Medium large Quantities - Simplest setup - Difficult Question

[jasper_muc]

Salve fellow Enjoyers of beer,

I have been hiking in Argentina El Bolson and in one of the refugios they were brewing beer very very simple. It wasn't the best but it was lots of very good beer, brewed very very simple.

There was almost no cooking involved and pretty much just having two large tanks and waiting.

How did they do it?

Basically they got rid of everything that one usually does however which does not necessarily need to be done.

I know that is very difficult as it involves a lot of chemistry but that is why I am asking the experts here.

I am looking forward to your responses,

Jasper

 

[nebben]

Almost no cooking involved? Were they just fermenting fruit juice, or sugar water?

If they didn't "cook" it (boil? mash?), I'm not sure what they would have been able to do. What kind of ingredients did they use?

 

[A4J]

Did it involve chewing maize and spitting it out? I believe this is how some of the native south americans make the fermented drink known as chica. Apparently amylase is found in saliva and breaks starch down into maltose and dextrin, at least according to wikipedia.

 

[BobC]

boiling your wort does 2 things, one is to get the bitterness out out of the hops and two to kill off any unwanted yeast that may cause a off flavor/infection. I saw a show where they brewed a beer using hot rocks to convert the starch to sugars and then just let it ferment. Without the hops it gave them a sweet but sour beer due to the wild yeast.