 (these instructions yield about
a half
gallon)
•
Sprout 70
grams of corn, and
30
grams of
whole wheat berries (or about 1/2 cup of corn and 1/4 cup of wheat
berries) until they approximately double in weight or size, or green
tips start to appear on the shoots. [Sprouting]
•
Put the
sprouts into a blender, add warm water (raw beer from a
previous batch, if you have it)
and blend on high until it
becomes smooth.
 •
Add to the
blender:
1 cup
of warm
water
-and-
1/2
cup of raw honey
or raw agave
syrup, or 1 cup of unsulphered dried fruit
(such as dates or raisins) which have been soaked overnight.
• Puree on
high until smooth.
•
Transfer
to a larger, food-safe container
•
Add
a yeast
starter, which for me is usually a half a bottle
from a
previous batch. If this is your first attempt and you don't have
any live, active yeast, you can use a packet of store-bought beer yeast
or even a spoonful of bread yeast. Bread yeast is the least
attractive option, however. Use it now to get started but look for ways
to get a
more suitable yeast later. (Apple juice that has gone fizzy in the back
of the fridge will do nicely. See my page on harvesting
wild yeast. )
•
Add
another quart plus 2 cups of warm water
You
may want to add a couple drops of lemon juice in the
brew if the yeast is sluggish,
especially if you started out with dry yeast.
|
•
Cover
with an
airlock (see below).
Put it in
a warm place and leave it for a day. Shake
or turn your homebrew
over every
once in a while to keep distributing the ground sprout material
throughout the
liquid.
•
Next day, pour the liquid through 2 layers of cheesecloth/muslin
to
remove the roughage. (Use it to make corn fritters, bread or naturally
fermented soda pop.)
Decide how alcoholic you want it to be:
1.)
As
little as
possible -- it will be served as soda pop. Go
to
blue box.
2.) Average American
beer strength
(6% or 12 proof) Go
to
lavender box.
3.) As much as possible,
which is the
amount of alcohol in wine (12% or
24 proof) or double that of the average American beer. Go
to
beige box
|
As
little alcohol as necessary to carbonate soda pop and no more
1. Strain the liquid mash through cotton flannel
or 2
layers of
cheesecloth/muslin [* see below] to remove the roughage. (Use it to
make bread or a second batch of ale.)
2. Pour the clean fitered liquid back into the
3-liter
plastic soda
pop bottle, or divide it into smaller plastic soda pop bottles. Leave a
few inches of airspace.
3. Put on plastic screw-on bottle top and tighten
securely.
4. Leave at room temperature.
5. As soon as plastic bottle(s) becomes firm to
the touch
and cannot be squeezed, refrigerate and drink within 1 or 2 days.
|
Average beer strength alcohol
(This is the most difficult to achieve, and you will probably have to
use some trial and error to determine what works best for your
conditions.)
1. Continue to cover the bottle with an airlock
(see
below). Leave
at room temperature and let it continue to ferment for 2-3 days.
2. Strain the liquid and mash through cotton
flannel or 2
layers of
cheesecloth/muslin [* see below] to remove the roughage. (Use it to
make bread or a second batch of ale.)
3. Pour the clean fitered liquid back into the
3-liter
plastic soda
pop bottle, or divide it into smaller plastic soda pop bottles. Leave a
few inches of airspace.
4. Put on plastic screw-on bottle top and tighten
securely.
5. Leave at room temperature.
6. As soon as plastic bottle(s) becomes firm to
the touch
and cannot be squeezed, refrigerate and drink within 3 days
|
As much alcohol as possible
1. Continue to cover the bottle with an airlock
(see
below). Leave
at room temperature and let it continue to ferment for 6-7 days, or
until fermentation has ceased.
2. Strain the liquid and mash through cotton
flannel or 2
layers of
cheesecloth/muslin [* see below] to remove the roughage. (Add it to
bread dough.)
3. Pour the clean fitered liquid back into the
3-liter
plastic soda
pop bottle and add 1/2 cup of raw honey or other raw sugar(s), or sugar
syrup.
4. Top up with water to 3-4 inches from the top of
the
bottle so that total liquid is about 2 4/5 liters or quarts.
5. Divide into smaller plastic soda pop bottles if
desired. Leave a few inches of airspace in each bottle.
6. Put on screw-on bottle top(s) and tighten
securely.
7. When bottle(s) are firm to the touch and cannot
be
squeezed, refrigerate and drink within a week.
|
See Poor
Richard's Ale or for
beer made with corn meal (polenta)
Airlocks
Airlocks
are
anything that will keep
out bugs but let gas escape. When I first started
making wine, I used store-bought airlocks. When those broke, I found I
could use plain plastic sheet secured with a sturdy rubber band. You
can also use cloth, especially if you are hoping for a wild yeast
fermentation. I also discovered it worked just as well to close the
plastic soda pop screw-on top and then loosen it every once in a while
to let out the gas buildup, or to screw it on just a tiny bit loose.
Use whichever of these methods appeals
to you.
It's
okay to brew in glass, but I
carbonate
everything
in plastic soda pop bottles. The advantages to this
are that plastic doesn't risk accidentally exploding, sending long
pieces of sharp, pointy glass into your flesh, and it's easier to
check on carbonation by squeezing a plastic bottle. A traditional
method, before glass or screw-on tops were invented, was to add some
raisins to the brewing liquid and to measure carbonation by when they
floated to the top.
Filtering Through Cheesecloth/Muslin
or Cotton Flannel
Your
choice
of filter will determine the clarity of your final ale. Two
layers of cheesecloth or muslin will produce an average, somewhat
"cloudy"
ale with a grain sediment. If you want to produce a "company beer" that
is clearer (less nutritious, but looks more like regular beer), use a
proper cotton flannel jelly bag and let it drain overnight without
squeezing, and add a quarter cup more raw honey or other raw sugar
syrup. If you want a thicker "peasant" ale, full of raw sprout
nutrition, to drink with meals, for example, use a single layer of
cheesecloth or muslin and squeeze it thoughougly to filter out only the
largest clumps of ground sprouts/dates. This would be the best thing to
do if you aren't going to make bread and want to get the most food
value out of your grains.
How
Long Will It Take Until First Sign of
Fermentation?
3-4
days is
the average, but there are so many variables, that is meaningless in
practice. Yeast are living things and can take as long as they want to
take, especially at the beginning when they are first learning how to
eat the food you're giving them. I've made brews that didn't start
fermenting for weeks and I'd given up on them and thought it was a dud
only to walk by one day and see a strong fermentation with an inch of
foam on top that grew there overnight.
Squeezing to test for
fermentation/carbonation
Squeeze
bottle(s) to check if ale is carbonated. When plastic
feels firm and cannot be squeezed, ale is carbonated.
 This
bottle can still be squeezed and is not yet ready to drink.
Full
Moon Feast by Jessica
Prentice.
This is a good book if you like
learning about indigenous customs and
following natural cycles. Includes using coconut oil, a rootbeer recipe
that calls for only 2 tablespoons of sassafras and easy and delicious
corn fritters.
Wild
Fermentation by
Sandor Katz.
Truly
Cultured Rejuvenating
Taste, Health and Community With Naturally Fermented Foods
Sacred
and Herbal Healing Beers by Stephen
Harr Buhner
|
|
Raw Corn Beer
