Vacation brewing

[JollyMon]

Help me out Friends. Every two years I go fishing in northern Ontario. Yesterday I was discussing our upcoming trip with one of my fishing buddies. He suggested that we should bre a beer while we are in Canada. He has brewed with me a couple of times so he kinda knows what's involved. It definately peaked my interest. After all, it was on one of these fishing trips that I decided I wanted to try my hand at brewing. We have access to propane and burners while we are there. I generally bring my big orange water cooler for drinking water in the cabin, but it can double as a mash tun for a couple of hours. We have access to clean filtered water (though we might go with water straight from the lake). We would have virtually no way of temperature control, especially on the 900 mile drive home. I think we have overcome just about every hurdle we can think of. And we would like to keg and serve this beer two weeks later at a fish fry/4th of July party.

This is where all of you come into play. Based on your experiences, what suggestions might you have? What things may I not have thought of? What should I brew? Bring me your thoughts. I have 6 months to figure this out so I can pull off this fun and different brew.

Thanks in advance for any help you can bring me. All ideas are appreciated, even those that seem a little insane.

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

I'd shoot for something low to mid gravity with that short a turn around on grain to glass. Maybe a wheat beer perhaps. They usually come around quick and if they're still a hit cloudy. It's to style right?

 

[JollyMon]

Thanks GilSwillBasementBrews. That's exactly the direction we started going, and for the same reasons. Good to have confirmation with someone else thinking the same way.

 

[VladOfTrub]

Jolly good idea!!! If you have a live well in your boat you can dump the brew you make in that. Maybe throw in a block of ice. When crossing the border, customs agents might think its cloudy fish water. I know a couple of hoopjack brothers that have a camper next to mine. When they open it up in April. They make a batch of something they call beer, to serve during their family reunion on Memorial Day. They use lake water, rain water, whatever is easier for them. Their ingredients vary and depends on what they forage. Quaker oats, corn meal, sometimes rice, teaberry leaves, sweet birch bark, pine needles, Halls cough drops. Usually mixed with a couple of buckets of malt syrup they get from the burnout vegan that owns the health food store in town. Kind of like some of the recipes on hbt. Once, I asked if they use hops. They said, women use hops. I asked what they used for bittering. They said, crushed up acorns.....I agree, you should brew something that won't require a lot of aging. It sounds like a lot of fun. I know the hoopjacks have fun making their beer. I have never tried their beer. I time it, so I'm not there when their family is visiting. The aftermath is bad enough.

 

[RM-MN]

How long long do you want to spend at the border being searched? Brewing in Canada sound like fun but you really want to read the regulations on doing so and bringing that quantity across the border. If you break the laws and get caught it can affect you for a long time. Border patrol isn't someone you want to mess with.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Use your keg as you fermenter and just bleed the pressure at every stop (or build a spunding valve)...less chance of a mess during transport.

As mentioned, a wheat beers tolerate warm fermentation temps, should be cloudy and except the minor risk of a stuck sparge (sounds like you will do BIAB anyway) they are really simple.

 

[mbbarnes]

You could bring a no-chill container with you. Brew the batch, seal it up and ferment it when you get home. That would take care of temp issues and border crossing as its only sugar water at that point. Might not work with your short turn around time. This is how I plan to brew on my next guys camping trip.


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[JollyMon]

In terms of border crossing I don't see any problem. Going into Canada we always declare everything, but in this case we would just have ingredients. No problems there, and nothing to declare really. Coming home we would have 5 gallons of something you could technically call beer if you wanted but that would be well under our allowable limit. And coming back into the US as US citizens is always a breeze.

Thanks for the responses so far. Keep them coming. The worst suggestion I have so far came from the man who suggested this in the first place. He wanted to put a moose turd in each bottle. He's kind special like that.

 

[flars]

I'll wager one of my best home brews that you will not make it back into the US with a large container of unknown substance.

 

[JollyMon]

Flars, I will take that bet. In 12 years of coming back into the US from Canada not only have we never been searched. I don't think we have ever been stopped at the check point for more than about 60 seconds.

But if I am wrong you will be the first to know.

 

[VladOfTrub]

There are probably some on hbt that can't watch a football game. Every time the teams huddle, they think they're talking about them. Paranoia can be treated. The agents aren't going to hassle a bunch of guys that look like they came from the mountains in the movie Deliverance, anyway.

 

[JollyMon]

It may also help that the driver of the car as we cross the border is a cop and he hands over his badge along with his license when we get to the check point.

 

[flars]

It may also help that the driver of the car as we cross the border is a cop and he hands over his badge along with his license when we get to the check point.

That would change the way they would look at you. Being former Federal I don't have one anymore.

 

[VladOfTrub]

Mall security employees aren't considered cops nor feds.

 

[WileECoyote]

Hello, I would way over pitch your yeast to help finish that beer quickly, 2 weeks is real quick to glass, and I vote wheat beer too.

I agree with using a Keg for fermenter too, purge often.

Cheers

 

[JollyMon]

Multiple votes for keg fermentor. Help me understand the benefits there guys.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Multiple votes for keg fermentor. Help me understand the benefits there guys.

It cannot spill Simple as that. You can get fancy and attach a QD air in and tube as a bloww-off valve until transport begins but I would just leave the purge valve open until you load it in the car. Open it every time you stop on the trip back to release pressure.

Aslo, nothing to see...not bucket of unknown contents. Not a carboy of brain producing unknown liguid. Just a mostly empty keg that friends provided and you are bringing the remainder home. Honest, officer...it was claimed on the ay into Canada.

 

[highgravitybacon]

Have you considered this: brew before you leave. Drink it when you get home. I know, not complicated enough. Doesn't require hauling agricultural products across international borders. Way too simple.