[Tastebridge] Fw: Brewing

Richard Conroy richard.conroy at gmail.com
Tue Nov 29 21:59:59 UTC 2011


Thanks for that Frantisek. I am now on the tastebridge list, so I can keep
up with developments.

On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 9:56 PM, Frantisek Apfelbeck <algoldor at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Forwarding for Richard, thanks!
>
> >>>>
>
> Replying to all on this, but I suspect the noisebridge list will bounce.
>
> Just a few comments:
> $45 seems awfully steep for a 5 gallon home brew, spraymalt, while
> expensive by comparison with normal table sugar is not that expensive. You
> wouldn't be using more than 3KG of it and that should set you back in the
> region of $12 -$20 depending on price.
>
> Additives, yeast & nutrients can all be budgeted separately.
>
> Even quality kit brews should see you all in for less than the $20 mark.
>
> Brewing from ingredients will be cheaper still, but way more time
> consuming. If sustainable throughput is what you want, best stick to kits,
> until you build up a lot of experience and want to take it to the next
> level.
>
> If you want really cheap alcoholic stuff, you need to be using brews that
> dont taste off with just regular sugar or sucrose  type sugars. That will
> rule out any/most beers, but there are plenty of earthy brews that can be
> done cheap, will taste good and mature quickly.
>
> The ginger beer is a house special for me, that is made with plain table
> sugar and bread yeast, and is seriously cheap as a result. You can improve
> it enormously by including certain spices in moderation and mixing together
> different sugars (raw, unrefined cane sugar is highly recommended - imparts
> a nice caramel aftertaste, even when it is used sparingly ~ 200g / 25L). I
> have made it as cheap as 1€ - 1.50€ /gallon
>
> For my next brews with it, I will be going down the route of making it a
> bit more beery (by using spraymalt) and letting it age and finish a bit
> more.
>
> I am happy to jump onto the ML for tastebridge if someone sends the link
> to the subscription page. Alternatively feel free to forward this mail to
> the list.
>
> regards,
> Richard
>
> On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 2:06 PM, Frantisek Apfelbeck <algoldor at yahoo.com>wrote:
>
> Hi to all!
> Brewing in the place is a great idea! I would recommend to "celebrate"
> your Anglo-American tradition and go for ginger beer. It is very simple,
> fast and cheap. I've copied Richard Conroy on this email, he has been
> playing with ginger beer for several months on a very intensive bases and
> we have had many tastings of his products on his parties and our 091
> brewers meetings. He has clearly proved that within few months you can
> learn how to produce great quantities of really tasty and cheap alcoholic
> beverage and have a great fun in the meanwhile!
>
> Best of luck with any direction which you take, just please keep long term
> samples :-)) I'll pop in to tastesome sooner or later ...
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Frantisek
>
> https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/091_Brew_Masters
>
> PS Could someone copy it to Tastebridge mailing list, I can not send email
> from my other account (but I get everyting inbox, what is going on there I
> do not have a clue ...)
>
>   ------------------------------
> *From:* Michael Lyons <cprmichael at yahoo.com>
> *To:* Tony K. LeTigre <anthonyletigre at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* "tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net" <
> tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, November 29, 2011 2:00 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [Tastebridge] Brewing
>
> Hi Tony et al,
>
>  I've been brewing for about 15 years and I admire your intentions.
> However, I urge you to do your homework before you start. Mead, is
> delicious though takes at about a year to become really drinkable and honey
> is not particularly cheap.
> As for beer,  I've popped out a 5 gallon keg of beer in 2 weeks that is as
> good as any store bought, and we do have all the equipment to make all the
> beer we can drink. However, the last time I checked, the price of the
> ingredients do not make this  very cost effective endeavor. Consider $45+
> for the malt extract, hops and yeast to make 5 gallons x 4 quarts x 2
> pints, that's $1.13 per 16oz pint of beer that may or may not taste any
> good. [Note: I am talking about making beer from Malt Extract, which takes
> about 3 hours of actual brewing time. There is an alternative process, All
> Grain or Full Mash, which I have only done once. This technique, though
> cheaper, is much more involved and time consuming and N.B. is not currently
> currently equipped for it]
>
> Consider that Trader Joe's has Mission Street beers (made by Firestone
> Walker) which are quite good for $5.99/6pack, and Costco has a large
> variety of "microbrews" (including Sierra, Lagunitas, Newcastle and Stella)
> for $22/case of 24, or $0.91 per 12oz.
>
> If anyone would like to try out brewing for fun the fun of it, I'll be
> happy to help in any way I can. Also I have some great books on the subject
> that I'm happy to lend out. Or check out the SF Brewcraft on Clement St. or
> Oak Barrel on San Pablo, in Berkeley, which both sell supplies and offer
> classes.
>
>  I have never made wine myself, however my friends who have done it all
> seem to have a connection at a vineyard to supply them with grapes.
>
> What I would really like to find is a recipe for some nice alcoholic swill
> that uses cheap, plain bulk sugar and doesn't need fancy ingredients like
