[UmaineGreg]

Ok, so to begin with, I started home brewing a long time ago (how old I was at the time is inconsequential) and over time have gotten really good at it. I have a large variety of beers that I make and they come out excellent! I First started my hobby brewing beer, then started making wine, now I have progressed to mead (honey wine). I am not concerned about Post-SHTF for my ability to make more...I am wondering about cleaners. In order to sterilize my equipment right now I use bleach or C-Brite packets (powderized bleach). My question is are there any safe ways to make bleach or other disinfectant cleaners? I don't want to have a massive stockpile of bleach but I cant think of any other way around it...

And, to head of all the impending comments, Post-SHTF when things start to come back together I'd like to open an old-fashioned Travelers Inn/Tavern...in the meantime, whoever ends up being in my MAG with enjoy my hobby as I intend to brew to keep my sanity!

 

[trixie]

ive just started making wine and hard cider. after TSHTF or WROL, distilling will be a good thing to do too. imagine the trades you could make!

 

[letsgetreal]

There's a ongoing thread about this......

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=30884&highlight=homebrew

 

[Common Commando]

Im a home brewer myself. and while i have all the equipment, skills and ingrediants (except a supply of hops, anyone have helpful information on growing them please PM me ) I have often wondered about the cleaning of equipment as well. My only ideas thus far (besides bleach) is fire/boiling water. But anyone who has experience with brewing knows that method of cleaning in preperation for beer maing seems pretty iffy.

 

[SurvivalDog56]

I have always just used bleach solution on large items and I sterilize my jars (I use quart jars for my beer ) in a canner kettle .I will have to go back and look ,but best I remember bleach has a good shelf life.I keep 10 gal on hand so that should keep me for a while.OK ,so if you don't want to store bleach what are your options ? I'm sure there would be other ideas,but this comes to mind right off ,Iodine ,you use it to deco h20 so Im sure it would sanitize what ever equipment you are using.Couple of gals of Betadine concentrate (check local tractor or vet supply) would last a while,,, !other than that a big cast iron kettle and boiling. By the way CC i am working on growing hops ,but it takes a ,,while,, to get your plant to the point that they will produce .Mine are 5 yrs old and last yr . was the first time they bloomed and produce hops.

 

[ForestBeekeeper]

I attended a survivalist fair last fall, where a few of the workshops were on brewing. Some of those guys use herbs to disinfect.

It was a mixture of herbs: rosemary, thyme and a third one.

I will see if I can find what the third one was.

Apparantly they have been using herbs to disinfect for many years.

 

[txpc]

I'm relatively unfamiliar with the process involved in making bear and wine. Why do you need such a heavy duty cleaning agent?

 

[weaselrunner]

I've tried 1 batch of mead so far. it's been ferminting since about July. Tried one small sample of it a couple weeks ago and WHHHOOO it packs a punch.

 

[I Buried My Guns]

Why do you need such a heavy duty cleaning agent?

In the fermentation precess it is of pivotal importance that you kill the bad bacteria, fungus, mold and germs so as to allow the good ones (yeast specific to your task) to thrive and multiply. The reason it ias so important at the outset is that you are creating an awesomely fun environment for them to multiply, and the yeast you buy at the beer store tends to be sissy boys compared to the airborne, wild yeast that is all around us. If the tougher yeast gets a toehold in your nascent brew, it will overwhelm your sissy boy yeast and ruin that batch. by "ruin", I mean that while it will indeed ferment, it will not taste like you want it to. Maybe it wil be tolerable, but those yeasts specific to beer/wine/mead are bred specifically to for their task. Wild yeast could result in a batch that tastes like butt.

 

[I Buried My Guns]

I've tried 1 batch of mead so far. ...WHHHOOO it packs a punch.

I predict in the Coming Hard Times that higher alcohol beers will become the norm. Folks won't be hanging out shooting the bull with their friends for hours on end - they will be working hard, and drinking hard. When 1 glass of your mead equals 3 glasses of swill beer, the value becomes apparent.

I am not a fan of homebrewing mead only because of the long fermentation times. Honey, apparently, takes a long time to fully ferment, and my liver wants to be served immediately!

 

[Rosco]

Hard to say now, but when things settle in where do you suspect your Inn is gonna be? Consider this bein my hand raised for the opportunity to work security. Just finished my first brew batch myself, pale ale with some orange honey in the wort. Came out crisp. Would have liked to give it more bite but wanted to take the first time easy

 

[david_the_greek]

Save that mead till the SHTF and it will probably smooth right out ;-) ! In terms of what people will be drinking, I can see it go both ways. Low alcohol beer (2% session beers) will be useful when drinking water is no longer clean and you want a few more calories than your regular glass of H2O. At the same time a high alcohol beer or beverage will stay a lot longer than a low alcohol session beer. As anyone who wanted to brew would be forced to go all grain (if they aren't already), stronger beers would be made off the first run, then a session beer brewed off a second run through the same grain. Saves a lot of money preSHTF, will provide drinkable water post SHTF.

For long term brewing I'm concerned with grain source, hop source (really want to grow my own this year), and heat source. It takes a lot of energy to boil all that wort. Yeast can always be harvested batch to batch or one could allow spontaneous fermentation (with the increased risks this potentially brings)

 

[MikeK]

You could store Turbo Shock for pools. It's a stable chlorine compound that doesn't get weaker over time like bleach does. We've had some good threads about it here and I'm going to replace my bleach with it for long term water sterilizing.

 

[BrowserCat]

If you can distill alcohol, wouldn't that be an effective disinfectant, along with boiling the bottles in water?

 

[Woodchuck]

I've tried 1 batch of mead so far. it's been ferminting since about July. Tried one small sample of it a couple weeks ago and WHHHOOO it packs a punch.

I do a lot of mead. It should sit in the bottle for a year to allow it to mellow out. If you drink it right away it might tear your throat out (just kidding). You have to let malo-lactic fermentation take place in the bottle. There are other ways to make it mellow also, and still keep 13-15% alcohol.

 

[UmaineGreg]

The trick to mead is to make it what is called melomel...that is mead that is honey that is combined with fruit...kinda a cross between straight wine and mead. I use 12 lbs of honey along with my fruit combo and 5 gallons of water to turn out 6 1/2 gallons of mead (melomel). The benefit to adding the fruit is a faster stabilization of the mead by use of the natural citric acids in the fruit...what you get is just amazing!

As far as a cleaning agent I had never thought of distilling down to pure (95%) alcohol...although that would certainly work! However, in order to prevent me screwing it up, I would probably have to defer to someone else with more experience and barter some spirits for my cleanser.

to answer TXPC, you need a heavy duty disinfectant to clean everything you are going to use for fermentation. Yes, yeast is important to the process, however if you can contamination from natural bacteria it can screw up the fermentation at least to make you very sick/blind/dead at worst...SO...it is very important to make sure all of your equipment is very clean to prevent any contamination:thumb:

 

[weaselrunner]

I tried a no-brainer recipe for that batch of mead. One of those "if you cant make it from this recipe --- give up". From memory it had cloves, honey, oranges. cinnimin (sp) and that's all I remember w/o finding it.