I finally found my grandfather's old homebrew recipe. And for yeast all it says is "yeast." I am assuming the selection was abysmal back in 1981 (when the recipe is dated), so what would be a good guess as to yeast? Any ideas?
What yeast would have been available to a homebrewer in 1981?
- Thread starter loapathy
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
cheezydemon3
Well-Known Member
Nottingham. My dad's recipes say the same thing.......
They also list "hops"......no further mention of any variety.
They also list "hops"......no further mention of any variety.
COLObrewer
Well-Known Member
A "cake" of brewers yeast (Sort of dryish and pressed into a brick), not sure what the equivalent would be these days. Maybe some brewers yeast from the health food store? No way of telling what strain or strains were in it.
cheesydemon3: My grandfather's recipe has hops, no variety, just where in the field they came from, in amounts measured by the handful.
COLObrewer: Local health food store doesn't have yeast, but that's a good idea.
The more I think about this, the more I assume my gandfather just used whatever was available cheaply at the grocery store for yeast. Were there ANY brewer's yeasts available in grocery stores in 1981?
COLObrewer: Local health food store doesn't have yeast, but that's a good idea.
The more I think about this, the more I assume my gandfather just used whatever was available cheaply at the grocery store for yeast. Were there ANY brewer's yeasts available in grocery stores in 1981?
COLObrewer
Well-Known Member
You sure about that?
COLObrewer
Well-Known Member
Wow, that's very hard to believe, brewers yeast has been a nutritional supplement for alot of years. I would've thought even the smallest of health food stores would have some form of it. Ah well. Probably can use any clean yeast to get an idea of what his recipe was like.
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2007
- Messages
- 62,016
- Reaction score
- 6,922
Probably just used a bread yeast.
Wow, that's very hard to believe, brewers yeast has been a nutritional supplement for alot of years. I would've thought even the smallest of health food stores would have some form of it. Ah well. Probably can use any clean yeast to get an idea of what his recipe was like.
They had nutritional yeast and baker's yeast, but not brewer's yeast.
IrregularPulse: I may split ten gallons into two five gallon batches, do one with bread yeast and one with something like s-05.
The yeast selection was abysmal or close to it. Some stale Edme or Grey Owl from the UK was about it in many places. Just use a good dried English yeast like Safale 04 or similar.
I started brewing in the early 1970's. You could get paper sachets of something that was supposed to be brewers yeast, but bakers yeast worked just as well.
If you wanted a good beer, you grew your own yeast from a naturally conditioned beer.
I used Guinness a few times (it was naturally conditioned in England), and Worthington White Shield. Don't know that there were any US naturally conditioned beers available in 1981, but I brought back a 6 pack of WWS each time I visited England, which yielded enough good yeast to keep me going for about 12 - 18 months
-a.
If you wanted a good beer, you grew your own yeast from a naturally conditioned beer.
I used Guinness a few times (it was naturally conditioned in England), and Worthington White Shield. Don't know that there were any US naturally conditioned beers available in 1981, but I brought back a 6 pack of WWS each time I visited England, which yielded enough good yeast to keep me going for about 12 - 18 months
-a.
rockfish42
Well-Known Member
Okay. So.
I have 2.5 gallons fermenting with s-33, 2.5 gallons fermenting with s-05, 2.5 gallons fermenting with Fleischmann's yeast (which is already bubbling away), and 2.5 in an open bucket, waiting for wild yeast. Thank goodness for bakeries giving away 4 gallon food grade buckets.
We'll see what turns out the best, hahah.
I have 2.5 gallons fermenting with s-33, 2.5 gallons fermenting with s-05, 2.5 gallons fermenting with Fleischmann's yeast (which is already bubbling away), and 2.5 in an open bucket, waiting for wild yeast. Thank goodness for bakeries giving away 4 gallon food grade buckets.
We'll see what turns out the best, hahah.
Brewer's yeast from health food stores are usually dead yeast. They work great for yeast hulls but not for fermentation.
Don't forget munton's and Cooper's yeast, those have been around awhile. I think coopers is way older than the 80's. If you could get a bottle of cooper's sparkling or ale, and harvest that, you'll be following in the footsteps of countless English and Australian brewers.
But more often than not bread yeast would have been used....there wouldn't have been as many LHBS in communities as there are today.
