Making an "ALL" home brew?

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Just wondering.. But is is possible to make a Home brew... that tastes good, from ingredients gathered or grown completely on your own property? Using home grown Hops, barleys, wheats, naturally occouring yeast, well drawn water. I realize it is possible and probably how most ancient beers were made. But I am just interested in tasting a beer made with an ancient techniques/ingredients. But using modern equipment and sterilization and so on... I.e. I would like to in some way find the beer to be drinkable.

Just a post Dooms day expiriment I suppose. If all that was left was my family, could I truly make my own beer starting with good soil?? and more importantly.. would I like it?

what would this look like and how would I go about finding the right ingredents to grow. how would naturally occourng yeast be harvested or applied? where would I get the right grain? Wild grain? lots of questions.
 
All that is possible. You can grow your own hops and barley. You have to learn to malt your own grain and roast your own malt, but there is info out there to learn about those things.

The one I would really worry about is the yeast. I would not be very excited about letting my home produced wort get ruined by some nasty local yeast.
 
Absolutely it is possible. You hear about all grain brewers testing their well water, culturing their own yeast, growing their own hops, even malting their own barley all the time. But that would be a lot of effort. I think we sometimes take for granted the work involved in the provision of our ingredients, like malts and hops. So perhaps it is worth thinking about what would be involved in truly doing a brew from scratch (just to be 'philosophical' about it, I mean!).

:)
 
First off, yes, it's possible. Would it produce good beer? Probably not. Would it be prohibitively expensive to undertake such a thing? Probably so.

First off you'd need to have the land and the correct growing conditions for the barley, wheat and hops. Then you'd need to harvest and dry the hops, not that big of a deal. The big deal would come with the malting process. Professional maltsters these days make highly-modified malt, and they do it well. To get anywhere near their quality level would take a large investment of time and money on your part, I would guess.

And last but not least, the commercially available beer yeasts that are used to make the vast majority of beers today aren't the same ones that are floating around in the air. If you tried to naturally harvest wild yeast, you'd end up with something that, at best, resembled Belgian Geuze - very sour and dry. I've had batches get infected before, and they become just that---sour and dry.

So, yeah, possible, but not recommended. I had a friend who thought about doing this until I reminded him what an undertaking it would be to harvest and malt enough barley to make even a single batch of beer.
 
If you culture your own yeast, which is easy to do, you would be OK on the yeast front. I was reading your post as asking if you could spontaneously ferment, like the Belgium brewers. That is what I would avoid. Culturing yeast yourself is a fun side line of this hobby and worth at least learning the basics of.
 
Yeah, the yeast is the difficult element - but if you can maintain an extremely sanitary environment, you can keep a strain going for a long time. I wouldn't toy around with wild yeasts unless you happen to live near a brewery in Belgium.

There are some brewers who have begun experimenting with malting their own barley, I think Basic Brewing Radio did a podcast on that sometime fairly recently. Now, how you would go about creating all of the different specialty malts one might like to have for a brew, that would be a challenge (kilning at precise temperatures, etc), but it's theoretically do-able - and just making a base malt is something that people do (although no one here that I am aware of).

I would wager than at least half of the "regulars" here have at least experimented with growing our own hops.
 
I see I misread the bit about the yeast. Yes, BrewPastor is correct that this could be the 'rate limiting step' in the all homegrown homebrew equation.
 
I'd say yes. I know a guy that makes potato beer. Haven't tried tasting it yet so I can't say how good it tastes. Probably not that great he's more interested in alcohol level than great taste.

He use's Flischmann's dried yeast for both his wine and beer.

Also you could easily grow your own corn. But moonshine might taste better than the beer.
 
