The GaP (Grocery and Produce) Beer Experiment

[prushik]

Ok, heres what I did:
I bought Ka-pop brand gourmet popcorn, put it on a baking sheet with a paper towel underneath and on top of them and kept it moist for about a 5 days. After they had all germinated, I used my toaster oven's dehydrate setting to dry them (I feel bad about using the toaster oven). Then I crushed up the kernels with a mortar and pestle (this part was a pain). After that I mashed the popcorn with some brown rice for about an hour and a half. Then I boiled the wort for an hour. After 30 minutes I added half a lime's worth of lime zest. At this point it smelled like lime poppy seed muffins, so I decided to not use any more lime. At flame off I added a little bit of ginger powder. After the wort had cooled, I poured it onto a spring water jug (from the grocery store). Pitched some bread yeast into it. Then I placed a balloon over top of the jug and made a pinhole in it in place of an airlock, since airlocks will be scarce after the apocalypse. I waited for fermentation to get going, then I cooled it down to about 60 degrees. I left it in there for a few days, but I had to remove it because I had to bring the temperature of my fridge down lower than that for the lager I am brewing. So its been room temperature for about a day now, fermentation appears to be starting to slow down. I have yet to find another grocery store container for secondary laying around. Sedimentation is very low. I plan to bottle it in some goya soda bottle, hopefully the twist off caps will make a good enough seal when I put them back on.

The only items I used that were not from the grocery store were:
Stove
Sanitizer
Toaster oven

Only the sanitizer was from the homebrew store, I could have used bleach, but I didn't want to take chances with sanitation. (although, to this day, I've never met someone that has actually experienced a contaminated brew)

 

[count_dookie]

i wouldn't use corn flakes, too much salt

wish I would have seen this before the SWMBO and I chewed all the corn, well its already started so whats the worst thing that could happen

reaching the end of the boil, I probably shouldnt have used as much corn or sugar. the gravity after the mash was 1.041 from just the flakes and jumped up to 1.071 after adding the sugar. But that was at 144* so I will check again before I pitch yeast. May have to call this one an imperial chicha

1.071 is looking like the OG

 

[prushik]

My first attempt was a failure. I think my mash was the problem. I'm going to try again soon, possibly tonight. However, this time I am going to be using quinoa. That should be legal, since it's available at all 3 of my local grocery stores (Giant, Shoprite, Wegmans). I'm also going to mash for at least twice as long.

 

[count_dookie]

the chicha started fermenting the other day and drew a sample to check gravity and taste and I must say it not horrible. It is down to 1.058 and is still very sweet. I racked a half gallon out to drink with some people tonight, they dont know what chicha is so it should be pretty funny when I tell them about it. I didnt have any coriander and wasnt paying the price the grocery store wanted so I used sage, and I didnt buy any lemons so I just zested some of the limes I had around the house.

Now the specifics on the taste:
Very strong lime taste up front which was pretty good, this was followed by an obvious corn flakes and brown sugar finish with a hint of sage. The cinnamon was lost and hopefully it will come through as it drys out a little bit or I will need to up it from 2 sticks.

 

[commonsenseman]

Made mine on Saturday, here's my recipe:

Zombie Apocalypse Brew 1.0

Ingredients:
-1.5 lbs Hull-Less Barley
-1 lb White Rice
-1 lb Quick-Oats
-12 oz Dark Molassas
-2 Sliced Bananas (skins on)
-1 bottle Malta Goya
-.5 lbs Dark Brown Sugar
-1 small box of Raisins
-1 Cinnamon Stick
-1 Clove
-Bread Yeast
-1 "toasted" chunk of Applewood

Process:
-Boil Barley & rice in 1/2 gallon water for 30 minutes.
-Mash Barley, Rice, Bananas & Oats @ 110 for 30 minutes, then raise the temp to 140 for 60 more minutes.
-Caramelize Molassas & Brown Sugar in a separate pan with just enough water to cover it, this takes about 30 minutes. Keep going until it gets really thick.
-Toast the apple wood in a toaster oven until it's dark (on fire, literally).
-Strain (break) the grain bag, add caramelized mixture & Malta Goya, bring to a boil. (Scorch a crap ton of grains on the bottom of the kettle)
-Add the Raisins, Cinnamon Stick, Clove, & Apple Wood chunk at flame-out. (spill crap everywhere)
-Cool to 70 & pitch yeast.

