Fermenting my first batch using K-mart ingredients...

[O_16581_72452_5]

After driving all over town, i discovered K-mart has malt extract and Brewers Yeast (or so i thought i could use this for my brew). It was dead yeast and it never took off, lol. I looked next to it and found bread yeast, so i'm giving this a shot and it's fermenting away in my basement.

Here's what i'm working with.

Keeping it in my kegerator (not turned on) in the basement to keep it cool and dark while it does it's thing

The malt extract was a bit under $7 a jar and yeast was $.50 a package. I chose to use two jars for ~4 gallons...i like to taste my beer. I didn't know where to find hops locally, so i just made this very basic brew. I'm going to force carbonate it in a keg.

For future reference, does anyone have a recipe for a very cheap beer? I'm thinking just using the same two cans (20oz each) and adding (__?) cups of sugar (fill in my blank) for 30 gallons to fill my keg for parties. I've been spending $80 per keg of Bud Light and after i get too drunk, i just stop watching the bar and have $15 worth of people that paid and an empty keg at the end of the night.

 

[marubozo]

It isn't beer until you add hops. Does K-Mart sell hops, too?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

It isn't beer until you add hops. Does K-Mart sell hops, too?

Yes. Health and Beauty. Organic Hops Deodorant.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Nice first post. You can use 1 cup of grass clippings and 1 ounce of Grapefruit juice to simulate the bittering and flavor of cascades. This is for 2.5G of boil volume for 65 IBU's.

 

[Revvy]

It isn't beer until you add hops. Does K-Mart sell hops, too?

So Gruit is NOT a beer? Or Spruce tip ale?

Take a tip from those of us who participated in the GaP thread, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/gap-grocery-produce-beer-experiment-69313/?highlight=Grocery


And go to he softdrink and mixer aisle and get some of these, angostina bitters.

That will bitter the wort and cut the sweetness, just like hops.

 

[mmb]

Nice first post. You can use 1 cup of grass clippings and 1 ounce of Grapefruit juice to simulate the bittering and flavor of cascades. This is for 2.5G of boil volume for 65 IBU's.

I've found that organic cilantro can give a nice bite when used at flameout.

 

[O_16581_72452_5]

Nice first post. You can use 1 cup of grass clippings and 1 ounce of Grapefruit juice to simulate the bittering and flavor of cascades. This is for 2.5G of boil volume for 65 IBU's.

Interesting, i'll keep this in mind for my next batch. I'm guessing boil that with my malt (wort) and filter it in to my bucket?

Edit: Mmm, cilantro.

Flameout...? You're speakin' greek to me, i'm totally new to this making my own beer thing.

Found this interesting thing about hops.

Hops is actually a resent introduction ( last 500 years )and many brewers in Europe resisted the use of hops. What they noticed is that hopped brews made people sluggish ( the seditive qualities of hops ) and therefore made workers less productive. Many of the herbal admixtures had stimulating qualities especially in gruits. Hops also contains phyto-estrogen, great if you are a woman but not so great for guys, this accounts for the " breasts " that some guys get from drinking so much hopped beer. I like using Yarrow, Ivy, Corriander, Cloves, Hemp, Cordyceps, Nutmeg, a pinch of Wormwood goes a long ways. I rarely use Hops in any of my brews.

 

[marubozo]

So Gruit is NOT a beer? Or Spruce tip ale?

Stop being so technical

Speaking of angostura bitters, they make a great Manhattan, but not sure I'd want that bittering in my beer

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

So Gruit is NOT a beer? Or Spruce tip ale?

Technically, No. It's a malt beverage.

 

[HickoryMike]

I didn't think I would ever recommend a Cooper's hopped extract kit, but man, for your sake, make the jump.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I didn't think I would ever recommend a Cooper's hopped extract kit, but man, for your sake, make the jump.

that, or at least ferment a crapload of Malta Goya. It's hopped. Right?

 

[Revvy]

Technically, No. It's a malt beverage.

I beg to differ...I see the words ALE and BEER used alot here.

