garbage pail beer?

Just an idea I had cause im always coming up with strange ideas as I lay in bed trying to sleep.

For the next 5 brews I make, do a second sparge of 1gal, collect and store/freeze until I have 5gal from 5 batches. Throw it all into my pot and boil it down to 2.5 gal.
"Garbage Pail Ale"?

The third running will give me a low OG, but if I boil for quite a while I might get a respectable gravity. Thoughts?

Beer for free, basically - free lunch (liquid type). Might work, please keep us posted.

I'm sure someone on here will say why it's A Bad Idea, but I think it's awesome! Definitely a way to pinch every penny out of homebrewing, that's for sure. You could call it Garbage Pail Kinderbier!

Seriously.

I don't think it would be worth the time, energy and propane.

If you are getting runnings at 1010 then you'll need to need to boil of 75% to get a 1040 beer.

But if it's in the name of fun, discovery and learning then why not.

I guess you can always try it, but I would think you would end up with sour beer. Storing the wort for that long would invite a bacterial infection if you stored the wort cold for that long. Sure, you would get rid of the bacteria when you boiled the wort, the byproducts of bacteria infection would remain. On top of that, there might not be any more fermentables left after the bacteria was done with it. I'm assuming you are planning on storing that first batch for about a month until you get the other last runnings from other batches.

Freezing might work though....if you have room for all that dilute wort.

I'd be interested to hear how it works out.

Rock on dude... I'd drink it!

Wouldn't it be kinda weird bc it'd be a gallon from a bunch of different styles?

It's kinda like when you were a kid and would mix all the different sodas together from a fast food soda fountian and call it a suicide.

In the interest of experimentation...why not? I'd personally not try such things, because even if it worked out well, it'd still be a ton of trouble for essentially what you could get out of a few pounds of new grain. Maybe if my time was infinite and "free", but it's not.

Evan! said:

In the interest of experimentation...why not? I'd personally not try such things, because even if it worked out well, it'd still be a ton of trouble for essentially what you could get out of a few pounds of new grain. Maybe if my time was infinite and "free", but it's not.

Click to expand...

Heh.. I like your posts too much.

bluechip101 said:

It's kinda like when you were a kid and would mix all the different sodas together from a fast food soda fountian and call it a suicide.

Click to expand...

Heh, you mixed the sodas? We mixed the syrups !

Mmmm and to think of all those frozen food tastes seeping into the frozen worts.

Ever get a foul tasting ice cube from the other frozen food in the freezer? Nothing like turkey tasting beer.

- WW

I know this isn't exactly what you have in mind, but check out this link to a discussion of "prison wine" which is also an ad hoc combination of ingredients:
http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000373.php

deharris said:

I know this isn't exactly what you have in mind, but check out this link to a discussion of "prison wine" which is also an ad hoc combination of ingredients:
http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000373.php

Click to expand...

This is more like Apfelwein.. I want to try the Apfelwein recipe with something other than apple juice, I'm not a big fan of apple juice.

El_Borracho said:

This is more like Apfelwein...

Click to expand...

Throwing moldy bread into a bunch of random sugary ingredients IS NOT apfelwein!!!

Yuri_Rage said:

Throwing moldy bread into a bunch of random sugary ingredients IS NOT apfelwein!!!

Click to expand...

I came back to edit my post, I knew it would mis-understood. My apologies I'm very much looking forward to a cup of apfelwein.

So can I make it with a different fruit juice? Or would it still not be apfelwein?

El_Borracho said:

I came back to edit my post, I knew it would mis-understood. My apologies I'm very much looking forward to a cup of apfelwein.

So can I make it with a different fruit juice? Or would it still not be apfelwein?

Click to expand...

It requires apple juice to be considered apfelwein. Have you tried it before? I'm fairly certain you could despise apple juice and still enjoy this drink. I like grape juice and hate red wine, so why can't it work in reverse?

Back on topic, I'd be curious to see how something like that would taste. If you actually have the free time to do this, then I say go for it. I'd personally use the time to make good beer, but for the sake of science, it could be interesting. You will probably need to equip yourself with some DME to get any sort of respectable ABV out of it though.

shunoshi said:

It requires apple juice to be considered apfelwein. Have you tried it before? I'm fairly certain you could despise apple juice and still enjoy this drink. I like grape juice and hate red wine, so why can't it work in reverse?

Click to expand...

No I haven't tried it yet. I'm thinking of making 1gal of it in a Carlo Rossi wine jug. Not sure on how to divide the yeast though..

El_Borracho said:

This is more like Apfelwein.. I want to try the Apfelwein recipe with something other than apple juice, I'm not a big fan of apple juice.

Click to expand...

I hope EdWort doesn't read this and bust a vein...Apfelwein has very little in common with prison wine, other than being a fermented beverage. It's really good stuff, and it's hard to believe such a refined product can be the result of such a simple process.

Don't worry about not liking apple juice, as completed Apfelwein is VERY dry, and bears very little resemblance to the juice it's made from. I've had a few people taste it and not even realize it was made from apples. The most common comparison is to champagne...personally, I like it more than most champagne.

