beer time capsule

[pedroheartsummer]

after grandpa passed away we found his malt liquor recipe, his old stone crock, rusted bottle capper, and even a box of decades old caps (with cork inside the top to seal against the bottle). we followed his recipe and used all of his old supplies, which had probably been sitting in his garage for longer than i've been alive. yesterday we bottled 5 gallons, and it occurred to me that these are essentially like beer time capsules. the date: 1950, the place: south dakota. i cant wait to crack one open and taste what he was drinking with the brothers in his fraternity.

 

[Nagorg]

Now thats AWESOME! Let us know how it turns out.

 

[cheesehed007]

Keeping track of this thread.... Make sure to take group photo... Love to see all the glasses raised high in honor of your grandpa. Cheers

 

[CastleHollow]

Very cool--I scored a box of those exact same caps a few years ago, they're just sitting on my shelf. Cheers to you for using them!

 

[Onihige]

Care to share the recipe?

 

[signpost]

So cool. I look forward to hearing how it turns out.

 

[Revvy]

Neat. I'd love to find an old crock fermenter one of these days.

 

[unionrdr]

My mother had one a bit taller than that one she made this sweet saurkraut in. Sis got it,now it's gone.

 

[Obliviousbrew]

subscribed

 

[pedroheartsummer]

Neat. I'd love to find an old crock fermenter one of these days.

they're great. we've got two-six gallon crocks, one-three gallon crock, and one-fifteen gallon crock. we use the sixes and three as primary fermenters continually (boy do they get heavy). i'm going to try the 15 next month. its a little odd because it has a hole for an old wooden spigot. i've been uncomfortable deciding whether i could ever actually get the thing sanitized, but finally decided, hey, if people can sanitize wood barrels, why not this.

we HAD a 12 gallon and 30 gallon that were the greatest things known to man, but this is what we found when we opened the moving boxes in april.

 

[pedroheartsummer]

Care to share the recipe?

dont laugh now...its pretty wonky

i have to admit though, i deviated in a few ways:
1) instead of two yeast cakes, i used a packet of safale us-05
2) instead of a quart of dark malt, i used 3.33 cups of dark DME
3) instead of .5 tsp priming sugar in each bottle, i primed the whole thing with 224g dark DME. i fear that i didnt end up with a full 5 gallons after leaving the trub behind so hopefully i didnt overcarbonate it too badly. each bottle is a tad underfilled, but i still made 50 bottles
ipe:

 

[Channel66]

That's awesome! I have some OLD OLD family dandelion and elderberry wine recipes from my great great great grandfather but that is about it. I don't think anyone has made the wine since he did back in the God knows when. I found the recipes in an old leather folder when cleaning out my great grandfathers barn after he passed. Going to give them a shot this summer.

 

[Revvy]

amazing

 

[CBMbrewer]

This is pretty cool. Can't wait to hear about the finished product!

 

[CastleHollow]

i have to admit though, i deviated in a few ways:

At least you kept the potato!

 

[Dynachrome]

after grandpa passed away we found his malt liquor recipe, his old stone crock, rusted bottle capper, and even a box of decades old caps (with cork inside the top to seal against the bottle). we followed his recipe and used all of his old supplies, which had probably been sitting in his garage for longer than i've been alive. yesterday we bottled 5 gallons, and it occurred to me that these are essentially like beer time capsules. the date: 1950, the place: south dakota. i cant wait to crack one open and taste what he was drinking with the brothers in his fraternity.

Wow, That looks a heck of a lot like my dad's stuff. I remember the caps well. I have his capper. It looks identical to yours.

I did not find his recipe though.

 

[Gear101]

Cool, I might try something like that.

 

[pedroheartsummer]

At least you kept the potato!

i did, but for the life of me i cant figure out what its for. any ideas?

 

[Varmintman]

I lost my Dads capper sometime ago in a move I fear. Absolutely amazing though that you got the recipe and I am going to do it myself. Thanks for sharing

 

[Hackwood]

Can't imagine the amount of starches to sugars from the potato. Been thinking about this for a while..,........

 

[tuxnerd]

This is an awesome thread, I cannot wait to hear how it turns out

 

[CastleHollow]

i did, but for the life of me i cant figure out what its for. any ideas?

Here's a pretty good article on potatoes & beer

 

[lewishowardm3]

Great thread! Awesome story

 

[lewishowardm3]

I just been watching a programme on tv here in the uk called "wartime farm" and they was making potato beer. I learnt that the reason they used potatoes is because in the 2nd world war malt barley was scarce in Britain and winston Churchill did not want beer to be rationed so they used potatoes.

You all probably know this but I wanted to share my new knowledge

Cheers

 

[Revvy]

I just been watching a programme on tv here in the uk called "wartime farm" and they was making potato beer. I learnt that the reason they used potatoes is because in the 2nd world war malt barley was scarce in Britain and winston Churchill did not want beer to be rationed so they used potatoes.

You all probably know this but I wanted to share my new knowledge

Cheers

I loved that show. Been watching it streamed online. I'm a big fan of all those series- Victorian Farm, Victorian Pharmacy, etc....

 

[Xpertskir]

Cool, great way to honor your family.

Since its malt liquor and all, dont forget to pour one out for your homey

 

[lewishowardm3]

I loved that show. Been watching it streamed online. I'm a big fan of all those series- Victorian Farm, Victorian Pharmacy, etc....

Yep they have all been good. I love history programmes too.

 

[pedroheartsummer]

Cool, great way to honor your family.

Since its malt liquor and all, dont forget to pour one out for your homey

at least, thats what i've been calling it. the recipe doesnt say so specifically, but i figured as much from the ingredients (sans hops).

 

[patto1ro]

I just been watching a programme on tv here in the uk called "wartime farm" and they was making potato beer. I learnt that the reason they used potatoes is because in the 2nd world war malt barley was scarce in Britain and winston Churchill did not want beer to be rationed so they used potatoes.

I watched the programme and it didn't look to me as if that method would work. They just seemed to be boiling up the pototoes. Maybe I missed something.

Potatoes were used a little in WW II but in the form of potato flour. It wasn't greatly popular with brewers. After a bumper crop of oats in 1942 the government forced brewers to use 10% oats in their grists for a while. Mostly flaked oats, but sometimes malted oats. You even see weird grains like rye turning up in beers.

Britain was very lucky with the weather during the middle war years and had record harvests.

While beer itself wasn't rationed, the ingredients to brew it were. Breweries were allocated a certain amount of malt and hops based on how much they had brewed pre-war. It meant that there were often shortages of beer. Pubs were obliged to open for the permitted hours whether they had any beer to sell or not.

There were shortages of bottles, crates, crown corks and just about everything else a brewery needed. The shortage of bottles led to a big shift in packaging from bottled to draught. Breweries often wouldn't deliver new supplies of bottled beers without getting back an equivalent number of empties and crates first.

 

[Revvy]

The bigger question I had watching that show was, could hooch be made with silage?