Homebrew in Bejing, China: test batch details and questions

[khokeson]

Bear with me, this will be a long post with a lot of information asking for advice. First ( [1.] )I will start by telling you what I plan on brewing within the next week or so, then ( [2.] )give you my goal and predicaments, finally( [3.] ), I will give you my background in formation. At the end of every section will be question.

[0.1] Summery: I am living in Beijing China and I really hope to brew. For now I just want to get something along the lines of 25 liters up and running for me and my friends. I have very limited access to ingredients without importing and cannot afford to import equipment. In the very near future I am planning on brewing a small (2-3 liter) test batch given my meager resources. Mostly I am to prove it can be done and also, I want to try just for the fun and experimentation of it all. I have access to what I think are malted barley in the form of Korean barley tea. I do not have hops, I will be using a bitter tea for now. Finally, I will be using bread yeast, and bottled mineral water. Read on for more information and wish me luck!

[1.0] I plan on brewing a test batch of what I hope will come out as some sort of brown ale or porter. Right now I'm thinking of doing about 3 liters just as a test batch to see if I can actually brew anything from my materials that tastes somewhat like beer without importing anything at this point. Although, in the future I expect to import some things.

[1.1] My ingredients:

• Barley: I have some darkish barley. I am assuming they are malted because from my little experience they look the same as malted barley and they taste sweet. They are roasted barley tea which I believe originated in Korea and has since spread to Japan and China; I have easy, plentiful, and cheap access to this barley.
• Hops: I have no hops. In the future I will either locate Chinese hops or import them but for now I think I will try a really bitter, astringent tea. From what I've read up on Gruit I am fairly confident small amounts of some tea won't kill the yeast or something equally devastating (I hope!), although I am considering forgoing the hops, or using dandelion root (if I can find it) instead.
• Yeast: Bread yeast. Any clues as to weather this would be top or bottom fermenting?
• Water: Bottled spring water. Tap? What do you think I'm stupid? I live in China.
• Starter/Primer: I think I can find pure cane sugar. In fact I can get it crushed straight out of the stalk.

[1.2] My recipe: Very roughly speaking, a 5 gallon batch of Brown Ale or Porter typically consists of about 10 lbs of malt mostly consisting of pale malt and amber malt with a bit of Crystal 60L or Chocolate for color and flavor. They have roughly 1-1.5 oz hops split pretty even for bitterness and aroma (source: “How to Brew” John Palmer). Converting to metric thats about 4.5kg of malt, and about 25-50g of hops.
` A typical water to grist ratio is about 3-4 liters to 1 kg of malt. For my first batch, I am planning on using 1200g (1.2kg) of malt, so I should use roughly 3.6 to 4.8 liters of water. However, a decent mash efficiency is about 80% of convertible sugars. If I get 50% I'll be fairly excited given my materials and experience. Thus, I am planning on using 3-3.5 liters of water for my initial mash, which I hope by the end will leave me with somewhere between 2.5-3 liters of beer (after boil off and trub).
` Since I don't have hops, I am planning on using a bitter tea. Right now I'm thinking Kuding tea (苦丁&#33590. It's very bitter (I've been told) but this is open to suggestions. I might try and find dandelion root instead.
` This means my final recipe will be: 3.0 liters of initial water (a little more during the mash to maintain temperature if necessary), 1.2kg of unknown dark malt, 10g (like 1-2 tea bags) of bitter tea (hops replacement), and 1 pack of bread yeast.
Questions at this point:
If I use too much yeast will it hurt the beer? Remember I don't care much about clarity I just want to prove that I can brew something like beer.
Would typical bread yeast be ale or lager yeast? Any suggestions there?
Right now I'm thinking bitter tea or possibly dandelion root as a hops alternative. Any suggestions that I would realistically be able to find in Beijing, China?

