Home brewing in Libya in 1970s

I came accross this interesting story about expats in Libya in the 1970s getting around the ban on alcahol by home brewing. The ingredients were a bit limited.

Home Brew

Here's the recipe (fermented in a plastic rubbish bin):
30 litres of water
2 kilogram’s of sugar
1 large tin of Maltexo
1 teaspoon of hop extract
1 teaspoon of yeast

The sugar, Maltexo, and hops were brought to boiling in a few litres of water and added to the rest of the water in the brewing container. The yeast was then sprinkled on top and that was it.

 

Ughh...bet it tasted awful

 

Thanks. That was a captivating read. Like a scene from Lawrence of Arabia.

 

That whole blog is a fantastic read. The homebrew part is very fascinating, but the other chapters are great too. Thanks for sharing.

 

I read a few of the chapters and agree that it was interesting. I immediately said "Why would someone expatriate to Libya?", and had to get the answer!

 

Save me the trouble of reading it. Why did they? Running from the law?

 

I was in Libya and got a taste for "Flash". You took water, table sugar, and yeast (whatever you could get) and put in a large garbage bin of water. Rather smelly and gross, but then you ran through a refractive still (oil workers were handy at making them). You ran it though the still several times and watched the temp closely. Some people ran it through a glass still at the end. If you rushed it, it had an oily taste and gave quite a head in the morning. It was clear and normally taken with a "bebsi cola" (no "p's in Arabic). Some people would add other things but you could not get most of the stuff in that recepie. Beer was made by a few but only one guy made beer that was good. Beer was in very short supply and you were happy to get one.

 

The husband took a job with the UN maintaining aviation navigation equipment.

 

Sounds like good money and a chance to see a different place.

 

very interesting read. remided me of an article i found a few days ago from India about some people getting poisoned by home made beer/liquer in the few providences that ban alcohol. its like 1920s prohibition all over again, except no one learned a thing from when it happened 90 years ago.

what is so hard to understand about how when you make a product that is in high demand illegal, all you do is force people to go find it thru non-legal (and thus unregulated and dangerous) channels to find what they want...?

 

Well I'm sure the beer was 'interesting' to say the least. They probably did just about all the things that are considered no-nos in modern homebrewing:

lack of sanitation
warm (hot even) brewing temps
most fermentables from table sugar
bakers yeast (probably an underpitch to boot)

Not much wonder the next door neighbour managed to make the worst home brew he ever tasted! And they didn't have an online forum like homebrewtalk to post stuff like 'Help, I think I have an infection'!

 

There was a much copied "How to" named the "Blue Flame". It basically was a step by step that allowed you to create non lethal hooch. Everyone has a still. My father did not drink, but we had an operating still that was put to use. I wish I had a copy of the "Blue Flame".