GaP experiment. first time flop

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Arneba28

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So my experiment with molasses for a bittering agent worked great. I heated a frying pan till it was super hot then dropped in a tablespoon of molasses. It instantly burned then I poured it onto wax paper to cool. Really Really bitter and doesnt taste burned.

And now with the bad part. I used my old brew pot to try and cook up the rolled oats and cracked wheat but it burned to the bottom of the pot even with me stirring it every few minutes:mad:. And the second part gone wrong. Rice flour, I thought hey, if I can mash rice then why not make this easier and with a smaller volume I could just mash rice flour:confused:. Well rice flour is so fine that it instantly gelatinizes and drops to the bottom of the pan.:drunk: I should of figured this.

So the molasses I think is still going to be a good idea for bittering and I bought blackberrys and raspberrys for some flavoring and aroma.

Now I just need to find another base fermentable. I also tried a bottle of Goya Malta last night..horrid. I dont know how people could drink that as an actual drink. Its sickeningly sweet. Yes it might make a nice base to just ferment that but that might be a little pushing cheating dont ya think!!
 
Without Malta Goya, the options are limited. The only other thing I can find containing malted barley is grape nuts. The biggest problem with most grains is they have no enzymes to properly convert into sugar. Since the store I plan on buying at has a natural vitamin selection I'm tempted to see if they carry a-amalyse tablets. Otherwise it's going to be a grapenut brew. For bittering, I'm going to use tea.
 
Were you cooking the rolled oats and wheat to gelatanize the starches, or were you doing it to toast them. I'm thinking of doing this and am trying to nail down my fermentables. It doesn't seem like Malta Goya is cheating...it is found in the grocery store. I guess it would be slightly on the sell out side to make your entire wort out if it though.
 
I just want to jump in and say that I think it is really cool that some of you are taking on this project. I am still too much of a noob to be able to do this stuff, but I am following the threads carefully and am really interested to see where it leads.
 
I think that I might be bordering on too much of a noob as well. But with over 20 batches under my belt now I think I can stumble my way through this eventually.
 
I think the best bet is probably to do the malting work yourself. Fine some viable grains at your store, sprout and dry them, then use the a-amalyse from the self-malted grain to convert some other grains added as adjuncts. Unfortunatly for me there's no whole wheat or barley I can convert in any store nearby, so I'm going to experiment with malting then roasting corn for the malt then using couscous or some other grains as adjuncts, I'm going to attempt this over the weekend, as it's finals this week and I'm crazy busy.
 
I just want to jump in and say that I think it is really cool that some of you are taking on this project. I am still too much of a noob to be able to do this stuff, but I am following the threads carefully and am really interested to see where it leads.
+1 I was thinking the same thing.
 
Well with the flop of this first trial I think that my grocery store just doesnt have enough stuff to do it. I there for and going to boil off some dates, apricot and figs, add in some corn syrup, molasses and see what happens. I am going to harvest yeast from a chimay
 
as mentioned earlier I would check out the vitamin / nutritional supplement section of the store, A lot of digestive aid pills they sell have all sorts of enzymes, amylase, protease, and lots of others that might convert grains into something fermentable. something like this stuff maybe http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=138281&catid=11427
I dont remember which ones exactly but I do remember reading about other plants that produce various enzymes I think nettles can be used for rennet in cheese making maybe something contains the amylase enzymes for brewing?
 
Isn't beano an amylase enzyme. I think that it might work ok in this situation.

I didn't even think about this! A quick google search renders this:

The anti-gas medication Beano contains an enzyme very similar to the amylase enzymes in malt that convert starches to sugars. Beano in liquid or tablet form (or amylase enzyme powder) can be added to help the yeast digest the more complex sugars in the wort or beer. The main problem with doing so is that it can be unpredictable and result in a very alcoholic and thin (lacking in body) beer that requires a very long time to age in order to become drinkable. The best protection against poor fermentation is to pitch a large population of healthy yeast and aerate the chilled wort well. The addition of enzymes occasionally has its place in specialized circumstances but should be considered a very radical and risky option for beginning brewers.

I think effigyoffaith just solved our problem with converting grains to sugar, Even if it could render strange results.
 
I've done a fruitless search. GaP= ?
It sounds like you're trying to make beer without malt or hops. Cool.
Can someone link the initial thread?
 
Didn't I post something related to Beano here, or did I forget to hit the POST button?
 
I think the trick with rice flour is technique. You have to "dissolve" it in cold water first and then heat it up. One could start with the whole volume of water and s l o w l y add the flour until it is all in the apply the heat and keep stirring. Or, think in terms of making a gravy. Slowly add a little water to the flour until you get a paste, then turn the heat on and slowly add more water as it begins to bubble and thicken, adding more and more water to thin it out as it gets thicker as the starch gelatinizes.

I've made a beer with bread as half of my fermentables (plus some 6-row so that would be cheating for this purpose). There is a low alcohol drink called Kvass where bread is the sole carbohydrate source. Since it is not converted other than a small amount during baking, the alcohol content is typically under 2%
 
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