[1.3] My materials:

• I've got a water kettle to boil the strike water.
• A large thermos (3L or more) with a spigot for mash/lauter tun.
• A large cup to recirculate and very carefully transfer wort (I can't do any better right now).
• Another 0.5 L cup to start the fermentation.
• A typical 5L (or more) aluminum pot to boil wort with.
• A glass or plastic (undecided) 5L or so jug for primary fermenting. The top will be plastic and I will cut a whole for a blow off valve. Not 100% sure on how to do the seal.
• A typical (new)plastic spatchula for stirring.
• A tea straining screen for the lauter spigot [picture] (still not 100% how to rig this up until I get my thermos).
• A plastic tube or two to siphon and for blow off (this will be tricky to not use my mouth).
• Typical cooking thermometer for temperature gage and regulation
• 3-4 wine bottles with plastic corks for bottling.
• Unscented bleach for sanitizer.

Questions:

• Any suggestions at this point?
• Should I use plastic bottles instead for my bottles?
• For the primary blow-off tube seal. I'm thinking of cutting a hole a little bigger than the diameter of my blow-off tube. I will coat the edges as evenly as I can with silicon caulk. Hopefully this will lead to an acceptable seal. Suggestions??? The tube will of course go into another small bucket of water for a 1-way air lock.

[1.4] My procedure (please bare with me and correct me if I use a term wrong):

• 1.Sanitize my glass cups, the tubes, the thermometer, the spatchula, the screen, the (plastic) corks (or bottle caps), and any measuring spoons (am I missing anything) in a bucket for 20 minutes in hot water. I will be using unscented plain bleach, I read 5ml per liter.
  *5ml per liter, correct?
  *Can I sanitize in a large aluminum pot? I know stainless steal is a big No No.
• 2.Use some sanitary water to clean the inside of my bottles and primary fermenter.
• 3.Rinse everything once with hot boiled water.
  *Am I missing anything?
• 4.Mash: Boil bottled spring water in kettle for strike water.
• 5.Preheat the thermos with some water, drain the water.
• 6.Fill the thermos with my 1.2kg of mystery malt
• 7.Slowly pour in maybe 1.5L of water, my aim is about 70°C. (Seems in the range for brown ales and porters)
• 8.I don't want this to drop below 65°C so over the next 40 minutes or so I will pour in more water and stir every 10 minutes or so according to temperature.
• 9.After 40 minutes or so, I will recirculate and hope to get something clear-ish, although if I can't I won't be all too disappointed.
• 10.Lauter the mash to the drain pot carefully and try not to oxidize.
• 11.Using the same grist, restart one more time from Step 5.
• 12.Boil: I should have a total of something like 3 liters of what I hope is wort. I will taste some and hope to Jesus that it is sweet.
• 13.Bring the wort to a rolling boil and add some (one bag, maybe 5g) of my fake hops (bitter tea).
• 14.Boil for 30 minutes (I can't tell you how hard I'm guessing here)
  *Should I steep some grain as well?
• 15.Prepare yeast in my 0.5 l cup.
• 16.After 25 minutes, add another bag (5g) of my fake hops.
• 17.Prepare my sink full of ice water.
• 18.After the full 30 minutes is up, turn off the heat, wait for the boil to stop.
• 19.Place the entire pot into my ice water sink trying my damnedest not to get any unwanted water into my wort.
• 20.Cool to something like room temperature (22-30°C), be careful not to shake it and disturb the cold break and what should be forming sediment on the bottom during this process.
• 21.Using my tubes and ingenuity, rack this to my primary fermenter; try and avoid any particles and sediment and such at the bottom of the pot.
• 22.Once in the fermenter, give a good shake or two to aerate. This should be something like 2.5 liters or so. Maybe more.
• 23.Add yeast (which should have started successfully).
• 24.Seal the fermenter, Drape with a shirt or towel to keep light out. Put it in a room temperature, undisturbed place.
• 25.After a day, hope to god for Kraeusen foam and bubbling action. If nothing happens by the third day I probably failed but I might try and add more yeast just in case.
  *How long should it sit in the primary? I'm thinking a week or until bubbles slow down significantly.
• 26.Racking: prepare some sugar water.
  *I really don't know how much, I'm thinking like 20g in 100ml of hot spring water.
• 27.Carefully pour the priming solution into the primary fermenter. Let it sit for... an hour?
  *How long should it sit?
• 28.Rack to 2 to 4, 0.75 liter wine bottles as necessary. Discarding the trub I'm guessing this is something like 2.5 liters. Cork very tightly.
  *I have no access to caps and a capper for glass bottles and don't know of any screw top glass bottles that would have a tight seal. Should I use plastic bottles instead?
• 29.Let bottle condition for... 1 week to 4 weeks.
  *Just how long should I bottle condition?
• 30.I am sure I will be antsy so I will probably try one of them after about a week or two and pray to Buddha I get beer...ish.