Will post some pics later.

 

[commonsenseman]

Mash:

Caramelizing:

Boil:

Wasn't able to take a gravity reading, it was was too thick. Stupid grain bag breaking.......

I'll post more pics once I get it transferred/"clearing".

 

[Revvy]

commonsenseman can you PLEASE shrink your pictures to aroun 580 pixels wide, so they can be seen and text can be read without distorting the forum, and without us needing to slide the bar right and left to view things.

Thanks

 

[commonsenseman]

That's weird. I don't have to scroll on my (12") screen, so I didn't think anyone would have to.

Fixed.

 

[Zeal]

I don't know if anyone has suggested this yet, but how about enzymes in the form of over the counter supplements.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Spring-Va...ive-Health-Dietary-Supplement-180-ct/10324935

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Spring-Valley-Multi-Enzyme-Probiotic-200-Tablets/11997236

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Beano-Tablet-Food-Enzyme-Dietary-Supplement-100-ct/10316305

perhaps using a combination of these with barely, corn, rice to create a sugar rich wort.

as well a propagating yeast from bottle conditioned beers to ferment it.

 

[Hellrazor1200]

I've read every page to this thread and I'm extremely interested, heres my little recipe test batch I'm currently "attempting",
1 medium sized pot of water , corn flakes , packet of oat meal , and coffe for bittering
i dont know how much this is gonna yield but like i said its a test batch so i guess ill see how it turns out

 

[captainkirk83]

I am excited about the challenge of creating beer from "nothing" ingredients. I have so far only done extract brewing but it feels a bit like cooking with campbells soup. I enjoy it but feel like there are much cooler things out there.

My recipe ideas taken from multiple sources are:
Whole kernel corn
pearled barley
sweet potato syrup(see earlier posts on this)
grapefruit and maybe coffee beans for bittering
yeast(undecided) between something recycled from previous brewing or bread

Will attempt to start sprouting corn tomorrow, if that works then will try to make sweet potato syrup

I am hoping for a drinkable brew that won't cause illness, at least in moderation.

 

[Hellrazor1200]

got sumthin that smelled like beer lol and tasted like it but it was too watered down

 

[Bithead]

got sumthin that smelled like beer lol and tasted like it but it was too watered down

Obviously you need more corn flakes.

 

[burtonridr]

This is my new favorite thread! Freakin rocks!

I started up two 1 gal batches yesterday and today. The first batches is bubbling along nicely, I'm still waiting for the last batch to start... any minute now it should start bubbling

Here is a run down of the recipes I just brewed. (note: I cheated on the yeast) If they come out good, I'm going to try a redo with propagated yeast from a beer bottle.

Molasses GaP Drink. 1-17-12

I believe this is similar to a revvy posted recipe.

9 fl. oz. Regular Molasses
½ multivitamin
1 Tbsp ground coffee
4 fl. oz. Flaked Oats
3 Tbsp Turbo Yeast - I started in a mason jar the previous day in a mixture of water molasses and yeast nutrient(1/2 multivitamin).

I heated 1 gallon water to 155 and added the oats and let them steep for 30min, discard oats. Brought to a boil, then I poured in the molasses while stirring as to not burn, added multvitamin and steeped coffee for 10 min. Discard coffee grounds.

Cool wort to 80*F and pitch yeast.

SG was 1.03 (4-5% potential)


Malty Molasses Gap Drink 1-18-12

I copied the ratios of this one from a german altbier recipe.

Ingredients: (Original Altbier Recipe ingredients - Modified ingredients I used)
0.2 lbs Grain – 1 cup Grape Nuts, Roasted on the stove until aromatic
1.2 lbs Malt Syrup – 9 oz molasses
0.2 lbs malt extract – 1/3 container of ovaltine
1 Tbsp Coffee beans for bitterness
3 Tbsp Yeast – turbo yeast

In 1/2 gallon water, Steep grains until water reaches 170* F or about 20 min, then discard. Bring water to a boil and add malt extract, molasses and coffee. Boil 10 min. remove coffee and discard. Add 1/2 gallon cool water, further cool wort to 80* F and pitch yeast. SG was 1.075 (7-10% potential).

