Prohibition Hooch

[Slim M]

So I’ve reading on this forum & abroad about hombrew beer made during prohibition from canned malt extract from Pabst and Bud. Most of the recipes or information seem pretty vague but they all have a few things in common lots of cane sugar, bread yeast, and canned malt extract.

I’ve not brewed with extract in like 20 years but I’m interested in trying this and how it taste and for the experience. I’m making a 3 gallon batch with 3 lbs of amber dme 1.5 lbs of cane sugar, cluster hops, & bread yeast. What temp will bread yeast ferment best?

 

[Tony B]

I recently listened to a Brulosophy episode where they talk about brewing with bread yeast. Sounds like it’s similar to a Belgian ale yeast…
https://brulosophy.com/2020/03/30/y...us-05-american-ale-yeast-exbeeriment-results/

 

[Slim M]

I recently listened to a Brulosophy episode where they talk about brewing with bread yeast. Sounds like it’s similar to a Belgian ale yeast…
https://brulosophy.com/2020/03/30/y...us-05-american-ale-yeast-exbeeriment-results/

Yeah sound like they describe it as a sort of bad excuse for a Belgian yeast. I wonder if i ferment it at 60-62f and cold condition it for a few weeks after transferring to the keg if it would clean it up a bit.

 

[day_trippr]

Might want to read up on bread yeast as from what I saw on the Fleishmann's site their Active Dry yeast is happiest above 80°F (closer to 104°F, really)...

Cheers!

 

[Slim M]

Yeah I read a little bit from what some bakers have posted and some say anything under 60 it’s really slow but 65-90 is a good range, but around 80 or so is kinda prime.

 

[fluketamer]

dont do this. this will taste really bad. trust me i know.

i like to say this will make beer. but it will barely make beer. it WONT make good beer.

you are violating almost all of palmers five rules.

like you said prohibition hooch.

but way after prohibition people were doing this with pbr malt syrup. without the hops.

my dad used to do this in the 50's.

in the late 70's when my oldest brother turned 18 he tried it again to show him. no hops of course you couldnt get them. it was terrible.

most got poured down the drain.


i doubt the hops will save it.


that much cane sugar will dilute the malt to the point of it tasting like hot fusel cider. especially with bread yeast at warm temps.


yeast dont love fermenting cane sugar as much as malt

and as to bread yeast, yes you can make beer. but beer yeast has evolved over many centuries to ferment beer. and bread yeast bread. so there's that.
bread yeast in mead takes forever to floculate.

i would suggest smaller volume like 1 gallon to try.

maybe honey might be better to make a braggot i think its called which doesnt require hops and the dme may provide enough nutrient for the mead not to taste like cat pi$$

just my two cents. if you do try this please report back.

 

[Slim M]

dont do this. this will taste really bad. trust me i know.

i like to say this will make beer. but it will barely make beer. it WONT make good beer.

you are violating almost all of palmers five rules.

like you said prohibition hooch.

but way after prohibition people were doing this with pbr malt syrup. without the hops.

my dad used to do this in the 50's.

in the late 70's when my oldest brother turned 18 he tried it again to show him. no hops of course you couldnt get them. it was terrible.

most got poured down the drain.


i doubt the hops will save it.


that much cane sugar will dilute the malt to the point of it tasting like hot fusel cider. especially with bread yeast at warm temps.


yeast dont love fermenting cane sugar as much as malt

and as to bread yeast, yes you can make beer. but beer yeast has evolved over many centuries to ferment beer. and bread yeast bread. so there's that.
bread yeast in mead takes forever to floculate.

i would suggest smaller volume like 1 gallon to try.

maybe honey might be better to make a braggot i think its called which doesnt require hops and the dme may provide enough nutrient for the mead not to taste like cat pi$$

just my two cents. if you do try this please report back.

It’s just an experiment to satisfy my curiosity. Don’t worry I got good stuff in reserve. Aside from my normal all grain brewing from time to time I try experimenting like low abv almost n/a beer, cheese, tepache, wine from my grapes ( I don’t even like wine really ), & etc.

 

[InspectorJon]

I brewed beer back in the 80s with PBR liquid malt extract, hops and yeast in a white sachet labeled “ale yeast”. It was not great but it was beer. The extract I used was not hopped.

 

[Slim M]

I brewed beer back in the 80s with PBR liquid malt extract, hops and yeast in a white sachet labeled “ale yeast”. It was not great but it was beer. The extract I used was not hopped.
View attachment 855280

Awesomeness . Do you remember how you went about it? Details like boil time, hopping, & fermentation temp / time.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

I’m making a 3 gallon batch with 3 lbs of amber dme 1.5 lbs of cane sugar, cluster hops, & bread yeast.

