Self Sufficiency

[reviled]

Just thought id share this bit of amusing information...

My old man found an old book he has called "Everything you need to know about Self Sufficiency"

It has truckloads of awesome info in it, like how to make cheese, smoked ham, heaps of stuff! Apart from the fact that it assumes you own a farm for the bulk of everything, its got some pretty good stuff in it...

But what really made me laugh, was the how to brew beer part, remembering this book was out in the 70's, or maybe even earlier, but get this...

1st of all, it states you need to find a fermentation vessle "An old oak barrel works perfectly for this"

Tells you how to mash grains, do the boil, then when it comes to chilling.... "Fill a bucket with cold water, and dip this into the wort to bring the temp down, whatever you do, dont spill a drop of water into the brew if you want your beer to be worth drinking" hehehe

Then when it gets to the fermenting part, it proceeds to tell you to pitch your yeast, and then cover with a cloth to keep away vingar flys :lol:

Found it hilarious! No mention of bacteria or sanitary practices, and the whole mention of using an oak barrel as a fermentation vessel, just all round hilarious! No wonder "Home Brew" has such a bad name out there..

 

[peas_and_corn]

What an elitist.

That was written about the time when the norm was open fermenting in plastic bins!

 

[Katherine]

now this is a long long time ago, and very vague. I remember my Poppa's garage being a big tub with cheese cloth thrown over it. Apparently he used to use grain and hops. Dad said his beer was terrible. Im a third generation brewer also both male grandparents brewed.

 

[Bizier]

Im a third generation brewer

I am a Finn

I love those kind of books, my dad has a small library of similar ones, like slaughtering your own beasts and building a honey-hut or growing comfrey or whatever. They are great fun.

 

[TasChris]

Self sufficiency is certainly back in vogue with low food kilometers, impoved quality of food stuffs compared to supermarket fodder etc.

The old BBC program "The Good Life" has gone from a tongue in check joke to serious life style choice.
Even this forum with cheese, bacon, salami, jerky, hop growing, etc threads shows the increase in IMBY ( In My Back Yard) principals

 

[Carbonator]

I was of the opinion that a cloth to keep the flys and bugs out was all that is needed, no matter what year it is!

The reason being is that the CO2 is coming out of the fermenting vessel, thus no oxygen can contaminate the brew!

Now we have so many things to do in our daily lives, we can't tend to the brew all the time to monitor it, so we have invented the air lock, A devices that stops bubbling when the brew is right to bottle. A brew with an air lock can be left for several days after ferment completion without fear of oxygen contamination, unlike the cloth covered version!

 

[Katherine]

Oh I can feel an airlock debate coming on....

 

[white.grant]

Self sufficiency is certainly back in vogue with low food kilometers, impoved quality of food stuffs compared to supermarket fodder etc.

The old BBC program "The Good Life" has gone from a tongue in check joke to serious life style choice.
Even this forum with cheese, bacon, salami, jerky, hop growing, etc threads shows the increase in IMBY ( In My Back Yard) principals

Prime on the south coast of NSW were broadcasting repeats of the Good Life earlier this year, I caught a few and was amazed at how contemporary it all seemed. Scratch the surface of many home brewers and you'll find a budding Richard Briars or Felicity Kendall just waiting for the chance .

cheers

grant

 

[Carbonator]

Scratch the surface and you'll find a budding Felicity Kendall just waiting for the chance .

HMMMMMMMMMM! Felicity Kendall tending to my chooks, quails and home brew!

What more could a man want?

Seriously, "The past is the future"!

 

[Kleiny]

I would love to become self sufficient to an extent

Just wish i could get more time and have a fair crack at living independant from the big chains

salami, ham, bacon (i can do with a little guidance from oma) beer i can do myself, vege garden i have, mudbrick self sufficient house, no bills (i wish)

 

[King Brown]

Self sufficiency certainly is the dream... Living a fruitful existence without "the man" on your back!
I saw an old recipe book at a book store once, may have been a CWA cookbook I can't quite remember. It had a recipe for beer that said to leave for 2 days to ferment, leave in the bottle for 1 day then drink!

 

[buttersd70]

Oh I can feel an airlock debate coming on....

Yorkshire squares have no airlocks. Therefore, as a yorkie, I must make the only presumption available to me by my heritage....airlocks are evil; they are no doubt a Lancastrian invention :lol:

Seriously though, I think there are some things that need to be put into perspective from a brew history point of view.....successful, non infected, well made beers have been produced for centuries in oak barrels, with no airlocks, no iodophor or starsan or pbw, no airlocks, no hydrometers, no mashmasters, no bling of any kind.....all of the mod cons are only checks and double checks in the brewing process...they are not the process themselves. They form part of a consistant quality control regimen, but in and of themselves are not absolutely necessary. Would I brew without them? Hell no. Can you (successfully) brew without them? Yes, yes you can.

 

[newguy]

Im a third generation brewer also both male grandparents brewed.

Weird connection here. Not one of my ancestors brewed, but distillation is a different story. I have uncles on both sides of the family that had stills at one point or another.

I'll never forget one of my aunts (through marriage) tell me about one of her first dates with my uncle. He had taken her over to his brother's place (farm), and apparently there was this one special fence post out in the pasture that you lift and there was a jug under it. They start pouring shots "the Russian way", which is one shot glass full of hooch, and another full of water. They all yell "die borzha!" [rough translation is "give lord" - short for "give us your blessing lord"], slam the hooch, then slam the water. My aunt sheepishly sniffs the hooch, and my uncle yells "Nooo! You don't sniff it!" So she takes a sip (and nearly chokes), and he yells "Nooo! You don't sip it! You slam it back!" So she slams it back, and, choking, immediately reaches for the water. Much to the amusement of everyone around the table.

 

[Pollux]

My grandfather by marriage (stepdad's father) has brewed for years, all pure K+K, but he has collected alot of good glass longies and a a heap of other random items....


Apparently he has stopped now though, getting too old to move things like that around and he is off the beer as per doctors orders....

 

[Gavo]

And just to think that the Vikings had a family stirring stick for making beer. Apparently the stirring stick had the yeast on it. The Vikings apparently didn't understand yeast but that stirring stick was passed down through the family. Now I wonder with an oak barrel you probably wouldn't need a stirring stick with yeast on it.

Cheers
Gavo.

 

[buttersd70]

And just to think that the Vikings had a family stirring stick for making beer. Apparently the stirring stick had the yeast on it. The Vikings apparently didn't understand yeast but that stirring stick was passed down through the family. Now I wonder with an oak barrel you probably wouldn't need a stirring stick with yeast on it.

Cheers
Gavo.

That might have been a religous thing, as much as anything else....as Vikings were sea-going tribes, one of the main gods was gir (or to the anglo-saxons, Aegor), who was not only god of the sea, but also the brewer of the gods, assisted by his seven daughters, who also abducted sailors off the longships during storms.....thats what my avatar is. Aegor and his daughters brewing a beer.

 

[Nick JD]

As an eighteen year old I "rescued" a plastic, 60 liter Perchloroethylene (drycleaning solvent) barrel both because it looked like it could hold a lot of brew ... and it was probably somewhat sterile. :unsure:

I whipped the top off it, gave it a good rinse, chucked in some cans and sugar and yeast and water and threw a tea-towel over the top. I recall about one in five brews being a little hard on the pallette, but when you're poor and young...

When you no longer see bubbles you bottle. Straight away, or vinegar awaits!