Prohibition beer

I recently aquired my great grandfathers recipe for beer. It calls for 1 can (about 3 lb) Blue Ribbon Malt. Since this is no longer produced, any ideas for a malt syrup that would be a suitable replacement? Im also thinking about using DME, but no idea as to hops. I would think probably Tettnanger or Hallertau. The recipe and procedure call for a cake of Red Star baking yeast, fermented in a crock with a light bulb underneath, but I think I will use a regular boil, 30-45 minutes and a dried yeast of some kind

I imagine the light bulb under the crock is to keep the fermenter warm, not for boiling the wort. Great Grandfather live somewhere cold?

Do not brew that. It will be awful.

Use beer yeast.

Get a pale ale kit from www.austinhomebrew.com and learn how to brew.

fatboy570 said:

I recently aquired my great grandfathers recipe for beer. It calls for 1 can (about 3 lb) Blue Ribbon Malt. Since this is no longer produced, any ideas for a malt syrup that would be a suitable replacement? Im also thinking about using DME, but no idea as to hops. I would think probably Tettnanger or Hallertau. The recipe and procedure call for a cake of Red Star baking yeast, fermented in a crock with a light bulb underneath, but I think I will use a regular boil, 30-45 minutes and a dried yeast of some kind

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Hey, FB, that sounds like quite the recipe there. Here is a bit of information that I have found for Pabst Blue Ribbon Malt. It appears that during prohibition PBR switched to the manufacturing of Malt Extract for people to brew their own. Here are a few links to more information about Blue Ribbon Extract:
http://byo.com/feature/188.html
http://www.stoutbillys.com/stout/recipens/(Flat)/AB8BFE0B.htm
http://www.realbeer.com/spencer/cats-meow/chap13.html#anchor3
http://www.metnews.com/articles/2005/reminiscing071405.htm

If I were you, after you do a bunch of fun research on the history and the recipe, I would go ahead and experiement with different LMEs and DMEs that you think that you have found that best historically copy the BRME. I personally have no idea but since it was Pabst I bet it was light and not overly hopped. I would also have fun with the Red Star Yeast even though it will probably taste bad. In the end, it would probably be best to just stick to normal ales, but what the hell fun is in that? If you are able to reproduce this prohibition beer then you could have a lot of fun doing labels and whatnot, which is the entire point of the hobby. But I would just keep doing research on it. I Googled it and came up with about 15 different hits.

Just ignore the unhelpful comments that you receive in the forum and enjoy your homebrew.

Guess the times have changed..... Gramps probably got snockered on his brew back in the day though!

Sounds like it would be a cool experiment. Reminds me of my friends grandpa telling up how they used to moonshine back in the day. It was pretty interesting.

'Apologize for my "unhelpful" comment. Just when you do make the sugar water and bread yeast beer don't let it turn you off to the hobby.

From what little I've found, that extract was similar to the pre-hopped, no-boil kits sold today. If you wanted to try putting something together, get a light LME & look around for Brewer's Gold or Bullion, those being two of the oldest hops you are likely to find.

Go ahead and use bread yeast. Or maybe try a Whitbread strain. It will be odd, but sometimes it's fun to make old recipes. I've got a 1909 recipe Mild in the cabinet right now.

Blue Ribbon Malt is now Premier Malt, you can get it from EC Kraus, hope this helps, and let us know what it taste like

Thanks for the replies. No offense taken chillhayze, Ive been brewing for about 3 years now and have made some good beers as well as some truly nasty stuff, including a couple real good laxatives. As far as moonshine goes, my dad used to haul the stuff back in the late 50s. The one time he got caught, he called his dad to go his bail and Grandpa said" Who the hell is this?" and hung up, leaving dad to enjoy some time at the hotel of many bars

fatboy570 said:

. . . and have made some good beers as well as some truly nasty stuff, including a couple real good laxatives. . .

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And some of those prolly tasted pretty good, if you drink the darks!

A little history here. My Grandpa also made that brew, and although you could buy the malt, you could not legally "brew" it. There was even a warning on the label. You could, however mix it in a crock of water, "accidently" dump yeast in it and convieniently forget where you put it for a while. When you "found" it again, since it was hard times, it would be stupid and wasteful to throw it out. You might as well drink it. Sometimes those stories are just fascinating.