# Brewing with VERY limited resources.



## andybox (31/1/14)

Hi all, 
I'm new to your forum, so hopefully your collective brewing brains may help me overcome a unique situation. 
I'm currently working in Saudi Arabia on a long term assignment, and live on a very secure compound within a comfortable 2 bedroom villa. There are a few guys brewing wine and spirits, however nobody brews beer. So, I have at my disposal;
Molasses, 
Baker's Yeast,
2 x 20 litre water bottles, the type that get turned upside down on top of a chiller,
Filtered water. 
The Molasses comes in 350ml jars, and is sold at the local compound supermarket. In the main supermarkets they sell Holsten Pills non-alcoholic beer in an amazing number of varieties, mostly with fruit flavours added. 

This is what I propose doing;
4 x 350 ml bottles of Molasses, 1 kilo of sugar, some baker's yeast. 
Boil some water, add the sugar, mix the sugar slowly to 18 litres of fresh water within one of those 20 litre water bottles mentioned above. 
Add 4 jars of Molasses. Sprinkle a table spoon of Baker's yeast into the water, agitate until mixed. 
Cut a small water bottle in half and place over the top of the 20 litre bottle neck. 
Set the temperature in the room to 25c, place vessel in the bathtub and leave it for a period of time. 
Decant once bubbles have stopped, about 2 weeks? 
Add 1 teaspoon of sugar to a 1 litre bottle, cap and leave for a few more weeks. 
Drink beer and post back here. 

Tell me i'm mad, tell me i'm dancing with fire, but please tell me this will make palatable beer. 
Any and all replies are very much appreciated. 
Cheers, Andy.


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## Rodolphe01 (31/1/14)

It will be nothing like beer, you will need some hops too.

I wouldn't bother personally. I'd sooner add some of one of your mates base spirit to non-alcohol beer.


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## andybox (31/1/14)

Thanks for your (very) quick response Beer God. I'd rather persevere with what I have at my disposal, if only to experiment a bit. Any tips on how I can make a decent beer with what I have?


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## Bribie G (31/1/14)

Can you get bottles of apple juice? You could make a very palatable cider from juice and bakers yeast. Add extra sugar to the brew and you could bump it up to around 8%


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## New_guy (31/1/14)

What cereal / grain products do you have access to at your supermarket or at any large local market ?


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## mojonojo (31/1/14)

you might be able to make something with Moussy (which i used to be able to get in Riyadh) which is hopped.

otherwise you should be able to do something with rice, however Juice cider is your friend. 

Apple cider

Orange wine - there is a bit of a cult on this one in the uk - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=10179

more exotic - you used to be able to get some pretty decent bulk honey - so mead was always an option.


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## stakka82 (31/1/14)

If it were me I would totally go the juice cider... might actually end up being pretty good. Any chance of getting some hops and dry malt extract mailed in?

Couple of kilos of DME, 100 grams of hops and a sachet of dry yeast and you could actually make quality!


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## joshF (31/1/14)

andybox said:


> Thanks for your (very) quick response Beer God. I'd rather persevere with what I have at my disposal, if only to experiment a bit. Any tips on how I can make a decent beer with what I have?


Not meaning to stamp on the parade, but you won't come close to making anything drinkable. Will it contain alcohol? Yes. Will it be palatable? Definitely not.

Molasses is pretty much only added to darker stouts, porters etc in small quantities, say 5% or so. Having only molasses as a 'base' sounds terrible and there is a reason why bakers yeast is used by bakers, and brewing yeast is used by brewers. I would be highly suprised if the bakers yeast fermented pure molasses down at all.

Also the vitamins and nutrients that yeast thrive on in wort (in addition to the sugar obviously) helps the yeast grow. There's a reason why apple juice takes longer to ferment because it doesn't have the nutrients that wort from malt does.

Good luck anyway, but let the garden/toilet/sink know to be prepared for 25 litres of stuff to be heading its way...


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## joshF (31/1/14)

andybox said:


> Tell me i'm mad, tell me i'm dancing with fire, but please tell me this will make palatable beer.
> Any and all replies are very much appreciated.
> Cheers, Andy.


Mad = yes. Dancing with fire = yes. Palatable beer = no.

Still shaking my head.


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## Mardoo (31/1/14)

Want me to ship you some malt syrup, hops and yeast? PM me if so.


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## Florian (31/1/14)

Agree with Rudi, take a Holsten Pilsner and add a shot or so of the cleanest spirit your friends are making.

that alc free Holsten Pils is actually not bad for what it is.

EDIT: Holsten knallt am dollsten!


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## Bribie G (31/1/14)

Carlton Cold used to have a version with Vodka added, I didn't mind it at the time.. I'm in agreement with Florian, probably taste not too bad.


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## pcmfisher (31/1/14)

Mardoo said:


> Want me to ship you some malt syrup, hops and yeast? PM me if so.


If caught with that evil contraband, he would probably be shot at dawn.


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## Mardoo (31/1/14)

"But sir, it's not beer yet!"