As an experiment, why not?
But ugh, that much sugar is gonna be gross, half-a-pound would be fine...

What temp will bread yeast ferment best?

I would presume that the you'd get less weirdness around 60F to 65F, but since this is an experiment to find out "just how bad was old-timey, semi-legal, home made beer" actually, I think you have to go with room temperature.

 

[mac_1103]

yeast dont love fermenting cane sugar as much as malt

The result might not make us happy, but that doesn't mean that the yeast aren't happy.

 

[Slim M]

Most of the recipes / instructions I’ve seen or the experience people post seem like they ferment warm and rack it in 4-5 days after pitching.

I’ve been wondering if giving the yeast time to clean up a bit might help. Made my mind up I’m fermenting at 64f and holding in the primary for 14 days before transferring then cold conditioning 14 days before I try it. Probably force carb in an Oxebar.

 

[InspectorJon]

Awesomeness . Do you remember how you went about it? Details like boil time, hopping, & fermentation temp / time.

I learned brewing from a paperback book, How To Make Beer, or something similar in the early 1980s. Basic process was:
Boil 3 gallons of water with dissolved extract on the stove top for an hour, adding hops at various times, 60 minutes, 30 minutes, 5 minutes. Adding sugar was also recommended to increase alcohol content. The wisdom at the time was to use fructose (corn sugar) because cane sugar would make it taste cidery. I think that opinion has largely been debunked.

Once done boiling, water was added to reach 5 gallons and cooled. Making a starter from dry yeast was recommended. Wort was siphoned to and fermented in a large plastic container (a new kitchen trash container) with a sheet of plastic over the top to keep unwanted things from falling out of the air into the fermenter.

After a few days and the krausen fell the beer was siphoned into a 5 gallon glass carboy with an airlock as a “secondary fermentor” for a week or two leaving as much trub behind as possible. All this was done at room temperature, 60s and 70s Fahrenheit in Santa Cruz, California.

We used TSP and a Clorox solution for cleaning and sanitizing. Beer was transferred to a bottling bucket with more corn sugar, then siphoned into bottles. We were happy to get 2 cases of beer for a few dollars. No always happy with the product. There were other sources of malt extract but they were not as easily available. PBR was in the grocery store.

We used saved Anchor Steam bottles. I still have a couple cases of them.

 

[Slim M]

I learned brewing from a paperback book, How To Make Beer, or something similar in the early 1980s. Basic process was:
Boil 3 gallons of water with dissolved extract on the stove top for an hour, adding hops at various times, 60 minutes, 30 minutes, 5 minutes. Adding sugar was also recommended to increase alcohol content. The wisdom at the time was to use fructose (corn sugar) because cane sugar would make it taste cidery. I think that opinion has largely been debunked.

Once done boiling, water was added to reach 5 gallons and cooled. Making a starter from dry yeast was recommended. Wort was siphoned to and fermented in a large plastic container (a new kitchen trash container) with a sheet of plastic over the top to keep unwanted things from falling out of the air into the fermenter.

After a few days and the krausen fell the beer was siphoned into a 5 gallon glass carboy with an airlock as a “secondary fermentor” for a week or two leaving as much trub behind as possible. All this was done at room temperature, 60s and 70s Fahrenheit in Santa Cruz, California.

We used TSP and a Clorox solution for cleaning and sanitizing. Beer was transferred to a bottling bucket with more corn sugar, then siphoned into bottles. We were happy to get 2 cases of beer for a few dollars. No always happy with the product. There were other sources of malt extract but they were not as easily available. PBR was in the grocery store.

We used saved Anchor Steam bottles. I still have a couple cases of them.

Thank you so much for sharing that! I love hearing folks stories about their intro into the greatness of brewing.

My introduction was not too far off. I worked in construction and our company got a small modernization project / job located in a micro brew pub / hotel. All the brew equipment was behind glass & every Thursday was brew day. I was mesmerized with what I was seeing and the smell emitting from the process. Grain deliveries were usually late afternoon on Monday after I was off but I would hang around and help the brewmaster unload which = 3 free drafts. He was a cool dude from Bavaria.

I saved my money and in a few months got enough stuff to start extract brewing with the guidance of Charlie Papazian. Then after several batches of so so extract beers I made the jump to AG then to 10 gallon AG.