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Native Beer: A Guide to Indigenous Beer Around the World

Mbege (Beer)

At one point or another, all beer was native.

It was regional. Indigenous. Communal. Domestic.

Nearly all cultures have their own version of beer based on whatever grain was around in the area at the time.  In Asia it was often rice, in Europe barley or wheat, millet in Africa, and in the Americas maize was common.  The only universally consistent components found in beer were grain, water, yeast and/or bacteria.  The widespread use of hops in beer is only a historically recent occurrence beginning in about the 11th century in Europe, which is partly why hops as an ingredient is not typical seen in indigenous beer around the world.

And with the craft beer renaissance in full swing at least in the U.S., don’t be surprised if you happen across one of these exotic brews in the near future as modern brewers rediscover native beer.  Dogfish Head already did a take on at least one of the old school brews below, but the truth is that you don’t have to wait for Dogfish Head to revive these not so well known brews— some of these traditional beers are so user-friendly, you could make them in our own home today!

First we’ll look at an old Slavic beer, then jump over to the New World for a few native treats, and finally swing back around to Africa to check out some tribal beers.

Or you can do a choose-your-own-adventure tour and skip to whatever region interests you most by clicking below.

Native Slavic Beer

Native Beer of the Americas

African Native Beer


Deschutes Beer Clone Recipes

The Abyss - Deschutes Brewery
[Image courtesy of BeerSyndicate.com]

Having trouble sourcing a bottle of Deschutes’ The Abyss (rated a World-Class 100 points by BeerAdvocate)? Don’t feel like arranging an online beer trade?  Well, if you’re a homebrewer and know a thing or two about recipe formulation, Deschutes Brewery has been so kind as to point you in the right direction by revealing many of the key details of several of their tasty brews ranging from the hopped up wit beer, Chainbreaker White IPA, to yes, even the dark, immeasurably complex Imperial Stout, The Abyss.

But what fun would it be if they gave you every last detail of the recipe?  Deschutes is leaving it up to you to figure out temps, times, and weights.  And if your aim is to match The Abyss and you’re desperately in need of some liquid inspiration, as of November 13th, Deschutes has released their 2014 installment of The Abyss for distribution.  [Currently Deschutes distributes to about half of the states in the U.S. and British Columbia and Alberta, Canada.]

Oh, one hint on replicating The Abyss: The brewery has indicated that they add blackstrap molasses and Italian brewer’s licorice (presumable to the boil), then vanilla beans and cherry bark to the finish (secondary).  After which point, 28% of the brew is barrel-aged for 6 months in barrels: 6% bourbon barrels, 11% Oregon Oak, and 11% Pinot Noir, and then blended.  Of course this particular barreling aspect will be difficult to reproduce at the home level, which is where some creativity will be required.  Your final ABV should fall between 10-11%, and bitterness should come in at a whopping 86 IBUs to balance out the copious amount of malt.

Happy cloning!

[Click on image(s) below to enlarge.]

Deschutes Clone Recipes

Deschutes Clone Recipes

For Black Butte Porter clone tips, Deschutes’ flagship brew, try fermenting with Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale yeast, but make sure to allow a sufficient diacetyl rest unless you’re shooting for Black Butter Porter.  Ringwood yeast can be finicky and slow starting, so pitch a healthy starter (1 million cells per Plato), and plan on an attenuation of 68-72% with high flocculation (great for clarity).  Deschutes uses a proprietary house yeast for their Black Butte (and probably anywhere else where you read the words “English Yeast” on their recipes), but per the head brewer, Wyeast 1187 is your best bet.

If you really want to nail the particular biscuity English yeast profile, you can try your hand at reculturing  some yeast from a bottle or two of Black Butte (link: How to Harvest Yeast From a Beer Bottle). It’s not as difficult as some might think, not to mention, you’re saving on yeast money!  Here’s another idea: reculture some yeast from a bottle of Black Butte (using a bomber would probably be easier), but also buy a vial of Wyeast 1187.  Once your wort is chilled, split the batch into two fermentors, adding the Wyeast 1187 to one batch, and your recultured yeast to the other and see which one you think is closer once everything’s said and done.

