Salut ! A few comments regarding your comments : - Obviously I could have bought a home-brewing kit either in a brewer's shop or online as they are pretty affordable and widely available. But that is not the point of this video. It's here to introduce all of us to a world I did not even know existed and to entertain you along the way. Beer world is fascinating. - The initial plan with yeast was to use and grow bottled conditioned beer leftovers as our own yeast strain. It obviously would have been better than using bread yeast. But after finding some, which was a big pain already that thing isn't widely available, real hard, we couldn't get any reliable success growing it. - There is indeed no enzymatic action in our mash, but our malt extract is already fermentable and we don't need the sugars from the wheat and oats - just the starch for body, plus the flavour and proteins for head retention. - (I'll update this comment if needed)
Awesome project, I can't wait to see how it turns out. Might have to try this myself some time? I made Finnish Sahti from scratch a few years ago, that was fun too!
and like that, you answered my only big question, harvesting yeast from a bottle conditioned beer could work, but you would have to get something that had not been pasteurized, assuming it was not, something as fresh (recently bottled) as possible could help, but still it is a tremendous pain without propper equipment, can't wait to see how it ends
i'm having trouble seeing the point of using supermarket wheat if it's not being converted to sugars. sure, the flavors and body of grain are important, but the entire point of the tradition was the production of sugar, and the flavor component was a subsequent evolution that slowly emerged from our primary requirement of alcohol (as was the co-evolution of our enjoyment of beer flavor). you're also violating the tradition that grain (like breakfast cereal) is cheap, after you've spent a lot of time and money gaining the expertise. were there no supermarket seeds suitable for germinating?
Milton for sterilising (in the baby aisle... tablets or liquid)... use it for my brewing. For yeast, buy one bottle of traditional “bottle conditioned” beer... There are loads now in supermarkets... drink it, but leave an inch in the bottom... add sugar and water and leave in a warm place to grow... creating a “yeast starter” of professional quality brewers yeast ready to pitch into your wort. Great video as ever, Alex. :-)
@@oribennett6520 Kombucha has lactic and acetic acid bacteria in it in addition to yeast, so while it might work, you'll end up with a rather sour-tasting beer (and could probably just as well use a sourdough starter for the same effect too).
I wonder if he could have salvaged some living brewing yeast from the marmite. He said it has a joke, but i was like... wait a minute! I bet if you add some to a jar of warm water and sugar and wait a while, some of that yeast will wake up, but maybe not...
If you wanted, you could make beer and quite drinkable beer using as little equipment as a 20-liter pot, a nylon mesh brewing bag to contain the grains and hops, your brew kettle would have to double as your fermenter. Then some vinyl tubing and a bottling wand if you bought bottles with swing-top caps. To make about a 14-liter batch.
The cashier after seeing what they bought: ”Oh my, they’re going to throughoutly clean their home and then bake something delicious to their sweethearts! What a shame my sweetheart only thinks about beer...” •sigh•
My grandfather homebrewed, my Dad homebrewed, both my brother and I homebrewed … great vid and a nice change from the 'normal' cooking vidoes. Cheers, chappie!
10:37 Alex: Do you think it can work? You can literally read the other guy's thoughts... _I have no idea what you just said, but I'll go with it._ "YES".
@@Eveseptir The cup, if it has a curve will seal the bottle top and the pressure release can be controlled by adding weight to the top of the cup. I did this with the bottom of a pretzel container that I had lying around. Catch is I never actually tried to see of the mead was drinkable. I did this on the spur of the moment with some yeast I was about to throw out as it was old.
@@EthelredHardrede-nz8yv I know how the bubbler works; I was just suggesting that, since the CO2 will always give a pressure in the vessel, why* not just let it fill a balloon while letting the excess pressure out throught a pinhole. Seems simple to me, maybe it it too simple idk, never made booze.
@@Eveseptir I have seen that suggestion before. For some reason its not something that is popular with those that into this sort of thing. I might be that it is not thought to be reliable. For short periods it should work, for long periods, like the time to age the hooch, rubber can get oxidized by ozone and then stiffen. Ethelred Hardrede
I'm so glad that the boys from the Craft Beer Channel look sceptical, they have their work cut out keeping you in line. I've been dreading this series since you first suggested making beer, it was never going to be normal. It's now like a road crash I want to look away but I can't and I can't unsee any of this.
Bleach companies: Hey Tide, can you give us the info for the PR person that handled your Tide Pods Challenge stuff? I think we are about to have a problem...
unfortunately adding flavour agents to bleach is kinda a lost cause, its like the reason people got sick from the tide pod challenge is because they physically couldn't spit it out, ofc bleach might be different, its similar
I am liking this! I have done similar things. Of course this is already done and we are being treated to the edited video, but two things I would suggest is to add raisins to the mix if you cannot find malt. Fresh bread will supply the yeast. There are live yeasts in some beers that you could cultivate as well. The airlock could be replaced with a plastic tube from a slingshot or replaced altogether by a heavy tapered stopper that settles back into place after the CO2 escapes. My mother used really large ballons snapped over the mouth of the jug.
They clearly don’t know anything anything about alcohol tolerance of bakers yeast. I had same results (15 ABV) with bread yeast. It become also quite clear and dry.
