Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!
« March 2024 »
S M T W T F S
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Brewing Beer
Fri, May 12 2006

Topic: Malt Extract
I started my 7th batch of malt extract beer on May 1, using a pound of malt extract and 3 quarts of water, along with 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar and 300 mls of a sugar syrup made of sugar and water in a 2:1 proportion.

I am using the proper ale yeast for the first time in this brew. It foamed up right away with a beautiful, creamy foam, but then the next day it died down.

I decided to add some other grains. I put 6 Tbls of ground barley into a quart of water, brought itt to a boil and boiled until the barley flour was cooked. I took it off the heat and added another quart of cold water to it so it wasn't too hot and poured it into the brew, along with another 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar.

That worked great. By the next morning there was a solid layer of foam on top of the batch and I could hear it fizzing when I walked into the room. I will definitely use that formula for making beer from now on: malt extract + mixed ground grains + sugar + cream of tartar.

The fizzing/fermentation lasted until May 10, longer than usual because it was interrupted in the middle. I decided to bottle right away as I am out of beer at the moment and in a hurry to get more. I poured it into another container, leaving behind the sediment, and let it set for a few hours. Then I poured it into pouring jugs to pour into bottles. This is not "regulation" procedure as you're supposed to do a whole lot more siphoning and clarifying, but it gets the job done. And if the beer is a little bit cloudier for it, the cloudiness is caused by yeast that will probably add flavor to the final product and are good for you anyway. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :-) )

I put 1/4 tsp of granulated white sugar into each pint of liquid as a primer, still using the plastic soda pop bottles. Screwed the caps on tight and put the bottles in an out-of-the-way place.

Final recipe:

1 pound malt extract
150 mls 1:1 sugar syrup
6 Tablespoons of ground barley
1 1/2 tsps cream of tartar
5 quarts of water

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 8:41 AM BST
Updated: Fri, May 12 2006 8:57 PM BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Fri, Apr 28 2006

Topic: Malt Extract
I started another batch using Malt Extract (batch #6) and cane molasses. This will be the first time making a large brew with malt extract and adding lots more water -- more than double -- than what I had originally thought would be the correct amount to use.

For this batch of beer, I used:

12 quarts of water
1 pound of malt extract
almost a pound of molasses
yeast from raspberry framboise

I put the malt extract and molasses into about a quart of water and brought it to a boil. Then I added the 7 more quarts of tepid water, so it brought the temp down to lukewarm. Then I added the yeast sediment from the raspberry framboise. I'll cover it with an airlock (meaning a piece of plastic and a rubber band) and wait 8 days.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 9:01 PM BST
Updated: Sat, Apr 29 2006 8:33 AM BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Thu, Apr 13 2006

Topic: Malt Extract
I started another batch of beer using malt extract, batch #5. I used 2 1-pound (454 gram) jars of malt extract, so this will be double the size of the previous batches. Here's the recipe I made:

2 jars of malt extract
5200 mls water
contents of 1 capsule of St. John's Wort.
contents of 1 capsule of hawthorn berries
pinch of black pepper
1/2 tsp vanilla
10 Tablespoons cocoa
20 Tbls sugar
yeast sediment from a previous batch of beer



Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 9:24 AM BST
Updated: Fri, Apr 28 2006 8:29 PM BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Wed, Apr 5 2006

Topic: Malt Extract
I poured malt beer batch #3 into bottles. I had left orange peels in it, so I had to filter them out. I can't remember if I did it on purpose or by mistake. The orange peels would have been to add bitterness to it, but I'm more and more coming to the opinion that I have no interest in adding bitterness to it. If it's too sweet, I'll cut down on the sugar. But so far, it's been fine, at least for me.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 12:01 AM BST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Wed, Mar 29 2006

Topic: Malt Extract
I poured the fermenting liquid from batch #2 of malt beer into plastic bottles with screw-on tops. It is very opaque and murky-looking. No wonder women called it "food" when they made beer -- you'd have a hard time passing this stuff off as liquid.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 7:46 AM GMT
Updated: Wed, Mar 29 2006 7:59 AM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Mon, Mar 27 2006

Topic: Malt Extract
I started malt extract beer batch #3, same recipe as #2

I looked at the label on the malt extract and it says it is for "Culinary Use Only". The health food store sells it as a substitute for sugar, apparently. It doesn't even say that it is barley malt -- I just happen to know that it is. I'd like to compare it to malt extract that is labelled and sold for making beer, if I ever get to a store that sells it as such.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 1:36 PM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Mon, Mar 20 2006

Topic: Malt Extract
A small amount of beer had been left in a plastic bottle with a screw-on top. When I opened it, there was a mighty whoosh. Tasted it and it tasted fizzier and less sweet, but no less potent, than when we drank most of it last week. Must look into this secondary fermentation, how long it takes....

