h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Update - A second bite & sip reveals a very faint cherry flavour, but it's so well integrated with the tamarind that it only comes out in feeble little waves.

i have some "stuff" and a friend said it would make a good base for a beer, how do i go about it??

the stuff is 5l of 10%ABV treacle wine(for want of a better discription)

what do i do to it to make a beer??

Welcome to the thread, Taff.

Now to the question:






I'd have to say you empty out the container, clean it, and then refill it with malt extract, water, some hops and a bit of yeast, and then wait a few weeks.


Seriously:

I assume that this treacle wine is the result of some sort of treacle (what we call molasses, here) solution being fermented by some yeast. What you have there is the raw material for rum, pretty much exactly what I used when I did my cane spirit experiment.

On the other hand, when I make my purl (wormwood bittered brown ale) I do use some demerara sugar, which is basically crystallised treacle, but I also use malt, which is the principal ingredient.

I suppose one could use your treacle wine as a sort of fortifying agent for a beer, in the way brandy is used for Port, etc.


A question, though, Taff: does this stuff you have taste sweet? How thick is it? Oh, that's two questions. The reason I ask is that if there is still unfermented sugar in the stuff, if the fermentation stopped because the alcohol level became to high for the yeast, then one *could* use it as part of a base for something like a beer by simply diluting it and perhaps adding some hop pellets and yeast to get it fermenting again. Then you would end up with something like a beer with lower than 10% alcohol and with a bit of bitterness from the hops. (If you wanted a distinctly bitter taste you'd want to boil the stuff with the hops before cooling it and adding the yeast). But it wouldn't really be a beer; it would be a fermented cane beverage of some sort.

Does that make any sense?

A question, though, Taff: does this stuff you have taste sweet? How thick is it?

it is sweet but has a strong liquorice taste and its not thick at all, just like water/wine/beer

it started off the scale on the hydrometer and is now around 10% at best guess

so if i get some hop pellets, a stronger yeast, i could have something drinkable!!?

Now, you understand that the closest I've come to what I think you have is something that I promptly distilled, right? So my advice is pretty tentative.

Hold on! I've just had a thought.

Are you saying that the stuff reads at 10% *potential* alcohol? And it's watery?

Do you smell alcohol off it?

It sounds to me like the stuff hasn't been fermented at all yet.


If that's the case, I'd probably just pitch some yeast into the stuff and let it ferment out. You'll end up with something like a fairly harsh, watered down dark rum. I would expect it to end up at about 6 or 8% when the fermentation is done because there's likely a whole mess of unfermentable sugars and fibre in that mix you've got which will raise the specific gravity.

I'm not sure that I would bother with hops. That liquorice taste you mention will probably continue through to the end product, so you'll have to think about whether hops would be a good complement, and decide accordingly. Being as liquorice and anise are similar flavours, you might want to try a bit of fennel seed and just the barest little pinch of wormwood to make something like an Absinthe beer.

Do you think what you have is just straight treacle and water, unfermented?

no its defeniatly fermented, it started off potentially "off the scale" and after the yeast was added it burped and farted along for a few weeks, there is an alcohol and liquorice taste to it and it reads 10% potential now and there was lots of sediment in the bottom of the demi-john

Okay. I expect what's happened is that the alcohol level got too high for the yeast.

One more question:

Did you use bread yeast, brewer's yeast, or champagne yeast?


If you used bread yeast, you might be able to get it to go a bit further with a more appropriate yeast, but . . .

I doubt it.

My suspicion is that your choices are:





a) try diluting it quite a bit and adding a champagne yeast

b) try to enjoy the sweet thing you've got.


And, I've thought of one more question: You say that it was initially off the scale of your hydrometer. What's the top of the scale on your hydrometer?



For future reference, you probably should have watered it down initially so that you could get an accurate first hydrometer reading.

yes i used bread yeast, my scale goes to about 17% i think from memory

it looks like guiness without the head and needs the same sort of bitterness at the moment all i get is overpowering liquorice

A champagne yeast will be rated to 17 or 18% if you're lucky. A distiller's yeast will go a little higher. The extra fibre, etc. may buy you a few percent and let the champagne yeast finish off the fermentable sugars. The liquorice taste will likely stay. A few hop pellets will give some bitterness, but it won't be the same as if you'd boiled them in at the beginning.

I suspect you'll still have to dilute it a bit, so . . .

My suggestion is to add 10 to 15% (of the volume of your stuff of water), a good champagne yeast, and some hop pellets or hop extract if you can get it (but be careful. I've never used hop extract so, treat it as though there be dragons there.) If my suspicions are right, your stuff will start bubbling again, the sweetness will drop, the sediment will increase (that's mostly yeast cells) and the bitterness will improve. And, the licorice will stay.

But you're going to end up with a ing strong cane beer.

I misplaced a closing parenthesis. That should have been:


'add 10 to 15% (of the volume of your stuff) of water'

thanks

i'll take it under advisement

and see what i can do next week

Good luck with it!

Sorry I was so dense with figuring out what you were working with. (I still think the best bet is distillation.)



So, have you been looking at our tasting notes and planning your trip to Edmonton?

didn't win the £121Million euromillions lottery so it won't be this week

i have the stuff in seperate botles at the moment so might try some experiments.......ginger and cinnomon to make a gingerbread beer???

roll on pay day and i can get some gubbins from the oxford shop!!!

<

Just so I know what you're working with, so I can sleep on the problem properly, what's the volume of your stuff as it stands?

10% from memory, will test it again tomomrow/today

no, I mean, how much stuff have you got. Volume. Gallons. Litres. Firkins.

Coincidence that I'm drinking a bottle(not really), but blogger Stephen Beaumont in Toronto gives brief praise to Alley Kat's Three Bears Oatmeal (in his 'Tasted!: Five Beers In One Sentence Each')

http://worldofbeer.wordpress.com

That's a pretty positive review.




I, this evening, am drinking . . .

















too much.

Lunch Pail Ale, anhaga's dark ale, anhaga's pilsner, an Ardhbeg interlude, Alley Kat Pumpkin Pie and, if I make it, I found a bottle of Oschner's.

Here it was the Tris Pistooles earlier followed by the Chocolate Cherry(less for thge most part )Ostiarius-break for a bowl of chili & taking out asome recyclables-& now it's the with a poppyseed pastry(the subtle nuttiness of the ground poppyseeds complement the malt/oatmeal quite nicely! Possibly a Half Pints Pothole Porter later.

'o' I swear I saw an o when i hit post!!