Fermenting my first batch using K-mart ingredients...

[O_16581_72452_5]

After driving all over town, i discovered K-mart has malt extract and Brewers Yeast (or so i thought i could use this for my brew). It was dead yeast and it never took off, lol. I looked next to it and found bread yeast, so i'm giving this a shot and it's fermenting away in my basement.

Here's what i'm working with.

Keeping it in my kegerator (not turned on) in the basement to keep it cool and dark while it does it's thing

The malt extract was a bit under $7 a jar and yeast was $.50 a package. I chose to use two jars for ~4 gallons...i like to taste my beer. I didn't know where to find hops locally, so i just made this very basic brew. I'm going to force carbonate it in a keg.

For future reference, does anyone have a recipe for a very cheap beer? I'm thinking just using the same two cans (20oz each) and adding (__?) cups of sugar (fill in my blank) for 30 gallons to fill my keg for parties. I've been spending $80 per keg of Bud Light and after i get too drunk, i just stop watching the bar and have $15 worth of people that paid and an empty keg at the end of the night.

 

[marubozo]

It isn't beer until you add hops. Does K-Mart sell hops, too?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

It isn't beer until you add hops. Does K-Mart sell hops, too?

Yes. Health and Beauty. Organic Hops Deodorant.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Nice first post. You can use 1 cup of grass clippings and 1 ounce of Grapefruit juice to simulate the bittering and flavor of cascades. This is for 2.5G of boil volume for 65 IBU's.

 

[Revvy]

It isn't beer until you add hops. Does K-Mart sell hops, too?

So Gruit is NOT a beer? Or Spruce tip ale?

Take a tip from those of us who participated in the GaP thread, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/gap-grocery-produce-beer-experiment-69313/?highlight=Grocery


And go to he softdrink and mixer aisle and get some of these, angostina bitters.

That will bitter the wort and cut the sweetness, just like hops.

 

[mmb]

Nice first post. You can use 1 cup of grass clippings and 1 ounce of Grapefruit juice to simulate the bittering and flavor of cascades. This is for 2.5G of boil volume for 65 IBU's.

I've found that organic cilantro can give a nice bite when used at flameout.

 

[O_16581_72452_5]

Nice first post. You can use 1 cup of grass clippings and 1 ounce of Grapefruit juice to simulate the bittering and flavor of cascades. This is for 2.5G of boil volume for 65 IBU's.

Interesting, i'll keep this in mind for my next batch. I'm guessing boil that with my malt (wort) and filter it in to my bucket?

Edit: Mmm, cilantro.

Flameout...? You're speakin' greek to me, i'm totally new to this making my own beer thing.

Found this interesting thing about hops.

Hops is actually a resent introduction ( last 500 years )and many brewers in Europe resisted the use of hops. What they noticed is that hopped brews made people sluggish ( the seditive qualities of hops ) and therefore made workers less productive. Many of the herbal admixtures had stimulating qualities especially in gruits. Hops also contains phyto-estrogen, great if you are a woman but not so great for guys, this accounts for the " breasts " that some guys get from drinking so much hopped beer. I like using Yarrow, Ivy, Corriander, Cloves, Hemp, Cordyceps, Nutmeg, a pinch of Wormwood goes a long ways. I rarely use Hops in any of my brews.

 

[marubozo]

So Gruit is NOT a beer? Or Spruce tip ale?

Stop being so technical

Speaking of angostura bitters, they make a great Manhattan, but not sure I'd want that bittering in my beer

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

So Gruit is NOT a beer? Or Spruce tip ale?

Technically, No. It's a malt beverage.

 

[HickoryMike]

I didn't think I would ever recommend a Cooper's hopped extract kit, but man, for your sake, make the jump.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I didn't think I would ever recommend a Cooper's hopped extract kit, but man, for your sake, make the jump.

that, or at least ferment a crapload of Malta Goya. It's hopped. Right?

 

[Revvy]

Technically, No. It's a malt beverage.

I beg to differ...I see the words ALE and BEER used alot here.

Gruit (sometimes grut) is an old-fashioned herb mixture used for bittering and flavoring beer, popular before the extensive use of hops. Gruit or grut ale may also refer to the beverage produced using gruit.

Gruit was a combination of herbs, some of the most common being mildly to moderately narcotic: sweet gale (Myrica gale), mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), yarrow (Achillea millefolium),ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), horehound (Marrubium vulgare), and heather (Calluna vulgaris)). Gruit varied somewhat, each gruit producer including different herbs to produce unique flavors and effects. Other adjunct herbs included henbenon, juniper berries, ginger, caraway seed, aniseed, nutmeg, cinnamon, and even hops in variable proportions. Some gruit ingredients are now known to have preservative qualities.

