Help me bring this recipe to the modern world

[badneighbor]

Recently my father in-law found some old recipes that his grandfather had made. I want to try making a more realistic homebrew from the following recipe:

Boil 6 ounces hops in 5 quarts water for 6 hours. Then strain and add 4 additional quarts water, and 6 ounces ground ginger; boil this liquid 3 hours, and strain it. To the liquid add, next, 1 whole loaf of bread which has been cut in slices and browned to a deep color in a slow oven, so that the slices are so brittle they can be crushed to a powder. When the mixture is blood-warm (98 degrees Fahrenheit) add 1 pint brewers yeast, or 3 cakes compressed yeast dissolved in 1 pint lukewarm water. Let the beer ferment 36 hours. It may then be drawn off into a cask, or may be bottled and sealed.

That is the recipe sent to me by my father in-law, so I have not seen the original text. I'm not too keen on boiling hops for 6 hours, so I'm wondering if that's supposed to be 60 minutes. I'm half tempted to make it as-is, but I'm curious if anyone can think of a more modern approach with the, uh, grain.

If this recipe actually works, I'll be making the root, ginger, lemon, and spruce beer recipes that he had.

 

[BendBrewer]

What did your Great Grandfather in-law do time for anyway?

 

[motobrewer]

What did your Great Grandfather in-law do time for anyway?

i'll allow it.


lol.

 

[Revvy]

Looks like "gingerbread Kvass" to me....

Here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/gingerbread-kvass-pictures-206686/#post2537942

 

[weirdboy]

WTF 6 ounces of hops(!) and a loaf of bread?

 

[Yooper]

WTF 6 ounces of hops(!) and a loaf of bread?

I bet it was homegrown hops, so that six ounces of undried hops would equal about 1 ounce of dried hops.

 

[Revvy]

WTF 6 ounces of hops(!) and a loaf of bread?

Yeah seems like it should be 1 ounce of hops and 6 loaves of bread.

 

[Revvy]

I bet it was homegrown hops, so that six ounces of undried hops would equal about 1 ounce of dried hops.

yeah that would make sense. I don't know when pellets were invented but pre-prohibition brewers probably had dried hop cones or fresh at their disposal.

 

[badneighbor]

Kvass makes sense, since my wife is half Czech! The hops would definitely be whole. I'm going to try and find out what variety he would have most likely had available, because I don't know if he was in the U.S. yet. Thanks for the info so far.

 

[Revvy]

So where was he when he brewed? That would give you an idea of the hops he would have had available to him. If he was Czech, then obvioulsy they would be those types of hops.

 

[Hermit]

Remember, that in ancient Egypt the bakery and the brewery were in the same building. There is a place in Africa where they still bake a certain kind of bread for the purpose of brewing beer with it.

 

[peachwein]

Yeah seems like it should be 1 ounce of hops and 6 loaves of bread.

Haha!

 

[SumnerH]

So where was he when he brewed? That would give you an idea of the hops he would have had available to him. If he was Czech, then obvioulsy they would be those types of hops.

Those original visions of 6 oz of 15% alpha Magnum pellets making it 2 gallons of a (theoretical) 900+ IBU hop bomb are slowly turning into 6 oz of fresh undried cones of some 3% alpha Saaz for a relatively plausible 30 IBUs or so.

A 60 minute boil with 1oz of dried (pellet or cone) Saaz should be fine. I also can't imagine that it needs 3 hours of boiling with the ginger; I'd try just an hour there as well.

I'd stick with the "grain", that's the thing that makes the recipe most interesting!

 

[Homercidal]

Why not try it the way it was written? Anyone can do a regular beer...

 

[drunkrhino]

How much liquid would you have left boiling 5 quarts for 6 hours?