8$ wheat bush beer

[bottlebomber]

mine is in bottles now. It did clear up nicely to my surprise! It looks like cheap beer,smells like cheap beer,,,,but so far it tastes like someone left an opened bud in the basement with a tea bag in it for 3 days ! lol! maybe it will age and be better? This little trial run does have me convinced that one could do more tinkering and make something truly drinkable with cheap supermarket products.

My supermarket carries roasted barley probably 250 lovibond I'm guessing in the mexican aisle, maybe some molasses, grape nuts, try to head it in the direction of a dark ale. I would really try to find something to bitter it with other than the herbal tea though. Maybe a little black tea

 

[Bradinator]

Subscribed. Very interested in seeing if anyone can actually make an enjoyable drink from this. I love experimenting with fermentation and cannot wait to see how these turn out.

Have you thought about using the "bulk hops" you can buy from the natural food stores? No idea what breed they may be as they are labeled as "hops" and are in a dried whole leaf form. They are dirt cheap and I imagine they would have more bittering power then the minute amount of hop in the tea used.

 

[bottlebomber]

Subscribed. Very interested in seeing if anyone can actually make an enjoyable drink from this. I love experimenting with fermentation and cannot wait to see how these turn out.

Have you thought about using the "bulk hops" you can buy from the natural food stores? No idea what breed they may be as they are labeled as "hops" and are in a dried whole leaf form. They are dirt cheap and I imagine they would have more bittering power then the minute amount of hop in the tea used.

They have those at my local hippy store, but I would hesitate to shop there for those. Its kind of cheating in my mind. I was thinking more along the lines of Safeway or Nob Hill. An average grocer. Plus, the "organic sweet hops" at my local health food store are $45 a pound. Definitely not dirt cheap...

 

[Beer-Baron]

I think I'll have to use ovaltine. I can't find anything else up here in Canada. Who wants to see me brew this on my YouTube channel?

 

[EdGrog]

Subscribe this is actually encouraging to us novices teaches skills & cheaply if your worried about foul ups would think you could build up confidance with this & move on nobody claims this to be an award winning brew. Very interesting!!

 

[chazzman]

I could not find the Carnation MM in my store either, but Amazon has it, in 3-pks.
Free shipping if your order totals $25.00 too. Not bad. I have 4 Gallons in Deer Park
bottle now, and plan on posting pics of my NEXT batch because I want to brown the
bran in the oven and will try to boil the malted milk in a much lower volume of water to
caramelize it if possible. I am not fond of the extreme paleness of this brew. Looking
forward to tasting it though, will bottle this light batch on the 19th.

 

[spam]

after brewing it,I think the biggest problem is the tea,,,need to find a replacement for the tea...

 

[Jsmith82]

Going out on a limb here but for those not able to find the malted milk, or just for all of us and another possibility, what are the chances of mashing an organic all wheat grain cereal and nothing but prior to the boil - maybe with added rice and some flaked corn (ALL available at a standard super market). Could we get a sugar conversion out of it? I'm just really iffy on using ovaltine - chocolate cheap beer, can't knock it - haven't tried it, however if we're not talking a stout the flavor doesn't really sell me.

Also, I made a post a couple pages back regarding bittering agents (bay leaves, crushed coffee beans, cocoa beans) - I've moved on this idea and decided that next go I'm going to drop the tea in cheesecloth with a healthy amount of bay leaves, then place that into the boil however at the 10 minute mark, I'm pulling the tea and leave out and replacing them with orange zest and coriander. This beverage contains wheat, why not go after a wit style??

EDIT - I'm with Spam, the hops haven't presented a hop flavor from the tea, another herb may suit this better though picking will be a delicate process, I can imagine particular herbs making this drink turn out like an Italian nightmare.. haha

 

[rycov]

look up gruit ale. its beer made with spices and herbs other than hops. you could probably find some info on what to use and maybe some amounts. good luck guys! pretty neat project. keep posting you're results

 

[bcfzx2]

Brewed this today. The longest part was finding the ingredients. The only store that had the tea was Wal-Mart. Then to find the Malted Milk it was next to the chocolate syrup not next to the milk or the baking goods. The only variation is I am going to use lager yeast and ferment at lager temp. Will give updates.

 

[SenorPepe]

Cool thread. I'm not going to be brewing this, EVER, but I support innovation.

One guy was wondering "how far bread yeast will go" in terms of ABV, anyone here have a clue? Kind of curious.