Alex, I _really,_ _r e a l l y_ appreciate the progress bar for the ad read. Not quite as much as I app-reci-ate the unique cadence you francophones have when pronouncing certain words - but still, _a lot._ Thankyou.
Also London water is actually good for brewing once you correct for oh, according to that book I mentions on water. The cheap way to make a airlock is a balloon with a pin hole in it placed on thw bottles nossle. Be careful for the fermentation to expand during process. Leave some space in the bottle or put it in a container to catch it.
Fermenting valves suck. I once made an impromptu replacement with stretch foil and rubber bands and then I never went back. As long as the vessel has a lip for the rubber bands to hold onto and they are put on tight, they keep the fruitflies out and the oxygen as well, since there's a slight overpressure from the fermentation. Plus, there is no sealing liquid that can dry out or contaminate your ferment :)
The filming style in the supermarket was well done and interesting. Loved the intro edits too. This 'beer' sounds interesting, looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
The yeast that is used for bread is only slightly different from the one for beer. Its actually Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The name cerevisiae comes from "beer". And one more thing. The malt is used for flavour and for the enzymes. But as you may know is that the yeast can produce its own encymes if you let it ferment long enough. Also you could may get some whole grains from the store and make your own malt. It's really easy to do. You have to water the grains and let them sprout for some days and then you can stop the sprouting by drying them in an ofen. For more Flavour you can even roast some of the malt.
Sooo hyped to see how this beer will come out! Though for the containers I think most supermarkets sell the huge tanks for the water dispensers like in an office.
If your cup-based airlock contraption doesn't work, you can simplify by using a balloon. Just stretch the the mouth of the balloon over the top of the jug and put a little pin hole in the top of the balloon. As the wort ferments, the gas will inflate the balloon a bit, but can escape... and the balloon will flop back down and prevent air from getting in. (And if the balloon isn't big enough to stretch over the top of the jug, then there are other, similar latex-based product that will work, and that are often sold at supermarkets. Just be sure to wash off any lube before using one...)
Craft brewer here. So the main thing that caused the infection was adding unsanitary liquid to the wort after your boil to bring down the temperature. That water though it came from a bottle was not sterile in the brewers sense. Use isopropyl alchahol and use it everywhere. Pasturize your utensils hold at 180F for about at least 5 minutes. Also blooming the yeast isnt necessary just toss it in. Its sanitary. You have to keep it 100% sterile until the yeast can take hold. As a brewer. Yes you get a nice gentle kick to the nutz even on a big system haha.
The simplest way to make an air lock is to submerge a flexible plastic tube into a large container of water. Also you could have used Malt-O-Meal as a source of malted barley. I'm not sure if they have that in the UK but it's in every store in the US.
Great idea for a challenge! I like the use of lemongrass instead of hops. You could have also used sage or rosemary, both very prevalent in brewing before hops became widespread. I am a little disappointed you did not try to cultivate your own wild yeast. My guess is that would have been too time consuming since you were in England. Maybe something to attempt in a future video! Great work as always and can't wait to see how your brew turns out!
Also insider tip - if you wanted Fresh Yeast - if you go to a larger store that makes its bread from scratch if you ask nicely at the counter they can provide you with a small amount of their yeast for free ;) Dunno if it does any thing different or better/worse in this scenario compared to dried but its something
Using baking yeast should be fine as it is used in Sahti brewing (can also use wild yeast). Sahti is the traditional finnish style of beer. You should try making it sometime!
Pero is a coffee substitute drink made from malted barley, barley, chicory and rye. I wonder if you could use that in this recipe? It is found in the coffee section in many supermarkets.
Here's how to make a suitable yeast for brewing. Get some really acidic apples. Bramleys in the UK. Turn them into juice. Put it in your fermenting vessel with an airlock and leave them to ferment. It may take 2 or 3 weeks to get started. When the fermentation has finished use a little of the sediment to make your yeast starter. The acidity and alcohol will have killed all the non-sachromyces and alcohol intolerant strains.
I can't help but consider "A frenchmen goes to England to brew beer" to be the beginning of a joke. Note: You're not supposed to cut beer with a knife.
Alex, I recommend looking into the recipes for a BRUT IPA, it's an IPA with 0 IBUS, so it's not bitter, as it's brewed with a dry hop process. It's an amazing drink!
Parlsey Alex. It has antiseptic bitter compounds just like hops. You can "train" your yeast. It will mutate and adapt to its environment. Bakers yeast will evolve into brewing yeast. Also, You could get a craft microbrew with sediment which contains cultures of brewers yeast.
Taking a lot more steps than absolutely needed too. Step 1: Buy jug of water (or juice), some honey (or sugar, but flavor), baker's yeast, and optionally some oranges and raisins. Oh, and a balloon. Step 2: Pour a cup of water and drink it, then add the honey and yeast and raisins and the orange peels. Step 3: Poke a tiny hole or three in the balloon and cap the jug. Leave like this for about a month in an ideally dark and somewhat cool place; in a cupboard under the counters usually works. Step 4: Either drink it or siphon it off the sediment and let it spend some time mellowing out the flavors after initial brewong if you want slightly bettee tasting prison hooch.
