Sailor's Homebrew

Aboard the sailboat there are certain beer rules. No glass is the chief beer law of the boat. So an ideal homebrew for the sailboat would taste perfectly fine straight out of the bottle; make that a PET screw top bottle.

So we want to develop or find a recipe that we can tip a bottle back and forth and ingest the yeast and it will be fine that way.

Then there is IPA history, of hops as preservative for the beer's long hot voyage from the UK to India around the Horn. Very cool story! I like that idea because the icebox is relatively small, so a few beers might go into the icebox, and the rest go into a hold low in the hull, as you pull out a cold one, you replace it. For most of the summer, the hold might be fairly chilly due to the adjacent cold water. When the water is warm however the contents also warm, so hops might be an excellent idea to preserve the good brew.

If the beer is chill enough from the hold in the early season, maybe we'll have it at that temp, so like a good English Ale served at 55 degrees, we might want that quality. However when it gets warmer, we may want to toss some on ice, because we will have that hot summer day when a truly cold beer sounds perfect. So maybe we want that quality too.

Ideally, we would provide these brews to the crew, and might go through 10 cases in a summer so it would be grand if the recipe were in the low $20 range to keep a lid on costs.

Do you have any ideas which style, or recipe, might fit the bill? Cream Ale? IPA? American Wheat? Weissbier? Other?

Thanks
anemic

It's not quite beer, but (home-brewed) ginger beer and rum is a staple on many docks in the Caribbean.

Some thoughts:

1. Yeast sediment. You could brew a low carbonation beer that probably be closer to the original style of beer in a wooden cask on a ship/boat. This would lower the amount of sediment in the bottle. Just add enough priming sugar to get the PET bottles a little hard.

2. Chilling the beer. Just a random thought but you could try to cool the beer below the sea surface. Lower the bottles in a wire or nylon mesh bag/basket to a depth that chills the beer to your liking. I am finding references (Google) that list the average ocean temp ~62*F. There are colder regions but it could work to keep your beer cool for you when you are anchored. Here is an image of the worlds ocean temps.



Just some fun thoughts on beer on the high seas. Happy sailing

A wheat beer, or Wit style would be good for yeast, but TBH, I don't worry about pouring a bit of yeast from the bottle. There may be some styles with much more yeast in the bottle than others, but if your process is done with sediment on the mind, then you can eliminate a lot of the yeast.

IPA does have a lot of history, but with today's bottling technology, you won't have a problem with any beer style for a summer cruise. Make what you will want to drink!

Where are you sailing?

An IPA is likely to be a bit more expensive, due to the larger volume of hops. I'd buy bulk and save some $ there.

If it were me, I'd brew a couple of different beers. I like variety, and you know that Jimmy Buffet song about eating the same old stuff on the boat...

Sailing out of Holland! Lake Macatawa! Small world eh Homercidal?

Hi Brew-Happy. I like your dunk 'em over the side plan, or even, when the water is cold, keep the beers right on deck in a bucket of lakewater (Lake Michigan) - thanks!

Maybe I'll focus on the American Wheat Beer. Supposed to have a little cloudy to it. $22/kit @ NB. Temp fits my fermentation room. Looks like a good fit for the application.

Thanks brewmeisters. I LOVE homebrewing. SWMBO is somewhat mystified by the OCD-like behavior of late. Wonders if I am producing FAR more beer than is necessary. Probably not enough eh?

Unbreakable Drinkware, Plastic Tumblers, Wine Glasses & More

Here is an idea for your glass-free environment for drinking glasses. I was curious about what was out there in the way of plastic beer glasses. Not badly priced either.

Awesum! You know you can get a cold drink any time of the year from Lake Michigan! Do you just sail continuously around the lake all summer, or what?

I've taken homebrew to North Manitou Island backpacking before, and buried the bottles in the sand under the waves.

I finally had this beer last night with a pizza. About 9 days in the bottle. Quick chilled one bottle in an ice bath. I racked it into a beer glass without the yeast because I wanted to isolate potential green flavors from yeast flavors. It is just fine! It's a very mild middle of the road - almost like a slightly flavorful lager. It is definitely not overhopped - overly bitter. Also it's not that flower in aroma and flavor. Just about what I was shooting for. The second version of this was boiled about 9 days ago and I did add the steeping grains, actually 1.5# (1# crystal 1.5# caravienne) and I went to Pilsen Light DME & I went to hersbrucker at half the HBU's and saaz flavoring hops. I was thinking more along the lines of Oberon. So popular with everybody. Why not put some of that into the bottle?