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Huck4Food

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I recently got a bootleg beer recipe that my mother found in some old papers she had. It was my great uncles recipe for beer that he made before it was legal to do so in a private home (my mother says she remembers him brewing it in the 50's and early 60's in a shed in the backyard). However it is a very basic recipe that has no hop additions, some sugar added, and unknown yeast strains (it simply calls for a yeast cake). It calls for one tin of extra dry malt extract. I am assuming that malt extract was available for other purposes during this time (i.e. malted milk etc.). My mother was unable to describe the size of the can or brand name, except to state that the closest she has tasted to this beer since is Sleeman's Dark Ale from Canada.

I have been impressed with some of the beer history and sleuthing in these forums so I figured I would throw it to the brewing jedi's and see if I can't try to replicate this for good old time sake. I would be interested in hearing the thoughts of what to try or what was available at the time to try and clone this simple recipe.
 
Blue Ribbon extract was available for a long time after prohibition. Probably that.

Brewing Instructions

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Awesome Passedpawn,

Thanks for the input, I'll send my mom a picture of the can and see if I can jog her memory. I can say that my mom helped me brew a witbeir two weeks ago and she laughed about the sanitation that I went through. She remembers my great uncle dumping out the traub and rinsing the crock he fermented in, and then he started another batch in the same dirty crock. No soap, no sanitation, just beer. He had no airlock, he just open fermented the stuff and mom says it tasted better than any beer she has ever had.
 
Everything you want to know about brewing during the homebrew prohibition can be found in this thread brewing with Premier malt extract.

Evidently the current size is 2.2 pounds in a can.

I posted some of the history of that and even a link to the company (in michigan) that is still making it. It was originally the Pabst blue ribbon company who started making it during prohibition for folks to ahem bake with.
 
Here is the recipe, like I said its basic. The paper was so old I had to invert the color scales when I scanned it just to make it readable. I'm trying to find authentic ingredients for the period to see if I can make this beer and try a recipe that is 50 years+ old and a part of my family's beer making history.

Scan001.jpg
 
Maybe the salt was to balance his water out, but that would imply that he was very particular about his process. However speaking to my mom about it she claims he didn't even measure ingredients so I have no idea what the salt was for.
 
Surely the malt extract has hops in it. If not .... ewwwww gross.

Yes, it was hopped malt extract, which since they touted it during homebrew prohibition as an additive for baking, must have made for some very hoppy cookies. Cascade macaroons anyone?

I posted a couple of the baking recipes using that extract from the old days in my beer history thread.

The salt was more than likely rudimentry water chemistry adjustments, or something else. But the extracts were hopped.
 
The salt doesn't surprise me all that much, especially since the OP is from Virginia (Huck, is your uncle from the South as well?)... My wife's grandmother used to always salt her beer, and I take it to be a relatively common thing done in the South in the old days. She was originally from Opelika, AL. So that might be a deliberate part of the recipe.

I'm actually going to be doing a gose for my next batch, which is a beer with added salt, and naming the beer after said [now deceased] grandmother...

One thing I'd look into is the type of salt available at the time. I know the gose recipe calls for sea salt or kosher salt, as I think modern iodized salt could affect yeast health (at least intuitively, as iodophor is an iodine-based sanitizer). According to Wikipedia, iodized salt began being sold nationally in the 1920's, but it would be unclear what your uncle used...
 
I remember my aunt's & uncles on dad's side putting salt in their beer to kill the head. It made it taste bitter to me,& that was just a sprinkle. I think that's way to much salt. He must've had water PH problems. A lot more wells & hand pumps next to the sink in those days when I was a kid.
 
Salt isn't going to make it taste bitter, if anything it should accentuate the malt. It is after all sodium chloride. Chloride is going to smooth or cut the bitterness and accentuate the malt. Same as if you were to adjust your water.

That recipe looks interesting. My guess is he also had some house yeast in there as well that probably did the bulk of the fermenting after the many generations that he pitched right into the crock sans sanitation.
 
Salt isn't going to make it taste bitter, if anything it should accentuate the malt. It is after all sodium chloride. Chloride is going to smooth or cut the bitterness and accentuate the malt. Same as if you were to adjust your water.

That recipe looks interesting. My guess is he also had some house yeast in there as well that probably did the bulk of the fermenting after the many generations that he pitched right into the crock sans sanitation.

+1, sounds interesting. I think I may give this a try, open fermented and all. Probably sub dry yeast for the cake though or re-pitch something. Sounds like a good reason to have a little cookout/party... then my friends can share the pain if it's bad, lord knows they drink enough of the good brew but I really wouldn't have it any other way.
 
I'd definitely go with a Kosher salt instead of table salt. Kosher salt is lighter by volume than table salt. So 1/4 cup kosher salt will be less "salty" than the equivalent volume of table salt.
 
The salt doesn't surprise me all that much, especially since the OP is from Virginia (Huck, is your uncle from the South as well?)... My wife's grandmother used to always salt her beer, and I take it to be a relatively common thing done in the South in the old days. She was originally from Opelika, AL. So that might be a deliberate part of the recipe.

I'm actually going to be doing a gose for my next batch, which is a beer with added salt, and naming the beer after said [now deceased] grandmother...

One thing I'd look into is the type of salt available at the time. I know the gose recipe calls for sea salt or kosher salt, as I think modern iodized salt could affect yeast health (at least intuitively, as iodophor is an iodine-based sanitizer). According to Wikipedia, iodized salt began being sold nationally in the 1920's, but it would be unclear what your uncle used...
No, my great uncle was from a small town in CT. I live in Virginia at the request of the department of defense and should not be looked upon as identifying with a sub-cultural practice such as the obviously barbarous salting a perfectly good glass of beer. However I must also offer that I was raised in Phoenix, AZ and have often been told that the heat destroyed more brain cells than any amount of beer I have ever consumed.
 
Yes, it was hopped malt extract, which since they touted it during homebrew prohibition as an additive for baking, must have made for some very hoppy cookies.

Actually, that sounds good. Maybe dark chocolate cookies... I may have to try this. :D
 
Did anyone else notice that it said "cake yeast"? Could that be different than a yeast cake? I'm no baker or brewing history buff, just saying...
 
Did anyone else notice that it said "cake yeast"? Could that be different than a yeast cake? I'm no baker or brewing history buff, just saying...


Clearly you're not a baker. ;)

Yeast is not a common ingredient in baking cakes. Any co2 production for cakes usually comes from things like baking powder or soda.

When they refer to yeast cakes, they mean cakes (blocks) of yeast.

RS-CakeYeast.gif


ND2_4183.jpg


yeast-cake.jpg


Another term for it is "active fresh yeast."

But it is technically different from our brewing definition of a yeast cake, which is what we call the yeast at the bottom of a fermentation vessel, which is usually the end product of fermentaion. Cake yeast is virginal.
 
Salt may have been used to reduce bacterial contamination.

The salt could also have been a yeast retardant. I was told by a baker once that bread has salt in it mainly to offset the yeast's production of CO2 and consumption of sugar/starches... I know when baking traditional bread you want to pour the salt and yeast on opposite sides of the bowl, and not let them touch until vigorous mixing has started.
 
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