Brewing beer in Istanbul? (First all-grain beer)

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and pretty new to homebrewing as well. I just made a move from beer-rich Wisconsin to Istanbul, Turkey, and the local beer available (Efes) just isn't cutting it for me. I know I can brew something better at home. I've only brewed twice before, once from a kit, and once from a recipe with malt extract and a whole home-brewing store's resources at hand.

As you can imagine, home-brewing in Turkey hasn't quite taken off yet, so I'll be doing everything from scratch -- this will be my first all-grain beer. I know I can't get malt extract, and I'm searching for hops. Right now, I'm just trying to track down the needed ingredients. This is going to be very much a DIY beer, and I'd like your help.

I know I can get barley (arpa) here, but I don't know if it's 2-row or 6-row. For germination, is it all right if I just crack the grains with a rolling pin at home, or will I need to find someone with access to some sort of grinder instead?

I'm also looking for hops (şerbetçi otu). So far, I've only found dried hops at a couple spice stores. The ones I've found are brown, very dry, and fragile. They still have some aroma, but nothing compared to the pellets I've seen before. How fresh do hops need to be? I also, of course, have no idea what sort of hops they are.

Assuming I only have access to one unidentified type of barley and one unidentified type of hops, how can I make a good beer? Any tips for recipes?

My other thought was trying to get some barley, hops, or malt extract imported from other, more home-brewing friendly, European countries (maybe Germany, Austria, or Slovenia?). Does anyone have any recommendations for companies to contact or websites to visit for international shipping?

Thanks for your help; this is going to be an interesting process for me.

I believe Turkey is a member of the E.U. (I think) You should be able to get hops and yeast shipped from other part of europe with no problems. I'd also check out Turkey's homebrewing laws, as being almost a "secular" muslim country, they *may* have prohibiting laws. I think most european barley is 2 row. I think 6 row barley is primarily an American thing. There's lots of qualities of barley out there... most, I hear, make good beer. Its just a matter of how much efficiency and chill haze you'll get in the final produce. Oh... you'll want to figure out it the barley is "malted" though... unmalted barley will not convert to sugars... crack about a pound of it, dump it in 1.25 qts of 170 F water and let is steep for 1 hour. If the "wort" tastes sweet-ish after an hour, then I'd say the barley is malted, and ready for brewing.

I'm brewing in Croatia and put a lot of info on ordering online in this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/smuggling-hops-138746/

If I were you, I'd try to see about using local grain then ship the stuff that's not so heavy like hops and such.

In addition to all that, If I were you, I'd order Fermentis Safale S 04 or US 05 to use as your yeast for the time being. Steinbart's has those for $1.95 a pack. Brouwland, I think, has them for almost twice that.

Me? I'm using Wyeast 1056 that I brought from the States and repitching it. See the yeast washing thread if you're curious. I have dry yeast on the way as a backup, then will order some Wyeast from Brouwland once it cools down more, like in early November or so I think.

The hardest thing for me here was finding everything I needed. People in Turkey make Raki, right? We call it Rakija here. DO they make wine? You can likely find a lot of fermenters, buckets, hydrometers and such there if they do. And for me here, the home improvement stores are a good friend for various hoses and such. They have food grade for water too.

Anyway, hope it goes well. Keep your chin up and have some patience and sure you can work it all out.

I'm new to Istanbul and have the same void. There is a decent brewery I found, but costly. I would rather do my own. How has your search developed?

I am travelling there very soon! Interesting timing OP, you said "For Germination.... cracking the grain... grinder...." or something along those lines. You might want to do some more reading, unless that was a typo. Germination has nothing to do with grinding, or cracking.

Read up on MALTING barley, you will need to do this before worrying about your grain crush my friend.

Personally, I would not even think about using those old dry hops that they probably sell for tea out there in a beer recipe. I also would not begin to imagine myself malting my own barley unless I had tons of space and spare time.... its not a simple process. Hopefully buddy from Croatia had some info you could use, it would be awesome for you to be able to brew over there. Who knows? Eventually you may find others and you could do a big international group buy?

Best of luck!!

There is tons of info out there, read as much as you can about malting barley. You said you have access to some barely; it would be a matter of malting it yourself.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/happiness-home-malting-107409/

As for the specialty grains, you can just spread some malted barley on a baking sheet, and bake it in the oven, this makes most basic specialty malts. Crystal malts are a little harder, but basically raw barely that is baked for various amounts of time and at different degrees.

http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=video
(I couldn’t find the video but the above think has a video that shows a simple way of making some basic specialty malts).

If for example, you cannot sufficiently modify the barely you can always learn to do a 3 step decoction and still get very good beer. I recently did this with a 2 gallon batch of lager (just to see if I could) and it came out amazing!

As for the hops and such, that is ruff! I think you will have to order those if you cannot find them over there. Or if there are pines around make some spruce tip beer, or play around with some old ales that had flowers in them for bittering and other spices that I am sure I would be excited to brew with because they would be alien to me.