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## hoppy2B (31/1/14)

Molasses is much like brown sugar which ferments pretty well. 

You will have a very dry beer without any hops in it if you use the ingredients you have listed.

You need to at least find a substitute for the hops. Is there any wild Horehound growing in the area, or perhaps some other bitter herb you could use?

To overcome the dryness you could steep some grain, either wheat or barley for a couple of days to initiate germination. Put it through a blender. Bring it up to 65 degrees for an hour. Decant and boil for an hour with your bittering agent. Add molasses and sugar. Ferment.


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## hoppy2B (31/1/14)

Actually, I had a small think about it and you should actually be able to make something like beer if you have flour that you can roast in an oven.

I recommend doing a half batch of around 10 litres to start with so its not overflowing your bottle.

Directions :
500 grams of roasted wheat flour
500 gram of wheat steeped for 2 days
2 tubs of molasses
Bittering herbs
Yeast
Boil for an hour
Cling wrap and rubber band over the top of the bottle

Everything should settle and clear in the bottle after fermentation when you can siphon off and into another vessel with priming sugar added at a rate of 8 grams a litre.

Cheers, enjoy.


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## New_guy (31/1/14)

There must be some local grain of some description - you can malt it yourself then dry it and then crush it
Hops substitute ? This is what the google machine coughed up: http://herbs.lovetoknow.com/List_of_Bitter_Herbs


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## indica86 (31/1/14)

Make a prison brew, 1 litre milk bottle, bit of torn up white bread, fruit juice and sugar.
I've seen it, it works.
Smells like arse though.


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## Mardoo (21/2/14)

Just realized that many places sell diastatic malt flour. It usually comes labelled as Malt Flour and is very common in bread making. You can use it with any grain flour to convert the starch to sugar (within the diastatic capacity of the malt flour). How's that bread making habit of yours going, hmmm?


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## TimT (21/2/14)

My one experience with brewing molasses left me a sadder and wiser man. Basically, all the sugar will ferment out cleanly and quickly, but you will be left with something tasting rather like molasses.... but not sweet at all. It's not particularly pleasant.

Still, I salute your can-do attitude, Andy. I think the trick for brewing with molasses is probably adding *a lot* of spices, maybe an unfermentable sugar as well, such as lactose (which you might be able to get as whey powder, or as I do, by just making cheese).


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## TimT (21/2/14)

_Make a prison brew, 1 litre milk bottle, bit of torn up white bread, fruit juice and sugar._

I've heard about that. The trick, I'm told, is spit.

No, it REALLY IS! Human saliva contains an enzyme, called something like Ptyalar(?!?), that breaks starch into sugar.


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## TimT (21/2/14)

Cool, New-Guy! Got to add that one to my own list....

Andy, you could also try catching a wild yeast. Baking yeast is bred to be much quicker than ale yeast; wild yeasts may be much closer to the thing you want. Basically, leave a sweet liquid out in the open, uncovered, and see what drifts along....


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## hoppy2B (21/2/14)

Get someone to mail a packet of decent dry yeast. 

Roasted flour and some sprouted grains would make a pretty good wheat beer. 

I'd be willing to wager that a cluey person could even do quite well in a comp using the above ingredients.


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## Grainer (21/2/14)

Use wheatbix or cereal wheat


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## joshF (21/2/14)

the OP hasn't replied yet so i'm only guessing the homebrew attempt was a bit of a flop?

It is however a little odd how people here go apeshit about someone trying to make cider using limited resources etc but here no one has mentioned the likely-undrinkable crap that the OP would produce with his initial ingredients/plan. Nor have the sanitising & clean equipment nazi's mentioned anything about the lack of sanisiting equipment or general brewing know-how. 

Why are people are actually encouraging the bloke to try and make this crap? It only leads to false expectations, a sink/garden full of complete crap and a complete waste of time & money. Quoting the OP: "Please tell me this will make a palatable beer". Not a bloody chance in hell. Stevie Wonder riding a horse half pissed could see this 'brewing' idea would be a disaster.

Beer didn't progress all these years to what it is today, only for us in these forums to encourage someone to go backwards to medievil times, surely ?!?!


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## fletcher (21/2/14)

joshF said:


> Beer didn't progress all these years to what it is today, only for us in these forums to encourage someone to go backwards to medievil times, surely ?!?!


so he shouldn't be allowed to or try? why not? might be fun if nothing else. should we just say don't and be done? nothing positive ever comes of that. if he makes something shit, who cares? the conversation and ideas in this thread, in my opinion, have been quite eye-opening. will i use them? **** no, but it's interesting to see what people CAN do to make things if they want to. 

the OP has stated he has limited ingredients, so i highly doubt he expects to make the next big thing.


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## joshF (21/2/14)

Of course the guy can try but if you read his original comments, he said he wants to make something PALATABLE and we all know it wont be, so then why encourage someone to waste time and money with false expectations? He said "Tell me i'm playing with fire but tell me it will make a PALATABLE beer".

