Hello from Uruguay

[thejazzer]

I live in Uruguay, but am in fact English. I'm desperate to make beer but the problem is that I live in a 3rd world country so there is no such thing as a homebrew store or supply and online is tricky and expensive.

I'm currently looking at trying alternatives to Barley as I haven't found malt or barley or hops yet though there is a small homebrew club so they must get it from somewhere.

Anyway, if anyone has any decent recipes to make beer with something other than barley and hops I'd much appreciate it.

Am trying oats, but the first batch was decidedly weird, tarty fruit, though not poisonous, so I'm trying various preparation methods.

Look forward to hearing some suggestions and reading about other peoples adventures in beer.

Thanks, Carl

 

[blacklab]

How about some malt extract type stuff from the store? Can you get any decent yeast? You really want to avoid the bread yeast.

 

[eschatz]

Yeah, buy online just once. Culture your yeast so you can keep using the same yeast without buying more. Something like Saf05 would work for a lot of ales. I'd probably go do some research and see what types of hops grow down there. Then I'd get some hop rhizomes and grow my own hops.

 

[eschatz]

I spent about 5 years as a professional jazz bassist. Do you play?

 

[thejazzer]

Yes I am a jazzer, or former jazz guitarist, still playing but not for money these days.

OK, I have been using bakers yeast and also I started my own wild yeast for making bread which I am trying BUT the idea of buying some and keeping it alive shouldn't be any more difficult so that is a great suggestion thanks. The wild yeast makes awesome bread and it's currently fermenting my second batch of oat mix quite well, much better than the bakers yeast so far.

It's not possible to buy malt at the supermarket.

I've considered even growing my own barley. Uruguay is a barley supplier, but it's produce is for export and not really available in the shops. It's not used here for anything.

Believe me, there are two types or flour, wholemeal and white, nothing organic, no malt or specialist bread flours, the supermarkets are good, but they don't take risks. It's not even possible to buy pearl barley which I could buy in the UK, so I'm seeing it as a challenge.

I'm also going to buy some hops seeds. I live 10 minutes from the beach and the soil is a like a desert, but I have plans to develop my garden to grow more produce for my own consumption so I should be able to do hops.

I found a website dedicated to other gruits as an alternative to hops so I'm experimenting. It's early days for me. I love to cook and bake and always wanted to brew so I'm starting.

Did some knockout ginger ale but want to try making grain beers/ales. Uruguay needs something like that.

Thanks for the help so far people.

 

[eschatz]

Well, if there is a homebrew club there then maybe they'd be into a group buy for some bulk barley?

 

[Parker36]

What did you call me?

 

[eschatz]

What did you call me?

The drunken brawl thread is two doors over!

 

[DragonTail]

Welcome

 

[david_42]

You might look into buying and malting seed barley, although you have to be careful about pesticides. I'd buy dry yeasts over the Internet and learn how to cultivate it. Millet is very easy to malt, if that is available.

You might be able to buy hops and/or rhizomes from an Argentinian source. They are becoming a producer of note.

 

[Kevlar84]

Are you Aussie Carl from Pinamar?