You could, but you don't know which generation of yeast you will be putting in the wort. So yeah it would work, but it could give you some nasty off-flavours.
@@Aeguis Is commercial brewing yeast genetically modified or crossbread or something or why is the generation important for the flavour profile. Or has it to do with the cells being haploid or diploid?
Well for the yeast, your better option would be to get some beers that is carbonated with live yeast on the bottle, with just a few beers and time it will start multiplying itself. Also for a waterlock, just some tubing from the fermenting bottle into a glass of water would work great.
Alex! You should look into a Honey series, I’m on a honey kick right now, even got jars straight from a local beekeepers hands and it is a world of difference. Just an idea.
Bran flakes is a pretty good source of wheat for brewing, much cheaper than shredded wheat and also tastier too! It's very common in brewing for spirits (although distilling the product may be a tad illegal! ;-) )
hey alex, hops was not always the bittering agent before the church got involved a lot beers were made with gruit instead of hops which could be made up of any number of things, there is a recipie for gruit consisting of Chamomile, Coriander and Orange Peel, which out be perfect for your grocery store beer there's another that is made from Rosemary and dried lemon peel or just ginger as well. as for the yeast you could make a lambic which is made from wild yeast in the air. or you could buy some grapes. have you ever noticed that some times grapes have a white powder on them? that's yeast. if you ferment the beer in a crock through a couple grapes and your good on the yeast.
I think you have got that the wrong way round. IIRC, The church actively worked to prevent hops being used to make beer. Bishoprics had a financial monopoly on the sale of the herbs in gruit.
@Reeves, I was under the impression they did one of those things were they were like if it doesn't have hops is not considered beer and couldnt be sold not unlike the French who say sparkling wine isn't champagne unless it comes from the champagne region. But I could be totally wrong on that I'm not really a historian and its been years since I read about it.
You could’ve just used a balloon with a little hole poked in it for the airlock. If you wanted to you could’ve bought whole grain & malted it. And you could’ve basically made a sourdough starter for the yeast.
Just an FYI but I've picked up 7-8% from bread yeast with a hard cider. Sure, it won't reliably make that ABV since it's not designed for it but you can go much higher than the 3%. You can also go the route of harvesting yeast from unpasteurized beer already there in the store if you don't trust bread yeast or enjoy the flavors you get from it.
All of those yeasts come from breweries. S. cerevisiae. You are missing out on diastatic power in your malt extract, so your grains will add little if any.
That seems like an incredibly complicated airlock. 4 layers of cling film and a rubber band will make a perfectly good seal. You can also put a straw between the cling film and the bottle neck to make venting gas easier. Alternatively, burp it when it starts to bulge. I've never had a brew go off when using this method. Some people use a balloon with a pin prick hole in the top, too. Never tried it myself, though.
Cider is nice and easy, drop some yeast in a bottle of apple juice (watch out for fermentation stopping preservatives). Hair tie a plastic bag over the top that's loose enough to bleed pressure and you are done.
Okay, for the brewers yeast from the supermarket I had an idea. When I brew beer, after fermentation I collect the yeast from the fermentation vessel to use another time. And a lot of smaller production beers do second fermentation in the bottle, so I would try to harvest yeast cells from other people's beers and make starter cultures! Would also maybe be possible with beers that dont have second fermentation in the bottle, but I expect that the yeast percentage in there is lower. I'm 6 months late to the party tho! Just found your channel a few days ago because of the ramen noodle machine.
There's A Boutique Beer From Israel Named Malka Admonit Which Has Orange Peels And Coriander Seeds In The Brewing As Well As 3 Kinds of Hops, Great Beer, It's An EPA
instead of a complicated yeast-lock with cups and straws, just use a rubber balloon with a tiny hole covering the bottle neck :) Thank you for making such cool, creative and inspiring videos! One af my alltime favorite youtube-channels :)
I made mead from bread yeast and it was super strong. One glass made people tipsy. I didn't have a hydrometer then but I suspect it was much higher than 4%, it was almost like wine.
Sure you can. I once brewed ginger beer with only ginger, sugar, water, and yeast. I boiled a random amount of ginger, added a random amount of sugar, poured it into an old 2L soda bottle, added some yeast i found at the back of my pantry, and let it ferment for like a week, opening it once every day to let the co2 escape. It tasted a bit harsh but I didn’t even get an upset stomach. People have been fermenting whatever they could find for thousands of years. It’s hard to mess it up. Life finds a way, bro. ☺️
It does, but you should wash it out first, otherwise you might get some talc and rubberry flavor in your beer if it foams up into it (which can happen if you have a fast fermentation)
@Alex Being new to brewing myself I would like to suggest a couple of books. The first is called 'wild BREWS: Beer Beyond the Influence of Brewer’s Yeast'. A book about using wild yeast to make a local 'lambic' beer. Great read. Second book is a series of books with slightly different titles based on which part of the brewing your focusing on. For example 'WATER: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers' is about the understanding of water, while 'Malt: A Practical Guide from Field to Brewhouse' covers flavors. Yes they are sometimes by different authors but part of the same series covering all parts of the brewing recipe. 'AGAiNST ALL HOPS TECHNiQUES AND PHiLOSOPHY FOR CREATiNG EXTRAORDiNARY BOTANiCAL BEERS' is another book I would recommend if you dont plan on using hops. I have been brewing with honey as in meads, and my aim is to make a braggot, or a [honey wine(mead) with malt(wheat/beer charactoristics) crossover] that anyone can enjoy even if you dont like beers and dont want to drink hard alcohol or mix drinks.
