Bush Beer

[An Ankoù]

Here's a challenge. Pubs are shut. Supermarket beer shelves are emptying. Supplies are becoming harder to source. Kits are being snapped up. Money's short for many. Like it or not, leisure time is being thrust upon us so how can we put that to good use? What can we do to ensure there's a pint of something at the end of the day that could be called (even stretching it) beer? This is real desert island stuff. Any ideas for recipes that will make a decent pint of something out of stuff that we don't usually make beer out of?

 

[Clint]

Well my supplies are poor...but in my plans,if there's any left,I'm going to get some apple juice and do a cider... not beer but drinkable.

 

[strange-steve]

make a decent pint of something out of stuff that we don't usually make beer out of?

To paraphrase The Big Lebowski: "Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's @Drunkula".

And we all thought he was nuts, turns out he was just ahead of the curve.

 

[Clint]

Yeah...but please don't use animal grade products...

 

[foxy]

Pumpkins! Just harvested a load did cross my mind to make a pumpkin ale, but I'm afraid I just like the malt variety and I have plenty of malt.

 

[Clint]

Ha! I got a big dried pumpkin sitting in my kitchen from last year...I might have to eat it though...

 

[An Ankoù]

Well my supplies are poor...but in my plans,if there's any left,I'm going to get some apple juice and do a cider... not beer but drinkable.

That's a start, Clint, thanks. If the Germans can call cider apfelwein, then it's not pushing it too far to call it apple beer. Just looking at an article on pumpkin beer in the independent. It seems to be popular across the pond.

 

[An Ankoù]

Yeah...but please don't use animal grade products...

Just seen worse than that, Clint. Dusted off my copy of "Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers" by Stephen Harrod Buhner, and re-read the chapter on psychotropic and highly inebriating beers which never fails to make me shudder. Didn't get into brewing to become a shaman. The following chapters on plants and meads makes for interesting reading, though. I recall there was a thread on this forum about three months ago where the merits of birch-sap and other saps wine was discussed that might be worth revisiting as we're coming into the season.

Just a point. Wine is made from grapes. Yet anything made from fruit that reaches wine strength is referred to as a wine or "country wine". Even barley wine! Similarly with beer, we've come to accept that beer must be made from malt, but it wasn't always so. I suppose anything alcoholic knocking out between, say, 3 and 7 percent could be considered a beer. Eg. Ginger beer.

 

[foxy]

For those fishermen
https://craftypint.com/news/1932/Sowing_The_Seeds_Of_Hemp_Beer

 

[The Baron]

Just going off at a tangent as its called bush beer. A good watch for kids off school can anybody remember BushTucker Man my kids loved it when they were younger

 

[An Ankoù]

Just going off at a tangent as its called bush beer. A good watch for kids off school can anybody remember BushTucker Man my kids loved it when they were younger

DIdn't remember the man or the tv series, but "bush beer" was inspired by "bush tucker".

 

[The Baron]

He was in the Aussie army and wrote their survival book he was the forerunner of Bear Grylls etc

 

[An Ankoù]

He was in the Aussie army and wrote their survival book he was the forerunner of Bear Grylls etc
Right. Mixing him up with the guy who used to get close to animals and was eventually killed by a manta ray. Nope. Don't think I've ever seen it. But he's the man for our days. I wonder if he made bush bogrolls.

 

[The Baron]

He was interesting to watch think he is on youtube, might start to watch again

 

[Clint]

Yeah remember bush tucker man... brilliant series.

 

[foxy]

Les Hiddins is the Bush Tucker Man, he got all his knowledge from the aborigines, tracking, finding water and food you need an aborigine. Watched a doco about Lassiters Reef and they were looking for where the aborigines buried Lassiter. An old aborigine who was a young boy when he saw him buried was asked if he could remember the location of his grave. After looking around at the surrounds went over to a spot and pointed down. Nailed it first go. Steve Irwin was always going to come to a sticky end, there are animals and reptiles which is advisable to show respect, snakes and crocodiles especially.

