Limited accès to Malt

[Nabilgayar]

Hi Everyone,

I am starting my home brew , but where i live I don't have access to Malt extract , can any one advise what can be used for malt extract as a substitute and can I use baker yeast.

thanks

 

[Biscuits]

I will let someone else chime in on whether or not there is a substitute for the mailt extract...I'm thinking you could use some adjuncts but can't brew beer without some sort of malt/malt extract.

I will say with confidence though, that you cannot use bakers yeast...I imagine that would taste on the horrendous side of terrible.

 

[triethylborane]

I will let someone else chime in on whether or not there is a substitute for the mailt extract...I'm thinking you could use some adjuncts but can't brew beer without some sort of malt/malt extract.

I will say with confidence though, that you cannot use bakers yeast...I imagine that would taste on the horrendous side of terrible.

Sorghum.

The bakers yeast would ferment, but I do not about the specific characteristics/attenuation/etc.

Here is a thread that was recommended:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=71348 (bread yeast HBT)

 

[cubalz]

It is a tough road to make good beer without any malt and using bread yeast. I think that you will find that if you use sorghum and ferment with bakers yeast, it will make beer but it will not be good. Kind of like toilet wine in prison, it gets the job done but won't be enjoyable.

 

[TallDan]

It is a tough road to make good beer without any malt and using bread yeast. I think that you will find that if you use sorghum and ferment with bakers yeast, it will make beer but it will not be good. Kind of like toilet wine in prison, it gets the job done but won't be enjoyable.

OP didn't state where he was, just that he doesn't have access to malt there.

What if he IS in prison? You insensitive clod!

 

[soccerdad]

Right 'cause all the prisons give easy access to HBT. No, he drinks toilet wine, but he ain't in prison.

 

[triethylborane]

It is a tough road to make good beer without any malt and using bread yeast. I think that you will find that if you use sorghum and ferment with bakers yeast, it will make beer but it will not be good. Kind of like toilet wine in prison, it gets the job done but won't be enjoyable.

Ive had beer made with sorghum and unknown yeast brewed by Xhosa women in S. Africa and another form brewed by a Tswana tribe in Botswana. I have some pictures of the Xhosa brew and drinking session at home, but generally speaking, it was beer, but my palate was not attuned to it. Someone mentioned it was like Redbridge, but Ive never had that. It will get you intoxicated. They don't have malted barley or wheat, so they use sorghum. That said, Ill take a Windhoek urbock.

 

[soccerdad]

Shake Shake!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

From the OP's name, I'm guessing this is another instance of someone in an Arab country who is struggling with their laws on alcohol. The use of French in the title suggests North Africa rather than the Arabian peninsula.

I am starting my home brew , but where i live I don't have access to Malt extract , can any one advise what can be used for malt extract as a substitute and can I use baker yeast.

This recent thread may be helpful - it seems even in the Gulf you can find malt extract in healthfood shops. Otherwise, you need something with sugar in it - such as honey - or a source of starch which you have to convert into sugar - which could be just about any grain.

It is possible to make beer with baker's yeast, but the problem with it is that it's not very alcohol-tolerant and it generates off-flavours. It does get used by some farmhouse brewers, but it's not particularly recommended. If you can somehow find a source of brewing yeast, you will make better beer.

 

[Nabilgayar]

Thanks guys for your input , no I am not in prison , I live in Egypt and alcohol is allowed , I just want to brew my own beer as the selection of beers here are lousy (Heineken) , I went to health shop and found barley bran powder , guess this will work , need to figure out the yeast problem , any suggestions on online sites to order from , cheers

 

[IslandLizard]

Agreed on Heineken, it doesn't cut it as good beer. It never did.

Can you get hold of malted grain, like malted barley, wheat, etc.? That's what makes beer. The extracts are just condensed wort, which you are diluting again with water.

Beer yeast will work much better than any other yeast. Maybe mail order some pouches of dry yeast, it handles heat and transport well. Or ask a brewery?

You can harvest your own yeasts from fruit, but it will take a bit of skill and patience to select and build a "house" yeast that way.

Ah, forgot to say, you also need hops...

Malt + Water + Hops + Yeast ==> Beer

 

[z-bob]

If you can't get malt, you could theoretically make your own malt, but you're probably better off making wine or mead instead of beer. Fruit juice and honey are much easier to come by than malt.

Bread yeast will work better than wine yeast for making beer. But if you use bread yeast you will probably have to use gelatin to clear the beer before bottling. I've used bread yeast to make sparkling wine just as an experiment, and it actually turned out good. And I cleared it with gelatin before I bottled it.