for times when you don't have bubbly stuff (or you can't keep up with checking out if the water is still there): insert a tube (hose?) into the hole where the bubbly stuff should be, insert the other end of tube (hose?) into a bucket with water (make sure this end is always below water level).
literally all it has to do is keeping fresh air outside, but let the excess air go: you can put baloon (or rubber glov) on the bottle - just remember to realese some air from time to time not to get the baloon pop (i've seen it sucessfully done, but with wine).
Right after the portion where you were explaining how you plan to make the valve, I got a commercial for Sprint cellular that opened with the line “isn’t it nice when you can keep things simple”?
Hey Alex, to remplace the fermenting valve, you could use a condom, it would let you know how is going the fermentation quite easily Great video as ever
Raisins! Raisins contain lots of alcohol reisistent yeasts, so that could have been the starter for yeast. Make a starter out of raisins in water and after a day or so you'll have a wild ferment for higher alcohol yeasts.
Salut ! A few comments regarding your comments :
- Obviously I could have bought a home-brewing kit either in a brewer's shop or online as they are pretty affordable and widely available. But that is not the point of this video. It's here to introduce all of us to a world I did not even know existed and to entertain you along the way. Beer world is fascinating.
- The initial plan with yeast was to use and grow bottled conditioned beer leftovers as our own yeast strain. It obviously would have been better than using bread yeast. But after finding some, which was a big pain already that thing isn't widely available, real hard, we couldn't get any reliable success growing it.
- There is indeed no enzymatic action in our mash, but our malt extract is already fermentable and we don't need the sugars from the wheat and oats - just the starch for body, plus the flavour and proteins for head retention.
- (I'll update this comment if needed)
Awesome project, I can't wait to see how it turns out. Might have to try this myself some time? I made Finnish Sahti from scratch a few years ago, that was fun too!
Good idea, although i'm very dissapointed that for beer matters you went to Uk and not to Germany or Czech rep....
How about the chocolate series? You promised another video
and like that, you answered my only big question, harvesting yeast from a bottle conditioned beer could work, but you would have to get something that had not been pasteurized, assuming it was not, something as fresh (recently bottled) as possible could help, but still it is a tremendous pain without propper equipment, can't wait to see how it ends
i'm having trouble seeing the point of using supermarket wheat if it's not being converted to sugars. sure, the flavors and body of grain are important, but the entire point of the tradition was the production of sugar, and the flavor component was a subsequent evolution that slowly emerged from our primary requirement of alcohol (as was the co-evolution of our enjoyment of beer flavor). you're also violating the tradition that grain (like breakfast cereal) is cheap, after you've spent a lot of time and money gaining the expertise. were there no supermarket seeds suitable for germinating?
Milton for sterilising (in the baby aisle... tablets or liquid)... use it for my brewing. For yeast, buy one bottle of traditional “bottle conditioned” beer... There are loads now in supermarkets... drink it, but leave an inch in the bottom... add sugar and water and leave in a warm place to grow... creating a “yeast starter” of professional quality brewers yeast ready to pitch into your wort. Great video as ever, Alex. :-)
lee gosling ironically I’ve seen star San in grocery stores lately!
Kambucha would probably work too
@@oribennett6520 Kombucha has lactic and acetic acid bacteria in it in addition to yeast, so while it might work, you'll end up with a rather sour-tasting beer (and could probably just as well use a sourdough starter for the same effect too).
Dustin Brookens the "health food" shop near me sells brewing supplies now, it's not even a large shop so I was surprised
I wonder if he could have salvaged some living brewing yeast from the marmite. He said it has a joke, but i was like... wait a minute! I bet if you add some to a jar of warm water and sugar and wait a while, some of that yeast will wake up, but maybe not...
After this please make proper beer brewing series with home made equipment. Please
Then after that distillation to make liquor!!!
No
If you wanted, you could make beer and quite drinkable beer using as little equipment as a 20-liter pot, a nylon mesh brewing bag to contain the grains and hops, your brew kettle would have to double as your fermenter. Then some vinyl tubing and a bottling wand if you bought bottles with swing-top caps. To make about a 14-liter batch.
@Chuck Martin and how was it ?
@@skepticfucker280 Illegal in a lot of places unfortunately.
I enjoy the ad progress bar at the bottom of the video.
Yes. He spoil me. I miss it at other channels.
I wish that was a requirement for all in-video ads so we can skip them easier.
So happy I’m not the only one geeking out over his Kaweco sport fountain pen.
The cashier after seeing what they bought: ”Oh my, they’re going to throughoutly clean their home and then bake something delicious to their sweethearts! What a shame my sweetheart only thinks about beer...” •sigh•
Or in reality they don't give a shit
My grandfather homebrewed, my Dad homebrewed, both my brother and I homebrewed … great vid and a nice change from the 'normal' cooking vidoes. Cheers, chappie!
