Back in the sixties

I repitched my saved yeast into a quart of wort and left it on the counter in a brown bag. I have been away but my wife informed me it was bubbling quite vigorously and forming a krausen. I won’t be back for another week so I hope the yeast is still good. I plan on making a 1 gallon test batch then. I may take the liquid an taste it and maybe bottle with a fizz tab to Tate the yeast.

Brewed up a batch today and boiled up a extra large batch. Saved 1 gallon to make a sample with my wild yeast. Started fermenting pretty quickly. We will se where it goes. If it has a good flavor I plan on making a full batch with it . It had a distinct smell to it so I’m curious about the taste.

The yeast in the wild yeast beer is keeping time with my main batch with us -05. Smells sweet. All good signs.I was worried the fermentation would be slow but that’s not the case. Bubbles are starting to slow after 6 days, beer looks clean . Going to let it clean up and then bottle.

Here is the update. Fermentation looks to be complete. The krausen didn’t completely fall but activity has stopped. Tonight I will take a gravity and bottle. Any tips on bottling 1 gallon batches. I have some fizz tabs but only five gallon equipment.

FG .004. Tasted good, smelled good. I’ll taste the beer in a couple weeks after it’s conditioned. Then I will make a beer using 6row maybe a little wheat and some hops

Tasted the carbonated product and am very impressed. Got a good amount of yeast so I will do a five gallon batch. The beer is aromatic with fruity yeast flavors. I think it will be nice with less hops. The wort I used for the one gallon was from an IPA. I will use 6 row and a bit of wheat. Cluster hops since they are the oldest strain. Going to be a pre prohibition saison style. Will have to wait a couple weeks to free up a fermenter .

I like this thread and it’s cool to think of what people did during prohibition or anytime they wanted to make it instead of buy it. It would be interesting if someone here knew what they were doing (whether in the 20s or throughout the century) and looked hard for someone to send them a bottle of beer they still may have some yeast in it. Wheat beers that are cloudy have that very distinct banana and clove aroma to it so if that is what you smelled, it could be that and anyone with the know-how could make beer using that yeast as long as it was still viable. Someone in Canada or Europe could send a few bottles to someone in the US and they would drink the beer (of course) and then save the yeast. Most lagers were probably filtered even then so getting yeast from a bottle like that would be pretty much impossible and pasteurization could be a hurdle too. I can’t imagine how beer would taste if you used baker’s yeast. Has anyone ever tried it?

Yes. The ones I’ve tried were very much like you’d get with a German Wiessbier yeast. Lots of banana.

Yes. The ones I’ve tried were very much like you’d get with a German Wiessbier yeast. Lots of banana.[/quote]

Same results here. Along with bubblegum.

Yes. The ones I’ve tried were very much like you’d get with a German Wiessbier yeast. Lots of banana.[/quote]

Same results here. Along with bubblegum.[/quote]
Oogie.

:x

I wonder what american beer would be like if we didn’t lose a decade to prohibition. After the 18th was repealed I believe breweries were only allowed to produce lower ABV beer. That and the light beer given GI 's during the war got us to light commercial beers we have now. I look to Canada, back in the 60’s and 70’s when I visited my uncle in Quebec I would bring back the " good stuff" Molsen Canadian, it was higher ABV and much more flavorful than anything available in the States. I havnt been over the border in awhile so I don’t know what the scene is now. I do know that what they ship south is not what they keep for themselves. My cousins have told me about a secret ingredient that is added to the export.

I don’t think so about the ABV. I have had a beer that was over 14% from 1934.

I don’t think so about the ABV. I have had a beer that was over 14% from 1934.[/quote]

Did it still taste good?

I doubt you’d recognize it as beer. It was a bit like Scotch. I’d say the experience was more educational than gustatorial.

I tasted my wild yeast beer after it aged a few months and it was very,very good I have a five gallon saison going with it now. I believe this is how it was done. It had a good amount of carbonation but not a gusher by any means. I have one more bottle which I will age a little longer and see if it keeps getting more carbed. Don’t know what it means since used fizz drops.

Well I dug this post up to link to another post and enjoyed rereading it so I bumped it up to amend it. Now I played with that wild yeast and blended into some 3711 and used it in my saison for awhile. Made some nice saison but I eventually retired it. I’ve been thinking recently of the 60s and my old man and getting a taste of the foam from his Rheingold. The pilsner I’m drinking now poured a little foamy and as I was drinking that foam I was transported back . It wasn’t exact but close. I’ll try again with cluster hops this one had lubliner

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Don’t get me wrong I’m not trying to make Rheingold beer which never impressed me past the smell as a kid

Reminiscing is fun to do… My first taste of beer was when I turned 4 years old… On my birthday! I recall it being a small clear bottle… possibly Miller high life… 52 years ago! Sneezles61

Hmm I would have been 12 about the time we got into that home brew. I vividly remember the smell since it was over carbonated and we got sprayed alot trying to pry them open. Dad knew the smell also, couldn’t sit down for a week

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I could tell some stories about miller ponies, but that would get too close to revealing my age!! Haha

Cheers to nostalgia,

Ron

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