get the carboys! If they are going into an estate sale, you should be able to get first dibbs from the family, right?
 
Maybe it's blood!!!! AAARRRGGHH.....
Could be some really good vinegar. I would try to contact the owner and find out what it is.
 
I am saving everything wine or beer related I can find. I will collect it all together and photograph/scan everything. the "blue ribbon" recipe book is interesting. they had about 5 different extracts, all hopped but one. The recipes recommend using hopped extract in things like bread...

I found a can of malt extract yesterday... It had exploded on the shelf. sticky moldy goo everywhere!
 
I still think you could market some of the more vinegar-y wines to local food boutiques/small restaurants as "Small Batch Vintage Vinegar" Those crazy Portland foodies will go wild for that stuff....
 

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