 

[commonsenseman]

Mine has been dumped. I think I'll stick to grocery store wine instead.

 

[Ezekielsays]

Had to dip into the GaP waters today. I've read this thread through multiple times, and have remained intrigued by the idea.

My recipe was :
1.5 lbs store brand grape nuts clone.
1 lb sweet potato, diced
.5 lb bananas, ripe
2 T molasses (for color)
.33 pounds of popcorn, sprouted

I'd originally wanted to mash using a bottle of organic tonic water I'd found in the organic section (no sodium benzoate or other preservatives) but my grocery store was remodeling. I'd counted on this as my bittering.

However, on tasting the sprouted popcorn, there was a bitter component there. In addition, i added the peel (grated) from about 1/4 of an orange. Hopefully between the sprouts and the orange pith there will be enough bittering to provide some sort of balance. If not, I might make a tea of orange and grapefruit peels, and add as necessary to balance the brew.

I mashed in my crock pot, set to low, over the course of about 5.5 hours. It started at around 80 degrees, and warmed up to 155 during that time. I opened it often to stir. At the end of the "mash" I removed a large portion of the solids from the pot, and put them in the oven at 350 until they were visibly darkening. I then added this back in, filtered, sparged, and boiled 20 minutes. I split this into two, putting a little more than half a gallon into two jugs. In one I pitched fleischmann yeast (1 tsp) and in the other I pitched some Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley.

Both are bubbling as we speak. Lots of trub in each - I plan to fine with gelatin, just to see if it has any impact.

Wish me luck!

 

[passedpawn]

Wish me luck!

Good luck. You'll need it.

 

[sm0key]

I stumbled upon this thread after listening to a brewing network podcast. The topic had nothing to do with it, but a Northern Brewer commercial was about a post-apocalyptic brewer that saved humanity. I started to think about what random items could be fermented. That's how I found this thread; by searching for things that you can make beer out of besides LHBS ingredients. I may take a stab at this myself in the near future!

Thanks for the interesting read, guys...

 

[Skrufbrewer]

Well today I'm gona give it ago. Goin to try a Chocolate coffe stout.
I am thinking I am goin to try grape nuts roasted in the overn, hope to give it a nice dark color. I have grain bags so i think i'm goin to boil up a pot of coffe, place in the boil pot,Place the roasted grapenuts in the bag and into the boil pot to steep for an hour or so and reach 160 Then remove gnuts,I think I am going to use either chocolate syrup of maybe powder at this point then bring to a boil. I think now ill add more syrup or powder, and let boil 45 min. At this point I think i'll add maybe some orange peel for some bitterness? And maybe a grain bag of coffe beens. let go for another 10mins or so.
Cool the wort and place in fermenter, I am goin to use some RedStar yeast, I would like to use brewers yeast but gona see if this works on a foodstamp budget.LOL in a week I think i'll rack into a secondary and maybe add more coffe beens, maybe cochcolate coverd beens? I guess to carbonate i'll use maybe confectioners surgar or just plain white. Anyone use confection surgar? I'd think it would be better than regular white.

I am germinating some pop corn kernal's, gona roast them and do a mollases brew, maybe throw in some rice dont know about what to bitter it with. coreander or lemon/orange?

 

[Sythreil]

I gave this a shot yesterday, kinda cut a corner using Malta Goya, but it is available at my grocery store. I boiled it for 20 minutes to remove the carbonation, then did a 30 minute mash just to get the goodness from the oats and coffee, then boiled for 30 minutes. I ended up with a pudding like consistency and had to add a gallon and a half of water to bring it to a high gravity beer thickness. This recipe was planned for 1 gallon, though I ended up with over 2 in the fermenter.

10 bottles of Malta Goya
2 lbs oats (1/4 of them toasted)
10 oz coffee beans
1 can pumpkin purée @ boil
10 oz bakers chocolate @ boil
8 oz caramel @ boil
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice @ 10 minutes

Bakers yeast (rehydrated)

OG 1.055

 

[prushik]

I gave this a shot yesterday, kinda cut a corner using Malta Goya, but it is available at my grocery store. I boiled it for 20 minutes to remove the carbonation, then did a 30 minute mash just to get the goodness from the oats and coffee, then boiled for 30 minutes. I ended up with a pudding like consistency and had to add a gallon and a half of water to bring it to a high gravity beer thickness. This recipe was planned for 1 gallon, though I ended up with over 2 in the fermenter.