Wheat was revealed to be the secret ingredient in Black Butte that aided in the brew’s head retention and creamy, silky mouthfeel, and should make up approximately 8-11% of the grain bill.  The recipe also calls for about 5-7% Chocolate Malt with roughly equal parts American (Briess) and English (Hugh Baird) Chocolate Malts.  The rest of the grain bill is made of domestic 2-Row Pale Malt, Carapils for body, and a fair amount (about 5%) of 75L Crystal Malt, but anything between 70-80L should work.  Starting gravity is between 1.055 and 1.058, and final gravity is 1.016 – 1.018, leaving you with an ABV of around 5.6%.  Per the head brewer, you’re looking at an SRM in the low 60s (60-61), however this seems a bit high.  25-30 SRM might be more like it.

Brew with somewhat hard water; if necessary add some gypsum to about 129 ppm to end up with basically a neutral pH of 7.1.  Mash-in at 130°F for 10 minutes, then raise to a conversion temperature of 156°F (plus or minus 2 degrees) for 60 minutes, and finally mash off at 168°F for 10 minutes to create some additional alpha amylase activity.  Your pH after mashing should be around 5.1-5.2, and then 4.4-4.6 after fermentation.

The prescribed 90 minute boil time is incorporated in order to produce a bit more caramelization and also to accentuate the chocolate malt.  As far hops go, Deschutes recommends staying away from citrusy hops.  In the past, Deschutes used to use either Galena or Nugget at boil for the bittering addition, but now appears to have switched to Bravo.  However, they’ve stuck with Cascade and Tettnanger for the flavor addition at 30 and 10 minutes before knockout, respectively.  IBUs should fall in the 28 – 32 range.  Ferment at a max of 65°F in order to reign in the fruity esters.

Here’s an attempt at an apparently spot on Black Butte clone first aired on The Jamil Show back in 2009 ( you may wish to make some adjustments to the following recipe based on the information above):

6 Gallon Batch (7.7 Gallon Preboil)
90 Minute Boil Time (70% Efficiency)
Preboil OG: 1.045
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.012
10.58 lb Pale Malt (2 row- Briess)
1.39 lb Wheat Malt
.7 lb Crystal 80
.42 lb American Chocolate Malt
.42 lb English Chocolate Malt
.42 lb 2-Row Carapils
.6 oz Galena (90 Minutes)
.25 Cascade (30 Minutes)
.25 Mt. Hood (5 Minutes)
Mash-In (130°F for 10 Minutes)
Sacc Rest (156°F for 60 Minutes)
Mash-Out (168°F for 10 Minutes)
Yeast: WLP 013
Fermentation Temperature (65°F )

Cheers!


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Want to read more beer inspired thoughts?  Come back any time, friend us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter:

Or feel free to drop me a line at: dan@beersyndicate.com

Hi, I’m Dan: Beer Editor for Beer Syndicate, Beer and Drinking Blogger, Gold Medal-Winning Homebrewer, Beer Reviewer, AHA Member, Beer Judge, Shameless Beer Promoter, and Beer Traveler.  Interests? Beer.

Daniel J. Leonard

How to Make Swamp Cider

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Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing

    -Second Witch, Macbeth, Act IV Scene I

With Halloween just two weeks away, it’s time to get into the spirit— cider style.

For this insidious installment, I’ve exhumed a diabolically delicious drink from the depths of my recipe vault for you to take a stab at.  It’s a ghoulishly green grog, afflictionately referred to as Swamp Cider, and it’s brain-dead simple to make.

