Certainteed
Active Member
I found a recipe for George Washingtons small beer. Since it included lots of grocery-store goodies I thought I'd try it. The only deviation I made was to replace the hops with rosemary (the herb) and add a fistful of oats. And I scaled the recipe down to make a half-gallon batch.
I've never brewed anything and have no expectation of having a drinkable brew. I wanted to step through the process of brewing without investing a lot of money into a failure. I bought 1 stopper, 1 bubbler-ma-jig, and a hydrometer. I spent $10.43 on these items.
I had a half-gallon glass jug.
I bought a 12 oz bottle of robust molasses.
Spices on hand: ground ginger, ground clove, and dried rosemary.
I started with a half-gallong of boiling water and added a tablespoon of dried rosemary. After a few minutes I added 7 ounces of molasses and boiled for about an hour. At 45 minutes I added a pinch of ground clove and ground giner and a small handfull of oats.
I let it cool to 140 F and put 1/4 cup into a jar and place that into the fridge. I put the rest in the half-gallon jug, adding about two cups of water. This went into the sink and I filled the sink with cool water. I took SG at 105 F and found 1.057 corrected.
At 78 F I pitched in a package of fast acting bread yeast. I put the bubbler-ma-bob on and sat it on the coffee table. Within 30 minutes I got my first bubble. Its been bubbling for about 30 hours and is showing signs of slowing down. There is nothing floating on it. It smells the same as it did when it was brewing.
It smells like cookies, by the way.
I suspect this will be disgusting but the experience has been fun, and I'm ready to invest into more gear and a better recipe.
Thoughts?
I've never brewed anything and have no expectation of having a drinkable brew. I wanted to step through the process of brewing without investing a lot of money into a failure. I bought 1 stopper, 1 bubbler-ma-jig, and a hydrometer. I spent $10.43 on these items.
I had a half-gallon glass jug.
I bought a 12 oz bottle of robust molasses.
Spices on hand: ground ginger, ground clove, and dried rosemary.
I started with a half-gallong of boiling water and added a tablespoon of dried rosemary. After a few minutes I added 7 ounces of molasses and boiled for about an hour. At 45 minutes I added a pinch of ground clove and ground giner and a small handfull of oats.
I let it cool to 140 F and put 1/4 cup into a jar and place that into the fridge. I put the rest in the half-gallon jug, adding about two cups of water. This went into the sink and I filled the sink with cool water. I took SG at 105 F and found 1.057 corrected.
At 78 F I pitched in a package of fast acting bread yeast. I put the bubbler-ma-bob on and sat it on the coffee table. Within 30 minutes I got my first bubble. Its been bubbling for about 30 hours and is showing signs of slowing down. There is nothing floating on it. It smells the same as it did when it was brewing.
It smells like cookies, by the way.
I suspect this will be disgusting but the experience has been fun, and I'm ready to invest into more gear and a better recipe.
Thoughts?