Free (Open Source) Beer

While I had previously seen home made wine and beer and was well enough aware of the microbrewery phenomenon, it was confusing to me that, something that people had been creating for thousands of years, was to be either purchased at a store selling liquor, or purchased as a kit from a store.

For both romantic reasons and also for the purpose of not having to rely on a company to produce something for me, of which I had no control over quality, it was baffling that a person could not make their own spirits from scratch.  So in 2008 I took it upon myself to learn about mead and eventually created from scratch, less the yeast which was purchased from a store, what I would call the best apple mead that I'd ever tasted.  Of course, I had never had apple mead, so...

It really was a huge success and I learned a lot along the way.  I have not created any new alcoholic beverage, since.  But if I do, I am certain that it will be "from scratch" once again.  There's nothing quite like the quality and flavours one can create with their own recipes and fresh ingredients.

Apparently, it's not just me that likes fresh made food and drink.  As beer, among other beverages, is moving into the Open Source realm.

Like many things in our world, people can get confused about what is "common knowledge" and what can be copied and shared.  Especially with things like food or beverages, one should be able to expect that our basic needs are free from restriction.  Yet that is not the case, as we discussed earlier with our "Open Source Food" article.

Making food and drink is not copyright or protected by IP law, but a recipe, as a written work of art, is generally under copyright, and a process by which food or drink might be made, could be under patent.  So cooking and eating is not always a freedom oriented right.

And so it is, for things like beer, wine and spirits.  We have been making and consuming alcoholic beverages for thousands of year, yet recipes and the process of making alcoholic beverages are often copyright or patented.  This adds some significant costs.  Of course, that is outside the scope of taxation, even though they might seem one and the same.

Although beer is not as old as wine, it is still from about 5000 to 3000 BCE.  The original wine was really just mead, and beer took that process and added some extra...  flavours...  It is not so much about using yeast, as wine required yeast.  Rather, it is possible that some better understanding of yeast, along with cereals or other plants, which allowed for the production of beer.  And of course, beer making requires heat.

Wikipedia has a great article about the history of beer.  While we equate monks with making beer, they were making wine, or rather mead, probably more often.  Again, comparing beer to wine, wine is more of an art, whereas beer is more of a science.

Of course, there shouldn't be any question, but if there was, wine, beer, and other alcoholic beverage recipes and processes were shared, back in the day.  Certainly, some recipes were sacred or not shared, but for the most part, the basic information for creating beer was common knowledge, and everyone brewed for their taste, just like in cooking.

Eventually, processes like filtering, how the hops and beer were made and combined, and even pasteurizing became something that was simply done, in order to prevent a bad batch and possible sickness.  Which brings us to todays laws which, in some areas, even prevents people from making their own beer, wine, or spirits, for their own consumption.

That said, the old traditions, recipes, and processes are not lost, for those who do want to make their own, unprocessed beer.  And that information is being made available through open source initiatives.

The first such open source beer was under a project called "Free Beer".  Of course, that is a play on an open source mantra which goes, "free as in speech, not as in beer".  So basically Free Beer states, beer can be free, just as in speech.

Now it is important to note that Free Beer is under a CC BY-SA 2.5 license.  While it is nice and open source, requiring attribution (making sure you mention where / who the recipe came from) it means that one MUST share derivatives back to the community, which MUST have a CC BY-SA 2.5 license.  In other words, you cannot change the license of your, unique derivative.

That said, making beer is like cooking, in that once you know how, one can create ones own recipe from scratch and distribute it under what ever license one chooses.

If you would like to review and make your own, the Free Beer recipes are located on their web site, starting from newest version to oldest at the bottom.

OK, Free Beer recipes are not actually "from scratch".  Most people who make beer or wine, use a kit.  Those who make "from scratch" wine, generally use processed, white sugar and processed yeast.  Yes, most people consider that "from scratch", but using honey and home made yeast would truly be, "from scratch".