So my first and only introduction to brewing with bread yeast was the JAOM I did kind of simultaneously with my first extract beer. Instead of two teaspoons or whatever the directions call for, I massively overpitched with Fleischmann's bread yeast, one whole packet. It took it bone dry. .998 or so. I didn't take an OG, but I'm pretty sure I was over the stated alcohol tolerance.

 

[mrk305]

subscribed

 

[spam]

I wonder if this could be turned into a better hard iced tea with some modification? might be something to try if the beer thing don't work out. My friends and I drink a ton of hard ice ted on 90 degree summer days!

 

[2brew1cup]

Do you accept the challange??!

underground and under the influence

 

[MeinStein]

OK I wanted to try this. I like the idea of a super cheap recipe with all of the ingredients directly off the supermarket shelves. I have a store close to my house that quite a bit of Spanish products. I have a problem with using malted milk in a beer recipe. Its just a personal thing (powdered milk in a wheat beer?) Not willing to try it on the first go around. However, in place of it I decided to try malta, unfermented Spanish malt beverage that contains hops. This stuff is really wort without yeast. I tested the SG of the malta right out of the bottle 1.061. I used 2 Lbs of cracked Bulgar Wheat and 2 bottles of the malta. I pretty much stayed with the rest of the recipe but still sort of winging it. Added water and sugar till I got to 1.041 OG. Its bubbling away in my 1 gal carboy. Smells like beer. Looks more like a Dunkel

 

[Jsmith82]

I'm making a second go at (something like) this Friday, I think I may have found a great organic product that can replace the malted milk. Here's the recipe I've put together over this week - completely experimental however it should be interesting...

Grocery List (2 gallon batch):
20oz jar of Malted Barley Syrup (available at Whole Foods stores, 6 bucks!)
1 large box wheat grain cereal
__oz flaked corn / grits (No measurement yet, depends on the cereal box size. Aiming for 20% corn, 80% cereal)
__lbs dextrose (waiting for gravity sample before adding sugar)
.5oz fresh Ginger Root
2 tarocco oranges (for zest)
.5oz coriander seeds
Baker's yeast

Again, sticking to the plan - only what is available at the grocer

I'm going to grind the corn down, add water at a 2qt per pound ratio, the rest it in the low 150s for around 15 minutes, then bring it to a light boil for 15-20 minutes. Afterward I will add the cereal with more water to bring up the ratio to again, 2qts per pound of additives, mash in the mid 150s for 60.

The schedule above was formed from an article I read on cereal mashes, using the corn to help get conversion. It was an interesting read however I still felt a little bit on the head scratching side.. Regardless, learn by doing.

Mash complete, sparge (168F - measurement depending total amount used for mash, waiting to see the oz's of cereal in a large box). My goal is to end up with around 1.5 gallons to boil give or take.

30 minute boil:

20oz Malted Barley Syrup @ 30
.5oz grated Ginger Root @ 30
.5oz crushed coriander @ 5
zest from 2 oranges @ 5

Cool it down, pour in the bucket, add water to take it up to 2 gallons, take a gravity sample - add sugars to adjust the gravity as needed, then pitch. My goal would be a low ABV, 4 maybe.. Again though, doing it on the fly.

Dark Ginger Wit?.. Meh..

I'm just having too much fun with this topic. Did you know that older dry ginger root can be used as a natural preservative (just read on that earlier)? Much like hops in beer which is one of the reasons I chose it for my hop sub - may help hold off the skunk, that and its flavor characteristics - spicy, aromatic.. It makes me think of Saaz.

I'll post back pictures.

 

[MeinStein]

might be a lot of coriander for only 2 gallons, I'm very curious to see how your recipe works out keep us posted

 

[Jsmith82]

I used 1oz crushed in 5 gallons of bitter wheat a couple months back and it died out almost immediately, about 3 weeks after bottling it was so subtle it was hardly noticeable.

It was however an amount in my recipe above that I was questioning, I keep flipping between 1/2oz and 1/4oz, I think half because there are no hops and the mask of the beverage will 1/3 come from this however, I think a fourth because too much coriander is just.. gross.

 

[sgoehner]

Wow, look at Jsmith getting all creative I was wondering about clearing this a little. I read earlier in this thread about using Knoxx gelatin. Did you use that on your first batch? Either way, how much would you use in a full batch (4 gallons) of this stuff. When I did my gravity sample the other day it was still cloudy, but VERY light, I am talking lemonade light, which is what my wife commented that it looked like. I tasted it and it was alright, just not what I am used to. Going to bottle on Sunday which will be 11 days as I just want to get it carbed and cold.