......time passes, I RTFM on how to make beer on the net......

Aaahhh...... you brew the beer *1* week and then keep it in the bottle *3* weeks. Well, well, well. That would brewing it for 3 weeks and keeping it in the bottle for 2 days produced a flat beer. I wonder where I got that impression? Well,I guess I have to go hunt up some bottles and jars to move my beer into.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 9:57 AM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Sun, Mar 19 2006

Topic: Malt Extract
We enjoyed another half pint each of the malt beer again tonight. This process seems to work best: let the beer set down a sediment and get as clear as it's going to get, which in this case is not very clear. Pour a pint into a bottle with a tablespoon of sugar, screw top on tightly and wait two days. Serve cool.

Cloudy ale is better than pure clear ale, anyway. OK, I say this after I tried to remove the cloudiness, but it is still true. First, the yeast is still swimming around, metabolizing, making esters, which are chemicals that add different flavors to the beer. Second, this cloudiness is brewers yeast, the stuff you buy from the health food store because it is high in protein and B vitamins. This is what made country ale a full meal to the medieval peasant. So cloudy ale tastes better and is better for you. I shall try to accept that and be happy with cloudy, real ale.

In every site I have looked at they all say that bread yeast, which I am using, is very weak and will produce the least amount of alcohol of any yeast available, but all I can say to that is you can't prove it by me. I had just the half pint with supper and could feel the alcoholic effect for about an hour and a half afterwards. Perhaps it is the amount of sugar I added.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 12:01 AM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Sat, Mar 18 2006

Topic: Malt Extract
I have boldly put a pint of brewing beer into a glass jar with a tablespoon of sugar and screwed the lid on tight. I placed it in two plastic bags and then put it in a plastic bucket to contain any explosion, should one occur. I put another pint into the plastic soda pop bottle as usual.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 10:07 AM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Thu, Mar 16 2006

Topic: Malt Extract
We had another pint of the malt beer for supper tonight. It wasn't very fizzy so I added more sugar and gave it another day to ferment. Still not much in the way of fizz, not for someone who's used to commercial beer, and no head. My partner says it tastes fine and I should look up the Campaign for Real Ale.

I checked CAMRA and the definition for real ale is that it has the yeast still in the container from which the brew is poured (check), without extraneous carbon dioxide (check) and with traditional ingredients (doesn't say what those are, and if malt extract is OK or if it has to be malted barley), so I may very well be making "real ale" Anyway, by adding extra sugar it certainly gives it more alcohol, could definitely feel it from just a half pint. I don't know if there's any way to measure the alcohol content of beer. I think I shall buy another jar of malt extract and start another batch, along with the oat beer. Also, must check on the ginger ale sometime today.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 9:08 AM GMT
Updated: Thu, Mar 16 2006 9:18 AM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Tue, Mar 14 2006

Topic: Malt Extract
We had our first glass of homemade beer today. It took 3 1/2 weeks from start to the first glass to drink. It was good, it tasted like beer. I think it had more alcohol in it than regular beer, as I expected, because I had kept on adding more sugar. Although it didn't *taste* any more alcoholic than any other beer (was quite mild, in fact) but I could feel the alcohol in it after just one 5-ounce glass. It was murky, with all the brewers yeast being mixed up with it, and it didn't hold its head after being poured, but other than that, it did what beer is supposed to do. I started the next bottle by pouring in some fermenting beer I had previously bottled into the plastic bottle with screw-on lid and adding 1 teaspoon of sugar.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 12:01 AM GMT
Updated: Thu, Mar 16 2006 9:26 AM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Mon, Mar 13 2006

