Brewing in a country with alcohol prohibition

[DesertFox]

Go to one of their Soccer matches and "take a knee" to protest inequality, lack of empathy and that you just want to resist the ruling regime, when they play their national anthem.
Sorry, I admit I'm a sarcastic @-hole and frequently go off-topic.
But here's a partial solution for your beer brewing issues:
Make a mead and blend it with commercial non-alcoholic beer.
Save the yeast slurry from your current batch. Just put it in the jar in the fridge.
Mix 2 lbs of honey with a gallon of water, you may have to heat the water some to get it to mix, try to keep it below 100F. When it cools, pitch the whole amount of saved yeast, the dead yeast cells will act as a nutrient and you should have a pretty good amount of yeast for a healthy fermentation.
Use a long handled spoon to degas the brew twice a day until its done, rack to another container and let it sit a month.
You can use 3-lbs of honey/gallon for a stronger mead, but you might have to let it age longer for the harshness to wear off.
Best wishes and hope you can get out of there soon.

I had to leave my home country because I protested and showed opposition to the ruling regime, we need more than "taking a knee" to make a change, you guys should be very grateful to your ancestors and forefathers for all they did to make it possible for you to live this way, brewing and alcohol consumption are the least of our problems, hint: I come from a country with a secular, socialist dictatorship not a theocratic dictatorship.

back to the topic; thanks for this recipe! and how much of non alcoholic beer should I add to the brew? 4 gallons? can I stir and let sit the NA beer before adding it to the brew to degas it, so I won't be risking exposing the brew to germs and unwanted bacteria?
what are the benefits of using yeast from my current batch?

thanks!

 

[DesertFox]

How did you get hops?

I enjoyed my time in Saudi, despite the prohibition on drinking/brewing. I looked at doing a little home-brewing but getting the basic materials was such a pain that I opted to go dry for a year. But during my research it was the hops that gave me the most trouble in finding.

Good on ya for making it work and good luck and be safe. The pace of change in the Kingdom is picking up (see: women drivers), and with MbS slated to take over, and King Salman leaning liberal it might not be too long before there are areas in the Kingdom where you can crack a beer. Of course those areas will be in Riyadh and Jeddah, only.

I assume you lived in a compound, because that's the only explanation of enjoying in SA!

I agree that the kingdom is turning into a more liberal country, not sure if Riyadh will be a "liberal" city soon, as most of its people are very conservative, I mean it's the city of Muhammed Abdul Wahhab!
I don't know if you heard about Umloj project in northern Saudi where (rumors say) there will be no restrictions on drinking, dressing, night clubs .. etc. they want it to be somehow like Dubai so Saudis will spend their money inside the kingdom.

After searching for more than a year I found only one place that sells hops. if you're still in Saudi send me a private message and I'll tell you where it is. 1kg of dry hops for 50SAR.

 

[EtchyLives]

I assume you lived in a compound, because that's the only explanation of enjoying in SA!

I agree that the kingdom is turning into a more liberal country, not sure if Riyadh will be a "liberal" city soon, as most of its people are very conservative, I mean it's the city of Muhammed Abdul Wahhab!
I don't know if you heard about Umloj project in northern Saudi where (rumors say) there will be no restrictions on drinking, dressing, night clubs .. etc. they want it to be somehow like Dubai so Saudis will spend their money inside the kingdom.

After searching for more than a year I found only one place that sells hops. if you're still in Saudi send me a private message and I'll tell you where it is. 1kg of dry hops for 50SAR.

I did live on a compound. And the Umloj will likely happen. They've already got quite a few REALLY nice resorts up there that were built in anticipation of the ruling. It's all centered around Sharma and should be pretty good for the area.

I am no longer in the Kingdom. I left a couple months ago and am back to brewing, and happy with all my brewing options. Good luck to you over there. If any of my other friends still in the kingdom reach out to me for a line on hops I'll shoot you a PM.

 

[eRicphtgr]

Saudi Arabia, but I'm not Saudi.

understand that. It is really a serious offend of brewing over there. So better keep low profile.