You don’t really need airlocks; I am sure you can find a rubber stopper (drill a hole in it) and make a blow off that can work for the whole stage of fermentation. The fermenter can be a plastic number 1 or 2 plastic water jug (if they are available over there) or a bucket.

Bottling can be done without a bottling wand, though it is harder can be done. PET bottles can be used avoiding bottle caps and capper.

This will even give you so much more satisfaction than us spoiled brewers in the States that should learn how to malt, but do not because of the convenience of selection here.

I would take it as a challenge, and if you do enough research you should be opening a bottle of homebrew in no time.

Best of luck!

beretta said:

I believe Turkey is a member of the E.U. (I think) You should be able to get hops and yeast shipped from other part of europe with no problems. I'd also check out Turkey's homebrewing laws, as being almost a "secular" muslim country, they *may* have prohibiting laws. I think most european barley is 2 row. I think 6 row barley is primarily an American thing. There's lots of qualities of barley out there... most, I hear, make good beer. Its just a matter of how much efficiency and chill haze you'll get in the final produce. Oh... you'll want to figure out it the barley is "malted" though... unmalted barley will not convert to sugars... crack about a pound of it, dump it in 1.25 qts of 170 F water and let is steep for 1 hour. If the "wort" tastes sweet-ish after an hour, then I'd say the barley is malted, and ready for brewing.

Click to expand...

Turkey is not in the EU, they wish the were but they are not yet.

Hi. I'm about to brew my first batch in Istanbul, just about have all the materials and supplies together. I saw your post from 2009. Are you still in Istanbul? Did you have any luck with your brews

Would love to hear your experiences. ( I tried to send you a message but it said your mailbox is full and not accepting any messages)

Hi, just seen this thread (I realise it goes back a long time), but I'm based in Istanbul and have been making full mash beers here for several years. I bring all the raw materials in from the UK. We're just about to up the size of brewing with a craft brewery and as a result will be bringing in larger quantities of malt & hops. We also plan to do some malting here. I can probably help you with supply of materials if you need.

Hi Vanskit, just sent you a private message. Happy to read your post and hope we can get in touch.

Hey guys just moved to turkey. I was the brewer for a small brewpub in the states and I'm going crazy not brewing right now. What sort of supplies have you all when able to find? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi Wilden! I got all my things shipped here, or I brought them myself. There's really nothing here, nor really any culture of making beer. I have just made one batch so far, getting ready for my second, but have to wait till it cools off a bit I think. I'll send you a private message, perhaps we can discuss more.

Hello,

I am student at the Solvay Business School in Belgium and, as a senior, I am a member of the organization INISOL. With this organization, we are currently organizing a Trade Mission to Istanbul, Turkey, which will take place from the 24th of February until the 16th of March.

During this mission I will be representing Brouwland. Brouwland is a Belgian company that provides all the necessities to prepare artisanal products. It is a specialized supplier of equipment for brewers, winemakers, cheese making … for both professional usage as hobbyist usage and they mainly focus on the smaller producers, such as brewpubs, small scale brewers and small wineries.

My assignment is to look for potential customers and find distributors to sell the products of Brouwland. I wonder if anyone is willing to help me with my market research. If you could tell me the names of some companies / retailers that are selling, producing or distributing equipment for brewers or winemakers in Turkey, it would be of great assistance.

Please contact me on the following e-mail address: [email protected].

Additional information can be obtained at Brouwland - alles voor het maken van bier, wijn, likeur en kaas and click to the English version.

Thank you in advance.

Hey all,

I'm new tot he site (literally just found it) and am wondering if any of you are still brewing in Istanbul? I'll send a PM to you guys as well, but I would love to get in on this.

I am indeed still brewing, one small 5 gallon batch at a time I sent you a PM.

Hi all i am new and looking for Danstar Nottingham Ale - 11g yeast or Diamond Lager Yeast 11g pack in Istanbul please pm me thanks

Seems like a bunch of "Istanbullu" brewers are in this forum. I am a beginner, but I am planning on brewing a lot.

We guys should definitely meet. Brewing in Istanbul is hard, especially when it comes to finding the proper ingredients.

We should indeed get together! I can't brew beer, but I sure have tried a ton of different kinds around the world and would love to sit and chat about it.

Have you guys tried Bomonti Filtersiz yet? It's actually not terrible! It's my current beer of choice (in Istanbul).

Sorry for the late response... I think bosphorus brewing company (in esentepe) would be a great spot for such a meeting. I think sending a PM to the previous posters would be a good idea to tell people.

I.....I can't believe that I didn't know about that brewery. I work 5 minutes from it. I'm going there tonight to drown myself in delicious microbrews. It would be the perfect place to meet up.

Hello All.

Yes! I was at the BBC last sunday for their sunday roast. It was great! Good beer / food and I met some great new people. I've been brewing for about a year and a half here in Istanbul, fun, tasty, but yes, a bit lonely

Phil, the owner and brewer, and i have been talking for a while about making a home brewer's club, hosted at the brewery where we can also test new recipes and learn from each other and Phil. We'll be starting in the new year. I'll let you all know soon.

