Hello from northern Idaho!

[John_Trappist]

Hello fellow brewers,

I'm a 45 yr old guy who wanted a homebrew kit for about the last 15 yrs. Finally, my wife bought a Mr. Beer for me last Christmas. I brewed 2 or 3 extract beers in it and then bought the Papazian book after only a few weeks. After reading it I was ready to start mini-mashing some grains, using natural hops, smack packs, etc. I also got the Beer Captured book with a bunch of incredible recipes in it. It's been an awesome year!

Some beers I've brewed are:

- Belgian Trappist Double

- Belgian Tripple

- an African bannana beer called Mbega

- Mexican cervesa

- Belgian Christmas ale conditioning right now

- English Boddington's Bitter

- Pilsner (done at ale temp because wasn't cold enough to lager yet)

- Belgian Blonde Abbey Ale
-
- Summer Berry (my recipe of malts, lightly hopped, several types of berries)
- German Dubble Boch (lagering at cold temp right now in my garage)

My older brother went to university in Belgian and he said every department in the school had a bar: philosophy bar, history bar, theology bar, etc... He had the great job of being the bar tender at the philosophy bar, where they had a ton of beers and every one had it's own glass, so you could pour it vigarously and it would get a big head that went exactly to the top of the glass. That's cool!

Anyway, thanks for all of the great information and even laughs on this message board site!

By the way, 2 yrs ago I started making great sour dough bread from naturally yeasted sour dough starter. It's closely related to brewing believe it or not. It's a cool hobby too.

Cheers!

John Trappist

 

[fbi365]

How do you make the naturally yeasted sourdough starter?

 

[RichBrewer]

Welcome to HBT John Trappist!
It's about time! It sounds like you are nicely adicted!

 

[John_Trappist]

How do you make the naturally yeasted sourdough starter?

It is extremely easy to make sour dough starter. You simply mix equal amounts of standard white flour and water. Let it sit at room temperature for a few days and it will bubble up. The bubbling is a result of natural yeasts fermenting.

Store the starter in glass or plastic - not in metal. I put mine in a plastic bowl with plastic wrap over the top of it. Punch a few holes for the yeast to breath and store it in the refrigerator. Say you use a few cups of the starter in your bread. Simply feed the starter by adding new flour and water to your base starter. Let it sit out and bubble for a few hours or over night, then store it in the fridge.

Every time you use the starter for bread - feed it with new flour and water. No stress. Feed it once a month if you're not using it up in bread. It's really simple.

That's it. Now, if you make the mixture a little thicker with less water or more flour, it will get more sour. Also, if you use wheat flour it will get more sour. I like to normally use white flour, but feed the mixture or starter with wheat flour every three or four feedings.


NOTE: When you pull it out of the fridge after three weeks and look at it, it's ugly as heck. It has beer on top of it - literally. Just stir the beer in and it will be silky smooth and white - it's fine to use. In fact, it's better in taste every month you have it. I've had mine for over two years. It looks ugly sometimes. I give it a stir, feed it and use it. It's awesome.

John