Maltless Brewing Suggestions?

[miracmert]

Hey there people! I'm new to this forum and also to home brewing.
I'm stduying chemical engineering in Turkey and I love beers. However, beer tax is 63% here in Turkey so we pay awful amounts of money to be a little happy.
Since I'm studying chemical engineering, I decided that I can make my own beer and enjoy drinking without paying a fortune (oh, you know how rich can a student be?)
But of course I got obstacles on my way. I cannot find any malt extract or barley grain anywhere in Turkey. I looked and searched every spot that has the possibility to have something similar but the result is negative.

I am fermenting half a liter of sucrose-water solution to have about 5% alcohol by volume at the end of the fermentation. Since I didn't use any grain or extract, the color of the solution is now cloudy white (as expected). I am thinking of adding honey or some kind of syrup at the end of the fermentation process to give color and taste and also to help carbonation.

I didn't use airlock because I couldn't get any but I'm releasing CO2 multiple times a day from the bottle. However, it stinks so bad that I am afraid I will vomit some time.

Even though I cleaned everything could it be bacterial contamination? Or is it because of sucrose which I don't think so?

Waiting for your replies, and cheers to everybody!

 

[WayFrae]

I can't help you with the smell issue but if I were you, I would just brew a hard apple cider. In my opinion, it would be much more drinkable than fermented sugar-water.

 

[rmg2800]

Brew some of Edworts apfelwine.

 

[Queequeg]

If you can't get grain or extract where did you get your yeast?

+1 to the cider

 

[dzlater]

cider
mead
wine
Or find some type of unmalted grain and try and malting it yourself.
You'd still need hops.
A sugar wash isn't going to taste good.
as a chemical engineer I'm sure you know what to do with a sugar wash.

 

[rossi46]

Can you get any malted grains ? Gratzer (Polish) is made with 100% smoked wheat malt. You could also try something in the gluten free forum(buckwheat,millet,sorhgum).

 

[miracmert]

Hey there! Thanks for all the replies! I couldn't reply as quickly because of my school schedule so sorry about that.
About cider, unfortunately there isn't any cider either And no, I can't find any malted or unmalted grains of any type. I calculated the process so I will get same amount of ethanol at the end as in a beer. However, I am sure there will be a lack of flavor since there is not any aroma of grains!
This first batch was just experimental, I was just testing the process. It smells pretty good now actually. I am now considering brewing some caramel, or should I try oat grains which is the only type of grain I have access?

About getting grains, I can't find them even in a farmer bazaar (a common thing in Turkey) I know it sounds weird but economics are pretty terrible here in Turkey that people are afraid to sell things that few people will buy like malt extracts and so.

One more question: Should I try to add some honey to give color, taste and odor to my "fermented carbonated water" at carbonation phase?

I really appreciate all the help! Thank you all!

 

[IslandLizard]

How about figs, dates, grapes, honey? Apples, pears, pineapple, any fruit, even coconut. Anything that's sweet (sugar) can be fermented. You can add suitable adjuncts to change flavor and acidity. You got plenty of limes there. Or are those all exported?

The malting/mashing process is to turn grain starch into sugar. Again, to make something sweet.
Are you telling us there is no grain in Turkey? No bread, no Bulgar, no couscous, no rice?

Try to find a brewery or a distillery. They use (malted) grain.

 

[miracmert]

How about figs, dates, grapes, honey? Apples, pears, pineapple, any fruit, even coconut. Anything that's sweet (sugar) can be fermented. You can add suitable adjuncts to change flavor and acidity. You got plenty of limes there. Or are those all exported?

The malting/mashing process is to turn grain starch into sugar. Again, to make something sweet.
Are you telling us there is no grain in Turkey? No bread, no Bulgar, no couscous, no rice?

Try to find a brewery or a distillery. They use (malted) grain.

Thanks for the advice! I will try those ones as soon as I can. There are grains here too, of course, but they are not meant to be bought in such little amounts by customers like me. I don't have much money, and I love beer, and beer is too expensive. If I try to get barley from anywhere, it would be more expensive for me since the amount of it is excessive my needs and expensive.
I think I will try some with oat, honey and some fruits on my next batch.

 

[rattyboh]

You have mentioned you have access to honey...why not make some mead instead? Search for joe's ancient orange mead...easy mead with easy to find ingredients (honey, orange,cinnamon, raisins, bread yeast). And it will taste much better than fermented sugar water.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[sielm]

I would try to make a beverage from some fruit juice. From apple juice you can make cider, from other fruit you can make the equivalent alcoholic beverage. If you really want something resembling a beer you need malted barley, and the best option would be to purchase some extract online - I did go through all the things you are trying there so I can tell you, the experiments are a great way to learn but almost all of them were undrinkable at least for me lol. I also had luck making mead. You need water, honey and yeast to do that, and with a bit else you can make lots of variations. I specially like JAOM (Joe's Ancient Orange Mead) because it's easy and tastes really good, you can find the recipe here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/

The only bad thing about JAOM is that you need to be patient and let it do its thing before you have a good drink.

Best of luck! :fro:

 

[IslandLizard]

If you can buy a sack of fresh unkilned barley (25kg) you can malt your own. Then kiln it very lightly (even outside under a pane of glass), to develop flavor, although you could use it "green." 6kg will make 20 liters of beer. Sielm is right, to resemble beer you need barley. Or wheat, which can also be malted, but not as easily.

 

[miracmert]

Hi again! I got my "test" batch fully fermented finally, and I filtered it from hops in it. I put a little bit honey (just about one dessert spoon) and now it looks beautiful. It also smells exactly like a beer, I can't wait to do the "taste testing"! I don't now how long carbonation phase will take but I will be away home for 3 days and I hope to see a considerably clear and carbonated beer when I come home back again. Here is a picture of it! (I know it's pretty small amount but it's a test batch so yeah)

 

[brandonman]

Interested in this? https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f78/george-washingtons-small-beer-429161/

I'm planning on starting one of these soon.