Rookie Ale

[meeko626]

Well, today I figured I would try and make an EXTREMELY basic brew. Kind of as an experiment. So here's what I did:

Ingredients:
2 quarts of water
A couple squirts of honey
1 cup of sugar
Squeeze of Lemon Juice
Dash of Ginger
A couple sprinkles of cinnamon
6 oz of maple syrup
1 tablespoon of molasses
1 and a quarter teaspoons of baker's yeast

As soon as I started heating the water I put in all the ingredients (minus the yeast). I had it boiling pretty hard for around 10 or so minutes and then shut it off to cool. I then activated the yeast in a bowl with some warm water. I sanitized a 2 liter pop bottle and poured in the wort after letting it cool down for awhile. After it cooled down enough I pitched the yeast and put on the airlock.

Any ideas on how its going to turn out?

 

[fantomlord]

I would say it will turn out to be...not very ale-like

 

[ZebulonBrewer]

Let us know how it turns out. With no barley or hops I really can't speculate. Did you at least get a gravity reading?

 

[MaxStout]

I think you're going to end up with some kind of hooch dominated by maple flavor, given the vastly greater proportion of maple syrup. The bread yeast will add its "character" as well. OTOH, you could get lucky and produce some unusual sort of mulled-wine-like brew.

 

[boydster]

Do you have access to either wine or ale yeast? That would almost certainly turn out better than bread yeast.

Also, why not start off with a proven recipe so you can be sure that you have your process down? If this turns out horrible, it would be good to know if it was the recipe or the process (or both...) at fault.

 

[meeko626]

Let us know how it turns out. With no barley or hops I really can't speculate. Did you at least get a gravity reading?

1.047 according to a gravity calculator

 

[meeko626]

Do you have access to either wine or ale yeast? That would almost certainly turn out better than bread yeast.

Also, why not start off with a proven recipe so you can be sure that you have your process down? If this turns out horrible, it would be good to know if it was the recipe or the process (or both...) at fault.

I definitely have access, I just chose to try and make an overly basic type of drink just as an experiment

 

[Jayhem]

This is what kids used to do back in the 60's when they couldn't buy alcohol. You might be able to choke it down but I wouldn't expect something tasty!

 

[agrazela]

Any ideas on how its going to turn out?

Like something out of a prison kitchen.

 

[TheZymurgist]

Like something out of a prison kitchen.

Mmm, gunna make me summuthat terlet wine, mmm hmm.

 

[ccreel67]

I can't help to wonder if this was an April Fools post delivered ten days late? There are many other options that could have been used for ingredients. Why not use some oatmeal or corn flakes to represent traditional beer ingredients? They may even increase the body. I would have increased the molasses content and reduced the maple syrup.

This is just the type of nutty experiment for me to do while SWMBO is out of town. I'm gonna get right on it, after I take a nap.

 

[hunter_le five]

There's no part of that that even resembles an ale. More like prison hooch, if prisoners had access to better ingredients.

 

[ccreel67]

Yeah, it's more like that science experiment you wish you had done as freshman chemistry project. I'm callin' it Bizarro Brew and I've taken up the torch.

Here's what I'm working with for a 2 quart batch.

6 oz. Publicx Almond & Oat Cereal (I steeped this for an hour at 150.)
Add --
1.4 oz Wildflower Honey (This is from a farm not a store.)
1.6 oz chocolate chip cookie (1 cookie)
Bring to boil, add -- 4 grams Willamette
Boil 40 mins, add -- < .5 tsp Irish Moss for last 20 mins of boil.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can tell I really didn't have enough fermentable material from the cereal for this amount of water. Perhaps the honey will add to this and the cookie was just a bizarro addition. Now it's all green with the hops addition. I based the measurement on a 1 gallon recipe. They call for two 7 gram additions. I may have a cereal based IPA brewin' here?

Sure, I used more traditional beer ingredients, hops, Irish moss, and I will use a yeast washed from a Blonde Ale. It's a fun little experiment between the real brew days. It smells like cinnamon, from the cereal, and Willamette.

As always, I will keep you guys posted.

 

[ccreel67]

Now I see why the OP never returned to comment, hooch is right! My og was 1.010 and I thought, what the heck, it might ferment out. And, it did, down to 1.001. It is very watery and sour with little hops flavor.

Since the first batch was unlikely to produce anything ale-like, I made a second batch the next day using 14 oz. of the same Almond & Oats cereal. (That's the whole box.) The OG was 1.030 and also fermented to 1.005.

These are both still in the 1/2 gallon containers in which they fermented. I intend to combine them in a 1 gallon container tomorrow. I'm not sure where this hooch is going, past a secondary/fining vessel. I'll be sure to post weather it is palatable at all.

If I ever do something like this again it will involve, at least, specialty malts and rice hulls.