 

[khokeson]

[1.4.1] Summary of questions:

• Does 5ml per liter of unscented bleach sound correct for a sanitizer?
• Can I use a large aluminum pot for a sanitizing bucket (I know I shouldn't use stainless steal)
• I am not confident in my Mash techniques or grain quality, should I also seep some grains during the boil?
• How long should I primary ferment?
• How much pure cane sugar should I dilute in how much hot spring water?
• After I add the sugar solution to the primary (total of maybe 2.5L of unconditioned beer) how long should this sit to diffuse?
• What do you recommend for bottles considering I can't cap glass bottles. I'm thinking wine bottles and hoping that if I cap it really tightly they won't pop. Should I use plastic instead?
• How long should I bottle ferment?

[2.0] My end goal: If you think Bud and Coors are bad, you haven't tried Tiger, Yanjing, and Tsingdao. My friend put it this way, 'It's like a canoe: an inch away from water.' I want to brew a beer that I would drink. I'm undecided as to style (bitter ale, dry stout?) but something actually worth drinking.
` I hope to be brewing on the 5 gallon scale (give or take really) and possibly larger in the future. At the very least, I want to use local equipment if for nothing else other than cost. I would love in the future to use all local ingredients as well, but seeing as to how most of the beer here is brewed with rice, I don't think that's possible. It would be great if I could keep my own strand of yeast going and get access to Chinese hops which does exist! Aside from the initial equipment costs, I'm hoping to do this all at a cost of hopefully not more than $2 a liter.
` My predicaments: Much of the equipment will have to be custom fabricated. On the plus side, it is very cheap to get done once you find it. On the negative side, finding certain things can be near impossible, if not impossible. Additionally, getting people here in Beijing to understand and do a job correctly, even with a native Chinese speakers, is like fingers on a chalk board: tedious and painful, requiring constant attention.
` China doesn't have things like Home Depots, local home brew shops, malted grains for brewing, readily available hops, and a multitude of other things. Some examples: I would have no idea whatsoever where to even go about finding a hydrometer; surely I will have to import it. Similar things can be said for any chemicals to treat and test water and wort, however getting them past the border might be literally impossible.

[3.0] I'm living, teaching, and studying in Beijing China. I would love to find a real job and if you can help me I would love you forever. I have a degree in Mechanical engineering although it's currently unused. For right now, I would love to make some decent beer, because simply put, there isn't any. The only good beer here is imported, mostly from Germany. Its not the most expensive thing in the world, but it adds up fast if you're drinking all imported beer. I especially miss the amazing microbrew scene in the north east. My goals are three fold:

• 1.Give some attempt at recreating the beer I love for me and friends.
• 2.Prove that it can be done here, and on a budget.
• 3.See what prospects it opens up in the future.

I plan on chronicling my adventures here and asking for advice as much as possible. Right now I am trying my goofy home brew. Pictures and posts will follow this up. In the future I hope to have more about setting up a homebrew setup from nothing here. More to follow and thanks all in advance for you help!

 

[boo boo]

kudos for at least trying to brew.
Don't think I would want to do it, but hey, if you like the final beer then you did good.

Just don't get arrested for bootlegging. We hear of nasty punishment for some crimes.

 

[KB12]

Few quick comments:

Does your grain come crushed or how are you going to crush it? The starches you want are inside a husk, I don't think you'll get much for efficiency if you don't crack it open some how. I've heard of people using pasta rollers, but I doubt you have those unless they use similar stuff for noodles. Maybe a rolling pin/cylinder?

The reason for boiling hops for an hour is to isomerize the alpha acids in hops. I think. There's some chemical reaction we're going after that involves changing the alpha acids into something else that's bitter using heat. If you're not using hops with alpha acids, you might not need to boil so long. And also, you probably don't need to do a 'late hop addition' at 30 minutes if you're going for flavor. Basically I'd do it all up front or all towards the end. The reason you may want to keep your boil for so long is to cause hot break to form.