I'm not gonna mention Chicha, because "spit beer" is just gross. But if you're desperate...

 

[eRicphtgr]

Thanks guys for your input , no I am not in prison , I live in Egypt and alcohol is allowed , I just want to brew my own beer as the selection of beers here are lousy (Heineken) , I went to health shop and found barley bran powder , guess this will work , need to figure out the yeast problem , any suggestions on online sites to order from , cheers

buy from Alibaba and mail it over to Egypt.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I went to health shop and found barley bran powder , guess this will work , need to figure out the yeast problem , any suggestions on online sites to order from , cheers

Bran won't work, you need something that's been malted - started germination which unlocks enzymes and starch reserves. Either malted grains (which need more equipment to process) or malt extract (where the starch has already been converted to sugar, so less work for you and less weight to ship even if the beer won't be _quite_ as good).

Malt is much the heaviest ingredient (aside from water, which is another conversation...), so it's the one where you will want to try and get it locally if you can to minimise shipping costs, I imagine shipping from Europe (Italy? Croatia?) will probably cost more than the malt itself. Are there local maltings supplying Heineken? Perhaps they will sell direct to you??? Although they will probably only sell malt grain. Might be worth another look in the healthfood shop, or talk to them to see if they can get malt extract through their suppliers?

Yeast - you have two main choices, dry or liquid. Dry is much cheaper and easier to ship, but there's a much smaller choice. So it depends a bit on what kind of beer you want to make, but something like Fermentis Safale US-05 is a solid "ordinary" yeast for US-style beers.

Fermentation temperatures also matter - most ale yeasts give best results around 18C, Belgians can go a bit warmer, lager yeasts need cooler, but if that's a problem for you the one liquid yeast that it might be worth you making the effort for is Omega HotHead OYL-057, a Norwegian strain that is claimed to make clean beer even up to 37C. I know that's chilly by Egyptian standards, but if temperature control is a problem then it could be one to consider.

The good thing about yeast is that you don't need to buy fresh every time, you can culture it - it needs a small amount of extra equipment to start with, but then you can keep it in a "library". Even just keeping the slurry from the last beer can work for a few generations. But initially you may feel more comfortable just buying extra packs, it's one less thing to worry about.

Hops are a problem, you will pretty much have to import those, about the only hops that might possibly grow in Egypt (and then, only on the coast) are the South African ones which are day-length insensitive.

I guess Czech or Italian stores may be the best ones for you from a shipping point of view, but I don't know those markets; in the UK both Brew UK and the Malt Miller have a good selection and reasonable prices, Brouwland are based in Belgium (so understand French ). I don't know what any of those are like for shipping internationally.

 

[Nabilgayar]

Bran won't work, you need something that's been malted - started germination which unlocks enzymes and starch reserves. Either malted grains (which need more equipment to process) or malt extract (where the starch has already been converted to sugar, so less work for you and less weight to ship even if the beer won't be _quite_ as good).

Malt is much the heaviest ingredient (aside from water, which is another conversation...), so it's the one where you will want to try and get it locally if you can to minimise shipping costs, I imagine shipping from Europe (Italy? Croatia?) will probably cost more than the malt itself. Are there local maltings supplying Heineken? Perhaps they will sell direct to you??? Although they will probably only sell malt grain. Might be worth another look in the healthfood shop, or talk to them to see if they can get malt extract through their suppliers?

Yeast - you have two main choices, dry or liquid. Dry is much cheaper and easier to ship, but there's a much smaller choice. So it depends a bit on what kind of beer you want to make, but something like Fermentis Safale US-05 is a solid "ordinary" yeast for US-style beers.

Fermentation temperatures also matter - most ale yeasts give best results around 18C, Belgians can go a bit warmer, lager yeasts need cooler, but if that's a problem for you the one liquid yeast that it might be worth you making the effort for is Omega HotHead OYL-057, a Norwegian strain that is claimed to make clean beer even up to 37C. I know that's chilly by Egyptian standards, but if temperature control is a problem then it could be one to consider.

The good thing about yeast is that you don't need to buy fresh every time, you can culture it - it needs a small amount of extra equipment to start with, but then you can keep it in a "library". Even just keeping the slurry from the last beer can work for a few generations. But initially you may feel more comfortable just buying extra packs, it's one less thing to worry about.

Hops are a problem, you will pretty much have to import those, about the only hops that might possibly grow in Egypt (and then, only on the coast) are the South African ones which are day-length insensitive.