In the mean time, please visit the BBC. You won't know where you are! (in a good way)

I was there last night, for the second time. I didn't have the chance to meet Phil, by the time I got there, he was inside, washing the dishes. But I met the son, Tristan.

Hey istanbira, where do you get your grains?

Anyone still around and brewing in Istanbul?

I'm relatively new to Turkey and completely new to brewing, but I love good beer and I'm up for a challenging project...

Before stumbling across this discussion, Yabangee was my most promising source of information about getting started.

I'm wondering if there's been any developments in the home brewing scene in Istanbul since this thread was last active?

Any chance that someone has put together a kit for sale in Turkey by now? Should ask around at Bosphorous Brew Co.?

I think I can cobble together the hardware I need, but I'm curious about the cheapest/easiest way to get ingredients.

Thanks in advance for any help... Cheers, Ben

Hi Ben,

There is not any way I've found to get the ingredients in Istanbul. I bring EVERYTHING with me from the States, or from Europe if I'm there. Just now brought in enough for two more batches. Not the best way, but the only way! Beats drinking Efes

I have one other friend that is brewing in Istanbul as well. He made a beer at the BBC using Phil's test batch set-up. He had a little party there when his beer went on tap....of course we drank it all that night. Was super tasty and a lot of fun. I don't know if he's going to do more of that or not. Do contact him though in any case - one of the goals of the BBC was to create a community of brewers in Istanbul, despite its challenges!

Phil helps me out with the barley. I order the hops and yeast from brouwland. :fro:

Thank you for the suggestions and the solidarity -- and sorry for the slow response. I'm in a village near Marmaris until the end of the month (with limited internet access) but will definitely look up Phil at BBC when I get back. Glad to know I'm not alone at least. Thanks again!

Hi,

So I'm living in Istanbul and recently bought a kit from Germany. My only problem now is sourcing brew equipment such as a pressure barrel. Does anyone know of any neighbourhoods in Istanbul where I might be able to find things that I could make do with? Maybe even catering equipment they use to make ayran?

Thanks

Ben

Hi Ben,

I don't know where you would get one....I bottle my beer. Dolapdere maybe? Its the kitchen supply area, so maybe. Phil would know.

-J

Hi Ben!


If you mean kegs, there is nowhere in İstanbul that sells one. You might try your luck with a cafe or restaurant that serves premix soda, but its a long shot.

Hi there,

It seems I've been a bit confused with regards to what I need. I won't need a keg but something to ferment the beer in - I presumed even this would need to be sealed with some sort of pressure release.

I've never brewed beer before but since there are so few options in Istanbul (though I recommend BBC!) I thought I'd give it a crack myself. I think I"ll need something like in the picture below: http://www.brewferm.be/img/startpakket.jpg

I'd actually thought about Dolapdere, but walking past it all seemed to be cookers and deep fat fryers. I should maybe go in!

http://www.armaindustry.com/

These guys can help you out. You need a demijohn, a plastic cap and an airlock.

Thanks very much!

anyone interested in a homebrew meet up? i just found this forum/about to start my first batch/excited to meet others brewing in istanbul

I would like to do that. I think Bosphorus Brewing Co is the best place to do that, since it is the only decent microbrewery.

I brew in Istanbul and I'm interested in meeting up. I need a barely supplier badly.

Hi all. We should definitely organise a meet-up at the BBC. I was just there a Friday, and their new double IPA is VERY tasty. I'll be away till mid-Jan. Maybe end of Jan would be a good time?

I just moved to Istanbul and brought enough hops and yeast for 2 brews. Has anyone found a shop or website to order barely from? I would be interested in brewing with someone if they have the barely (split the cost) and brewing equipment.

Also, if anyone plans on meeting up at BBC to discuss events in the Istanbul brewing scene send me a message. It would be great if us home brewers could do a tasting of everyone's beers one day in the future.

I have some bad news about that- as far as my extensive research goes- there isn't any option to buy 2 or 6- row barley in Turkey. I've researched as best as I can concerning where Efes gets their malt- but I've heard 2 rumors, one- they import their own, one- they grow their own. Either way- it doesn't help home brewers. People have suggested asking the bbc for help but I asked and nobody responded to my request (email). I found a company in Belgium which is a malt supplier, but they told me it would be 2000 Euros customs and clearance tax to import. 25-50 kg order of malt. With that said- I'm kind of convinced there must be some place to buy barely. Taps brewery brews here, and so does BBC. I know bbc imports too, but maybe someone can learn who is the company importing for them (if there is one). With that said- I've slowly collected most of the equipment needed, including mash tun etc. I can help you find equipment you need. I found a shop that sells glass carboys. Also- bottles were a challenge for me- since many beer bottles here (even if you save used bottles) are screw cap. Finally, it's worth it if you really have a desire to brew. Particularly because the beer here blows.

This sounds a lot more difficult then expected. I know basic barely is used to feed livestock and so maybe we could find some at a market or feed supplier. I'm going to look around and if something pops up I'll post about it, then we can discuss carboys and other essentials.
Thanks for the reply. Good luck on your end.