DailyDirt: Making Spirits Bright
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
There was a time when making your own alcohol wasn't a completely legit thing to do. Sure, now anyone can just go down to a corner store almost any time and pick up a chilled alcoholic beverage, but if you're a real do-it-yourself-er, you won't want to drink just anything that comes in a pretty bottle. Here are a few projects you might want to check out someday when you're not feeling like guzzling something made by Anheuser-Busch-Inbev-SABmiller.- Folks can brew beer from a lot of unusual stuff, so why not use day-old bread to prevent some food waste? Toast Ale uses surplus bakery bread to make its beer, and it plans to open source its recipe so that more people can find a productive use for baked goods that might otherwise just go in the trash. If you're not a beer drinker, there's also vodka made from potato peels. [url]
- PicoBrew is a way to brew your own beer at home with the convenience of a Keurig coffee maker. So yah, you can make custom craft beer at home, and you just need to buy these fairly sizable packages of pre-measured hops and grains -- then voila, you'll have fresh beer in about a week. [url]
- If you'd like to try to make your own moonshine, but you don't really want to go out into the woods and find a source of running water -- just get a tabletop still for your kitchen. It doesn't even require running water, and it'll make about a half gallon of booze on demand (if you're patient). And maybe make sure to discard the first few drops to make sure you're not drinking too much methanol. [url]
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Filed Under: alcohol, beer, beverages, booze, bread, distillation, drinks, food, food waste, moonshine, picobrew, vodka
Companies: anheuser-busch, kickstarter, sabmiller
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Keurig-like beer?
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Make trash-wine or moonshine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvVtw2PKCyY
His usual schtick is to dissect cheap Chinese LED lights and electronic crap, so this is a little different for him, but interesting.
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And the PicoBrew actually looks like a really interesting and useful bit of kit, but I think they could stand to de-emphasise the use of premade ingredient kits; that's fine if you're just starting out and teaching yourself to use the equipment, but if you don't start having a go at your own bespoke ales then you're missing the point.
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I love homebrewing, but using a kit means it's not your beer. Most of the fun comes from varying your recipes and seeing what you end up with, whether it be awesome or awful.
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Re:
Premade kits are great for beginners. Kind of like training wheels on a bike.
The old bread idea is interesting although I'm curious how they prevent a stuck mash.
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Food "waste" to booze - the 1970's are calling
http://www.permaculture.com/David_Blume_Bio
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