Post by landarc on Sept 3, 2008 20:55:15 GMT -5
Alan asked about ingredients for beer. This is where all that land he has can be even more handy, than just earning a living.
Beer is remarkably simple in terms of basic ingredients. You will need good, clean, pH balanced water, barley and wheat, yeast and hops. And truthfully, the hops are not absolutely necessary (except in my beer, where I need them to be there).
The barley will need malting, all of the grains will need milling, there is processing the wheat etc...for any normal modern American, these things are a mystery beyond comprehension. For a farmer, these were things being done for a dozen centuries. Essentially, to make a basic beer, mead, cider or wine, you can grow it all on your land, if you got enough land. If you thing that 12 lbs of grain = 1 batch of beer, all you need to figure out is how much wheat and barley you can yield off of your land.
I brew with extract. I also live in the middle of one of the largest urban metroplex areas in the world. So extract is easier than growing my own. This is a product that you would not be able to grow, but, is easy to buy and use. I would think all-grain is going to be where someone like Alan should go.
2-row and 6-row barley as well as wheat is normal for grain brewing. All of this should be easy enough to grow. Hops are gonna be tougher, but, they can be done too. You will want to buy the yeast, but, once you do, you can harvest the yeast, store it cold and reuse it for many batches.
Beer is remarkably simple in terms of basic ingredients. You will need good, clean, pH balanced water, barley and wheat, yeast and hops. And truthfully, the hops are not absolutely necessary (except in my beer, where I need them to be there).
The barley will need malting, all of the grains will need milling, there is processing the wheat etc...for any normal modern American, these things are a mystery beyond comprehension. For a farmer, these were things being done for a dozen centuries. Essentially, to make a basic beer, mead, cider or wine, you can grow it all on your land, if you got enough land. If you thing that 12 lbs of grain = 1 batch of beer, all you need to figure out is how much wheat and barley you can yield off of your land.
I brew with extract. I also live in the middle of one of the largest urban metroplex areas in the world. So extract is easier than growing my own. This is a product that you would not be able to grow, but, is easy to buy and use. I would think all-grain is going to be where someone like Alan should go.
2-row and 6-row barley as well as wheat is normal for grain brewing. All of this should be easy enough to grow. Hops are gonna be tougher, but, they can be done too. You will want to buy the yeast, but, once you do, you can harvest the yeast, store it cold and reuse it for many batches.