'Alternative' style of beer

[semigood]

Hi,

I've brewed a couple of batches before, one was a partial grain mash and turned out kind of ok, the second was an extract syrup that made a lovely porter with just a couple of little tweaks to it. Nice and simple, but they were both effective.

Now the situation has changed a bit so I've had to mix it up. (I moved to Sierra Leone, where things like hops, malt and even brewers yeast are basically impossible to obtain.) I also have very limited equipment (no hydrometer, no thermometer, no air seals), basically just a pot, a couple of buckets and a hose.

Last night I had an idea and decided to try something a bit different, and now that it's going I'm starting to wonder whether it'll kill me or be amazing. I'll tell you what I did, please tell me what you think:

1. Mix about 200g plain flour in cold water so it doesn't go lumpy
2. Add 1 can (330ml) of malt soda (supermalt)
3. Add the mixture to 6 litres of cold water (biggest pot I could find) and begin to heat
4. Add about 700g plain rice flakes while it is heating
5. Keep it warm but not boiling for about 30 minutes until it all turns into a mush, then drain the liquid out as far as possible and discard the solids
6. Return the liquid to the heat and stir in 1kg brown sugar, 1 kg demorara sugar and 0.5kg of very thick dark sugar.
7. When it nearly boils add 15 tea bags (Yorkshire Gold, no less) and simmer for about 30 minutes
8. Remove the tea bags, and strain the liquid into a bucket
9. Add 14 litres of cold water and stir
10. Add a yeast starter made from 1tsp bakers yeast and cover with tin foil (leaving a gap for air to escape)

I finished at about 1am last night, and by morning the yeast hadn't started to go, so I made another batch of starter and added another teaspoon. I'm hoping its just a matter of time before it grows enough to really start the fermentation.

To be honest, if it tastes strange I don't really mind, I'm interested in trying different things. What I'm worried about is if using the sugar without any real malt will be effective, and if the wheat flour and rice will give any kind of 'body' contribution. And of course, if using bread flour will make me go blind or not.

Thanks!

 

[Homercidal]

I'll be honest. I think it sounds like a mess.

 

[botigol]

It shouldn't make you go blind any more than other things, but offhand I think that you will end up with a very tannic and starchy alcohol with some background malty flavor from the soda, if you are lucky.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Think I'd be more concerned with avoiding ebola than trying to brew some make-shift concoction to (hopefully) get drunk on.
Regards, GF.

 

[Hjandersen]

I'll restrain my self to expressing only the positive aspects...
- It'll have alcohol..

 

[OleGoatBrewing]

We'll I'm interested on how it will turn out. I assume you don't have the ability to bottle or carb it up?

 

[hunter_le five]

Aw, come on you cowards! I say brew it! What have you got to lose? It just might be amazing.

But probably not. Still curious though.

 

[campbellmike]

I like your style and willingness to try something new. It's easy for us to criticize when we have access to the standard ingredients for brewing. I am hopeful for you and look forward to the results. I would suggest that you'll likely learn a lot from your experiment and will discover a few (or maybe many) tweaks along the way. Good luck.

 

[mkyl428]

Sounds nasty, but assuming it ferments, & you can stomach drinking it, it should get you drunk

+1 to just concentrating on not getting Ebola

That would probably be my #1 concern if I were living in Sierra Leone

 

[chickypad]

Malt soda is just soda made with sugars from malt, right? Like really dilute, carbonated LME? The flour and rice are just going to add starch haze I assume as there's nothing to convert them. The fermentables would be a small amount of malt sugar from the soda and then all that other sugar you added. I have to agree it sounds quite nasty. Have you considered making cider or mead?

 

[dyqik]

... I have to agree it sounds quite nasty. Have you considered making cider or mead?

I have to agree with this idea. Get some Campden tablets and hydrometer on your next trip somewhere. Find a source for some preservative free fruit juices (if it's pasteurized, you won't need the Campden tablets) and cider or ale yeast and yeast nutirent (you could bring these two in yourself if needed). Add sugar or honey if you need to add gravity.

This way you can make tastyish beer-strength alcohol without any of the problems of converting malt or mashing by making cider or fruit wines.

If yeast is a real problem, have a google for recipes for making ginger beer plant or similar and culturing local wild yeasts from the fruit you are using. You can always combine wild yeast with baker's yeast in the hope of getting something tastier than baker's yeast alone.

 

[semigood]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies!

After I posted it started off quite well, there was plenty of foam after a day or so and it's starting to die down now, so I'll transfer it to a water barrel I picked up the other day that I'm going to use as a cask, and hopefully be able to carbonate it.

I tried a very small taste yesterday and I've got to say it isn't very nice. Tastes like very sweet cold tea with vodka, with extra lumps of rice. yummy

So I'll give it a few days in the 'cask' and see how it turns out, but I'm not that hopeful.

I really like the idea of making cider or mead - I'll look into it and come back if I have any ideas. I saw something about making beer from Cassava or sorghum, but I think that might be just a bit too complicated. Plus cassava contains cyanide, and that just sounds like a bad idea.

Re ebola, that's why I'm brewing! They closed all the bars!

 

[semigood]

OK, I tried it over the weekend.

It was the worst thing I've ever tasted.

Seriously kids, don't do this. That was a terrible idea. It's not going to make me go blind, because it's going down the drain. An expensive way to poison the plants.

 

[hunter_le five]

haha well thanks for reporting the results.

perhaps a good cider is in order.

 

[mkyl428]

OK, I tried it over the weekend.

It was the worst thing I've ever tasted.

Seriously kids, don't do this. That was a terrible idea. It's not going to make me go blind, because it's going down the drain. An expensive way to poison the plants.

That's what I figured it was going to be like lol....

Yeah cider or mead is going to be way better