> malt, hops, honey or grapes. Anyone?
>
> -michael
>
>
>   ------------------------------
> *From:* Tony K. LeTigre <anthonyletigre at gmail.com>
> *To:* Roger H <domitron at yahoo.com>
> *Cc:* Tastebridge <tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net>
> *Sent:* Monday, November 28, 2011 4:09 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [Tastebridge] Oyster Mushroom update
>
> Someone said the other night - around the time we were preparing
> Thanksgiving dinner - that we should never have to buy beer, wine, etc @
> the Bridge, since we can brew our own. I wholeheartedly endorse that
> sentiment. With my very next UI payment - which I should receive by this
> time next week - I would like to purchase the necessary supplies to brew a
> batch of mead (honey wine) and/or beer. I haven't made either before but I
> have a good recipe for mead and a rudimentary knowledge of what it will
> take to make it. I would like to engage in this brewing adventure with the
> help of others - anyone interested! You can email me (
> anthonyletigre at gmail.com) or find me at the Bridge. I'm there practically
> on a daily basis of late. In fact I'm going to be heading there this
> evening, in a couple hours.
>
> Of course, it will take a while for mead or beer to be ready to drink. We
> may have to purchase our provisions in the meantime to get us through till
> then.
>
> For non-drinkers: I am also interested in solid (non alcoholic) foods! The
> biolumniscent mushrooms sounds brilliant (literally, as well as
> figuratively).
>
> I'm also a "housing hacker" you might say with Homes Not Jails - we have
> our weekly meeting Tuesday at 8pm - for anyone who doesn't know, and may be
> interested.
>
> Tony
>
> On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 9:32 AM, Roger H <domitron at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>  I have a Shiitake liquid culture nearing completion after only one week
> of spinning.  I will use it to start spawn bags full of millet for you
> guys.  Shiitake has hardy mycellium but may not be so forgiving for the
> substrate as oysters.  In particular I would be pretty surprised if it will
> fruit on old coffee grounds, but I think it is worth a try.  Still I would
> have some of the cheap sawdust from Lazzari ready.  I'll have the spawn
> ready in a couple weeks and drop it by along with a completed bag of the
> Stipticus that you guys can fruit out (it is a bioluminescent mushroom).
>
> Roger
>
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* Matthew Downs <downs.matt at gmail.com>
> *To:* Tastebridge <tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net>
> *Sent:* Sunday, November 27, 2011 8:51 PM
> *Subject:* [Tastebridge] Oyster Mushroom update
>
> Greetings Tasters!
> Just dropped-by to check on the babies.  Filled the humi.  We're able to
> get about 4 days between fills now with the humistat.  Thank you to
> everyone who contributed to this wonderful innovation!
>
> There are about 5 of the coffee grounds blocks remaining and all of them
> are fruiting!  Hopefully we'll be getting some fat flushes from these over
> the next few weeks.  Our chamber is pretty well contaminated with bread
> mold...we've pitched several blocks, but the tree oysters are so hardy they
> are fighting it off.  We removed the dry saw dust blocks from this summer.
>  I took the uncontaminated ones home, hydrated them, broke them up and
> burried them under a layer of sheet mulch.  Hooooping this will start to
> colonize my garden bed, which is mostly woodchips and cardboard at this
> stage. We'll know in a few months...if this works out, we could have a nice
> source for spawn.
>
> As you may know, Rikke has moved to Atlanta for a few seasons, so Natalie
> and myself are now sheepherding the fungus project.  I want to give a shout
> out to Rikke for all her hard work over the last several weeks --cleaning
> the chamber, keeping an eye on everything, just being generally passionate
> and awesome.  Our current plan is to let these blocks fruit out, then tear
> down the chamber.  If there is interest, we may continue to do batches in
> the future.  Personally, I'd love to try to get some shiitake going, but we
> need to tear down, thoroughly clean and rebuild the chamber if we're to
> fight-off the mildew and contamination.  Depending on how the current
> fruiting goes, we may wait ot tear down until after the first of the year.
>
> i'm having a minor medical procedure inside my nose, so I will not be able
> to be there this Monday thru Wednesday, will plan to meet next Monday 12/9.
>
> Spores,
> ~Matthew
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tastebridge mailing list
> Tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/tastebridge
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tastebridge mailing list
> Tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/tastebridge
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tastebridge mailing list
> Tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/tastebridge
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tastebridge mailing list
> Tastebridge at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/tastebridge
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> http://richardconroy.blogspot.com | http://twitter.com/RichardConroy
>
>
>
>


-- 
http://richardconroy.blogspot.com | http://twitter.com/RichardConroy
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.noisebridge.net/pipermail/tastebridge/attachments/20111129/95f4ff1a/attachment.html>


More information about the Tastebridge mailing list