Brewing from scratch

[thamnophis]

Hello all - I'm a new member from central Iowa. We live on 5 acres. I have been brewing for just a short while, BIAB method. I've also been growing hops and barley for a couple years. Just 4 hops plants that are well established and just 1/8 acre ( maybe 5,000 square feet) of barely.

I'm wanting to develop a "home brew" that I can produce from year to year with the addition of some other easily available ingredients. I'm curious how you all would go about testing recipes with the ingredients I have available? This year I'll cut / thresh/ sprout / dry and roast (some) barely. I also grow about the same amount of wheat for flour and corn for polenta, so potential additional ingredients.

I guess I should add that we have fruit - cherries, mulberries, raspberries, etc that might be useful.

My hops are unfortunately not labeled. They are CASCADE - alpha 4-6%, FUGGLE - alpha 4-5.5%, NUGGET - alpha 11-14%, MAGNUM - alpha 12-17%, STERLING - alpha 6-9%. I don't know how to differentiate between them now, or if its that important? We just harvest and freeze them.

So, if you wanted to start from scratch with the goal of producing a decent, drinkable beer, or maybe a few variations on the same basic beer, how would you go about it?

Thanks!

Joe

[Kbar]

All I can think is your spoiled

No disrespect, just jealous!

[hoodie]

I am jealous too. You might as well get some honey bees while your at it. Sounds like you have a lot of reading to do.

[thamnophis]

It might sound a little more idyllic than it actually is! We are trying to produce much of our own food/drink and its really a bit of work. Once spring hits its pretty much a 50-60 hour/week job till next October.

We drink plenty of beer, wine and soon, hard cider so I would like to include these things in the list of stuff we can do for ourselves. But I don't have the time or energy to really make a hobby out of it and explore it the way I would actually like to. So I need to get a plan in place that will be pretty reliable and then experiment when I can find the time - maybe next October would be nice when it cools off.

Is there sort of a default whole grain recipe that would work for BIAB? We have a wood oven that we fire up for bread, pizza, etc so it would be easy to roast grain if that would add variety.

Joe

[Drezden]

I think I would start with the malting of the barley. Lightly roasted or heavily toasted. Do some reading about malting, think about what you want and give it a try.
With the fruit, I would make mead.

[dogismycopilot]

I agree with Drezden. Focus on malting first. I'm sure that will give you plenty of ideas on variation and experimentation.

Good luck!

[Bad Goat Brewing]

My hops are unfortunately not labeled. They are CASCADE - alpha 4-6%, FUGGLE - alpha 4-5.5%, NUGGET - alpha 11-14%, MAGNUM - alpha 12-17%, STERLING - alpha 6-9%. I don't know how to differentiate between them now, or if its that important? We just harvest and freeze them.
Joe

If you make some hop tea with your dried hops you might be able to tell the variety. To me cascade has a unique taste/smell compared to everything else you are growing, that one should be easy. Did any of your hop plants have a bunch of leaves growing out of the cones? My Magnum hops tend to do that.

THis site might also help.
http://www.skotrat.com/go/default/brewi ... fications/

[thamnophis]

I tend to harvest all the hops into a single container, the freeze it in gallon freezer bags, so I will have to wait till next year's harvest. Thanks for the idea and link though.

Joe