Hobo Brewing

So I'm desperate to brew and have no equipment besides a basic kitchen here in Argentina. So I'm BIABing with a bandanna, no thermometer, unidentified malt and hops, and wild fermenting. We'll see how this goes...

 

Awesome

 

A man has to do what a man has to do!

 

You could always guesstimate your strike water temperature by boiling water and then mixing in the right ratio of room temp water to pull your temp down to whatever you want. Although if you're in the mountains it might be slightly harder due to the lower boiling point.

Whatever you do, I'm sure you'll end up with some beer!

 

Just started the boil and I still have no idea what these hops are, they weren't well taken care of so they're probably stale along with the grains. It still smells awesome and I'll just say it's a Belgian.

 

I thought about that but I am in the mountains and don't have a good way to maintain temps so I brought the grains from fairly warm to too hot to put my finger in. I was afraid of going over and getting tannins in but I don't think that happened.

 

So it's in the fermentor and tasting soso, very chocolatey with a bitter aftertaste, maybe I'll call it a Belgian Chocolate IPA. I added some oats to the mash and brown sugar to the boil, cinnamon and cocoa at flame out. Right now it's tasting pretty bitter and thick, hopefully the sediment will settle enough. The jar is sitting next to several other jars of fermenting things (sour kraut, sourdough, etc.) so I'm hoping some of their goodies make the leap over. I guess now is the waiting game, I have no idea what the og is and didn't measure anything I put in so hopefully a beer like substance comes out.

 

This is great. Nice job. You could do a decoction to get a bit more precision with your mash temps, but may not be worth the trouble.

Excited to see what sort of wild yeast character you get. Anticipation is half the fun!

 

Why a Belgian? Why not "Guaraní Tango"?

~subscribed - please keep us updated

 

This is so badass.

 

First of all, you are a brewing badass.

If I didn't have a thermometer, I'd be tempted to do decoction mashing. By starting with "blood temperature" water/grain and then pulling out roughly 1qt of thick mash per pound of grist, boiling it, re-adding it to the mash, and then repeating 3 times you are effectively step mashing up through protein rest, sacc rest, and mash out. Lots of beer was brewed that way once upon a time without a thermometer or "modern" brewing equipment.

Keep us posted.

 

Cool, can't wait to hear what comes out. Might be an acquired taste, but I'm sure it'll be interesting. You have bottling equipment up there?

 

Man thats so cool. Somebody is addicted to brewing

 

Man, That is impressive, and I worry if mine tastes just right?

 

Rock on! Subscribed

Never been to Argentina, but in Peru it's mostly "beer like substance." How does the beer there compare?

 

/Subscribed :cross:

 

Pure, unadulterated dedication right there. lol

 

Agreed, Badass.

 

Desperate times, desperate measures. Lol. Cheers and good luck.

 

Subscribed as well. There is so much win in this thread!

 

I got a flight from a bona fide brewpub in Buenos Aires (same block as the City of the Dead celebrity graveyard thing). It was quality stuff and they had good food with it.

 

Bigtime!

 

I've gotta see how this turns out! Subscribed!

 

I am hooked.

 

Love the bandana. I wanna see if this thing ferments.

 

It's been 8 days and it has a nice krausen now! The hop aroma has toned down a bit and I can smell bread, chocolate, and alcohol, which is actually pretty nice. I was doubtful at first but it seems to be doing well so far.

As for South American beers, currently I'm just outside El Bolson aka Hop Capital of Argentina/South America. The beers here are really straightforward pale ale, red ale, stout although Berlina has an IPA, and Antares a Barleywine and RIS. In Chile there's better beer, Szot is my favorite and they have great barleywines, strong ale, and steam beer. Kross is good too and they have a few Belgian styles, an ESB, and a 110 minute IPA that just came out, their Maibock is also solid. Everywhere else I have experienced the beer like substance and it's pretty bad.

 

Looks like it's going to be Beer . . best of luck

 

Just bottled, used a bottle that used to carry beer like substance and a wrench to put the cap back on. Not sure if it will carbonate but we'll see.

 

Awesome! Makes me feel like an idiot worrying about temperatures and fermentation times and bottle conditioning.

 

Subscribed I really want to know what this taste like

 

You can use your sourdough starter directly in the beer next time if this turns out funky.

 

Awesome! Hope it works out for you!

 

So the first batch turned out way too bitter, but I made another batch and pitched it on the yeast cake. Still very bitter but not so much that I'd dump it. The yeast was very clean and well flocculating, no sourness at all. Successful but it would have been better with fresher ingredients, the hops were in a jar that have been sitting out for who knows how long!

 

I just told my wife about this and she said " Where there is a will, there's a beer".

 

id drink it

 

Looks like beer to me.
Cheers and brew on!

 

This is awesome dude. This should be stickied so that anyone who ever doubts if their beer will turn out well can see that even with only a few pieces of equipment, anything is possible.

Cheers man, this is impressive.

 

i enjoy that you are drinking it out of a tomato sauce jar

 

Please post a sample so we all can taste it

 

Any idea what your water profile looks like? Wonder if that's contributing to the "way too bitter"

Very excited to hear more about the yeast profile. This is awesome.