I guess Czech or Italian stores may be the best ones for you from a shipping point of view, but I don't know those markets; in the UK both Brew UK and the Malt Miller have a good selection and reasonable prices, Brouwland are based in Belgium (so understand French ). I don't know what any of those are like for shipping internationally.

,
Thanks for the input , I finally got my hands on barley and read how to germinate it and get the extract from it , question is how much barley do i need to germinate to make decsent beer , bare in mind I am not using any powder or syrup extracts , managed to get beer yeast and some good pellet hops , just need a recipe for strictly malted barley only , thanks

 

[JohnSand]

Malted barley is enough. You can toast it after for more color and flavor, there are threads on HBT about malting and toasting.
A recipe with a single malt and a single hop is called SMaSH.
If you can get a copy of the book Brewing Classic Styles, you will find plenty of successful recipes. Also check the recipe section on this site. I look for recipes with plenty of positive feedback.
Let us know what you do, and your results.

 

[Owly055]

,
Thanks for the input , I finally got my hands on barley and read how to germinate it and get the extract from it , question is how much barley do i need to germinate to make decsent beer , bare in mind I am not using any powder or syrup extracts , managed to get beer yeast and some good pellet hops , just need a recipe for strictly malted barley only , thanks

Now you just need a way to crush it. Brew in a bag is the simplest brew method for making quality beer. Go online to Brewersfriend.com and you will have the tools to craft a recipe from your malted barley. look at some of the recipes in the recipe section here for ideas. Decide what bitterness you want, and how much alcohol, and use Brewer's Friend to develop the recipe to fit the size fermenter you are using, and the type of hops. Each hop has a different bitterness (alpha acid), and when you enter the hop in the program you can adjust quantity to achieve what you want. Later in the brew, or flame out or whirlpool, and you will get more flavor and less bittering. Earlier and you will get more bittering and less flavor and aroma. It's all pretty simple. Adjust for your grain weight / alcohol content, and adjust your hops.

I've used ordinary household curtains..... of the see through kind.... almost as mesh, as a brew bag before......just cut one to size and stuff it down in your stockpot, full of heated water, and add the grain. I've also done a stovetop brew with the grain directly in the stockpot, and later poured it through cloth to filter out the grain before the boil........but that requires two pots. I'm a believer in brew in a bag........... others swear by their mash tun. The bag is simple and requires only one container.

I'll be doing my second brew with home malted grain today........... The first worked out quite well. You can add sugar or honey, etc, to bump the alcohol up without adding body if you want. Crystal malt adds color and body, and it's worth reading about how to make it, or simply ordering some by mail order online if you can.
It appears that the nearest home brew supply store to you is a long way across hostile territory.......... Tel Aviv. I wonder if it's legal to brew your own in Egypt?

H.W.

 

[RM-MN]

The normal way that the malted grain is made is to wet it so it can sprout, then when it is ready, kiln it to dry it for storage. I don't think you have to kiln the malted grains if you use them immediately and they would certainly be easier to crush when they are a bit wet.

For a 5 gallon batch I'd probably start by malting 12 pounds. It might not be enough for a standard ABV beer or it might be a little too high but it would be a starting point.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

,
Thanks for the input , I finally got my hands on barley and read how to germinate it and get the extract from it , question is how much barley do i need to germinate to make decsent beer , bare in mind I am not using any powder or syrup extracts , managed to get beer yeast and some good pellet hops , just need a recipe for strictly malted barley only , thanks

It's hard to say, because it will depend on the efficiency of your malting, brewhouse efficiency, the type of yeast you use and so on. But as a very rough rule of thumb, in a 20 litre batch every 1kg of commercial malt will add 1% of alcohol to the final beer. So with commercial malt you might use 5kg in 20 litres to make a 5% beer. But I'd use more in your first all-grain beer (just because everyone seems to get a low brewhouse efficiency in their first brew) and generally I'd use more to allow for home-malting (just drying bought barley will lose 10% in moisture). So I'd start with 6-7kg of unmalted barley to turn into malt for 20 litres of wort, or a smaller batch pro-rata.

A hygrometer would be very useful - I imagine you can find instructions for making a homemade one on the internet somewhere, although they're not expensive to buy (but I appreciate that it's not easy for you to "just buy" anything).

Use tools such as the BrewersFriend website or BrewTarget software to help you with your recipe (it doesn't have to be complicated) and post your proposed recipe over in the Recipes board.

For now I'd just use plain pale malt, but as you get more experienced you can start using small amounts of home-roasted malts.