10 bottles of Malta Goya
2 lbs oats (1/4 of them toasted)
10 oz coffee beans
1 can pumpkin purée @ boil
10 oz bakers chocolate @ boil
8 oz caramel @ boil
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice @ 10 minutes

Bakers yeast (rehydrated)

OG 1.055

Thats pretty cool, although it sounds like a beer that I wouldn't be interested in. I made a malta goya beer awhile ago, but I never drank any of it because I was scared of it and I moved to Korea and left it at home in the US.
Anyways, its really cool that people keep trying, although, I'm a bit disappointed that I keep hearing people talk about how they are real excited about trying this, but I never hear any results at all, let alone success stories... So please, tell us how your GaP beer turns out.
Since I have been in Korea, I haven't done any brewing, my room mate kinda hates everything about beer which makes it difficult. However, I have some friends that seem interested in the idea, so I might give this a try sometime soon. Korea doesn't have a lot of things that we had in the US, but some things are really easy to find here, like barley, so it shouldn't be too difficult, and I think a Kimchi refrigerator should be the perfect temperature for lagering.

 

[burtonridr]

Just an update on the batches I made on Jan 17 and jan 18.... Both smell nice and have a coffee aroma, but are horrid tasting! They are bitter and funky tasting, could be the result of an infection, the yeast used, or possibly to much coffee added.

I dumped the one in the glass jug last night so I could use the jug for something tastier.

I found I enjoy GaP wine a lot more. Freakin easy, cheap and tastes a ton better.

 

[CaptinCheap]

anyone try this I was thinking cream of wheat, carnation malt, and hershey's cocoa powder as hops.... I realize this post is probably dead... any one try or have interest

 

[Skrufbrewer]

HAHA I forgot about my GAP brew, left it in the back of the closet forever ago. So long all the water in the air lock evaporated. I took a sniff actualy smelled like flat beer. Gave it a taste, not so bad real choclaty coffe n a bit sour. I used the hersey cocoa mix, worked ok I guess. threw it all out who knows what kinda bad bacteria was growing in it.

 

[JohnnyNeurotic]

*bump*

I'm working out a recipe today and will be brewing later... I've been meaning to do this for a while.

I'll let anyone interested know how it turns out!

 

[EricB]

Finally got around to making my version of this recipe tonight:
www.homebrewtalk.com/gtsearch.php?cx=016873362520281466893%3Axvnx8yvgpla&cof=FORID%3A11&q=biab+meathod&sa=Go&siteurl=www.homebrewtalk.com%2Ff12%2Fgap-grocery-produce-beer-experiment-69313%2Findex26.html%23post2348959&ref=&ss=4577j1847071j18&siteurl=www.homebrewtalk.com%2Ff12%2Fgap-grocery-produce-beer-experiment-69313%2Findex26.html%23post2348959&ref=&ss=4577j1848487j18

Left the cinnamon in for the whole boil however and boy does it smell good. Between that and the orange peel, I'm wondering if this might make for an awesome Christmas ale.

Just added the yeast and set her up for the next week or so. We'll see.....

 

[EricB]

Finally put the taste test on the Gap project.

First go round didn't go as expected. Don't think the bread yeast really took off. Bottled. let sit for a week, then the taste was so sweet that I figured it had never run the yeast course.

Ran it through the fermenter again with a very strong yeast start and then bottled it last weekend. Tried it last night.

Still very sweet. Reminds me of the Applewein as in this thread, but not as good.

Not gonna throw it out, but not gonna make it again either.

I'm thinking the failure was in the use of the bread yeast. Still, there should be enough natural yeast that it should ferment better.

I think I'm gonna set it aside for when neighbors I don't like come to visit.