Some traditional types of unhopped beer such as sahti in Finland, which is spiced with juniper berries and twigs, have survived the advent of hops, although gruit itself has not.

The 1990s microbrewery movement in the USA and Europe saw a renewed interest in unhopped beers and several have tried their hand at reviving ales brewed with gruits, or plants that once were used in it. Commercial examples include Fraoch (using heather flowers, sweet gale and ginger) and Alba (using pine twigs and spruce buds) from Williams Brothers in Scotland; Myrica (using sweet gale) from O'Hanlons in England; Gageleer (also using sweet gale) from Proefbrouwerij in Belgium; and the Cervoise from Lancelot in Brittany (using a gruit containing heather flowers, spices and some hops).

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I beg to differ...I see the words ALE and BEER used alot here.

But heather, spruce, or buzzbeetles were never here which was developed to nix that monkey juice.

 

[O_16581_72452_5]

Out of curiosity i'm wondering what adding a few tea bags to my wort while it boils would do in place of hops...

 

[Revvy]

But heather, spruce, or buzzbeetles were never here.

But not all breweries or Beers fall under that category, hell at least a quarter of the BJCP wouldn't fall under that. So what does it have to do with 'bozo's statement.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

hell at least a quarter of the BJCP wouldn't fall under that. So what does it have to do with 'bozo's statement.

Bozo can't brew to style.

 

[Revvy]

Bozo can't brew to style.

Does he ever really brew?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Does he ever really brew?

THAT is the REAL mystery. At least the cereal number is close.

 

[marubozo]

I'm brewing two batches hopefully this weekend, so suck it

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I'm brewing two batches hopefully this weekend, so suck it

I hear K-Mart has brewing supplies now. Organic hops too.

 

[IrregularPulse]

In the small chance this guy isn't a troll, don't follow any of my advice here.

 

[Revvy]

I hear K-Mart has brewing supplies now. Organic hops too.

 

[O_16581_72452_5]

In the small chance this guy isn't a troll, don't follow any of my advice here.

Why would i be a troll...? I'm just a total novice to this and looking for pointers.

So grass clippings and grapefruit juice was sarcasm, shows what i know.

 

[jgilbreth]

Go to a homebrew store or online, buy a kit, and make real beer. Save the science projects for the kids.

 

[O_16581_72452_5]

Go to a homebrew store or online, buy a kit, and make real beer. Save the science projects for the kids.

Just seeing how this turns out, who knows, i could like what i make or it could totally screw up and i'll learn from it to change it for next time...like using dead yeast in the batch before this.

As long as it's alcohol, chances are, i'll love it.

 

[octo]

uh. is that lowes bucket even food safe for use as a fermenter? I know its a #2 bucket, but that doesnt necessarily make it food safe. are you actually going to drink a beer you made by throwing some malt and bread yeast together? What process did you even use to do this? did you just boil 5 gallons of water with the malt and throw in the bread yeast? why?!

 

[mordantly]

asshats!!! it my work, however, you will be more pleased if you use quality ingredients for any sort of fermented beverage.

 

[O_16581_72452_5]

uh. is that lowes bucket even food safe for use as a fermenter? I know its a #2 bucket, but that doesnt necessarily make it food safe. are you actually going to drink a beer you made by throwing some malt and bread yeast together? What process did you even use to do this? did you just boil 5 gallons of water with the malt and throw in the bread yeast? why?!

The guy in the paint dept was a brewer himself and suggested i could use it *shrug*. He's the one that told me how to make the airlock i made.

I boiled about 3 gallons of water, put it in the bucket, then boiled the malt until it stopped frothing at the top in one gallons of water. Cooled both in my sink surrounded by ice water, started the yeast in a drinking glass, pitched it in and stuck it in the basement.

I was just reading online "simple beer making" and two recipes just said for my first time to keep it simple and do what i did and to play around once i get the hang of it.

 

[Revvy]

We've done the lowes/hd bucket thing to death on here, there's really no issue with using them. If Octo wants he can look at all the discussions on here, and come to his own conclusions.

 

[octo]

"We've done the lowes/hd bucket thing to death on here"
oh alright, I never saw any talk of it before.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

This thread is the bazzarro world of HBT.

Serial man- If you want to brew beer, you should seriously look into "How to Brew" by John Palmer. It is an online book offered for free. The print version is better but I doubt you are willing to pay for the hard copy judging by your posts so far.

