Home Brewing aboard?

[Moe R]

Have brewed many beers and a bunch of meads as well. Never on a boat but that should not be a problem. The simple secret is to keep everything involved in the brew process as clean as possible. Fungus will funk your brew big time. I like Jim K.'s approach of keeping batches smaller on board. It may make them a little more managable.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Moe R

Have brewed many beers and a bunch of meads as well. Never on a boat but that should not be a problem. The simple secret is to keep everything involved in the brew process as clean as possible. Fungus will funk your brew big time. I like Jim K.'s approach of keeping batches smaller on board. It may make them a little more managable.

Yes, small batches would help. Would make temp control during fermentation easier too.

[kiltym]

Not really making beer, but this is our story.

In French Polynesia, all booze is expensive, even at the store ($3/beer, $30+ for rum), we started to get a bit desperate to keep our little stocks going as long as possible, so started to ferment our own booze. Not sure I would call it wine, but maybe cider, definitely not beer.

We don't do anything fancy, but we get a liquid with about 10% alcohol, and mix it with fruit juice to make it more tasty.

What you need:
1 1.5l wine bottle (empty)
1 air-lock device (made with a bit of hose and 3 corks, see photo at It's Irie: A Stop in “the City” – Atuona in Hiva Oa, Marquesas near the end of the blog post). You can buy a fancy one made out of glass, but the idea is you want to let the CO2 out, but not let air back into the bottle.

In the bottle:
Add 1.5 cups of white sugar
Add 2 t of yeast (we just just normal bread yeast as that's all they have here)
Add juice from a fruit (orange seems the best, maybe about 2 oranges worth)
Fill with water.
Mix well.

Leave uncorked for about 2-3 hours as it will start to produce a lot of foam. Once this stop, clean the foam up, put on the air-lock device and let it sit. Usually in about 7 days the bubbling stops, and we filter it through a cloth, and then put in the fridge.

Works fine and costs almost nothing.

Taste is fine, but would not say it's a fine wine, so usually mix with something (even just some brown sugar and lime juice). Obviously would not be doing this is a more "normal" priced location, but has been fun to experiment with various things, and are happy with what we get now.

Have fun!

[belizesailor]

Not sure stylistically what you would call that..."hooch" maybe? ;-)

The dividing line for what is practical aboard a boat is between brewing something really basic and brewing something more complex, sylistically accurate, and in larger volumes.

I think most cruisers are interested in just brewing something simple. So, some suggestions below on how to approach it aboard a boat.

Sanitation is critical to brewing to avoid undesireable critters growing in that nice sugar rich liquid you just made. Everything that comes into contact with your brew needs to be cleaned and sanitized first. There are lots of sophisticated cleaning and sanitizing products made for the brewing industry, but you wont find those in most cruising grounds. Bleach is readily available almost everywhere and good for brewing sanitation if used properly. First, you don't need much, about 1 tablespoon per gallon of water makes an effective sanitizing solution. Do not use on aluminium and time limit exposure on stainless. Rinse thuroughly because chlorine and create off flavors.

Temperature control is also critical to brewing. Going with all extract brewing (more below) greatly reduces the temp control requirements for the "hot side" of brewing, but yeast need to work with in certain temp ranges or they may produce off flavors. Exact temp ranges vary by strain of yeast, but keeping your ferminting brew at around 65F will keep most yeast strains happy enough. Higher temps are more likely to produce off flavors. Store in as cool and dark a place as you can manage on the boat. Temp stability is important too...big fluctuations can stress the yeast and cause them to create off flavors. For rudimentary temp control, I would go with a gallon or less container wrapped in a damp towel and stored securely in a locker.

Volume. Regarless of what you want to brew go small. This simplifies everything else.

Yeast. To really nail a brew stylistically you need a specific strain of yeast, but given that most cruisers don't care about that, bread yeast will work fine for rudimentary brewing and can be found almost anywhere.

Beer. If I were to brew beer aboard. I would go with 1 gallon all extract. Ideally a pre-hopped extract and then you do not need to boil. You will have to import this or be in a developed country where you might find it. Be aware that LME (liquid malt extract) does not have an indefinate shelf life, it will first start to darken and then develop off flavors as it ages. Especially true if stored in less than ideal conditions as is likely on a boat. DME (dry malt extract) tends to have a better shelf life if properly stored (vaccum bagged, cool, dry), but it immediately aborbs moisture (including humidity) so you need a way to re seal it. . A vaccum bagger like used for food works fine and has other uses aboard. If it is not sealed air tight it will form into rock like chunks and spoil much faster. Malt extracts are also used by the food industry so you might be able to find some from a commercial food ingredients distributor.

Mead. In many ways basic mead is simpler to brew than beer. The ingredients for a basic traditional mead are just honey and water. And you are much more likely to find honey locally than malt extract. If brewed using bread yeast it is likely to finish quite sweet because of the low alcohol tolerance of bread yeast. For ingredients availability in remote locations mead wins out easily over beer.

If you want to learn more about brewing then pick up one of the many excellent learn to brew texts like John Palmer's How to Brew. An older version of it is legitimately available on line at http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html.

[jkindredpdx]

Originally Posted by Moe R

The simple secret is to keep everything involved in the brew process as clean as possible...approach of keeping batches smaller on board. It may make them a little more manageable.

Originally Posted by belizesailor

... Would make temp control during fermentation easier too.

That's been my experience... much easier to handle 8 lbs than 50. Temp under the quarter berth in my aft cabin is plenty stable and it's not underfoot. I mostly condition in 16 oz or 1 liter bottles (or growlers for parties).

I think cleanliness, quality ingredients, and patience are the key. A jigger of chlorine bleach goes a long way. Glass is best for cleanliness (not plastic). I made my first 1 gal batch in 1985 and use old vinegar bottles, you might have to buy jugs now-a-days.

[N1EYO]

Been thinking about this.
I'm wondering how to keep the carboy steady so the particulates settle out. Suspend it?

[jkindredpdx]

IMO...
I agitate the wort during fermentation. When the blurp, blurp, blurps are about 1 min apart, I let it settle for a day and bottle. I'm at a marina, so if cruising maybe a sheltered anchorage for one night? I don't worry much about particles in the wort, just more food for the yeast to make CO2... what is suspended settles during conditioning (and provides vitamin b if not).

[jkindredpdx]

I boiled a batch of wort yesterday, so posted the simplified process on Sedna's blog...

Cheers.

[belizesailor]

Not brewing aboard...but I have a Schwarzbeir (AKA Black Lager) and a Bohemian Pilsner fermenting while I'm out on charter. Yum.

[jkindredpdx]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Not brewing aboard...but I have a Schwarzbeir (AKA Black Lager) and a Bohemian Pilsner fermenting while I'm out on charter. Yum.

Well done. Good time of year to brew lagers. Think I'll follow your lead next batch.

[belizesailor]

I've got temp controlled ferm space ashore so much easier to do lagers there, but I may bottle some to take along this cruising season.