If you don’t drag your feet, you even have a bloody good chance of summoning up a freshly fermented batch of this beastly beverage to serve your fiends and family in time for All Hallows’ Eve.  Besides, you know what they say: Idle hands are the devil’s workshop

[Point of Clarification: This recipe/tutorial is for creating a fermented, and therefore alcoholic, cider. For a non-alcoholic version of Swamp Cider, try blending roughly equal parts green juice (see below) and Martinelli’s (non-alcoholic) Sparkling Cider, or force carbonating green juice with a product like SodaStream.  Now, on with the show…]

Here’s the bare bones list of the two things you’ll need in order to brew up to 5 gallons of Swamp Cider:

1. Green Juice. I use Trader Joe’s Green Plant juice which contains a fair amount of apple juice; it tastes good and won’t break the bank.

green juice

There are some other more pricy blends out there that may work for you including Naked’s Green Machine, Odwalla’s Superfood, Suja’s Glow, Juice Press’ Love at First Sight, BluePrint’s Green Juice, Organic Avenue’s Mellow Love, etc.   Ultimately, the decision is yours as to which green juice tastes best to you, so feel free to sample a few, and go with your favorite.  Just keep in mind that some green juice blends are thicker than others and may need to be diluted a bit with quality, 100% apple juice or apple cider (fresh pasteurized cider from an orchard is best, but of course not necessary). 

bonesNote!  It’s deathly vital that your store-bought juice DOES NOT contain the preservatives sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate. These chemicals, which should be clearly noted on the ingredients list, are usually a death sentence when it comes to your cider ever fermenting and becoming alcoholic.  Citric acid or ascorbic acid is fine.  Again, it’s also critical that you actually enjoy the taste of the green juice that you’re using because the final product will retain much of the original aroma and flavor components.

Now, if you already have a killer green juice recipe in your spell book, you could conjure up your own concoction, just bear in mind that your blend should contain approximately 25-50% apple juice or cider.  If you’re feeling a bit sluggish, you can always pick up a tasty green blend at one of your favorite juice bar haunts.  There’s just one catch… Your homemade juice and most likely the fresh pressed juice at the juice bar is not pasteurized (flash boiled), which means there will almost certainly be wild yeast and possibly certain spoilage bacteria in it which can produce off-flavors in your final cider.  In this case, the options are (1) heat your juice to 180°F for 45 minutes (do not boil), which will kill most bacteria and wild yeast, or (2) just add the unpasteurized juice and cross your fingers…

2. Yeast. Yeast is the age old fungus that will provide the magic needed to transform your limp green juice into a lively libation. The yeast, which comes in either dry or liquid form, will consume the sugars in your juice and convert them into alcohol and bubbling CO2.  

Using baker’s yeast will probably ferment your Swamp Cider, but it might also produce more bread-like aroma and flavor components, so it’s not exactly my first choice— ever.

For this recipe, I recommend a liquid English Ale Yeast (WLP 002) which you can find at your local or online homebrew store.  Shipping liquid yeast through the mail usually costs more than shipping dry yeast, not to mention, liquid yeast usually costs about double what dry yeast does (about $8 VS $4, respectively).  So if there is no local homebrew shop in your area, you could use a dry English yeast such as Windsor Ale Yeast, which will be cheaper to ship.  English Ale Yeast generally will leave you with a semi-sweet cider, whereas cider and wine yeasts have a tendency to finish dryer, sometimes bone dry.  The amount of yeast sold in a single packet or vial at homebrew shops will be enough to ferment up to 5 gallons of Swamp Cider, and certainly no problem for fermenting lesser amounts.

Basic Procedure

1. Combine your green juice and yeast into a clean* food-grade plastic container (up to 5 gallons), and cover with aluminum foil. You can poke a few holes in the foil with a fork to allow the CO2 produced by the yeast to more easily escape. If using a glass container, DO NOT tightly seal a lid onto the jar, or the jar will most likely explode due to the building pressure of the CO2 produced by the yeast. Remove the lid and replace with aluminum foil like mentioned above.

Tip! Stretching the Yeast: Buying multiple packets of yeast can get pricy, so if you’re fermenting in two containers, but only have one vial/packet of yeast, you can divide the yeast in half (just eyeball it) between the two containers.  If fermenting in more than two containers with only one vial/packet of yeast, you could add the yeast to a cup of green juice or cider, shake or stir well, then evenly distribute the yeast to the different containers.

[* Cleaning: I recommend rinsing the inside of your containers, or any equipment coming in contact with your yeast or unfermented cider, for 30 seconds with a product called “One-Step”.  One-Step is a human-friendly, scentless cleanser which can be found at your local/online homebrew shop. It comes in a dry, white powder form which you simply mixed with water for use; usually 1 table spoon to 1 gallon of water.]