Some people like mushrooms. Some don't. Tastes vary. But common sense tells me there isn't much to like about a dark brown, potentially infected, hopless liquid, fermented (even that part is questionable) with bakers yeast and no real means for temp control. You can't polish a turd so why not just be straight with the bloke since he ASKED for feedback in the first place.


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## dibby33 (21/2/14)

Is the pirate stoned? Ibtl


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## dibby33 (21/2/14)

I would go the cider option. Apfelwine.


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## fletcher (21/2/14)

joshF said:


> Of course the guy can try but if you read his original comments, he said he wants to make something PALATABLE and we all know it wont be, so then why encourage someone to waste time and money with false expectations? He said "Tell me i'm playing with fire but tell me it will make a PALATABLE beer".
> 
> Some people like mushrooms. Some don't. Tastes vary. But common sense tells me there isn't much to like about a dark brown, potentially infected, hopless liquid, fermented (even that part is questionable) with bakers yeast and no real means for temp control. You can't polish a turd so why not just be straight with the bloke since he ASKED for feedback in the first place.


you're right he should just give up

EDIT: i'm a pessimist at the best of times, but perhaps i see his glass as half full because he's talking about my passion; beer. if i had minimal ingredients and a desire to make it, i'd try whatever i had. call me a romantic. i just see it differently. each to their own opinion.


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## Pogierob (21/2/14)

I say try. Then tweak. 

Isn't that what we do?


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## Dan Dan (22/2/14)

Just do it, and call it beer. Tell yourself you like it. Problem solved.


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## TimT (22/2/14)

You negative nelly, JoshF.

Worth remembering: by medieval times, people had already been brewing ale for millenia. They weren't a time that lacked for knowledge or craft when it came to brewing, and what they brewed then must have been every bit as complex and sophisticated as what is brewed now - more in some ways, because they had knowledge of spices that somewhat fell out of fashion at some time between now and then, and some of that knowledge must have been lost.

At any rate: pretty sure molasses is a post-medieval thing, since it derives from sugar cane - ie, associated with that time of the slave trade when the UK became involved in sugar plantations around the world. Fair to say it was a cheap ingredient - it pops up a lot in household recipes and army and navy recipes. The recipes often include spices: all spice, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger. These would help to give body and flavour to the final product.

So, some tips. Andy, look around the net for old 18th century recipes with molasses: get an idea of the herbs and spices they used and the variety of things they did with it. Get the finest quality molasses you can find, with the best flavour; not everything will get fermented out. Try adding other fermentable sugars too; honey, especially a good organic variety, would be excellent (bear in mind honey may lengthen fermentation times somewhat because of the complexity of the sugars involved, but that's kind of what you want - it'll produce a more complex ale). Don't expect to get something brilliant first go: but aim to make it better each time and you should come up with some very interesting results. I salute you, sir!


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## TimT (22/2/14)

And - this I just learned - avoid using molasses that has been treated with sulfur.

Turns out this was a problem with my effort in brewing with molasses, too.

Just chucked open a thread on this subject.


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## hoppy2B (23/2/14)

I do agree that you need a sound knowledge of brewing to make good beer in the first place even with a supply of professionally produced malts.


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## BrewinWalruss (27/3/14)

Bugger the negative nellies on this one andy, I say go for it!

Think of it from another angle people. A secure compound out in the desert... high walls... just pretend it IS a prison camp.... make a game out of sneaking ingredients past the missus... *shrug* I am a perverse individual.

As far as brewing goes; I think people are onto something with the wheat bear idea. As a side note, I use orange pith as a bittering agent in my mead... potentially useful in your case? A quick google shows:

A quick google turned up this "Burley Oak Brewing Co., a small brewery located about 15 minutes inland from Ocean City, MD, brews what they call “Atypical Ales,” often with local ingredients. They have been brewing Hopless Beach, a 4% wheat beer made with locally grown wheat, orange peel, and coriander instead of hops. " from http://americancraftbeer.com/item/going-hop-less.html

From this we could deduce that, with a source of wheat, and oranges, a wheat beer is very possible!


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## TimT (27/3/14)

I made a kumquat saison recently - the bitter from the kumquat flesh is *very* noticeable.


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## mje1980 (27/3/14)

Wow making terrible tasting beer in a country where alcohol is highly forbidden, and probably carries a serious punishment. What a great idea, don't hold the guy back, let him get his drink on. I can imagine how good those recipes would taste. Mmmmm yum.


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## Yeastfridge (1/4/14)

I've heard of Sumac used to bitter/spice a beer.
You can't call it beer until you get some malt in there though.


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## gsouth82 (1/4/14)

A few people have suggested cider....also on the non-beer topic, what about a ginger beer or an alcoholic lemonade. I've made both with what I would think could be accessible ingredients.


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## Axiom (1/4/14)

How about a berlinerweisse? You only need to find some wheat, malt it yourself, and you're good to go. You may even get away with making a sourdough starter from the local bacteria. Although the style isn't to everyone's taste, it IS still classified as a beer.

I'm wondering how he plans to keep the batch at fermenting temps in the desert.


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