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 henbenon, juniper berries, ginger, caraway seed, aniseed, nutmeg, cinnamon, and even hops in variable proportions. Some gruit ingredients are now known to have preservative qualities.

Some traditional types of unhopped beer such as sahti in Finland, which is spiced with juniper berries and twigs, have survived the advent of hops, although gruit itself has not.

The 1990s microbrewery movement in the USA and Europe saw a renewed interest in unhopped beers and several have tried their hand at reviving ales brewed with gruits, or plants that once were used in it. 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; and the Cervoise from Lancelot in Brittany (using a gruit containing heather flowers, spices and some hops).

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I beg to differ...I see the words ALE and BEER used alot here.

But heather, spruce, or buzzbeetles were never here which was developed to nix that monkey juice.

 

[O_16581_72452_5]

Out of curiosity i'm wondering what adding a few tea bags to my wort while it boils would do in place of hops...

 

[Revvy]

But heather, spruce, or buzzbeetles were never here.

But not all breweries or Beers fall under that category, hell at least a quarter of the BJCP wouldn't fall under that. So what does it have to do with 'bozo's statement.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

hell at least a quarter of the BJCP wouldn't fall under that. So what does it have to do with 'bozo's statement.

Bozo can't brew to style.

 

[Revvy]

Bozo can't brew to style.

Does he ever really brew?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Does he ever really brew?

THAT is the REAL mystery. At least the cereal number is close.

 

[marubozo]

I'm brewing two batches hopefully this weekend, so suck it

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I'm brewing two batches hopefully this weekend, so suck it

I hear K-Mart has brewing supplies now. Organic hops too.

 

[IrregularPulse]

In the small chance this guy isn't a troll, don't follow any of my advice here.

 

[Revvy]

I hear K-Mart has brewing supplies now. Organic hops too.

 

[O_16581_72452_5]

In the small chance this guy isn't a troll, don't follow any of my advice here.

Why would i be a troll...? I'm just a total novice to this and looking for pointers.

So grass clippings and grapefruit juice was sarcasm, shows what i know.

 

[jgilbreth]

Go to a homebrew store or online, buy a kit, and make real beer. Save the science projects for the kids.

 

[O_16581_72452_5]

Go to a homebrew store or online, buy a kit, and make real beer. Save the science projects for the kids.

Just seeing how this turns out, who knows, i could like what i make or it could totally screw up and i'll learn from it to change it for next time...like using dead yeast in the batch before this.

As long as it's alcohol, chances are, i'll love it.

 

[octo]

uh. is that lowes bucket even food safe for use as a fermenter? I know its a #2 bucket, but that doesnt necessarily make it food safe. are you actually going to drink a beer you made by throwing some malt and bread yeast together? What process did you even use to do this? did you just boil 5 gallons of water with the malt and throw in the bread yeast? why?!

 

[mordantly]

asshats!!! it my work, however, you will be more pleased if you use quality ingredients for any sort of fermented beverage.

 

[O_16581_72452_5]

uh. is that lowes bucket even food safe for use as a fermenter? I know its a #2 bucket, but that doesnt necessarily make it food safe. are you actually going to drink a beer you made by throwing some malt and bread yeast together? What process did you even use to do this? did you just boil 5 gallons of water with the malt and throw in the bread yeast? why?!

The guy in the paint dept was a brewer himself and suggested i could use it *shrug*. He's the one that told me how to make the airlock i made.

I boiled about 3 gallons of water, put it in the bucket, then boiled the malt until it stopped frothing at the top in one gallons of water. Cooled both in my sink surrounded by ice water, started the yeast in a drinking glass, pitched it in and stuck it in the basement.

I was just reading online "simple beer making" and two recipes just said for my first time to keep it simple and do what i did and to play around once i get the hang of it.

 

[Revvy]

We've done the lowes/hd bucket thing to death on here, there's really no issue with using them. If Octo wants he can look at all the discussions on here, and come to his own conclusions.

 

[octo]

"We've done the lowes/hd bucket thing to death on here"
oh alright, I never saw any talk of it before.