10:37 Alex: Do you think it can work?
You can literally read the other guy's thoughts... _I have no idea what you just said, but I'll go with it._ "YES".
The part where you explain the cups being stacked to prevent air getting in was gold 😂😂😂
Why not just stretch a balloon with a pinhole over the neck?
@@Eveseptir
The cup, if it has a curve will seal the bottle top and the pressure release can be controlled by adding weight to the top of the cup. I did this with the bottom of a pretzel container that I had lying around. Catch is I never actually tried to see of the mead was drinkable. I did this on the spur of the moment with some yeast I was about to throw out as it was old.
@@EthelredHardrede-nz8yv I know how the bubbler works; I was just suggesting that, since the CO2 will always give a pressure in the vessel, why* not just let it fill a balloon while letting the excess pressure out throught a pinhole. Seems simple to me, maybe it it too simple idk, never made booze.
@@Eveseptir
I have seen that suggestion before. For some reason its not something that is popular with those that into this sort of thing. I might be that it is not thought to be reliable. For short periods it should work, for long periods, like the time to age the hooch, rubber can get oxidized by ozone and then stiffen.
Ethelred Hardrede
@@Eveseptir or a condom... if it has no lube or other chemicals on it.
I'm so glad that the boys from the Craft Beer Channel look sceptical, they have their work cut out keeping you in line. I've been dreading this series since you first suggested making beer, it was never going to be normal. It's now like a road crash I want to look away but I can't and I can't unsee any of this.
Dude: Nobody is doing grapefruit in beer
Schöfferhofer: Hold my Weizen.
Ive also seen grapefruit beer in Quebec so 🤷♂️
Brewdog Elvis Juice...
Lervig Lucky Jack Grapefruit is just one I know well but their are probably many more. I think he was being sarcastic ?
I love a cold Rattler
Radler, Shilling grapefruit cider, grapefruit just goes great with Alcohol especially my favorite drink of all time チューハイ
Nobody:
Alex:
"I'm just checking if this (bleach) have any flavor agent"
Actually he's right, bleach, medical alcohol and other not drinkable stuff can have strongly unpleasant flavor agent to avoid kids drinking them
Bleach companies: Hey Tide, can you give us the info for the PR person that handled your Tide Pods Challenge stuff? I think we are about to have a problem...
Good luck
unfortunately adding flavour agents to bleach is kinda a lost cause, its like the reason people got sick from the tide pod challenge is because they physically couldn't spit it out, ofc bleach might be different, its similar
I am liking this! I have done similar things. Of course this is already done and we are being treated to the edited video, but two things I would suggest is to add raisins to the mix if you cannot find malt. Fresh bread will supply the yeast. There are live yeasts in some beers that you could cultivate as well. The airlock could be replaced with a plastic tube from a slingshot or replaced altogether by a heavy tapered stopper that settles back into place after the CO2 escapes. My mother used really large ballons snapped over the mouth of the jug.
In America we sell beer making kits in super markets. Even the raw ingredients to make them.
Yes yeast and hops to.
Where in the U.S. do you live? I don't see yeast and hops at any of my local supermarkets.
If we got it in Ohio, it can’t be too rare elsewhere.
‘Course there’s a good volume of craft beer here, too.
In Finland you can buy beer brewing kits from supermarkets and wine kits too !
I don't know where you get the alcohol Torrance from bakers yeast. It is commonly used for sugar washes to distill, I often get 14% abv,
chub eye Torrance? Bakers yeast comes from breweries.
They clearly don’t know anything anything about alcohol tolerance of bakers yeast. I had same results (15 ABV) with bread yeast. It become also quite clear and dry.
Alex, I _really,_ _r e a l l y_ appreciate the progress bar for the ad read.
Not quite as much as I app-reci-ate the unique cadence you francophones have when pronouncing certain words - but still, _a lot._
Thankyou.
you can find fresh yeast in the uk by the butter...😂
these guys are hilarious, you guys bounce ideas off each other and the chemistry is so good, I would love more collabs in the future
Also London water is actually good for brewing once you correct for oh, according to that book I mentions on water.
The cheap way to make a airlock is a balloon with a pin hole in it placed on thw bottles nossle. Be careful for the fermentation to expand during process. Leave some space in the bottle or put it in a container to catch it.
spiritualinsight Correct for oh? London water is very hard. Best to experiment with soft brewing liquor.
3:19 Was not expecting to see castle lager included in 1 of your videos 😀.
They had to show quality beer
Fermenting valves suck.
I once made an impromptu replacement with stretch foil and rubber bands and then I never went back.
As long as the vessel has a lip for the rubber bands to hold onto and they are put on tight, they keep the fruitflies out and the oxygen as well, since there's a slight overpressure from the fermentation. Plus, there is no sealing liquid that can dry out or contaminate your ferment :)
The filming style in the supermarket was well done and interesting. Loved the intro edits too. This 'beer' sounds interesting, looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
Alex, nice series.... excellent to revisit during lockdown! Please can you share the “recipe” or ratios.
