Beer and ancient antibiotics

a reply to: MysterX

Only if we don't drink enough of it.

You mean if you don't 'finish the course'?

a reply to: Astyanax

Lol...yeah, something like that!

My doctor prescribes six pints a day and a couple of glasses of Rose' wine if i'm feeling under the weather.

I have been reading "The Art of Fermentation" by Sandor Katz on and off for a year, not a cheap book but worth the read if you are technically minded. It describes the fermenting of just about any food: dairy, vegetables, meat, fruit, beans, grains etc. A few hundred years ago people ate many more fermented food products and it was a natural fermentation with a mixed inoculation. Their food was "alive" even if it had been kept in the cellar for 3 months. Our food now, when it is fermented, is fermented by a single strain of microbe and often filtered or pasteurized so that it is dead when we eat it. I make naturally fermented vinegar as a cottage industry, but I have been trying some of the stuff in his book. I made my own dill pickles last year, once I got the salt right, they were delicious! I made my own cured sausages (like thin salamis) a few weeks ago, they smell so good I cant wait till they are ready.

a reply to: Cinrad

That was a very interesting and informative post.

Did you have lots of accidents during your early experiments? Home brew — what we called 'real ale', mostly — was the flavour of the term back when I was at university. Lots of explosions, geysers, floods and puking students.

Sometimes someone would come up with a batch that almost tasted good.

And wiped you out.

a reply to: Astyanax

I have a background in wine making so I havent poisoned us or blown anything up. And my parents came from the old country where they went to school till grade 3 and then worked at home and on the land, they occasionally made this sort of stuff at home when I was growing up. It was fun and I am so grateful to have the confidence to give it a go myself now. I still ask my aged mother questions on how to do certain things.

Interesting.
Had no idea the significance of the ancient origins of the brew.
Wonder what the original concoction was like.
Thanks!


LOVE

As well as the fermentation, you can add "goodness" to your beers by adding flavouring agents.

wikipedia:

The first historical mention of the use of hops in beer was from 822 AD in monastery rules written by Adalhard the Elder, also known as Adalard of Corbie,[31][54] though the date normally given for widespread cultivation of hops for use in beer is the thirteenth century.[31][54] Before the thirteenth century, and until the sixteenth century, during which hops took over as the dominant flavouring, beer was flavoured with other plants; for instance, Glechoma hederacea. Combinations of various aromatic herbs, berries, and even ingredients like wormwood would be combined into a mixture known as gruit and used as hops are now used.[55] Some beers today, such as Fraoch' by the Scottish Heather Ales company[56] and Cervoise Lancelot by the French Brasserie-Lancelot company,[57] use plants other than hops for flavouring.

Gruit was a combination of herbs, commonly including sweet gale (Myrica gale), mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), horehound (Marrubium vulgare), and heather (Calluna vulgaris). Gruit varied somewhat, each gruit producer including different herbs to produce unique flavors and effects. Other adjunct herbs included black henbane, juniper berries, ginger, caraway seed, aniseed, nutmeg, cinnamon, and even hops in variable proportions. Some gruit ingredients are now known to have preservative qualities.

But I warn you, there is a reason why hops came to completely dominate the beer industry... it tastes better. Very few of the old drinks and foods taste acceptable to us today.

I started making my own beer last year. Working on my Imperial Blonde ale. One thing I've learned is how easy it is to contaminate a batch of beer and turn it into viniger. I'm truly curious to how they were able to prevent this in the past by leaving the lids off?? I'm mean using a spoon not disinfected can turn a batch..

Do you have any good recipe for diy beer from yeast?

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

I've been homebrewing for about 3 years now and one of the drivers behind the passion is the health-benefit. Not that it's healthier than the drinking water but it's sure healthier than store-bought beers.

As a homebrewer I know exactly what I put in my beer, how I do it, where I do it and where it's from. I don't concern myself with GMOs (the malts I buy are from Europe) and flavors can be managed with organic fruits, hops or other malts. I'd love to grow my own hops but TX isn't very hospitable from what I've read.

I fully support local craft-beer but I'm starting to believe that folks are attaching the same "craft" label to anything now while maintaining the overall goal of making tons of money by brewing.
Me - I'm different. I DON'T want every batch of beer to taste exactly the same. I don't want my beer to taste exactly like brewery X or style Y. I keep it old school too. No major equipment. No gizmos or gadgets. I don't concern myself with "hops-forward" tastes, serious ABV measures, "great head-retention" or any of that stuff.
I make something that tastes good and I enjoy drinking.

If any other brewers in the DFW area want to swap samples, lemme know

originally posted by: PapagiorgioCZ
Do you have any good recipe for diy beer from yeast?

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

No I don't, but I'm sure that some other ATS members do - or check youtube as I know many people share their beer recipies and experiences there.

-MM

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

I made my own from the wheat brans, rice, yeast, sugar, some juice, corn sprouts and a shot of a Kombucha in the end (so it won't eat all the alcohol )
It's probably not an antibiotic but a probiotic for sure