Old Timer Brew

[IrregularPulse]

So yesterday I was sitting beside my grandma at Easter Dinner and she was joking how my older brother was at the church with his daughter the preceding Saturday with his wife and my wife and son and where was her other grandson? At home making Beer? haha She laughed and said "your great grandfather would be proud". He used to make his own beer too which I knew about but then she started asking my grandpa and great aunts about his old recipe book. I was intrigued. She is going to try and find it. I just imagined the old man mixing up basic stuff he had laying around that day and making a basic hooch beer. But a recipe book? I'm hoping she can find it and I can pay tribute with an "Old Timer" line of brews.

Anyone else have any Old Timer recipes handed down generations or anything?

 

[Revvy]

More than likely he used Blue Ribbon Malt Extract. Which is actually still being made, though now called Premier. And one of the plants is in Michigan.

Premier Malt Products
25760 Groesbeck Hwy., Suite 103
Warren, MI 48089
Toll-Free: 800-521-1057
Local: 586-443-3355

AND they've been around for 50 years...

A little of their history...

There were also those who sold beer-related products with a wink and a nod. For instance, Premier Malt Products shipped malt extract under a variety of names - Blue Ribbon and Banner were two of them - out of Peoria Heights, Ill., starting in 1925. And when Prohibition ended, Premier Pabst Corp. went immediately to making beer in Peoria Heights.

They were the company that if you wrote requesting baking recipes, they sent you this;

But if you were interested in another kind of recipe, this is what happenned.

Around 1975 or '76, the first time I got interested in brewing, I bought a can of the mysterious Blue Ribbon malt syrup. The label invited me to write to Premier malt products for a recipe book, and I did. A few weeks later it arrived: a well-produced, four-color print job with recipes for using malt syrup in cakes, cookies, biscuits and the like, but not a word about making beer. A few weeks later a plain brown envelope with no return address appeared in the mail. Inside were two mimeographed sheets of beer recipes---including this recipe.
Ingredients:
1-3/4 pounds, sugar
1 can, Blue Ribbon hop-flavored malt syrup
yeast
Procedure:
Dissolve sugar and malt syrup in 6 quarts of hot water. Stir until dissolved. Pour 14 quarts of cold water into a crock that has been scoured with Arm & Hammer baking soda and rinsed with clear water. Add hot solution of malt, sugar, and water. The temperature should be about 65F. Dissolve a cake of compressed or dehydrated yeast in a small quantity of luke warm water (about 8 ounces of 75F water) and add to crock. Stir thoroughly. Cover crock with clean cloth and allow to ferment 4 or 5 days. Skim off foam after first and second days. Siphon beer into 12 ounce bottles. Before siphoning, place a scant 1/2 teaspoon of sugar into each bottle. Cap and allow to remain at 60-70F for 7-10 days. Cool and consume.
Things to remember: Cleanliness of utensils, including bottles, siphon hose, crowns and crock is essential for good results. Wash everything in soda solution or detergentbefore and after each batch. A 7 or 9 gallon crock can be used to prevent messy foam-over.

Many consumer failures can be averted by using a starter consisting of: 1 package of yeast, 2 ounces of sugar, 1 pint of 72F water. Let starter stand for 3-4 hours before mixing into crock with malt solution.

Too cool, I wonder if they have a historical archives...and if their Dry Malt Extract is any good...I think it would be fun just to tour their malting setup.

If you want to hear about actual homebrewers who used it in the 70's (including charlie Papazian) listen to this Basicbrewing podcast from a couple weeks back.

Just click to start listenning.

http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr02-14-08history.mp3

Here's some more of the recipes from those days...

Here's some of the "Prohibition Pilsner" recipes that were discretely mailed to people who wrote to the blue ribbon malt extract company....They came in plain brown envelopes with no return address and were simple mimeographs.

Blue Ribbon 1

Blue Ribbon 2

My Daddy's Beer Recipe

Al Capone's Recipe (AG)

Al Capone's Prohibition Beer

Another one
Prohibition Chicago Style

 

[IrregularPulse]

Thanks for the info Revvy. I'll check those out and see how they compare to ole grandpappy's recipes if my grandparents find the books.

 

[Saccharomyces]

When you find them be sure to post ... subscribed!

 

[IrregularPulse]

Will do. Need to get on granny to start searching

 

[XXguy]

I had a conversation with my mother during Easter dinner - she's 100% German & her grandparents came over from the old country as leathersmiths & brewers, but became farmers here in the USA. She was talking about how they used to drop whole eggs into their coffee pots to help drop the grounds out of solution & clear up the coffee for drinking. Apparently the practice came from their beer making experience.

I've heard of people using egg whites as a fining agent, and I always figured it was the proteins in the eggs which helped make it work. From what she was saying, they never broke the eggs, just dropped them in whole, because she would have soft-boiled eggs to eat when her Grandparents were drinking their coffee. Has anyone seen or heard of that before ?

 

[IrregularPulse]

So just raw whole eggs or soft boiled unpeeled eggs? Never heard of it. But there's lots of stuff I've never heard of.

 

[XXguy]

Apparently - the whole raw egg. I'm guessing there is more to the egg shell than I ever knew. I assumed the needed proteins were in the egg whites.

 

[illin8]

I've had coffee done this way on Whitewater Rafting trips when we stop mid river for lunch. They essentially boil water with coffee grinds free floating right in the pot. Then they take raw eggs, break them up and add to the pot (broken shells and all). As the egg cooks in the coffee it 'absorbs' the coffee grinds. When done they simply remove the cooked egg concoction, the result is some of the best tasting coffee I've ever had. To put it in perspective, I don't like black coffee...they didn't have any milk or cream and this stuff was fantastic. I was a doubter, and ended up surprisingly amazed.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Well that's neat right there. in goes the yolk and all eh? Then stir it into the pot with the coffee? Do you wait till the coffee is about done? I want to try this at home. Would be a good tool for camping instead of packing a coffee pot. and extra egg takes up lot less space.

 

[illin8]

Yeah, yolk and all...I don't remember at what point they actually added it to the coffee, and it doesn't get ALL of the grounds out but most. keep in mind this was on the shore of a mountain river, the water may have played a part in it too...just way cool to see and taste!