EdWort, if you do read this please pardon my ignorance. I was simply making a relation to the simplicity of the process. No way did I want to ridicule apfelwein. Also bear in mind I'm pretty new to this. I just sort of realized that a lot of you really understand the quality of the products you're producing.

Damn you guys have me feeling all guilty about it.. I'll have to make the first batch from apple juice.

Back on track...garbage pail small beer sounds like an interesting experiment, but I'm not holding my breath for the results. It's an awful lot of work and/or fridge space to make a little 3.2 beer.

It's not a bad idea. Where do you live? If you're up north, you could just put it in gallon water jugs and place it on your back porch to freeze.

What they used to do was take the second runnings and add yeast without boiling down It was called "small beer" which they gave to the kids. Now they call it Miller Lite which you give to your friends.

rohanski said:

What they used to do was take the second runnings and add yeast without boiling down It was called "small beer" which they gave to the kids. Now they call it Miller Lite which you give to your friends.

Click to expand...

I thought about you when I read this thread.. I figured if these guys can make decent booze with dirty socks and moldy bread..there is no reason for you to have so many bad batches..

I think there are lot of closet infections. LOL
Come out of the closet guys.

And don't forget about the ***** beer.

I can't make the pure economics work, but it certainly does sound like fun, and what does fun have to do with pure economics? I don't think you would have a problem with contamination if you do a mashout, chill the runnings, and freeze them in sanitized containers. Mashout temperatures should kill just about anything in there.

For extra grins, use hop suey in your boil.


TL

I do not see the extra labor bearing much fruit.
However, here's my 2 cents:
I would boil your 1 extra gallon of runnings in a separate pot while you were boiling your regular batch (maybe add some hops), so you'd have less to freeze/store and less work when you get to making your 2.5 gallon batch. Then when you up to your 5th batch (and 5th extra gallon), you can add all the previous batches to it and you can add whatever additional hops you want (including flavor and aroma).

This still seems like alot of work.

You may be better off running off the extra gallon of wort, boiling down to 1/2 gallon and hopping (while your reg batch is going), and fermenting it at the same time as your 5 gallon batch in a 1 gallon glass jug. That way, you'll still get extra beer, you don't have to store/freeze it, you don't have to worry about infection, and its not a blond-stout-hefe-porter-pale-dunkel-bock ale.

You could use it for starters...

what about this:

Take the last running from how ever many batches you want and boil them down to a super-malty syrup adjunct for adding to your beers to give them more of a malt character. I think they do this for Scotch Ales, only they use part of the mash. Here you could just add some syrup from your boil-down. Bugs wouldn't grow in it since the sugar concentration will be really high.

Boil it, can it, and:

1. Use it for starters (boil down first)
2. Use it for krausening (boil down first)
3. Use it for making small beer/garbage pail ale
4. Use it for cooking?
5. Use it for other crazy experiments?

I say go for it.

broadbill said:

what about this:

Take the last running from how ever many batches you want and boil them down to a super-malty syrup adjunct for adding to your beers to give them more of a malt character. I think they do this for Scotch Ales, only they use part of the mash. Here you could just add some syrup from your boil-down. Bugs wouldn't grow in it since the sugar concentration will be really high.

Click to expand...

That's like a boil down from 1 gallon to 6 ounces! I wonder how long that would take?

Wow, i didn't expect this much interest in Pail Ale. Economics really has nothing to do with it, although if you do consider economics the only cost is really propane. I think I'm going to try this out. I only brew about once a month, so by the end of winter I should have enough to play with. A friend of mine is coming home around thanksgiving and were going to brew up a doppelbock ale. That should be a good start as the 3rd running should still have a decent amount of sugar left in them.

One final thought. Everyone should collect 1/2gal of so 3rd runnings for the next few weeks and send them to me. I'll make up a batch of Pail Ale and send a few bottles back to everyone? Eh, Eh?

iamjonsharp said:

That's like a boil down from 1 gallon to 6 ounces! I wonder how long that would take?

Click to expand...

Well, to be fair...it didn't sound like this guy was interested in practicality....the practical solution would to be to trash it w/ the spent grains and not think anymore about it

Yes, I think it would take a long time, especially if he had collected the last runnings from multiple batches...

syvmn said:

Economics really has nothing to do with it, although if you do consider economics the only cost is really propane.

Click to expand...

You're missing one very important cost which for some, including me, is the most important, and that is time. The time it would take to pull third runnings off your next 10 batches of beer, boil them down to something useful, care for them so they remain usable and uninfected (freezing, etc.) and have an extra brew day for "Pail Ale" is more time than most are willing to put in for highly questionable results.

If you have that commodity then I say go for it. Other than time (and propane), most everything else is already paid for.

Those third runnings also will have a lot of tannins in them due to higher PH values at low gravity readings.

Be nice for an experminent though.

broadbill said:

Well, to be fair...it didn't sound like this guy was interested in practicality....the practical solution would to be to trash it w/ the spent grains and not think anymore about it

Yes, I think it would take a long time, especially if he had collected the last runnings from multiple batches...

Click to expand...

Haha, it almost makes me want to try this to see how long it takes. It might work if you just let it boil down while you are making your regular batch, but I'd probably just forget about it and end up burning it, and stinking up the whole house.