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2. Place container in a consistently cool place (60°F is ideal) and wait 1-2 weeks. At above 70-75°F, the cider can start taking on stronger alcoholic notes. Too far below about 55°F, and the cider may not ferment at all.

 [Fermenting Swamp Cider in glass jug.  Notice a small grimy ring called a “krausen” will form near the top of the liquid; this is normal.]

3. Drink. Straight from the container, you’re cider will be slightly effervescent at best, but generally flat, or, as it’s referred to in the cider world, “still” or “petulant”.

Optional: If you want to carbonate your cider, the easiest/cost-effective way to do it if you don’t have a kegging system or a product like SodaStream is to wait until fermentation is complete (1-2 weeks), transfer your cider to cleaned plastic containers, and then add a measured amount of sugar back into your cider.  If you want your Swamp Cider ready by Halloween, then ferment for 9 days, then bottle for 5 days.  Here’s a program to help you determine how much: Priming Sugar Calculator

If you want to bottle in glass, you need to make sure the glass you want to use is thick enough to handle the carbonation.  Swing-top soda and beer bottles are fine, but the standard wine bottles that are used for uncarbonated wine are too risky.  If you want to bottle in regular beer bottles, here’s how you do it: How to Bottle

Well, boils and ghouls, you’re now possessed with the knowledge of how to make a sinister Swamp Cider, which means that you can get to brewing, and I can stop invoking the Crypt Keeper….

Bone appetite!

[Thirsty for more? Below you’ll find a little fermenting F-A-Q just for Y-O-U.  Enjoy.]


Like this blarticle? Well, thanks- you’re far too kind.  Want to read more beer inspired thoughts?  Come back any time, subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/beersyndicate.



Or feel free to drop me a line at: dan@beersyndicate.com

Hi, I’m Dan: Beer Editor for Beer Syndicate, Beer and Drinking Blogger, Gold Medal-Winning Homebrewer, Beer Reviewer, AHA Member, Beer Judge, Shameless Beer Promoter, and Beer Traveler.  Interests? Beer.

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FAQ- (Frequently Axed Questions)      

Is it really that simple?

Yep.  If you want to learn how to create different kinds of cider recipes or improve your technique, you can read more about it on the aptly named tutorial How to Make Great Cider, but if I had to pick out the two most important bits, it would be this: (1) be clean, and (2) control the temperature of your cider during fermentation. Being clean means not only keeping your hands clean, but making sure your equipment is clean too.  Controlling your fermentation temperatures can be a little more complicated.  At the beginner level, either finding an area of the house that’s consistently about 55-65°F, or putting your fermenting containers in some sort of clean bucket or bin, adding 60°F water up to about half way of your container(s), monitoring with a thermometer, then occasionally adding ice to reduce the temperature when necessary.  Just don’t let any water from the bin get inside your fermenting cider— who knows what’s floating around in it.

How will it taste?

Depends on the quality of the green juice and what type of yeast that you use.  As long as you enjoy the taste of the green juice prior to fermentation and you’re running a clean operation, your Swamp Cider should turn out well.

Can I pour the yeast right into the green juice containers?

Yes, but most containers you might find in the grocery store are relatively small, containing usually less than a gallon.  If it were me, I’d ferment at least 1-2 gallons at a time (one gallon equals about ten 12 oz beer bottles).  One little trick I use is to buy the 1 gallon jugs of apple juice/apple cider from the grocery store (Sprouts/Whole Foods, etc.), drink or transfer half the juice, and then ferment right in the glass jug.  An identical 1 gallon glass jug at the homebrew shop runs about $5-$6; I found the same one at Sprouts on sale for $5.99, except it was filled with organic unfiltered apple juice.  You do the math.

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Will it make me sick?

Extremely unlikely.  If you’re clean and keep the fermenting cider away from germ spreaders like pets, kids, bugs, and the undead, there is very little chance some bad thing is going to get into your cider; no more so than would get into a bottle of soda kept in a pantry.

How much alcohol will be in the cider?

Depends on how much sugar was in your green juice, but probably somewhere in the 5-7% range.

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