Brewing with bread

[bigwhitt]

I'm looking to make a brew without hops. I have been doing research and found that ancient brewers used bread, no hops and some sugar. Has anyone tried something like this or have any suggestions?

 

[Dynachrome]

Hops makes beer. I think you'll find it is called something else when you don't use hops. It could be good anyway.

My dad used to put bread and raisins in his homebrew.

 

[nm999]

It's called hooch. We made it in prison. Gets the job done, but not beer by any stretch.

 

[mixedbrewer]

You could possibly try some sort of bittering extract that doesnt come from hops. Are you avoiding hops because someone is allergic to them?

 

[Captain Damage]

Through history all manner of herbs and ingredients have been used in beer. It wasn't until around the tgime of the rennaisance that hops started to become the dominant spice/flavoring. Spruce tips and heather come up in discussion here occasionally. Might be fun to try some different herbs on small batches of beer to see how they taste. I had a beer made with spruce once. Tasted like eating a christmas wreath.

 

[devilishprune]

Do a search for gruit and you'll probably find what you're looking for. There are a few spices (that I don't remember the names of right now) that can apparently contribute a clean bitterness, without leaving a lot of their spicy character.

Also do a search for kvass, which is a beer with a hunk of bread thrown into it.

On themadfermentationist, he made a kvass gruit, so you could check that out for some more information.

 

[pjj2ba]

I make a beer every year that is half home baked bread, half malt. The malt converts the starches in the bread. This actually results in a fairly light flavored beer (bread sorta equals a kinda boring base malt). I've taken to upping the specialty grains to round out the flavors.

 

[ghack]

What you may be onto is Kvass, the Russian bread based "beer".

Check out the following blog for some hands on research:
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/search/label/Bread/Sourdough

 

[Dauntless]

Thats awesome pjj2ba! Bread doesn't have to be boring grains though (pumpernickel beer?). I'm definitely going to try it. I'm guessing you dry the bread and reduce it to crumbs?

as for the OP, I think something Egyptian is what he is looking for. If so it probably was spiced/bittered with a gruit of sorts. Kvass sounds pretty close too.

 

[Revvy]

It's called hooch. We made it in prison. Gets the job done, but not beer by any stretch.

You need to read you some brewing history......

Besides the afore mentioned Kvass, bigwhitt might be referring to the ancient Mesopotamian/sumerian brewing techniques of using a bread baked specifically for making BEER. The bread was called Bappir.

Bappir is a Sumerian term used to describe a twice-baked barley bread that was primarily used in ancient Mesopotamian beer brewing. Historical research done at Anchor Brewing Co. in 1989 (documented in Charlie Papazian's Home Brewer's Companion (ISBN 0-380-77287-6)) reconstructed a bread made from malted barley and barley flour with honey and water and baked until hard enough to store for long periods of time; the finished product was probably crumbled and mixed with water, malt and either dates or honey and allowed to ferment, producing a somewhat sweet brew. It seems to have been drunk with a straw in the manner that yerba mate is drunk now.

It is thought that bappir was seldom baked with the intent of being eaten; its storage qualities made it a good candidate for an emergency ration in times of scarcity, but its primary use seems to have been beer-making.

The Beer was chronicled in the Story of Gilgamesh and the Hymn to Ninkasi who is is the ancient Sumerian matron goddess of BEER.

Anchor brewing a looooong time ago brewed a version of this beer. And the Maltose Falcon's Homebrew club posted their adventured with brewing a bappir based beer here. (With the recipe. Sadly the photo essay link that shows what Bappir looks like and the brew session is broken.)

http://archive.maltosefalcons.com/recipes/20051002.php

Here is a downloadable MS Word article and recipe for another version of it http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...sg=AFQjCNGHRX-RzNMG7wHQCMH1hbf16sm8PQ&cad=rja

Theres also the Beer from King Mida's Tomb, that Dogfish Head Replicated, "Mida's Touch" you're interested in the history, here's some articles on the original discovery and the deconstructing of the ingredients and reproducing the funeral feast.

http://www.penn.museum/sites/Midas/intro.shtml

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3469/is_45_53/ai_94673455

A couple years back I cooked all the dishes in the original last meal and served Midas Touch, it was pretty interesting.

Hope this helps!!!

"Prison hooch" indeed..LOL

 

[nm999]

Actually i've never been to prison but thanks for the beer history lesson.

 

[pjj2ba]

Thats awesome pjj2ba! Bread doesn't have to be boring grains though (pumpernickel beer?). I'm definitely going to try it. I'm guessing you dry the bread and reduce it to crumbs?

as for the OP, I think something Egyptian is what he is looking for. If so it probably was spiced/bittered with a gruit of sorts. Kvass sounds pretty close too.

I use a homemade Swedish rye bread. Yes, I slice it up, let it dry a little and then reduce it to crumbs. Conversion is pretty good, but it typically end up a little under my target OG.

 

[PGHBrew]

There was a recent article in BYO on making kvass. The article is on East End Brewing from Pittsburgh who brews a kvass annually. It includes a good write up along with a recipe. If your going to go this route I would definitely check out the article.

I can't remember which months mag. it was from , maybe someone else can help with that.

 

[RenoDean]

BYO magazine had a good article about Kvass in their November 2010 issue.

 

[Revvy]

Looks like our own Michael Tonsmier the mad fermentalist is talking about the exact topic on this month's basic brewing.

Michael Tonsmeire, the Mad Fermentationist, and Nathan Zeender join us to talk about Kvass, a traditional beer brewed with bread.

Nathan's Blog

Listen live MP-3

 

[eon]

I just listened to this podcast today! good stuff.