The yeast that is used for bread is only slightly different from the one for beer. Its actually Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The name cerevisiae comes from "beer". And one more thing. The malt is used for flavour and for the enzymes. But as you may know is that the yeast can produce its own encymes if you let it ferment long enough.
Also you could may get some whole grains from the store and make your own malt. It's really easy to do. You have to water the grains and let them sprout for some days and then you can stop the sprouting by drying them in an ofen. For more Flavour you can even roast some of the malt.
I am a food nerd in culinary school and I absolutely love this channel. Thank you for providing such quality videos Alex! 👌🤙
Sooo hyped to see how this beer will come out! Though for the containers I think most supermarkets sell the huge tanks for the water dispensers like in an office.
If your cup-based airlock contraption doesn't work, you can simplify by using a balloon. Just stretch the the mouth of the balloon over the top of the jug and put a little pin hole in the top of the balloon. As the wort ferments, the gas will inflate the balloon a bit, but can escape... and the balloon will flop back down and prevent air from getting in. (And if the balloon isn't big enough to stretch over the top of the jug, then there are other, similar latex-based product that will work, and that are often sold at supermarkets. Just be sure to wash off any lube before using one...)
Craft brewer here. So the main thing that caused the infection was adding unsanitary liquid to the wort after your boil to bring down the temperature. That water though it came from a bottle was not sterile in the brewers sense.
Use isopropyl alchahol and use it everywhere. Pasturize your utensils hold at 180F for about at least 5 minutes.
Also blooming the yeast isnt necessary just toss it in. Its sanitary. You have to keep it 100% sterile until the yeast can take hold.
As a brewer. Yes you get a nice gentle kick to the nutz even on a big system haha.
"There's no way you can find these ingredients in your supermarket"
*laughs in Oregon*
*Cackles in Portland/Vancouver*
Goes Heeeeeyuck in Georgia
The simplest way to make an air lock is to submerge a flexible plastic tube into a large container of water. Also you could have used Malt-O-Meal as a source of malted barley. I'm not sure if they have that in the UK but it's in every store in the US.
I simply _cannot_ wait for the next episode. So exited!!!!
Today's episode: Alex in British accent mode
Nah that sounds super Indian
Did you guys check the health food aisle for brewer's yeast? Some folks use it as a supplement.
Isn't it dead? The form they sell, I mean.
Some bloody proper banter in this video.
Great idea for a challenge! I like the use of lemongrass instead of hops. You could have also used sage or rosemary, both very prevalent in brewing before hops became widespread. I am a little disappointed you did not try to cultivate your own wild yeast. My guess is that would have been too time consuming since you were in England. Maybe something to attempt in a future video! Great work as always and can't wait to see how your brew turns out!
Also insider tip - if you wanted Fresh Yeast - if you go to a larger store that makes its bread from scratch if you ask nicely at the counter they can provide you with a small amount of their yeast for free ;)
Dunno if it does any thing different or better/worse in this scenario compared to dried but its something
That’s fantastic you guys just made Gruit beer 👍🏻love it nice video
I'm loving this series! A topic so close to my heart. Can't wait to see how it turns out. Good luck!
As a brewer, I'm both mortified and super curious about the results! Looking forward to the next video Alex!
Using baking yeast should be fine as it is used in Sahti brewing (can also use wild yeast). Sahti is the traditional finnish style of beer. You should try making it sometime!
Ok I'm super excited about this and spreading it like bitter!
Butter.
@@albertledesma5173 yeah that's what I meant although Alex may branch out into brewing bitter
Rob Lawrence Good point.
Rob Lawrence Spill it like bitter?
@@albertledesma5173 buttah
"Sphread eet like buttah"
Pero is a coffee substitute drink made from malted barley, barley, chicory and rye. I wonder if you could use that in this recipe? It is found in the coffee section in many supermarkets.
Here's how to make a suitable yeast for brewing. Get some really acidic apples. Bramleys in the UK. Turn them into juice. Put it in your fermenting vessel with an airlock and leave them to ferment. It may take 2 or 3 weeks to get started. When the fermentation has finished use a little of the sediment to make your yeast starter. The acidity and alcohol will have killed all the non-sachromyces and alcohol intolerant strains.
I can't help but consider "A frenchmen goes to England to brew beer" to be the beginning of a joke. Note: You're not supposed to cut beer with a knife.
A Englishman goes to Germany to brew beer.... (come one let us have our national symbol, you already got the queen)
German national symbol is beer?
"Laugh in czech"
Alex, I recommend looking into the recipes for a BRUT IPA, it's an IPA with 0 IBUS, so it's not bitter, as it's brewed with a dry hop process.
It's an amazing drink!
2:05 That's incredible! I was singing that song at that precise moment!
Makes me proud to see Castle lager represent
you can harvest and multiply brewer's yeast from a craft beer that's not pasteurized- Sierra Nevada pale ale is ok, and black's butte is another.
Sanstar
and kombucha bottles because you can reuse them and if you over charge it you can laid off some of the pressure and then retighten the cap
Parlsey Alex. It has antiseptic bitter compounds just like hops.