Back to Bush Brew what about nettle beer, they have that on tap in Prague and you have lots of stinging nettles over in the UK. Nettle Beer awwwwway we go.

 

[An Ankoù]

Les Hiddins is the Bush Tucker Man, he got all his knowledge from the aborigines, tracking, finding water and food you need an aborigine. Watched a doco about Lassiters Reef and they were looking for where the aborigines buried Lassiter. An old aborigine who was a young boy when he saw him buried was asked if he could remember the location of his grave. After looking around at the surrounds went over to a spot and pointed down. Nailed it first go. Steve Irwin was always going to come to a sticky end, there are animals and reptiles which is advisable to show respect, snakes and crocodiles especially.

Back to Bush Brew what about nettle beer, they have that on tap in Prague and you have lots of stinging nettles over in the UK. Nettle Beer awwwwway we go.

View attachment 23800

That one's definitely worth a try, Loads of nettles in our back garden, too.
Here's the recipe from the link above:
Ingredients

• 6l water
• A small carrier bag of nettle tops, washed
• Juice of 1 lemon, strained
• Juice of 1 orange, strained
• 750g caster sugar
• 30g cream of tartar
• 5g yeast

Method: How to make nettle ale

1. Bring the water to the boil in a large pan.

2. Add nettles, stir, then remove the pan from the heat and leave to infuse for at least an hour until it is at blood temperature.

3. Carefully - you might want to enlist a helper at this point - strain the nettle liquid through a colander lined with a large piece of unbleached muslin into a large brewing bucket or pan. Once the liquid has filtered through, squeeze the muslin to get the maximum amount of liquid into the bucket.

4. Gradually add the sugar, stirring constantly to ensure it is thoroughly dissolved, then add the cream of tartar, and lemon and orange juice.

5. Finally, once the mixture is tepid, stir in the yeast. Cover and leave for 2-3 days in a warm place, until it’s obviously fermenting.

6. Remove any scum which has risen to the top in fermentation and siphon the beer into sterilised bottles and seal with corks.

7. Leave for at least a couple more days or up to a month before drinking.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Here's a challenge. Pubs are shut. Supermarket beer shelves are emptying. Supplies are becoming harder to source. Kits are being snapped up. Money's short for many. Like it or not, leisure time is being thrust upon us so how can we put that to good use? What can we do to ensure there's a pint of something at the end of the day that could be called (even stretching it) beer? This is real desert island stuff. Any ideas for recipes that will make a decent pint of something out of stuff that we don't usually make beer out of?

malt extract from health store? Golden syrup and polish cherry or raspberry syrup with a carton pink grapefruit juice to add bitterness?

Disclaimer: Not tried it just wondering apart from yeast about £12

 

[SamBrewster]

Got a brew in the fermenter made with honey, dandilion, ground ivy and yarrow (at least I hope that's what I picked ). Using yeast from the weeds and a few bullace from the freezer. Just filtered into demi. Smells amazing, hope it works...

 

[phillc]

Just going off at a tangent as its called bush beer. A good watch for kids off school can anybody remember BushTucker Man my kids loved it when they were younger

As you've said, there are loads of his shows on YouTube: Les Hiddins the Bush Tucker Man

I grew up watching him as a teenager and now my 5yo is also quite into the shows. They really are terrific.

As pointed out earlier, he was a Major in the Australian Army. The story is during his time in Vietnam he'd realised how important it is for an army to be able to survive off the land and that the Australian Army was sadly lacking in this knowledge.

He built up friendships with local Aboriginal mobs in the northern parts of Australia and then started to disseminate that knowledge. Essentially, the cartographic maps of areas had the bush tucker descriptions, pictures and seasons printed on the reverse side.

After a couple of TV series dealing with bush tucker, he then made another series about European explorations in remote areas of Australia and the disastrous ends some of them came to. He'd often point out that if the Europeans had of known, there was plenty of bush tucker in the area.