I will exactly do the same thing as you if I am there. Yeast and malt is the greatest thing in the world. :rockin:

By the way, I am curious that if you use bread yeast, does it ferment at the bottom? Cause you said you didn't see it on top of the wort.

 

[Turkeyshot]

Hello everybody,

I live in a country where alcohol is highly prohibited and of course all materials and equipment that are exclusively related to brewing/fermenting.
I used to turn non alcoholic "beer' into regular beer using baking yeast and table sugar, the results weren't so great so I decided to try another method.
I have access to malt extract in a health food store (Meridian is the brand name) so I'm giving it a try and I have a batch in process now, it has been four days now since the start of fermentation, the thing is that I didn't get the foam I usually get on the top of the wort, although the bubbling is going really nicely and I have a decent amount of co2 released through the airlock, I don't know if I did something wrong or if this is normal, here's how I did it:
materials:
3x370g Meridian barely malt extract
2x500g dextrose (bought from the drug store, this is the first time I use it)
50g hops
1 table spoon of baking yeast
5 gallon carboy
1 condom (airlock)

I boiled 1 gallon of water in a stainless steel pot then added the malt extract and dextrose, stirred until completely dissolved, added hops in a muslin bag boiled for 60 min.
then poured the wort in the carboy and added 4 gallon of water, I activated the yeast in 16oz of water and 4 table spoons of table sugar, now this is how I usually activate the yeast and I used to have nice foam on the top of the sugary water, but this time I got a very thin layer of foam on the top of it after about 45 minutes, but I poured it to the wort anyways and affixed the airlock (condom).
I'm not sure if I could've done it better, please can anyone tell me if I've done a big mistake so I will dump the wort and start over. and please explain why I didn't get the nasty looking foam on the top of the wort.

thanks in advance


I didn't choose brewing, brewing chose me!

Instead of baking yeast have you ever tried to capture your own. Here are a couple of links that might help.

http://bootlegbiology.com/diy/capturing-yeast/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=101886

 

[guindilla]

Careful with the Ikea bottles, I am not sure they are designed to resist the pressure of carbonating beer - to be honest I am almost sure they don't. Could you share the model you bought?

You risk having exploding bottles, not fun if you have to explain what happened afterward.

Cheers.

 

[Dan_K]

Day 7:
everything seems to be going alright, fermentation has slowed down to almost nothing since last night.
I'm bottling tonight.

You might want to wait a few more days. Are you planning on priming with sugar?

 

[DesertFox]

understand that. It is really a serious offend of brewing over there. So better keep low profile.

I will exactly do the same thing as you if I am there. Yeast and malt is the greatest thing in the world. :rockin:

By the way, I am curious that if you use bread yeast, does it ferment at the bottom? Cause you said you didn't see it on top of the wort.

it ferments nicely, now after 7 days in the fermentor I got the yeast cake at the bottom of the carboy, it's about an inch thick. but I did not get krausen on the top of the wort.

 

[DesertFox]

Instead of baking yeast have you ever tried to capture your own. Here are a couple of links that might help.

http://bootlegbiology.com/diy/capturing-yeast/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=101886

thanks! are wild yeasts better than bread yeast for brewing?

 

[Jwin]

At those high temps, it's probably been done
It may fermented so fast, you missed the krausen.

 

[DesertFox]

Careful with the Ikea bottles, I am not sure they are designed to resist the pressure of carbonating beer - to be honest I am almost sure they don't. Could you share the model you bought?

You risk having exploding bottles, not fun if you have to explain what happened afterward.

Cheers.

Now you got me worried

here is the bottle I'm using:
http://www.ikea.com/sa/en/catalog/products/20322472/

it feels like it can resist the pressure of carbonation, what do you say?

 

[DesertFox]

You might want to wait a few more days. Are you planning on priming with sugar?

yes, I'm gonna prime with sugar, 1/2 teas spoon of table sugar in bottle.

 

[DesertFox]

At those high temps, it's probably been done
It may fermented so fast, you missed the krausen.

yeah I think this is the case.
I deflated the condom and took about 6 hours to inflate again, do you think I can bottle now or should I wait?

 

[stan1007]

Lol, been 3/5 of those places, too. Djibouti is another magical destination. Heard Bahrain is a party though.

