a country without hops, brewers yeast or kits

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0li

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Sep 25, 2011
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Damascus
Yo

My flatmate and I, fed up of ****ty Middle Eastern beer, thought we would brew our own.

We turned to the internet, and discovered this fine forum. However we also discovered that bakers yeast isn't recommended for home brewing, that it is hops that make beer so goddam tasty and that brewing kits are recommend for beginners such as ourselves.

This is a bit of a problem, as none of the above seem to be available here. The postal service is also kinda non existent, ruling out buying it online, and while I was all in favor of getting it sent care of the embassy, my flatmate thought the ambassador would be unimpressed.

We have therefore reached an impasse. Can anybody help us with some kinda 'no kit, no knowledge, no ingredients recipe' please? ideally we'd like to end up with either a porter or some kinda larger type thing, though we'll settle for drinkable.

Thank you for your time, and I assure you that this is for real and alchools leagle here.

Chears (i hope)
Oli
 
Most on line sites deliver by UPS or Fed-Ex anyway,so postal service isn't involved. Do you have either of those services in Syria?
 
We definitely used to have fed ex, but it might have been wiped out by the sanctions. We don't really have a street address, but I guess we could pick it up from the fed ex office.

I'll check it out, thank you :mug:
 
I just googled, and couldn't believe it. So what's the nearest country with a homebrewing or at least a winemaking culture?

I did find through the backdoor 2 breweries in Syria.

Aleppo
Al-Chark Brewery
Not open to the public (as far as I know)
Meselmia Road
PO Box 217
Aleppo
Syria
Telephone: +963 21-4641507

Dimashq
Barada Beer Company
Not open to the public (as far as I know)
PO Box 7053
Dimashq
Syria
Telephone: +963 (11) 71 31 38

I would contact them and see if you can buy some grain, hops and yeast off them.
 
If the local beer is unpasteurized, you can make a starter using a beer. Specifically, any sediment found in the bottom of the bottle. You could also try to harvest and cultivate wild yeast. Make several small malt cultures and just leave them out in various locations, and see if you get some good fermentation. Then take the ones that you feel are the best, and make maybe 3 or 4 starters. Use them to ferment one gallon batches. When you have a successful batch, use the trub from the bottom of the fermenter to make a 5 gallon batch, which is sort of the standard size batch. Keep your yeast going. Keep your temperature as stable as possible. Your yeast can adapt to temperature over several generations but it will work best if the temperature does not swing wildly. If you can keep the ambient temperature of the air surrounding your fermenter below about 75F you stand a pretty good chance. Then again, your native wild yeast are acclimatized to whatever your average temperature is, already. Generally, the lower fermentation temperatures give a cleaner flavor profile and higher temps produce more esters that can create off flavors like citrus, etc which sometimes are actually a good thing, sometimes not.

At any rate, I would not try to have liquid yeast shipped in, if shipping is dodgy. Dry yeast is much more likely to arrive in usable condition. Dry Lutra or Voss Kviek might work pretty good for you.

If you can source some unprocessed barley, you could maybe try malting it yourself. The process has a lot of gotchas in it. Most home brewers ask about it and quickly discard the idea when they find out that such a simple process is actually not so simple at all, with many things that can go wrong. But in a nutshell, the raw grain is soaked just the right length of time and allowed to germinate just the right amount, then dried and usually roasted/toasted slightly to halt the process and also to develop various color and flavor profiles. Don't get too worked up about 6 row/ 2 row, etc. Figure you will probably want about 10 lbs for a 5 gallon batch. More, for stronger, less for weaker beer. You can use an online beer calculator but just for working out the idea, 6lb of malt has the potential to give you about 3.33% ABV and 12lb malt should give you around 6.66% ABV. With 10lb malt you can expect about 5.5% alcohol. Assuming everything works okay.

The simplest way with the least equipment required would be using malt extract rather than whole grain. There is liquid extract, which is like a very heavy syrup or honey in consistency, and there is dry malt extract, more like brown sugar. Both are best when fresh and not having been stored at high temperatures, but maybe you can't be too picky in Syria, I don't know. With extract, no mashing is needed. Just add to water to make 6 gallons, and boil for an hour or until your volume is down to 5 gallons. You usually add hops during the boil. stir often to prevent scorching.

There may be some local herbs or spices that you can use for bittering, in place of hops. You can brew without any bittering but your beer may be too sweet tasting. With extract you are locked in, but with grain you can manipulate your mash temperature to make your beer more dry or more sweet, absent hops or other herbs.

I honestly don't envy you. In your situation I would TRY to get an all in one kit sent in, including all equipment, and bottles. Keep your fermenting temperature in mind as you select your kit. Forget about any Pilsners, Lagers, etc if you can't engineer temperature control down into the 50's Fahrenheit. An ale, a Saisson maybe, ought to work best.

If you can scrape the coin together, you might think about getting an entire container of brewing supplies and equipment sent in, and re-sell it, if there is any demand. I know operating a business is pretty dicey there right now but you know better than me if it is practical or not. Maybe a joint venture with an established local merchant? You will need proper storage and some items are temperature sensitive.
 
While it is less than optimum, but it could a "better than nothing" option, Muntons brew in a bag kit. All things considered, teh product has received favorable reviews.

I have no idea about how you might get it into your country and into your possession. But getting everything you need in one package could be a big plus.

Contact breweries. Ask if you could come by with a jar and get some yeast. Brewers are typically generous and helpful people.

https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Mu...vITXuEgIjRmB9HPkudrHG-Slh3HY9prwaAsPHEALw_wcB
 
<FACE PALM> Sorry for digging up a necro thread, guys. My bad.



i'm not bothered...if it wasn't for the fact he hasn't been here since sep 2012, these are the challenges i like to conquer!


("In a land without beer, no ingiedents, no equipment....Those who dare too, will still find a way to make their own!")
 
<FACE PALM> Sorry for digging up a necro thread, guys. My bad.
Don't feel sorry, you provided very useful resources and workarounds for anyone in a similar situation, looking for solutions. They'll be grateful!
That is, as long as they can find the thread/posts, which can be a real chore here.
 
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