# Anyone Tried This?



## trashbini76 (16/5/11)

Just wondering,
has anone tried brewing with treacle as a base rather than brand cans (ie coopers, morgans etc).
would the treacle act this way or is it more in the sugars category as an additive. 

I have an idea for a future brew soon with treacle and a few other additives and wonder what it would make. when i make mine i will throw up the reciepe if it works well.
cheers.


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## bignath (16/5/11)

Shaza 76 said:


> Just wondering,
> has anone tried brewing with treacle as a base rather than brand cans...
> 
> ..when i make mine i will throw up...




Sorry Shaza, i couldn't resist doing this obvious snip job on your post, it was the first thing that my brain thought of when i read it.

To answer your question though, i wouldn't think it would be a good idea if you're trying to make beer. There may be other fermentable beverages out there that i'm not aware of that may be possible, but i can't help think that the "sugar" in treacle would be too much of a simple sugar...
I'm sure it would work, i just don't think it would be drinkable.

Someone else will not doubt have opinions on this too.


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## avaneyk (16/5/11)

Sorry mate - you can't just replace a coopers can with treacle. You can use a small amount of treacle in some beer styles though - eg Old Ale.
The coopers tin contains malt extract that has been bittered with hops - beer is made from malt and hops and can contain adjuncts but not all adjuncts. Treacle is basically sugar - one example of an adjunct. Hope that makes sense.


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## Airgead (17/5/11)

You can use treacle or molasses as a base for fermentation... if you are making a base for rum. You can't make beer out of it though. For that you need malt and hops.

Cheers
Dave


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## JestersDarts (17/5/11)

Shaza 76 said:


> Just wondering,
> has anone tried brewing with treacle as a base rather than brand cans (ie coopers, morgans etc).
> would the treacle act this way or is it more in the sugars category as an additive.
> 
> ...



I presume you think beer is made from Treacle?


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## Bribie G (17/5/11)

Malt extract as used in the kits is made from vacuum-concentrated "wort" from the mashing and boiling of malted barley. Malted mashed barley is also the basis of the "wash" that whisky is made from.
Treacle on the other hand is a by product of sugar manufacturing and is related to molasses, so could presumably be used to brew a wash to make a sort of rum out of. I'd guess the wash would taste pretty bad, and nothing like beer.


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## pdfarrell (17/5/11)

OT. As a poor uni student.. my flatmates and I used to throw what ever we could find in the way of fermentable sugars into a fermenter and add yeast.
Let if ferment out and run it through a home made still. Made some gawd awful spirit/drain cleaner but had the desired result.

Back on topic... tasted nothing like beer.


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## dent (17/5/11)

Sounds like George Washington's recipe. Probably was terrible.


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## Wolfy (18/5/11)

JestersDarts said:


> I presume you think beer is made from Treacle?


It looks much the same as the stuff in tins of home brew ... so it must be the same!


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## grantsglutenfreehomebrew (18/5/11)

Hey Shaza. I use it to make a gluten free brown ale brew but the most I use 850g of the CSR treacle. It kinda tastes like James Squires Amber ale. If you use a water that is high in minerals (I sometimes use mineral water from a local spring to boost the yeasts activity so to speak) it can become a little dry/chalky. If you google treacle ale you will find a recipe out in the ether for it. It's nice when fresh but the quality drops quickly with age. I have seen some recipes out there that have treacle as an adjunct but never more that 450grams per 23litre brew. It also brews up quite bitter as well so if you do it definitley use much less hops.
My recipe is on my website. www.grantsglutenfreehomebrew.webs.com/brownale


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## spaced (18/5/11)

Shaza 76 said:


> Just wondering,
> has anone tried brewing with treacle as a base rather than brand cans (ie coopers, morgans etc).
> would the treacle act this way or is it more in the sugars category as an additive.
> 
> ...



Don't do it. You need a malt base. Simple sugars will just ferment out. Unless you're after a wine flavour.





grantsglutenfreehomebrew said:


> My recipe is on my website. www.grantsglutenfreehomebrew.webs.com/brownale




link didn't work for me. But www.grantsglutenfreehomebrew.webs.com/brownale.htm does.


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## mickpc (18/5/11)

If your looking for something different to brew, cider, just take apple jiuce (23L) and some yeast and yeast nutrient. Treat the same as home brew, leave a little longer...

Mick.


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## gone_fishing (18/5/11)

grantsglutenfreehomebrew said:


> Hey Shaza. I use it to make a gluten free brown ale brew but the most I use 850g of the CSR treacle. It kinda tastes like James Squires Amber ale. If you use a water that is high in minerals (I sometimes use mineral water from a local spring to boost the yeasts activity so to speak) it can become a little dry/chalky. If you google treacle ale you will find a recipe out in the ether for it. It's nice when fresh but the quality drops quickly with age. I have seen some recipes out there that have treacle as an adjunct but never more that 450grams per 23litre brew. It also brews up quite bitter as well so if you do it definitley use much less hops.
> My recipe is on my website. www.grantsglutenfreehomebrew.webs.com/brownale



Interesting about the JSAA. Can anyone definatively say/show that treacle is fully fermentable? I suspect that there are numerous sugars in this as one of the first extracts taken from "raw" sugar syrup.
gf


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## trashbini76 (19/5/11)

HI all, 
wow thanks for all those responses. I do remember hearing something about a george washington type grog made from treacle. must be where i got the idea somehow. I appreciate all your inpu, the glutenfree beer sounds interesting too. Ahh yes the o' Uni days when we would come up with all sorts of wierd ideas lol.

Just to clarify i wasn't really looking at making a beer from it, just wondering how different it was from the general malt/ hops syrup. As treacle already has a really strong taste to it ( i remember tasting molasses on my Uncle's old farm (shudder) but kids has sensitive tastes) i was curious as to its balance between a malt and a more striaght forward sugar base it actually was. Very interesting stuff to think about. 

I like to think outside the box where i can and use these ideas to make small tweeks on base recipes and ingredients, so thats why i thought i'd throw this idea out there.

Thanks again for all the input people!
Cheers.
shaza76 
Brizvegas


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## Ronin (20/5/11)

There was a episode of river cottage (can't remember which season, maybe river cottage winter?) where Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall made an alcoholic beverage made from 100% treacle, but it was spiced with all sorts of weird things like pine needles. He was trying to remake an old english alcoholic drink. Can't remember if he referred to it as beer though.

I do believe that treacle based "beer" also makes an appearance in the classic beer styles brown ale book, as this was (according to that book) once what was referred to as "brown ale". I've got the book at home, happy to try and dig up the reference.

James


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## Ronin (20/5/11)

After a bit of searching, turns out my memory was out slightly...it was a molasses and brown sugar based "beer", spiced with spruce tips, carrot and mint.

http://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/carrot...and-spruce-beer

James


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