 

[HexKrak]

Just fyi, malted milk vs malted grain are not the same thing. This does however sound like an interesting and cheap experiment.

I get US 2 row from my LHBS for $1.09/lb, so could make a cheap session beer with 7lbs of grain and an oz of cheap hops for under $10 too. I usually go the extra mile and add a little CaraPils and some sort of darker sweet or roasty malt and end up with a decent 5 gal brew for $15-20 worth of grain hops and yeast.

 

[2brew1cup]

Again. I would like to say. THIS IS NOT ABOUT CHEAP!! it is about making beer when, as if in the boonies of alaska, you dont have access to a LHBS.. my hair is a bird!!

underground and under the influence

 

[passedpawn]

.. my hair is a bird!!

Come again?

 

[2brew1cup]

My hair is a bird. - nic cage

underground and under the influence

 

[MilesLong]

youre argument is invalid

 

[bottlebomber]

youre argument is invalid

There's an arguement?

 

[MilesLong]

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_Ni...rd_and_how_does_that_make_my_argument_invalid

 

[Jsmith82]

Mileslong just drank your tasty beverage. Ahhh... the interwebs.

Back on topic though - has anyone else given any thought for hop substitutes other than the tea? I mentioned a couple back a few pages, somebody also mentioned gruit beer which was a very good recommendation to this topic:

Gruit (sometimes grut) is an old-fashioned herb mixture used for bittering and flavoring beer, popular before the extensive use of hops. Gruit or grut ale may also refer to the beverage produced using gruit.

Gruit was a combination of herbs, some of the most common being mildly to moderately narcotic: sweet gale (Myrica gale), mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), horehound (Marrubium vulgare), and heather (Calluna vulgaris). Gruit varied somewhat, each gruit producer including different herbs to produce unique flavors and effects. Other adjunct herbs included black henbane, juniper berries, ginger, caraway seed, aniseed, nutmeg, cinnamon, and even hops in variable proportions. Some gruit ingredients are now known to have preservative qualities.

Interesting read.. I don't think you could find most of these though in your everyday grocer, probably an all organic shop like Whole foods or Trader Joes - I'm going to check when I go to Whole Foods tonight - I've never heard of either 6, I don't know if they are literally narcotics or something you could find in the seasoning isle! LOL ****, I'm laughing at myself here. Back to researching..

It's been over a week now since I brewed the original, I'm going to check gravity again tonight, then it's cold crash time..

 

[Germelli1]

JSmith- many herbs can be used in place of hops. You can use some items from the grocery store, or some items found in the environment near by (Juniper berries/twigs).

Commercial examples include Fraoch (using heather flowers, sweet gale and ginger) and Alba (using pine twigs and spruce buds) from Williams Brothers in Scotland; Myrica (using sweet gale) from O'Hanlons in England; Gageleer (also using sweet gale) from Proefbrouwerij in Belgium; Cervoise from Lancelot in Brittany (using a gruit containing heather flowers, spices and some hops); Artemis from Moonlight Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, California (using mugwort and wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, also known as bee balm or horsemint); and Bog•Water[1] from Beau's All Natural Brewing Company in Vankleek Hill, Ontario, Canada (using Bog Myrtle).

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruit

 

[Jsmith82]

" *Juniper Berries* "

The flavour profile of young, green berries is dominated by pinene; as they mature this piney, resinous backdrop is joined by what McGee describes as "green-fresh" and citrus notes.[7] The outer scales of the berries are relatively flavourless, so the berries are almost always at least lightly crushed before being used as a spice. They are used both fresh and dried, but their flavour and odour is at their strongest immediately after harvest and decline during drying and storage.

I'm really digging this right here, piney with citrus notes.. Thinking I'll look for this today as well. Reading up on this is starting to make me want to again adjust my recipe - mixed with ginger, a single addition at the boils beginning, ditch the orange and coriander, using corn - rice - grain cereal and barley syrup, might be able to pull of a tolerable light ale, a mock-lager..

 

[BrewKnurd]

Again. I would like to say. THIS IS NOT ABOUT CHEAP!! it is about making beer when, as if in the boonies of alaska, you dont have access to a LHBS.. my hair is a bird!!

underground and under the influence

Perhaps you'll excuse people for thinking its about cheap when the subject is "$8 wheat bush beer" and the first line of your first post is "This is a cheap beer."