Light American lagers are very difficult to make. If your goal is to produce bud light for cheaper than bud light TM, you will be a sad panda. If you want cheap booze (cheaper than BL yikes), buy Skol.

 

[Revvy]

This thread is the bazzarro world of HBT.

No, THIS is the Bazzaro world of hbt.


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/beer-bottle-sanatitation-test-163376/

 

[O_16581_72452_5]

This thread is the bazzarro world of HBT.

Serial man- If you want to brew beer, you should seriously look into "How to Brew" by John Palmer. It is an online book offered for free. The print version is better but I doubt you are willing to pay for the hard copy judging by your posts so far.

Light American lagers are very difficult to make. If your goal is to produce bud light for cheaper than bud light TM, you will be a sad panda. If you want cheap booze (cheaper than BL yikes), buy Skol.

I'm not so much trying to make Bud Light, just something cheap for people to drink. Skol is too expensive, i use Karkov.

$80 per keg though kinda hurts the pockets every time i get bud light (which is the cheapest in town...aside from Busch which is $3 cheaper, but eh, i rather spend $3 more).

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

You should look into cider. Your idea of brewing your own beer is full of the kind of FAIL that makes other failures win the Olympics.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Okay. In all seriousness. The Eden Organic syrup isn't a problem except that you are limited by the color. It's still malt extract so that is actually a nice discovery.

Even the bread yeast isn't the end of the world. Highly unpredictable but, not the end of the world. the problem with it is yeast produce all manner of compounds as byproducts of reproduction that are responsible for a large portion of a beers flavor. This is good is some cases when the "profile" is known and can be downright disgusting when it is not.

But without something bitter to balance the malt you essentially have a fermented malta goya. To many, that is definitely not "Good Drinks".

The How to Brew link is a excellent reference to get some familiarity.

 

[Swooded]

The main stubling block I see here is that you've posted on a Beer Brewing forum & what you're currently making isn't what most (including you most likely) would consider beer once you get to your end product. End of the day, you are going to be producing alcohol - which is one of your goals. You're not, however, going to be producing something that most of the people at your parties are going to be expecting to come out of the keg
I agree with an earlier suggestion, that you look into producing cider. You're looking at a very similar starting point (cheap ingredients, easy to get rolling) but you have a better idea of the end product. Reading your first post actually reminded me of a wiki-how I came accross not to long ago on making "Kool-Aide wine" it's worth checking out if you want to go this route http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Kool-Aid-Wine

Beyond that, I would definitely suggest doing some research on actual beer production & picking up a kit if you're really interested in making actual beer. Either way, if all you're looking for is making alcohol & don't mind needing to mix it for good flavor, you have plenty of directions to go.

 

[O_16581_72452_5]

The main stubling block I see here is that you've posted on a Beer Brewing forum & what you're currently making isn't what most (including you most likely) would consider beer once you get to your end product. End of the day, you are going to be producing alcohol - which is one of your goals. You're not, however, going to be producing something that most of the people at your parties are going to be expecting to come out of the keg
I agree with an earlier suggestion, that you look into producing cider. You're looking at a very similar starting point (cheap ingredients, easy to get rolling) but you have a better idea of the end product. Reading your first post actually reminded me of a wiki-how I came accross not to long ago on making "Kool-Aide wine" it's worth checking out if you want to go this route http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Kool-Aid-Wine

Beyond that, I would definitely suggest doing some research on actual beer production & picking up a kit if you're really interested in making actual beer. Either way, if all you're looking for is making alcohol & don't mind needing to mix it for good flavor, you have plenty of directions to go.

Hmm, that's pretty sweet, i'll give that a whirl some time, thanks.

I know about the bread yeast, but from what little i read, bread yeast is an ale type yeast? But a lot of it can lead to very unpleasant tastes.

Hell i dunno, i'm just excited to see what comes out of what i make. I'll get more creative once i see results i'm sure. Now all i need to do is look harder at K-mart to find their hops.

 

[HickoryMike]

If you are under the age of 14, I applaud your determination to get trashed. If you are older than 14, I feel sad for you. If cheap alcohol is all you really want, Sams sells really big bottles of mouthwash.

 

[COLObrewer]

Hops are sold in the health food stores, loose leaf of unknown variety and alpha acid. I've actually used them for flavoring addition on a batch. I think they use it in tea.

 

[techrunner]

will this do well over time without the hops preservative effect? i just thought that was part of why hops were in there? just curious.