You can, at least, buy beer and liquor in Djibouti.

 

[guindilla]

here is the bottle I'm using:
http://www.ikea.com/sa/en/catalog/products/20322472/
it feels like it can resist the pressure of carbonation, what do you say?

"KORKEN series is ideal for preserving pickles and jams, serving beverages or keeping your cookies crunchy. The airtight seal locks in all the goodness."

Looks to me more like a wine bottle with flip-top rather than a real beer bottle. But I've seen mixed opinions, with some not even daring to try it and others trying w/o problems (which does not mean much either...):
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10390
https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewin...nyone_tried_bottling_with_these_ikea_bottles/
https://www.boards.ie/b/thread/2057190692

I (and many other homebrewers I have close by) am on the side of "I would not risk it". But I understand we have many other sources and your position is more complicated...

My suggestion would be: bottle in pet bottles, you've got 0.5L Coca-cola bottles that would work for your purposes and likely are more discrete. Those will stand the pressure for sure. But if you decide to go the Ikea way, just store the bottles in a safe place, so if they explode there is no one close by.

Oh... and if the bottles are transparent, avoid light at all costs, as the beer might deteriorate (skunk).

Good luck.

 

[madscientist451]

you guys should be very grateful to your ancestors and forefathers for all they did to make it possible for you to live this way, brewing and alcohol consumption are the least of our problems, hint: I come from a country with a secular, socialist dictatorship not a theocratic dictatorship.

back to the topic; thanks for this recipe! and how much of non alcoholic beer should I add to the brew?

Believe me, I am thankful for all I have here, both material things and what are referred to as God given rights. What burns me is that some are resentful for what they DON't have and then want to disrespect others.....
Back to brewing; I think you misunderstood my suggestion/idea.
You can buy non-alcoholic beer, so just make mead to replace the alcohol component that's missing from the beer you can buy.
Theoretically, the N/A beer is better than what you can make because you can't get proper beer ingredients.
You can get honey though, and if you make a 10% ABV mead you can just put some of that in a glass and then pour the N/A beer in. The beer will have enough carbonation so you won't have to worry about that.
You may have to adjust the recipe I posted to get more ABV, I forgot that the bread yeast won't attenuate fully.
So you wouldn't blend the beer and mead until you drink it.
If you can get frozen apple juice concentrate without preservatives, you can make a cider and use that as your alcohol component to add to your beer.
The Basic Brewing Radio Podcast did a mead w/bread yeast experiment
and the results were interesting, tasters, preferred the bread yeast mead compared to a commercial wine yeast mead, mostly because it was sweeter.
http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/0/3/7/037...06597296&hwt=0633ee2abbdb6c6bb9e04a40aae99299

 

[Gravity]

Interesting post

You’re an adult, you know what you’re doing;sometimes you need to take the crooked with the straights

I’m surprised no one has mentioned the condom for an airlock

Good luck

 

[DesertFox]

"KORKEN series is ideal for preserving pickles and jams, serving beverages or keeping your cookies crunchy. The airtight seal locks in all the goodness."

Looks to me more like a wine bottle with flip-top rather than a real beer bottle. But I've seen mixed opinions, with some not even daring to try it and others trying w/o problems (which does not mean much either...):
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10390
https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewin...nyone_tried_bottling_with_these_ikea_bottles/
https://www.boards.ie/b/thread/2057190692

I (and many other homebrewers I have close by) am on the side of "I would not risk it". But I understand we have many other sources and your position is more complicated...

My suggestion would be: bottle in pet bottles, you've got 0.5L Coca-cola bottles that would work for your purposes and likely are more discrete. Those will stand the pressure for sure. But if you decide to go the Ikea way, just store the bottles in a safe place, so if they explode there is no one close by.

Oh... and if the bottles are transparent, avoid light at all costs, as the beer might deteriorate (skunk).

Good luck.

I'm going to try a couple of IKEA bottles, and I will use PET bottles to bottle the rest of the batch.

Thank you so much!