As far as steeping grains go I wouldn't. If you're mashing with the grains you don't need to steep too, that's a technique used for extract brewers who aren't mashing.

Primary ferment for about a week. I wait for the bubbles to slow down a lot and then an extra 2-3 days. Since I do full 5-gallons, a day before I'm going to rack to secondary I move the bucket onto a stool or table from the floor. That way I'm not disturbing stuff right before I rack.

I keg, but I think the rule of thumb is something like 3/4 cup of priming sugar? Maybe you want a bit more since you're not using pure corn sugars. Check some extract recipes, they'll tell you how much and since you're an engineer you should be able to do the math to size it down.

I had trouble with bottling (why I went to the keg) so I don't have much advice there. I tried stirring it gently in the bottling bucket but still got bombs. I'm planning on trying to go back to it though sometime soon, but will probably prime bottles individually.

For bottle priming you can look at the bottom of the bottle and see if some yeast have fallen out. I'd say at least 2 weeks. Easiest way is to try it. Make sure you cool it though before you open it obviously.

As far as siphoning goes a few practices with some buckets of water and you should get your technique down. I find it's a lot easier if you can get some little valves to hold water while you set your tubes in place. For instance, when I'm cleaning out my kegs I pressurize once to fill the beer line and then I just siphon as normal and close the tap at the right time to hold the solutions in the line. But, that might not be easy for you to come by. Maybe some sorta mechanical crimp or such?

My last tip is you should probably pick out one deity to pray to during the process. You seem to be jumping around with Jesus and Buddha and such. A quick punch into Google (which it seems you may not have access too much longer) suggests that this article may help you out. Personally I also tend to make sacrifices of fresh wort and such to the brewing gods during the process.

Good luck

 

[passedpawn]

Ridiculously long post. Can't do it.

Search for John Palmer's How to Brew, the online (abridged) version. Many of your questions would be answered by a little work on your part.

BTW, I spent some time in Beijing. It was a real mess as they were readying for the Olympics. The airborne pollution was horrific; it was not a pleasant experience. The people were quite pleasant and accommodating, though. Nice, that. I stayed at the Friendship Hotel, which I would highly recommend to anyone going there.

 

[david_42]

* Does 5ml per liter of unscented bleach sound correct for a sanitizer?
Yes, rinse well.
* Can I use a large aluminum pot for a sanitizing bucket (I know I shouldn't use stainless steal)
Yes
* I am not confident in my Mash techniques or grain quality, should I also seep some grains during the boil?
Just do a mash for the first trial. It's difficult to tell from the description of your barley if it has been malted, so the mash may not do anything except give you flavors.
* How long should I primary ferment?
Unless you can find a hydrometer, give it two weeks. There's a good chance one of the local universities can help you find one.
* How much pure cane sugar should I dilute in how much hot spring water?
100 gm per liter will give you about 1.040 gravity. For 2.5L you'd want 250 gm
* After I add the sugar solution to the primary (total of maybe 2.5L of unconditioned beer) how long should this sit to diffuse?
Just stir it for 5 minutes.
* What do you recommend for bottles considering I can't cap glass bottles. I'm thinking wine bottles and hoping that if I cap it really tightly they won't pop. Should I use plastic instead?
Plastic bottles will probably be better.

* How long should I bottle ferment?
3 weeks

And bread yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, same as ale yeast.

Bittering: I'd add the brewed tea after the fermentation is done. Add it 25 ml at a time and mix well.

 

[jma99]

A couple of years ago I spent three weeks in Bangkok teaching a class on transportation procurement.

Nothing was better than after a long hot day than walking down to the Black Swan Pub and having a couple (or more) large pints of cold Tiger!

Much, Much better than BMC

 

[daytraitors]

I was looking into using Kuding tea instead of hops. this is some bitter stuff, about one quill per serving, so for beer, I'm thinking 1 quill for 3 servings might be about right.

Anyone else try Kuding? I bet it would work well at the end of a boil or during fermentation.