 

[ERTY]

Well I am almost ready for a taste test of my gap watermelon wine. If it is successful I think I will try some pearled or hulless barley mashed with some bananas for enzymes. I have never done an AG brew before only extracts and wines so this could well prove a challenge. If anyone is interested I used 2 containers of a minute maid watermelon punch that you find in the section with the orange juice about 2 cups of cane sugar and fleishmans yeast. I made a 2 liter test batch of this a few months ago and was underwhelmed by the abv. But I think the mistake I made was not allowing the bread yeast enough time. It has been in the 1 gallon jug for about a month now and is still bubbling like crazy.

 

[nolimit333]

Ok, I stumbled upon this old post a few days ago for the first time and read the entire 30 pages in one sitting. I instantly wanted to try and contribute to this experiment because as of yet the goal of this post hasn't really been accomplished. After many hours of researching I decided to try my hand at a recipe this weekend. I have several attempts lined up but this is the first one, and I figured I would post my process to help narrow brewing without malt down a little more.

The experiment was for a 1 gallon batch, using sweet potatoes as the enzyme source, and allowing for an extended mash time. I decided to go for a heavier "grain bill" and brew a darker styled beer to help hide all of the off flavors that are sure to be present with this process. The following is the "grain bill":

1 x 7oz. Sweet Potato
1 lb. pearled barley
1 lb. Quick-Barley
3 oz. Quick-Oats
5 oz. Molasses
5 oz. 6-Row Malt (added later, read on)

I did not have iodine or test the PH levels as I did not expect I would need them, however, next attempts will definitely have these added in to make sure I have something more quantitative. I will simply transcribe the notes I took during the process...

Sweet Potato Enzyme extraction:
1. 7 ounce sweet potato, peeled and diced into small pieces.
2. Boiled 2 cups tap water, let cool to 110F and added water and sweet potato chunks to blender.
3. Pulsed in blender until the consistency of grits. Temp dropped to 85F.
4. Poured mixture into small pot, stirred periodically for first 15 minutes. Then let sit for 15 minutes to allow chunks to settle as much as possible.
5. Using turkey baster, extracted juice from sweet potato mixture, and set aside.
6. Added 2 cups of 130F water to potatoes and placed pot on stove top on low heat, stirred and heated until temperature brought back up to 130F, held at 130F for 5 minutes while stirring, turned heat off, put lid on and let sit for 20 minutes.
7. Extracted juice as before and added to first runnings. Repeated same process for 150F.
8. Now have a total of approx 5.5 cups of sweet potato juice (enzyme water)

Mashing Phase:
1. Poured 3 of the 5 cups enzyme juice back onto sweet potatos, and added 4 cups spring water and 1 lb of pearled barley. Put on stove top and slowly heated to 159 degrees. Took gravity reading while heating up (at 115F) to establish a base and mixture read 1.000.
2. After took gravity reading, took most barley out with a slotted spoon and some of the water and placed in blender and blended for approximately 15-20 seconds. Then added back to pot and continued mash.
- Note: 10 minutes into mashing at 159F, mash is getting starchy.
4. Turned off heat, stirred, covered, let sit for 20 minutes.
5. Temp after 20 minutes read 150F, stirred, and added 3 oz. quick oats, 1 lb of quick-barley, and 8 cups spring water, attempted to bring to boil. Stirring constantly as mash wanted to burn on bottom.
- Note: After 15 minutes of attempting to raise temperature enough to boil it was obvious it wasn't going to happen without burning the bottom really bad and ruining the batch anyway. So took temperature at 170F and turned heat off.
6. Added 1/2 cup enzyme water, and 3 cups spring water, stirred, temp at 145F, covered, let sit until temp reached 135F (approximately 30 minutes).
7. Added 1 cup enzyme water and 1 cup spring water, stirred, temp dropped from 135 to 128F. Covered, let sit 2.5 hours.
8. After 2.5 hours temp read 114F. Added remainder 1/2 cup enzyme juice, stirred, put lid on, and let sit 1 hour.
9. After 1 hour, turn on heat and slowly raise temp to 129F. and held for 30 minutes.

Here is where the primary usefulness of the experiment ends. At this point I am a total of 7 hours into the process, and over 4 hours into the mash. After 4 hours it is obvious that the starchy mess is not getting converted enough. It IS getting a little sweeter and if I had more time I would've continued and let it sit until it all converted but I did not have time. So at this point I diverge from the restrictions of this thread and add a little 6-row to see if I can save it and still try my recipe....