Topic: Malt Extract
O frabjous day, callooh, callay. The beer has re-fizzed and appears to be about half-head if I were to pour it. The sediment that falls to the bottom always swirls into the beer as soon as I unscrew the lid, so it will be a murky, filling beer. I might try ways to reduce the sediment, but that's for another day, and I think that I will put the beer in the fridge to cool and we'll have it this evening with supper. I am also thinking I may try the final fermentation in a glass jar with a screw on lid -- the pressure isn't so great that it will explode (she says hopefully), but I will need to keep an eye on it, of course.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 12:01 AM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Sun, Mar 12 2006

Topic: Malt Extract


I checked the beer to which I had added sugar. The ones I left outside in the cold were still flat, but the bottle I left inside -- a plastic soda bottle with a screw-on top -- was starting to get fizzy, and was very sweet. I replaced the cap and left it to continue fermenting. This should reduce the sweetness. Of course, this all has the knock-on effect of making it have a higher concentration of alcohol, though I suppose that would not necessarily be considered a bad thing.

It's still not clear, as you can see from the picture.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 9:35 AM GMT
Updated: Sun, Mar 12 2006 9:58 AM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Thu, Mar 9 2006

Topic: Malt Extract

Checked the beer. All the malt beer is flat. Re-bottled it, adding sugar. The sugar syrup didn't seem to have any effect, but a tablespoon of regular sugar brought it fizzing back to life. Maybe we should have drank it all when it blew the cork out of the bottle.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 9:10 AM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Wed, Mar 8 2006

Topic: Malt Extract

I used a length of clear plastic tubing to siphon the liquid out of the bottle and avoided picking up as much of the sediment as possible. I had bought the tubing at an aquarium supplies store long ago for an air pump into an aquarium, but never used it. I added a spoonful of sugar syrup to it and put it back outside in the cold to continue to ferment, or "condition" as they call it in "proper" beer-making.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 9:29 AM GMT
Updated: Thu, Mar 9 2006 9:32 AM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Sun, Mar 5 2006

Topic: Malt Extract
I bottled the last 2 jars of malt beer. It seemed kinda flat, so I added about an ounce of sugar syrup I had made to each bottle. (1 part water to 2 parts sugar; boiled for 5 minutes, cool.) More sediment had settled to the bottom of the jars and didn't get stirred up when I poured it out, so perhaps that would be a better way to go about it to get a clearer end product -- let it get flat in the fermentation jar and the dregs have all settled to the bottom, then add sugar to the bottles to be plugged up. I labelled each bottled with the method used to make it, and I'll compare the different methods when I drink it and then make up a recipe based on the results for the next batch.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 7:38 PM GMT
Updated: Thu, Mar 9 2006 9:44 PM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Fri, Mar 3 2006

Topic: Malt Extract

I tried the malt beer. As soon as I loosened the plastic cork, it exploded out of the bottle with a bang and hit the ceiling. Always a good sign where beer is concerned. I replaced the stopper and set the bottle outside for night - it is still quite cold here. I may decide to drink it tomorrow.

I poured it from the bottle it was in to another bottle to try to leave the sediment that had formed, but it was so fizzy after being opened the sediment just kicked up into the liquid. Up till now, I have been pouring it from one container to another, and not bothering to use the siphon tubing method because it seemed like such a nuisance. I may have to re-think that. Then again, the sediment is brewer's yeast, which is a rich source of B vitamins -- you buy it in pill form at the health food store -- so if it only detracts from the appearance and not the taste, some sediment in the drink may be a good thing.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 10:03 PM GMT
Updated: Thu, Mar 9 2006 10:11 AM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Sun, Feb 26 2006

Topic: Malt Extract

Here's what I did: I measured the wort and found it was 1400 mls, so I doubled it with another 1400 mls of water and added another 4 tablespoons of sugar, because it seemed like a good thing to do. They don't have corn syrup here in England, they just have something called golden syrup which is sugar syrup -- I'm not sure if it's beet sugar or cane sugar, but it's sugar -- so I just use regular granulated sugar and trust that the water I use will make up for whatever liquid would be in the corn syrup. When it clears, I'll put it in bottles.

Posted Charlotte O'Neil at 2:58 PM GMT
Updated: Thu, Mar 9 2006 9:22 PM GMT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post

Newer | Latest | Older