Don't forget munton's and Cooper's yeast, those have been around awhile. I think coopers is way older than the 80's. If you could get a bottle of cooper's sparkling or ale, and harvest that, you'll be following in the footsteps of countless English and Australian brewers.
But more often than not bread yeast would have been used....there wouldn't have been as many LHBS in communities as there are today.
MrAverage
Well-Known Member
I first got into brewing in 1982 or 83 when I was in college. At that time, there was Red Star "Ale Yeast" which often had significant flavor flaws (being a bread yeast) but was the most popular yeast at the time and probably the one that your granfather used, Munton & Fison and Edme...that's all I recall anyway. Then the brewing world was rocked by the arrival of two "quality" ale yeasts - Lallemande Nottingham and Windsor! I used a lot of the Windsor. I think there was also a one dried lager yeast but since I never brewed lagers, I never used it. I do recall however reading that the consensus was that it wasn't a very good yeast.
In the late 70's & early 80's Edme or Munton's is all I remember being available at my LHBS (WineArt, Tacoma, Wa.). Otherwise it was what came packed on top of the LME can (origin: unknown). Just thinking about the beer I produced back then gives me the heebie jeebies (3 lbs corn sugar, 3.3 lb can of hopped LME). Sort of like prohibition recipes, just awful, but potent...:fro:
Update on this: the bread yeast smells the best so far. It went from 1.056 to 1.011 already, and the "bready" smells went away on the second day. I put it into a glass carboy and cool crashed it, and aside from the frankly horrifying amount of yeast in the bottom, it looks halfway decent. Dark, dark red, almost brown but not quite. The others are still fermenting, and the "wild" yeast bucket is still sitting with the top off at 1.056.
The recipe, in case anyone was wondering, verbatim:
"Fall Beer
8lbs light malted barley
1.5lbs medium toasted* barley
.5lbs dark toasted* barley
Soak barley in hottest tap water for 2 hours
Boil 1 handful of upper field hops (3 if dry) for 90 minutes
Boil 1 handful of lower field hops (3 if dry) for 20 minutes
Strain into big ceramic pot and add another handful of lower field hops (more if dry).
Ferment in unheated area until done. Bottle with half cup of sugar and fresh pine needles boiled at let cool to standing temperature.
*Now... for the toasted Barley, where my grandparents used to live my grandmother had a brick style oven set back in the passageway between the house and the barn, so I would assume he would have used that. I, however, simply spread the appropriate amounts out onto a baking sheet and baked them a la Papazian's "toasted malt".
I mashed at around 145 since I have no idea what "hottest tap water" means, and mine can get up to 180 which is entirely too hot.
And for hops, I just used a medium AA Cascade for bittering and a low AA Cascade for aroma since I have no clue whatsoever what type of hops he was growing and their farm has since been turned into a Residential Development. They might have been something english (he moved to the states from Ireland) or maybe some german hops he brought back from WWII, no idea--but I went with Cascade.
The recipe, in case anyone was wondering, verbatim:
"Fall Beer
8lbs light malted barley
1.5lbs medium toasted* barley
.5lbs dark toasted* barley
Soak barley in hottest tap water for 2 hours
Boil 1 handful of upper field hops (3 if dry) for 90 minutes
Boil 1 handful of lower field hops (3 if dry) for 20 minutes
Strain into big ceramic pot and add another handful of lower field hops (more if dry).
Ferment in unheated area until done. Bottle with half cup of sugar and fresh pine needles boiled at let cool to standing temperature.
*Now... for the toasted Barley, where my grandparents used to live my grandmother had a brick style oven set back in the passageway between the house and the barn, so I would assume he would have used that. I, however, simply spread the appropriate amounts out onto a baking sheet and baked them a la Papazian's "toasted malt".
I mashed at around 145 since I have no idea what "hottest tap water" means, and mine can get up to 180 which is entirely too hot.
And for hops, I just used a medium AA Cascade for bittering and a low AA Cascade for aroma since I have no clue whatsoever what type of hops he was growing and their farm has since been turned into a Residential Development. They might have been something english (he moved to the states from Ireland) or maybe some german hops he brought back from WWII, no idea--but I went with Cascade.
seanoj
Well-Known Member
In the 1980's I just used the yeast packet that was taped to the bottom of the can of already hopped malt extract. Yikes....
very cool. thanks for sharing.
