Amusing beer recipe from my deceased father-in-law

[Whippy]

Since everyone spoke so highly of my father-in-law's homebrew, I have been trying to get a copy of the recipe since he passed on about a year ago at his home in South Africa.

Yesterday, I finally got the recipe from a cousin-in-law and had a good laugh at what this homebrew consisted of ... I have pasted what was written to me below:

(WARNING: I would NOT suggest making beer in this manner)

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1 – In a large pot, 1/3rd full, bring water to the boil.
2 – Let your malt stand in warm water in the meantime so that it becomes manageable and let the hops soak in a cup of water to start dissolving/softening.
3 – Add 2,3kg of “Light Malt Extract” to the pot and boil for 10 minutes
4 – Add 2,5kg of sugar and boil for another 10 minutes stirring continuously. Be careful here, if it boils over you’ll be cleaning for a week as it dries like glue. The Old Man and I have suffered greatly at this point in the process – as a joke he used to tell everyone he licked the place up not wanting to waste beer!!!
5 - Toss in the hops – 50g – we used “Yankee Pellets” until they became unavailable. You must now cook it until the “crust” of hops almost disappears.
6 – Dissolve a pkt of yeast and a tsp of sugar in a cup of water and let it stand next to the pot until it rises.
7 – Pour the “wort” into a drum 2/3rd full of water and stir. Top up with water to the desired level if required. Add the yeast – don’t stir too much after adding the yeast. Close and wait
8 – The wort will ferment and bubble for 9 to 12 days – longer in the winter. Once it stops, dissolve finings in boiling water and add 48 hours prior to bottling.
9 – Put ½ a tsp of sugar per 375ml bottle and cap it. Should be ready to dop in 6 weeks.

Let me know how it goes. We fiddled with all kinds of hops and malt, sometimes the beer was bad and we even threw away whole drums of it. Sometimes bottles blew up. Sometimes we got the runs and very often we got blind drunk and fell over.
Let me know how it goes!

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I'm sorry that I made a vow to make a batch, now! LOL There is more sugar than malt in that beer!! :rockin:

I am just going to just create a SMaSH IIPA and brew it all grain (upping the hops of course) and call it a promise fulfilled. There is no way I'm going to attempt something like that recipe.

 

[dawgmatic]

I like this alot. It reminds me of a cross between alton brown's and George washington's recipes. It just goes to show you how so many people made and still make beer. Yet there are so many of us who debate over small details and differences in brewing procedures here on HBT that might seem completely trivial to someone who has been brewing the same way their whole life. It's amazing

I think you should brew it. The recipe looks pretty basic, the only missing info is the type and weight of the grains boiled. You could easily fill in the details to hit a reasonable gravity with the malt extract. It might not be delicious, but you'll def remember that brew for the rest of your life

 

[unionrdr]

Idk...it sounds like the malt extract they used to sell in the store when I was a kid. The recipe seems a bit familiar.

 

[Whippy]

LOL! I do like your attitude, dawgmatic.

The old man made his beer like this for 30 years, so HE must have enjoyed it...it sounds like they all built some great memories making this beer too! I guess it goes to show that as long as you are enjoying yourself then you may as well go with it!

I still don't think I like the idea of making beer like this, even though I did admire the man. I'll probably end up using a pound or two of corn sugar in my version, upon reflection, in order to lighten it up and as a "tip of the hat." I don't think I like the idea of using 2.5kg haha. I reckon I'll also stick to the 50g of hops...something high AA....and I guess I'll probably use some DME as well to help lessen the bulk.