I seem to recall something from one of Papazian's books about the Peruvian(?) corn beer recipe. The corn doesn't develop the enzyzmes required for starch conversion by malting, so the corn is chewed (in someone's mouth) and spit into a pot. The enzymes in the saliva convert the starches. The yeast source for this already delighful sounding brew? The feces of an unweaned infant child. Turns out the yeast in the feces is our good buddy saccharomyces cerevisiae.
 
raceskier said:
I seem to recall something from one of Papazian's books about the Peruvian(?) corn beer recipe. The corn doesn't develop the enzyzmes required for starch conversion by malting, so the corn is chewed (in someone's mouth) and spit into a pot. The enzymes in the saliva convert the starches. The yeast source for this already delighful sounding brew? The feces of an unweaned infant child. Turns out the yeast in the feces is our good buddy saccharomyces cerevisiae.

It's Chicha.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicha
 
The barley & hops would be easy enough. Malting barleys run 4000 lbs per acre, so you wouldn't need too much space. They are both heavy feeders, so throw in a few cows. They can eat the stalks, trub & spent grains.
 
I can understand the OP's idea with this post. its not that unlikely that we could all be thrust into a post apocalyptic world in the not too distant future. (tinfoil hat is ON, by the way). And to be able to do the full process from start to finish would be pretty effing invaluable in the future no-tech trader/hunter/gatherer society. If I could make my own beer out of my property, I'd be a very hot commodity in a world that doesn't have money anymore.
 
I will be trying to make beer from my own ingredients in the not too distant future. Since good yeast is so critical I plan on using commercial yeast, but may do a culture from a previous beer to make it feel more my own. The hops are easy and I am lucky that my father raises malt barley. The tricky part is the malting and removing the grasshopper guts from the raw barley;) (I think vegetarians would be appalled if the knew how many bugs get smashed against grains before it is screened)

Below are some links I have found on malting. I see no reason it can’t taste great. I think the only issue may be poor efficiency if the malting isn’t just right.

http://***********/feature/284.html

http://homebrewinghobby.blogspot.com/2007/03/malting-at-home.html

http://www.strangebrew.ca/Drew/floormalt.html
 
A little known fact about the yeast cultivation and "spontaneous air borne yeast" is... well actually, breweries did not have their beer ferment from air borne yeasts. In fact, the breweries had wooden paddles with which they stirred their cool wort, and on these wooden spoons (in effect) that certain breweries strain of yeast was growing. So it was on these spoons that they handed down from brew master to brew master that they managed to get consistent, and DIFFERENT types of yeast propagation from brewery to brewery around the same town.

It is also why yeast was not included in that funny german law :) on another note, most of today modern yeasts are strains salvaged from those paddles, for instance kolsh and weinstephan....

just somthing for you guys to know :) but yes, wild yeast is yeck

:mug:
 
I think some of you are begining to understand my thoughts here. But I want to go deeper. I AM talking Post apocalyptic. Nothing Commercial is possible. I would Have to "find" a yeast. Considering the grocery stores have been burned out from Neucular annialation, I could not get it there. So where would I get it?

How would I roast the Barley? Pan fried? How did they do it back before beer was commercially brewed? Back when Beer was a household staple like bread. Assuming the bread was unyeasted.

Lots to think about here. because after the bombs come.. I going to need a beer real bad. Of course I could just make a trek out to colorado and see if any brewmasters survived.. we could band together.

Perhaps the name of my brewery can be "first brewery of the apocalypse".
 
John Sanderson said:
because after the bombs come.. I going to need a beer real bad.
:rockin:

Personally, I would rummage thru the remains of every beer store i could find and try to find unmolested bottles of non-filtered brews, and cultivate from there. But that is just my "postmodern" approach to the end of the modern world.... you know; from the ashes springs new life... and all that hooey!

But barring that, I say where there's a will, there's a way. You'd develop a new strain of yeast for your post-apocalyptic brew. It might taste different, but sooner or later you'll get some consistency, and your palette will adjust.
 
You wouldn't have much control. For instance, you could forget about keeping track of IBU's because you wouldn't know the alpha content of your hops.

You can forget about using a lot of adjuncts, at least at first, because you wouldn't know the diastatic power of your grains.

