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small beer
How do we get those b vities? I've got an idea.
I don't think brick-hard loaves of bread are the answer, and I think our ancestors knew this.
I've said on my log that in the past people thought beer was a food.
I like beer and all but I can't imagine starting the day with a Sam Adams, having another at lunch and a third at cocktail hour. It would make me ill and drunk.
I've heard tell of "small beer" and I think that is the answer. Maybe this is also the answer to JoshZ's question: "what would be a good liquid breakfast"?
I think small beer is actually super easy to make as well.
This article is trying to get you to buy vitamins, but I think it makes a good case for small beer.
https://www.smartypantsvitamins.com/blogs/articles/healthy-beers-fact-fiction
"When people talk about the health benefits of beer – specifically its proportionately high amount of B-vitamins and minerals – they’re probably thinking of “small beer” "
"If you were passed a glass of “small beer” at a bar today, you might not even recognize it nor want to drink it. “Small beer” was brewed with very little alcohol content and was drank as part of the meal or even as a meal replacement for children and adults alike. Unfiltered and almost porridge-like, it contained very little alcohol (0.75%) and was often made of the leftover mash from making “strong beer,” a more alcoholic type of beer akin to the “fun” beer we drink nowadays. “Small beer” was thick, hearty, and the original #liquiddiet."
This company is making it? https://www.lux-review.com/the-art-of-drinking-small/
On page 592 of Nourishing Traditions (Sally Fallon) has a recipe for small beer. Her recipe seems like it would come out sour, which I don't want. But I'm using her recipe for ideas. I've done this sort of thing with cider many times, and we've done a bit of beer brewing and I'm just musing about how I would make it, since I don't see many ideas on the web. A trip to the local brew store will be needed. Don't let the store owner talk you into strong beer or equipment! except you might want this:
See the SMALL white plastic bucket with an air lock? Using this will keep some of the wild things out, while allowing air in.
At the brew store, I'd buy a basic malt extract, a basic beer yeast, a little bit of hops.
(Sally Fallon has you sprout grain (sprouting is how malt is made)). IMO Malt extract is the quick way to experimentation. Here is an example: https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/northern-brewer-organic-light-malt-syrup
Personally I would stick with just a little hops and not go crazy with flavors to start.
You might have to heat your water and malt extract together to get it to mix up properly, I'm forgetting. If so, when cool add your yeast. I also forget when the hops goes in, and it could be during the heating phase or during the fermenting phase. I'm sure these decisions are part of the art of it. Personally I think I'd be doing the least-hoppy thing. Taste it so you know what it starts out tasting like.
Cover and leave it at room temp for a few days. Watch the air lock. You will know when it starts to ferment. You don't want it overly fermented, right? We want a beer-like soft drink. Beer's softer cousin. Taste it. We want some fermentation for the b-vities but not a lot.
When it's started, I would move it to canning jars. Quarts maybe? It might be an even better idea to just save plastic milk jugs or plastic soda bottles (with screw on caps) and use those.
You could either put it in the fridge or cellar. The brewing will continue faster at cellar temp, slower at fridge temp. I wouldn't leave it out in the cellar for more than a week.
You could probably put a small amount aside to start the next batch.
You don't want an explosion so don't leave canning jars of alive-beer sitting around your cellar or fridge too long. Plastic might be a better idea until you know what you are up to.
Let me know if you try this! It's been a while since I've fermented anything, but this sounds fun...
This still seems a bit complicated, I admit.
Maybe we can streamline this.
Make is some sort of "endless supply" thing like making kefir.
I'm going to ponder this.
maybe what you could do is keep the bucket going forever, in the cellar or under the counter and just weekly
pour some off into a bottle, put it in the fridge
and add more of the extract/water/hops mixture.
Like a person would do with Kombucha.
Yeah forget kombucha, small beer is the ultimate health beverage. Successful beer production requires skill and experience though, it isn't that easy.
Legumes supply thiamine which seems to be the most important thing that goes missing when we refine grain. White rice is often eaten with legumes in Asia.
I think people tend to eat too much refined grain when their food isn't fatty enough. Food that is fatty with lard, tallow, refined palm oil, coconut oil, high oleic sunflower oil or olive oil makes food tastier but is probably also thiamine sparing and reduces insulin spikes.
If you skip all the fortified cereals, baby foods, and such, pork is about the highest food in thiamine. Black beans are also pretty high. Just saying.
Yeah pork is a great source of thiamine but do most people want to eat it every day? I guess white rice eating Chinese eat a lot of it. Billions of people eat legumes every day and legumes are important for folate and molybdenum as well so I'm inclined to think they are a better source.
Quote from tim on January 9, 2020, 3:26 pmYeah forget kombucha, small beer is the ultimate health beverage. Successful beer production requires skill and experience though, it isn't that easy.
Legumes supply thiamine which seems to be the most important thing that goes missing when we refine grain. White rice is often eaten with legumes in Asia.
I think people tend to eat too much refined grain when their food isn't fatty enough. Food that is fatty with lard, tallow, refined palm oil, coconut oil, high oleic sunflower oil or olive oil makes food tastier but is probably also thiamine sparing and reduces insulin spikes.
Our experiences with brewing beer have been really good. The only times we made beer that didn't disappear quickly was when we went too crazy with flavors, or attempted medi-brews (who really wants chamomile beer?). Does Australia have brewing stores? Brewing stores here in the USA really do help a lot, they want you to have good results. At some here, they even have brew nights in which you can use their gear and kitchens. They offer kits that are usually a good buy, in which a lot of the thought process has already happened. (this hop goes with that yeast and this malt etc)
Brewing wine was only slightly trickier, but more successful than I imagined it would be. And a child could make hard cider hahaha
When brewing, starting from an extract (beer) or juice (wine) is easier. It's a whole other thing to start with grapes or grains.
Fermenting has been one of our passions in the past. We've produced meads, kombucha, kefir you name it.
Beer brewing is about as hard as sourdough bread, similar in lots of respects.
I didn't know pork was high in thiamine. Pork items are popular at breakfast here...
It's one of those things on my to do list to get into in the future. For now I just stick to moderate consumption of store beer. Yum homemade kombucha that is sweet and bubbly is delicious.