10. Added 3 oz. 6-Row Malt to mix, and kept heat between 135-145F for 4 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Note: 2 hours in it was obvious of the change the 6-row was having. It was still starchy looking but the mix was having a clear layer begin to appear on the top 1/2 inch or so after sitting on its own for approx 20 minutes, as well as tasting sweeter as time went on, so I continued to let it work.
11. After 4 hours, strained the entire mixture and discarded the grains. Added the strained mixture back to pot on stove top, and added 2 more oz. of 6-Row malt and 6 cups hot tap water. Stirring, slowly heated to 148F.
12. After holding at 149F for 30 minutes, stir, cover, let sit overnight (8.5 hours)
13. In morning, strained mash one more time (produced 10 cups total), added 12 cups hot water to 10 cups wort, mixed and took gravity reading. Gravity read 1.020. Put on stove and brought to boil. Boiled for 90 minutes.
14. Added 5 oz molasses, put into fermenter, topped up with spring water to 1 gallon, shook for several minutes to aerate, took gravity reading: 1.043.
15. Sprinkled on 1 packet of fleishmanns dry bread yeast, Fermentation took off within 45 minutes.

So without the iodine testing, a lot of this experiment is sort of mute. I did note that after fermenting overnight the trub settled out, of which there was a TON. I'm wondering/hoping if what i percieved as a "starchy consistency" was just all of the unsettled trub in the mix, because it was pretty sweet by the time I gave up on the sweet potatoe enzymes and started adding 2-Row. Oh well, I suppose a taste test of the final product will be the only way to know for sure at this point.

And for those curious, this will be bittered with coffee, and flavored with roasted hazelnuts. I'll post pics and notes of the final product as well as the future experiments to get this process to work.

 

[Deadrasputin]

First and foremost I am a Mead brewer not an Ale brewer. Mead is something that can be made very easy while only using grocery store items. Ale on the other hand requires some very special herbs, hops and the like......or does it?

I set out on this project with the thought of making a Gruit Ale. For those who do not know what that is, it is a Medeivel Ale that did not use Hops. So I started with a basic Gruit Ale Recipe.

Ingredients

1) 3lbs English pale malt
2) 2 ounces Yarrow
3) 2 ounces Wild rosemary
4) 2ounces Bog myrtle
5) Yeast.

I have yet to find a supermarket with these ingredients. So I set out to use some substitution.

For the English pale malt, I took some inspiration from Russian Kvass and the Ancient Egyptians. Rather then trying to find grains to malt and then extract the liquid, I attempted to make beer form bread, not grain.


Here is my recipe for 2 gallons

For the Grain Bill
Two loafs of wheat bread
Two loafs of Oat based bread / or you can use Quaker Oats
Extra
Table sugar
Maple syrup
25 raisins
Herbs
2 ounces of chamomile tea (Yarrow substitute)
2 ounces of rosemary (Wild rosemary substitute)
2 ounces of bitter dark baking chocolate (Bog Myrtle substitute)
Yeast
Fleishmann's Yeast
Instructions
1.) Fill up a glass jar or other container with the loafs of bread
2.) Next fill up the bread filled glass jar or other container with the chamomile tea, water and rosemary.
3.) Cover with a loosely woven cloth (let as much air circulate as possible while keeping insects out.)
4.) Let this sit for 1-2 days. It actually may start to ferment because of airborne yeast. No worries keep going.
5.) Strain through cotton flannel, a jelly bag, pillowcase or other cotton material, to remove the solids.
6.) Measure the amount of liquid that has been drained out
7.) For each pint of liquid add 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. I used two cups of Maple syrup.
8.) Melt the bakers chocolate into liquid form and pour into our homemade wort.
9.) Add the raisins to the wort.
10.) Stir.
11.) Pour the wort into the fermenter (Raisins too). Add cold water to bring the wort to 2 gallons if needed. Stir.
12.) Toss the Fleishmann’s yeast on top
13.) Wait two to three weeks for the fermentation to stop then bottle as normal.

The result was very drinkable. I enjoy it. From here I plan on trying some variations. Perhaps add some coffee and carmel to the mix.

Give it a try..... not bad