However, if you just want to make a good tasting beer, assuming you cultured your own yeasts and just use the basic malted barley, maybe some wheat, and hops, I don't think there would be any problem. I would say it is very doable.

And I bet the final product, after some practice with your ingredients, could be as good as any other homebrew.
 
I think you'll end up with a lot of sour beers, so I hope you like lambics!

Practically speaking (a ridiculous notion in this conversation, I know ;)), I think you'd end up making a lot of hard cider. Lots easier to collect and press apples than to malt barley, and lots easier to ferment.
 
I don't get it. What is so hard about maintaining a yeast bank?

Seems to me you could maintain strains of yeast pretty easily, making your own slants and stuff...

Surely, in a post-apocalyptic situation, your LHBS yeast wouldn't have been decimated. Just get the last remaining vials and go to work...
 
I forgot.

Are we answering in present day or in Thunderdome?
or Waterword?
or


mutants.jpg

I was the only one left on the planet after the holocaust, eh?

The earth had been, like, devastated by nuclear war. Like, Russia blew
up the US and the US blew up Russia.

Lucky for me I'd been off-planet on vacation at the time of the war.
There wasn't much to do. All the bowling alleys had been wrecked, so
I spent most of my time looking for beer. One day I was out looking
for a nice place to build a city for my children when I spotted a
mutant in the forbidden zone. I landed my vehicle to pursue and
destroy this genetic freak before he could warn other mutants in the
underground caves. I was kind of like a one man force, eh, like
Charlton Heston in Omega Men, did you see that? It was a beauty.
 
I have about 40 sealed glass vials that a goverment lab in Illinois sent me. Each one contains a little freeze dried plug of yeast. Each plug is from a pure yeast culture. They culture up very easily and have a longer shelf life then I do. So when the bomb drops, or more likely the bird flu starts knocking us out, I will have my little yeasties to keep me company.
 
the_bird said:
I think you'll end up with a lot of sour beers, so I hope you like lambics!

Practically speaking (a ridiculous notion in this conversation, I know ;)), I think you'd end up making a lot of hard cider. Lots easier to collect and press apples than to malt barley, and lots easier to ferment.

I think a lot of us homebrewers would learn the art of distillation very quickly. If you end up with bad beer you can turn it into good whiskey.

Another problem we would face is no electricity or gas, no running to the station to fill up on propane. All of your brewing would be on open flames, maintaining temps by removing it and placing it back on the fire. There would be a lot of hurdles to overcome but I think a lot of us would find a way to make alcohol out of something.
 
Damn Squirrels said:
I don't get it. What is so hard about maintaining a yeast bank?

Seems to me you could maintain strains of yeast pretty easily, making your own slants and stuff...

Surely, in a post-apocalyptic situation, your LHBS yeast wouldn't have been decimated. Just get the last remaining vials and go to work...

Fortunately, I have the key to LHBS!! I'd WALK down there, just to get the little Yeasties, and save what I could. (And every DROP of honey!) I'd also grab the dried yeasts, (like the Safale S-05, 04, and a WHOLE BUNCH of the dry wine ones) Those dry yeasts are shelf stable for quite a few years AFTER the date. (I've got some Nottingham from 2004, and it is still good.)

Unfortunately, the owner lives 1/2 mile away, and he may not approve of my "borrowing."

(I wonder if a "key" is kind of a moot point, with the glass door, and LARGE glass windows?)( This is the "Apocalypse" after all.) :mug:

steve
 
When I first learned about the concept of "apocalypse" as a kid I was terrified- almost psychologically messed up for a long time. Now I'm excited for it, I can't wait! Sooner the better, I say! Gonna grow food and... uh, herbs... and make beer and whetver the hell I want. I've got an agrarian jones! "leeeeet the sun shiiiine!":ban:
 
Look at it like this.

You need to buy in the hop seeds or rhizome.
You need to buy in the barley seeds
You need to et in the water or collect rain water

So why would the yeast be different? Salvage buy in a small amount and cultivate it.
 
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