Beer Made From Beer

[Hatchy]

I was having a chat with some blokes at the last case swap about beer adds & had a bit of a rant about the CD "made from beer" adds. I've got a suspicion that CD is made from water so had a chat to Smurto about it to see if he thought it could be done. He seemed to think that it could. The beer I used as brewing "water" was meant to be a big IPA but due to terrible efficiency it started at 1.054 (with 350g of columbus hopbursted). It tasted terrible from the fermenter so I figured we could use it for science instead of tipping it.

We used 9.6kg of wey pils & 400g pale crystal & got a pre boil gravity of 1.080 so definitely got extraction. I didn't sparge because I was somewhat limited with the amount of brewing water that I had. There's already more than enough hops in there so there won't be any kettle hops but I'll put it through 100g of galaxy in Kieren's hoprocket, & back onto the yeastcake it was on a couple of hours ago.

There's been several smells that I wouldn't normally associate with a brewday.

Phil has some photos & I took some that I'll post once I get them off my camera.

 

[amiddler]

What temp did you preheat the strike water/beer to? Just thinking some of the alcohol in the beer might have evaporated.
Did you take the SG with a Hydrometer or Refractometer? The alcohol in the beer will effect the refractometer if you used that.
What effect would the alcohol have on enzyme action? Maybe the enzymes work harder whilst intoxicated <_<
During the boil you will loose most of the alcohol from the strike beer, wouldn't you?

Personally if the strike beer tasted suspect then IMO it wont make a good beer. Great experiment thoe.

Drew

 

[Bribie G]

Adds a new dimension to the term "strike Liquor"

 

[Hatchy]

The beer was at about 80 when I mashed in, 35L of beer at 80 smells terrible.

Measured with a hydro for exactly that reason.

I wasn't expecting to make my best beer ever, we just wanted to see if it would work.

 

[raven19]

Classic. Still can't believe you actually did this mate.

Smurto mentioned late this arvo that the mash pH was fine too suprisingly.

I'm sure it will still taste better than CD... :icon_vomit:

 

[Malted]

Let's hope that shit in does not equal shit out...

 

[Synthetase]

pmsl at "35L of beer at 80 smells terrible"

Really keen to hear how badly this turns out. If the red ale I knocked out today fails for some reason, I think I might make it the base of a barley wine just for shits and giggles.

 

[geoffd]

A novel idea, but a few problems spring to mind...I'm sure there are plenty more pros & cons to consider.

(a) at 80 degrees, the alcohol from your brewing liquor may be evaporating/ed
(B) you may pass on whatever problems you had from your first batch, such as phenolics / acetylaldehyde etc.
&copy; was the yeast filtered out before boiling, I cant imaging boiled yeast being very pleasnt smelling or tasting if the vitamin supplement brewers yeast tablets is anything to go by.
(d) your yeast may not be as healthy having to acclimatise into a solution that "may" already contain alcohol, bigger pitching rate may resolve this but change ester profile.


Commend your adventurous spirit though, hope it works out instead of wasting a second brew day.

 

[Tanga]

There's already more than enough hops...

Who are you and what did you do with the real Hatchy?

...but I'll put it through 100g of galaxy in Kieren's hoprocket

Ah, there he is.

 

[felon]

Interesting concept.

 

[np1962]

Let's hope this doesn't turn into your Summer Swap Beer :icon_vomit:

 

[Effect]

Let's hope this doesn't turn into your Summer Swap Beer :icon_vomit:

You had to suggest it didn't you...

 

[Hatchy]

Let's hope this doesn't turn into your Summer Swap Beer :icon_vomit:

Assuming it turns out ok it'll be my beer for the next OTT swap.

 

[drsmurto]

A novel idea, but a few problems spring to mind...I'm sure there are plenty more pros & cons to consider.

(a) at 80 degrees, the alcohol from your brewing liquor may be evaporating/ed
(B) you may pass on whatever problems you had from your first batch, such as phenolics / acetylaldehyde etc.
was the yeast filtered out before boiling, I cant imaging boiled yeast being very pleasnt smelling or tasting if the vitamin supplement brewers yeast tablets is anything to go by.
(d) your yeast may not be as healthy having to acclimatise into a solution that "may" already contain alcohol, bigger pitching rate may resolve this but change ester profile.


Commend your adventurous spirit though, hope it works out instead of wasting a second brew day.

a - 80C with a lid on in a HLT means that any ethanol that did boil off condensed on the lid and fell back in. We might boil some off during the boil but (insert chemistry lesson about the boiling points of mixed liquids followed by a lecture on hydrogen bonding) in reality, whether we did or didn't isn't really the point of this.
b - nothing wrong with the first beer, just over hopped to the wazoo. Needed more malt so this seems like a good solution! :blink:
c - that was one of my concerns (other than pH and WTF were we thinking) but other than an unpleasant smell i figured at that OG we can hide a lot of flaws.
d - previous beer had an OG of 1.040 so not a big beer. With an OG of 1.080 and ~half the volume after the grain sucked up its share i think the pitching rate is not too bad.

But the proof is in the pudding as they say.

I was a little surprised to find the pH of the mash about where you'd want it given the pH of beer vs water. The buffering capacity of the grain is not to be underestimated.

The smell at mash in was unlike anything i have experienced. The completely unnecessary addition of mash hops (given what we were doing it seemed appropriate) was probably to be expected with Phil and Hatchy on the case! I just rolled my eyes.

So we are halfway to proving whether you can make beer from beer.

 

[Hatchy]

I had a quick look before leaving for work & it's got a good looking krausen on it.

 

[Effect]

That's just one pic for now. More to come. Looks as if we overshot our mash temp and had to cool the mash down a bit with some cold beer :huh: :lol:

 

[joshuahardie]

Oh I am so subscribing to this one.

Keep us posted....

 

[technoicon]

SWEET!!! :super:

So wish I could have been there! lol

Save me a bottle!

 

[Hatchy]

SWEET!!! :super:

So wish I could have been there! lol

Save me a bottle!

I've got a suspicion that it was you that I was talking to at the swap when I thought of it.

I'll have some at the next swap so make sure you get over for it.

 

[technoicon]

yes it was me. i also agreed to drive back there for one brew day. haha i dont remeber but mrs fury had a phone call organising it with her. LOL