Yes, that's nit picking.  Which brings us to some of the main ingredients and by-products of making beer, being Malt, Hops, and Wort.

Basically, beer kits are pretty much Wort.  It is a by-product (liquid) of the Malt and Hops processing.  Wort itself can go through some processes, such as pasteurization.  But Wort starts as Wort and ends as Wort, before final Yeast addition and fermentation.

So, at the beginning of beer, we have Malt.  It is the beginning of beer, and can sometimes be the beginning of a great Whisky.    Malt is, for all intents and purposes, sprouted cereal grain of some sort, most often Barley.  As the Wikipedia article on Malt explains, "The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air."  For all intents and purposes, cereal grains contain a large percentage

of starch.  Starch is basically an energy source for the newly germinated grain.  As such, starch is ultimately an early, or raw form of sugar.  Which becomes an energy source for the yeast, once fermentation begins.  What is nice about the malting process is, it provides some of the more core flavourings of the beer, depending on what type of cereal grain is used.

Producing a "from scratch" beer would necessitate making one's own Malt.  In authentic, pre-historic beer creation, one would stop with the malt and begin the fermentation.  The malt can be made into a mash or liquid extract wort directly, but newer beer technology introduced another ingredient.

Does the average person know what Hops is, other than a name for a beer ingredient?  As explained by the Wikipedia article, "Hops are the female flowers

(also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant, Humulus lupulus.^[1] They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine."  Yes, my friends...  Hops is basically the end result of a flower of an obscure plant.

Hops, of course, are used as is and do not require any germination process.  Like Malt, Hops generally go through a similar drying processes.  They do not have to be dried, but one might suspect some more unique flavourings and aromas are unbound during the drying process.  Dried or not dried, the Hops are added to the Malt mash or Wort and further boiled to infuse with and accentuate the Malt Wort.

Again, if authenticity and tradition holds to your recipe, one would not strain off the Mash solids.  Rather, yeast would be added to the mash, with additional water, and the fermentation process would begin.  Civilized brewers filter out the solids and simply use the clear Wort during fermentation.

But, it may not stop there.  As some beer makers will add additional flavourings and starches prior to fermentation.  Again, the more sugar, the more alcohol. 

These are the 7%+ varieties of beer, if that's your game.  The starches can come in any form from wheat, corn, rye, rice, etc.  Or one could simply use additional white sugar or ingredients like honey or molasses, for example, which would add flavours.

Before we have the end product beer, we need to go through the fermentation process.  This involves Yeast.  Now, yeast is yeast, but there is desirable yeast and undesirable yeast.  For making things for human consumption, one really wants the desirable yeast, and for making beer, one generally wants a brewer's yeast, whether top or bottom cropping.

As mentioned above, yeast is yeast.  It eats carbohydrates (starches / sugars) with cabon dioxide and alcohol as bi-products.  We can't see yeast without a microscope, so once the (liquid) medium yeast culture is produced, it is reduced to a glob of yeast...  "stuff"...  which is basically dormant or baby yeasts, and is often shipped in a medium of a soft block, like butter.  But, if one wants dry yeast, it comes in a dry pellet form.  One can actually use the sludge left over from fermentation for the next batch of beer.  You are actually creating your own yeast babies during fermentation.

But, if you want to make your own yeast babies, beware.  "Bad" yeast can show up eventually in a yeast culture, which at best could lead to a bad fermentation, and at worst, could make you or the beer consumer severely ill.  Learn well about making your own yeast, and know there is a risk.

No matter where you are at, the mash, wort, or whatever with the yeast and additional water will result in beer.  That beer can be further processed, including inducing a dormancy in the yeast and adding additional sugar for a sweet beer, to setting in a cask for additional fermentation and flavour additions, or it can be consumed as is.

Regardless of your taste, if you want to embark on creating your own beer, from scratch or not, enjoy the journey and your results could be absolutely brilliant.  And yes, your fantastic, traditional beer might be cloudy like a root beer float, and may contain chunks.  Enjoy, regardless.