I Brewed? Kind of!

The Brew Mentor

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So an old timer comes into my shop last Friday looking for some LME. I only carry DME and explain to him the difference. He's on board and then asks for the Hops and Yeast. I take him to them and he grabs some Cascade and a Nottingham. I then ask him if he'd like some Grains for steeping and he looks at me with a question as to why and what for. I explain adding character, flavor, sweetness... He shakes his head and says," I just put everything in the Carboy and sprinkle the Yeast in."
OK, so I briefly explain the benefits of a boil and getting different contributions from the Hops. He's not buying it. He repeats himself and goes on to say " It makes Beer and I like it"
Sale complete!
Fast forward to this Wednesday. My employee Tim is in for the day shift and I have a million things going on with the build out plans, transfers, kegging, wine work, etc. I told him I'd brew a small batch with him last week, but there's no time today. He's fine with it.
Then I go back to thinking about the old timer and I say to Tim, " Want to do a small brewing experiment"? Sure he says and I go on to fill him in on the old timers "method".
I don't want to waste anything so I revamp his plan a bit and we brewed! Total invested time about 5 minutes.
Here's what I did;
Sanitize a carboy
Pour 3# Golden DME into the carboy
Pour 1.5 gallons cold water on top of the DME and give it a shake.
Heat 1 gallon water to a simmer on the stove top.
Add 1 ounce Lemon Drop Hops to the simmering water and swirl up a bit.
Remove from the heat, Put the lid on and set a timer for 30 minutes.
After the steep, pour this hop water into the carboy and give it a good shake.
Put carboy in a swamp cooler to get it down to pitching temperature.
Pitch fresh yeast slurry off a Cream ale I just transferred.
Krausen in 2 hours.
And now... I'll serve it to my employees at our Holiday party on the 28th.
2.5 gallons of "Cream Ale" ish beer! 5% 15 IBU, no grain, no boil!
Just for fun!
OK, Feedback, comments and other fun experiments please.
Cheers,
Brian
 
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I feel like I'm in the lazy brewer camp. Minimum effort, maximum results.

But this method is a little too bare bones for me. Very curious to hear how it turns out. Are you keeping the brewing method a secret until after they taste it?
 
Back in the late '60s someone gave me a beer kit that they'd had sitting around for a few years. It included a collapsible carboy, an airlock, a can of hopped extract and a packet of lager yeast. The instructions were simply to dump everything in the carboy and add water to a line on the carboy. put on the airlock, shake or stir to mix and then fill the airlock with water. Put in a warm place and allow to ferment until clear.

No directions for carbonating or bottling. It actually fermented and cleared pretty well in a few weeks. I dumped a bunch in all of the assorted jars we had sitting in the cupboard and refrigerated them. The rest stayed in the carboy for several days while we choked down the flat beer to empty the jars. When I went to dump more in the jars it smelled so nasty that I dumped it down the toilet.

The flat beer that we drank wasn't bad, considering. It reminded me of flat Brown Derby which was the cheapest beer we could buy at the time. The old man's way sounded like it might work much better.
 
I feel like I'm in the lazy brewer camp. Minimum effort, maximum results.

But this method is a little too bare bones for me. Very curious to hear how it turns out. Are you keeping the brewing method a secret until after they taste it?

No, actually my staff trusts me! HA!
I'll get some pictures and tasting notes. Not sure how to post the pics, but I'm sure someone here can help with that.
 