You can "train" your yeast. It will mutate and adapt to its environment. Bakers yeast will evolve into brewing yeast. Also, You could get a craft microbrew with sediment which contains cultures of brewers yeast.
So you're making prison hooch?
Pruno! Modern rogue's tremendous success/failure was hilarious!
Taking a lot more steps than absolutely needed too.
Step 1: Buy jug of water (or juice), some honey (or sugar, but flavor), baker's yeast, and optionally some oranges and raisins. Oh, and a balloon.
Step 2: Pour a cup of water and drink it, then add the honey and yeast and raisins and the orange peels.
Step 3: Poke a tiny hole or three in the balloon and cap the jug. Leave like this for about a month in an ideally dark and somewhat cool place; in a cupboard under the counters usually works.
Step 4: Either drink it or siphon it off the sediment and let it spend some time mellowing out the flavors after initial brewong if you want slightly bettee tasting prison hooch.
@@SylviaRustyFae well now i have to try this. Thanks!
You can also just run a hose or tube from the top of the fermenting vessel to a bowl of water.
Looks fun! Can’t wait for next episode!
10:24. Ahh, Mechanical Engineering. His expression isn’t confusion, it’s awe. Well done, Alex.
You could “harvest” yeast from a bottle conditioned beer you pickup at the grocery store. Then you could actually have beer yeast still.
You could, but you don't know which generation of yeast you will be putting in the wort. So yeah it would work, but it could give you some nasty off-flavours.
@@Aeguis Is commercial brewing yeast genetically modified or crossbread or something or why is the generation important for the flavour profile. Or has it to do with the cells being haploid or diploid?
Any beer available in stores should be pasteurised, so no alive yeast in those
How to make beer from supermarket ingredients :
- Buy beer
- That's all
Did somebody say BEERCEPTION?
Well for the yeast, your better option would be to get some beers that is carbonated with live yeast on the bottle, with just a few beers and time it will start multiplying itself. Also for a waterlock, just some tubing from the fermenting bottle into a glass of water would work great.
I don't know if video length is 13 37 on purpose but the bleach thumbnail is a masterpiece
I would love the recipe for this!!!
for airlock try a party balloon with a little hole pricked in it. Heard it on home made mead tutorial.
Barley and the hops TV made the same project, and used sprouts to convert the starches.
Starches.
@@BeeRich33 my mistake
Alex! You should look into a Honey series, I’m on a honey kick right now, even got jars straight from a local beekeepers hands and it is a world of difference. Just an idea.
10:23 his face is priceless!!
This seems like heavy weather, in Australia you can buy beer making kits in the supermarket.
That is funny, and in the US 30 years ago or so it was Illegal to Brew Beer in your home... now there is a entire market built around it .
They use to sell them here in the states as well in supermarkets but dont because it never really sold anything so they stopped.
Bran flakes is a pretty good source of wheat for brewing, much cheaper than shredded wheat and also tastier too! It's very common in brewing for spirits (although distilling the product may be a tad illegal! ;-) )
So great to see Brad and Jonny from CBC. Two of my fave blokes!!!
hey alex, hops was not always the bittering agent before the church got involved a lot beers were made with gruit instead of hops which could be made up of any number of things, there is a recipie for gruit consisting of Chamomile, Coriander and Orange Peel, which out be perfect for your grocery store beer there's another that is made from Rosemary and dried lemon peel or just ginger as well.
as for the yeast you could make a lambic which is made from wild yeast in the air. or you could buy some grapes. have you ever noticed that some times grapes have a white powder on them? that's yeast. if you ferment the beer in a crock through a couple grapes and your good on the yeast.
I think you have got that the wrong way round. IIRC, The church actively worked to prevent hops being used to make beer. Bishoprics had a financial monopoly on the sale of the herbs in gruit.
@Reeves, I was under the impression they did one of those things were they were like if it doesn't have hops is not considered beer and couldnt be sold not unlike the French who say sparkling wine isn't champagne unless it comes from the champagne region. But I could be totally wrong on that I'm not really a historian and its been years since I read about it.
With fleischmanns bread yeast you can get up to 7% sometimes 8.5 to 9 if you are lucky but 7 is no problem everytime I have used it
You could’ve just used a balloon with a little hole poked in it for the airlock. If you wanted to you could’ve bought whole grain & malted it. And you could’ve basically made a sourdough starter for the yeast.
The reinheitsgebot is cringing at this video. Love brewing beer at home. This is very clever, great video.
Just an FYI but I've picked up 7-8% from bread yeast with a hard cider. Sure, it won't reliably make that ABV since it's not designed for it but you can go much higher than the 3%. You can also go the route of harvesting yeast from unpasteurized beer already there in the store if you don't trust bread yeast or enjoy the flavors you get from it.
All of those yeasts come from breweries. S. cerevisiae. You are missing out on diastatic power in your malt extract, so your grains will add little if any.
What a fantastic series! I can't wait to see how it turns out. How much did you spend at the supermarket?
That seems like an incredibly complicated airlock. 4 layers of cling film and a rubber band will make a perfectly good seal. You can also put a straw between the cling film and the bottle neck to make venting gas easier. Alternatively, burp it when it starts to bulge. I've never had a brew go off when using this method.