 

[DesertFox]

Believe me, I am thankful for all I have here, both material things and what are referred to as God given rights. What burns me is that some are resentful for what they DON't have and then want to disrespect others.....
Back to brewing; I think you misunderstood my suggestion/idea.
You can buy non-alcoholic beer, so just make mead to replace the alcohol component that's missing from the beer you can buy.
Theoretically, the N/A beer is better than what you can make because you can't get proper beer ingredients.
You can get honey though, and if you make a 10% ABV mead you can just put some of that in a glass and then pour the N/A beer in. The beer will have enough carbonation so you won't have to worry about that.
You may have to adjust the recipe I posted to get more ABV, I forgot that the bread yeast won't attenuate fully.
So you wouldn't blend the beer and mead until you drink it.
If you can get frozen apple juice concentrate without preservatives, you can make a cider and use that as your alcohol component to add to your beer.
The Basic Brewing Radio Podcast did a mead w/bread yeast experiment
and the results were interesting, tasters, preferred the bread yeast mead compared to a commercial wine yeast mead, mostly because it was sweeter.
http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/0/3/7/037...06597296&hwt=0633ee2abbdb6c6bb9e04a40aae99299

I will try this with my next batch.

thanks a lot, this is very helpful!

 

[Turkeyshot]

thanks! are wild yeasts better than bread yeast for brewing?

I have never tried the wild yeast route at all, but it sounds like it would give interesting results. The first link that I put, showed the types of yeast that might be collected so it is worth a shot.

After collecting some you can always keep making a starter to continue using
what you have, if the resulting beer turned out well.

 

[Jwin]

Probably more reliable results with just sneaking in some real Brewers yeast

 

[triethylborane]

You can, at least, buy beer and liquor in Djibouti.

One of the few redeeming aspects of Djibouti. That place is full of crazy locals high on khat, Sudanese crisis made things . . . interesting. Great for forward ops, but also a great place to get an AK shoved in your face.

 

[DesertFox]

Probably more reliable results with just sneaking in some real Brewers yeast

I will try to sneak in some brewing yest next time I’m in a free country 👍🏻

 

[Lefou]

One of the few redeeming aspects of Djibouti. That place is full of crazy locals high on khat, Sudanese crisis made things . . . interesting. Great for forward ops, but also a great place to get an AK shoved in your face.

After spending some time in that part of the world, it makes me appreciate home so much more. I think this contributes in some odd way to an attitude I've developed over food and drink as I've aged a bit, and raises a question.

Would my sausage and ale be worth fighting over? Some of us already know the answer to that question.

 

[rlmiller10]

A yeast alternative I tried was sourdough starter. It had about 90% attenuation and gave a flavor very similar to what an English ale yeast gives. In fact, although the recipe was for a malty pale ale, the result tested very much like an English brown.

I put in about a cup and a half of sourdough starter in a 4 gal batch and it took right off.

It did have some other microbes growing. After about 2.5 or 3 months the bottles that remained started to get sour and it poured as all foam. But, drinking it before then you would never know it was fermented on sourdough starter.

 

[rlmiller10]

If you want to go the mead route, here is a great recipe that I am sure you can get all the ingredients locally

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=49106

 

[pursuit0fhoppiness]

This is without a doubt the craziest homebrewing thread I've read on here.. Props to you DesertFox for doing something you love despite BIG legal circumstances.. Best of luck my friend, keep us posted on your brews

 

[eRicphtgr]

it ferments nicely, now after 7 days in the fermentor I got the yeast cake at the bottom of the carboy, it's about an inch thick. but I did not get krausen on the top of the wort.

may I know what temperature did you ferment it?

 

[DesertFox]

If you want to go the mead route, here is a great recipe that I am sure you can get all the ingredients locally

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=49106

thank you so much buddy, I will give it a try.
I don't know how I will handle staying dry for at least 3 months lol, but I'm definitely going to try mead.

 

[DesertFox]

This is without a doubt the craziest homebrewing thread I've read on here.. Props to you DesertFox for doing something you love despite BIG legal circumstances.. Best of luck my friend, keep us posted on your brews

I usually obey the laws, but I believe it's my right to enjoy a glass of beer at the end of the day while listening to music.
Thanks for the support, I'll keep you guys posted.
cheers!