So an old timer comes into my shop last Friday looking for some LME. I only carry DME and explain to him the difference. He's on board and then asks for the Hops and Yeast. I take him to them and he grabs some Cascade and a Nottingham. I then ask him if he'd like some Grains for steeping and he looks at me with a question as to why and what for. I explain adding character, flavor, sweetness... He shakes his head and says," I just put everything in the Carboy and sprinkle the Yeast in."
OK, so I briefly explain the benefits of a boil and getting different contributions from the Hops. He's not buying it. He repeats himself and goes on to say " It makes Beer and I like it"
Sale complete!
Fast forward to this Wednesday. My employee Tim is in for the day shift and I have a million things going on with the build out plans, transfers, kegging, wine work, etc. I told him I'd brew a small batch with him last week, but there's no time today. He's fine with it.
Then I go back to thinking about the old timer and I say to Tim, " Want to do a small brewing experiment"? Sure he says and I go on to fill him in on the old timers "method".
I don't want to waste anything so I revamp his plan a bit and we brewed! Total invested time about 5 minutes.
Here's what I did;
Sanitize a carboy
Pour 3# Golden DME into the carboy
Pour 1.5 gallons cold water on top of the DME and give it a shake.
Heat 1 gallon water to a simmer on the stove top.
Add 1 ounce Lemon Drop Hops to the simmering water and swirl up a bit.
Remove from the heat, Put the lid on and set a timer for 30 minutes.
After the steep, pour this hop water into the carboy and give it a good shake.
Put carboy in a swamp cooler to get it down to pitching temperature.
Pitch fresh yeast slurry off a Cream ale I just transferred.
Kroisen in 2 hours.
And now... I'll serve it to my employees at our Holiday party on the 28th.
2.5 gallons of "Cream Ale" ish beer! 5% 15 IBU, no grain, no boil!
Just for fun!
OK, Feedback, comments and other fun experiments please.
Cheers,
Brian
I think I'd have at least brought it to a boil. DME being industrially made and packaged may be pretty close to sanitary - it is wort that has been boiled then vacuum dried. You're pitching a lot of yeast which should overwhelm anything bad in there pretty quickly. I don't understand the krauesening step but hey, there's lots in the world I don't understand. Bottom line, you'll have some kind of fermented beverage there and with any luck, it should be beer!
 
It's all process process process and if that works for the old fella there is no way in this bright world your gunna stop him.
Good on you for doing the exbeeriment interested in how people do/don't enjoy it.
 
It's really not far off how I do my no boil berliner weiss and it comes out damn fine.
It may not be the finest, but here's hoping it comes out tasty enough for everyone to enjoy. I look forward to the results.
 
One of the few sour beers I have enjoyed. Berliner Weiss, my other vice. That's printed on some of the glassware at Mike Hess Brewing in San Diego. Useless trivia that only a worldly drunk would know.
 
The only thing I'm even a little concerned about is the chlorine in the tap water. Other than that, there's no reason this would be problematic.
Still curious as to what others have tried or are doing that may not conform to "Standard" brewing processes.
 
I think I'd have at least brought it to a boil. DME being industrially made and packaged may be pretty close to sanitary - it is wort that has been boiled then vacuum dried. You're pitching a lot of yeast which should overwhelm anything bad in there pretty quickly. I don't understand the krauesening step but hey, there's lots in the world I don't understand. Bottom line, you'll have some kind of fermented beverage there and with any luck, it should be beer!

I'm confident that the DME is sanitary or close enough that the healthy active pitch will out preform whatever got through.
The krauesening comment was just to show how quickly I had active fermentation to be the predominant fermenting factor.
 
I'm confident that the DME is sanitary or close enough that the healthy active pitch will out preform whatever got through.
The krauesening comment was just to show how quickly I had active fermentation to be the predominant fermenting factor.
Less lag time less likely another yeast bacteria can get a foot hold in the brew.
 
The only thing I'm even a little concerned about is the chlorine in the tap water. Other than that, there's no reason this would be problematic.
Still curious as to what others have tried or are doing that may not conform to "Standard" brewing processes.
My dad brewed very similar to this method. He had several cases of lme he bought from a fire sale at a local grocery store. He would heat up a pot of water to dissolve the extract, dump it in the old ceramic 5gal crock, fill with cold water and stir in some yeast. Usually bread yeast as the LHBS was 120 miles away. Then cover with a towel. As krausen started dropping he would monitor with hydrometer till it quit falling, usually just leaving it in the brew, then bottle with a bit of sugar for carbing. Sometimes adding raisins instead. Never did he use hops til we started buying him kits with hopped extract. He at some time added a piece of plywood with a hole in the center for a lid so he could float the hydrometer earlier. This beer was usually slightly different every time but only once or twice undrinkable. Oh and sanitation amounted to washing everything with a bleach solution then rinsing with tap water, including the bottles .
 
This thread reminded me of a speed brew video I seen on YouTube a few months back. One of the guys brewed in under 24 minutes and the other guy brewed in less than 18 minutes from boil to yeast Pitch. I did some searching and found the videos and have attached the links below. There are 3 parts (3 videos); One video for each guy of his speed brew and then the last video is their follow up tasting.

1 of 3:

2 of 3:

3 of 3:
 

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