Some people use a balloon with a pin prick hole in the top, too. Never tried it myself, though.
Cider is nice and easy, drop some yeast in a bottle of apple juice (watch out for fermentation stopping preservatives). Hair tie a plastic bag over the top that's loose enough to bleed pressure and you are done.
Okay, for the brewers yeast from the supermarket I had an idea. When I brew beer, after fermentation I collect the yeast from the fermentation vessel to use another time. And a lot of smaller production beers do second fermentation in the bottle, so I would try to harvest yeast cells from other people's beers and make starter cultures!
Would also maybe be possible with beers that dont have second fermentation in the bottle, but I expect that the yeast percentage in there is lower.
I'm 6 months late to the party tho! Just found your channel a few days ago because of the ramen noodle machine.
Wait, what is he saying at 6:35? Propagate yeast from the air of the supermarket, or a vegetable?
There's A Boutique Beer From Israel Named Malka Admonit Which Has Orange Peels And Coriander Seeds In The Brewing As Well As 3 Kinds of Hops, Great Beer, It's An EPA
instead of a complicated yeast-lock with cups and straws, just use a rubber balloon with a tiny hole covering the bottle neck :)
Thank you for making such cool, creative and inspiring videos! One af my alltime favorite youtube-channels :)
I made mead from bread yeast and it was super strong. One glass made people tipsy. I didn't have a hydrometer then but I suspect it was much higher than 4%, it was almost like wine.
I'm so keen to see how this pans out I really want to make my own beer to save money and hopefully to use healthier ingredients.
Steve Cunliffe Healthier?
I would love to know if you could do this using wild fermentation rather than bread yeast.
maybe try to find some spring white (wine)... drink it and use the yeast from the ground... could lead to a fine slightly sour beer.
Sure you can. I once brewed ginger beer with only ginger, sugar, water, and yeast. I boiled a random amount of ginger, added a random amount of sugar, poured it into an old 2L soda bottle, added some yeast i found at the back of my pantry, and let it ferment for like a week, opening it once every day to let the co2 escape. It tasted a bit harsh but I didn’t even get an upset stomach. People have been fermenting whatever they could find for thousands of years. It’s hard to mess it up. Life finds a way, bro. ☺️
Been brewing since I was 18. This is exciting :)
Great series idea
Does a holey balloon not work for a bubbler for beer?
It does, but you should wash it out first, otherwise you might get some talc and rubberry flavor in your beer if it foams up into it (which can happen if you have a fast fermentation)
@@oribennett6520 that's good to know thanks
@Alex
Being new to brewing myself I would like to suggest a couple of books. The first is called 'wild BREWS: Beer Beyond the Influence of Brewer’s Yeast'. A book about using wild yeast to make a local 'lambic' beer. Great read. Second book is a series of books with slightly different titles based on which part of the brewing your focusing on. For example 'WATER: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers' is about the understanding of water, while 'Malt: A Practical Guide from Field to Brewhouse' covers flavors. Yes they are sometimes by different authors but part of the same series covering all parts of the brewing recipe.
'AGAiNST ALL HOPS TECHNiQUES AND PHiLOSOPHY FOR CREATiNG EXTRAORDiNARY BOTANiCAL BEERS' is another book I would recommend if you dont plan on using hops.
I have been brewing with honey as in meads, and my aim is to make a braggot, or a [honey wine(mead) with malt(wheat/beer charactoristics) crossover] that anyone can enjoy even if you dont like beers and dont want to drink hard alcohol or mix drinks.
02:04
He hums “Little Green Bag” by the Dutch 60’s band “George Baker Selection”
Little green bags of hop?
Let’s go to the Hop!
Love your videos and the unbridled insanity they bring to the kitchen! What fountain pen is that?
Hi Could you list you recipe in detail for me as I would like to try it at home
Tesco supermarket in the UK definately sell beer and wine kits and equitment.
3 of my favourites on YT making my favourite beverage - I press like!
for times when you don't have bubbly stuff (or you can't keep up with checking out if the water is still there): insert a tube (hose?) into the hole where the bubbly stuff should be, insert the other end of tube (hose?) into a bucket with water (make sure this end is always below water level).
literally all it has to do is keeping fresh air outside, but let the excess air go: you can put baloon (or rubber glov) on the bottle - just remember to realese some air from time to time not to get the baloon pop (i've seen it sucessfully done, but with wine).
Right after the portion where you were explaining how you plan to make the valve, I got a commercial for Sprint cellular that opened with the line “isn’t it nice when you can keep things simple”?
Hey Alex, to remplace the fermenting valve, you could use a condom, it would let you know how is going the fermentation quite easily
Great video as ever
Raisins! Raisins contain lots of alcohol reisistent yeasts, so that could have been the starter for yeast. Make a starter out of raisins in water and after a day or so you'll have a wild ferment for higher alcohol yeasts.
I have the same kaweco sport, but in dark green:)
Writes lovely!!!!!
Love your content Alex! Thank you!
"Doability" aka feasibility 😆Looking forward to the brewing process though.
Strange, in german grocery stores you can find fresh yeast, even in Lidl or Aldi ^^