Update to the recent note about brewing: brewed up some molasses beer last night and got it all started in a new primary fermenter (For the tightwads out there, a PET plastic fermenter, complete with airlock and spigot: $10–33% of its already low $15 price. Enables making another batch of ultra low cost, drinkable beer, as opposed to buying the overpriced stuff obtained by draining horses that is foisted off on stupid beer drinkers by most large American brewers). It’ll take a minimum of 24 of the swingtop bottles (or 32 12-oz regular bottles I could use my new bottle capper and regular caps to bottle) when it reaches time to bottle condition it. Oh, molasses beer? Essentially just use molasses in place of unhopped malt extract or brewing up some wort from scratch, add some ginger, cloves and lemon zest. Oh, and (this time) I “hopped” it twice–once while boiling the wort and then a dry hopping after pitching the yeast to the wort in the primary fermenter. Easy-peasy.
Oh, I’d forgotten to get some fresh beer yeast, soooo… I could have used bread yeast. After all, the earliest known beer recipe used bread soaked in water. But, nah. I’d just bottled a fresh batch of wheat beer the day before and saved the trub. Revived the yeast in the trub and used that. Result? It’s bubbling happily away today. Nanny-nanny-boo-boo to any snooty beer mavens out there who think a new batch of yeast every time is absolutely essential.
Of course, that does mean I didn’t get to use the trub to make a batch of bread with. Oh, well.
Well, you had wheat and yeast, why not just whip out the bread machine and make some bread?
Oh, Lucy, I do make bread. Good stuff, home made bread. But bread–even home made bread–doesn’t have as many of the health benefits that beer does,
1.) Light-to-moderate beer drinking may lower stroke risk by as much as 20%.
2.) The polyphenols in red wine that have so much good press about their antioxidant effect reducing free radicals and reducing the risk of heart attacks? Beer has simmilar amounts of polyphenols and 2-3 servings a day can lower risk of coronary artery diosease by 30-40%.
3.) Homocysteine has been shown to have strong links to heart disease, and Vitamin B6–great for controlling homocysteine levels–is abundant in beer. Beer drinkers show healthier homocysteine blood levels than wine or liquor drinkers.
4.) Moderate beer drinking has a stress-reducing effect (whereas almost everyone can envision the stress-inducing effects of heavy beer drinking–*heh*).
5. A glass of beer is a great soporific. 🙂 Beer is not the perfect sleep aid, but is beneficial to some. In moderation.
6.) Beer helps promote blood vessel dilation (many side benefits–especially for us old guys) and urination.
7.) A main ingredient in beer is a prostate cancer antagonist (!). (So, between hops’ xanthohumol and beer’s famous ability to promote urination, a wonderful benefit to guys as we age ;-)).
8.) A Finnish study indicates that beer seems to reduce the risk of developing kidney stones.
9.) Those clever Japanese have discovered that beta-pseudouridine found in beer actually helps reduce chromosonal damage from radiation exposure! (Maybe I can dispense with my lead cup and tinfoil hat, ya think? :-))
10.) Beer contains anti-inflammatory agents (from the hops). Nice for my joints–and maybe yours, too, eh?
The alcohol in beer–generally less than in many other (almost all other) alcoholic beverages–is also beneficial in several ways, including
11.) Lowering HDL levels
12.) In mice at least, moderate dosages of alcohol spurs the growth of new brain cells. (I’m not a mouse, but the research indicates that moderate beer drinking may actually help me as much as coffee does! :-))
13.) Moderates insulin levels.
While I’ve also brewed up a batch of “hobo wine” (which I call w(h)ine), and it’s passed muster as “OK” from a coupla wine drinkers, I just don’t like it for several reasons. Not as many health benefits as beer and the stuff’s just got too much alcohol content for my taste. I happen to prefer a clear head to a buzzed one, and high alcolhol content in things generally doesn’t agree with my stomach much (it’s a tad finicky), though the five-to-seven percent beer I brew generally is just fine. I’ll brew some more, I’m sure, but I’ll probably just give it away or “cut” it with grape juice. *heh*
The hard apple cider I’ve currently got in a primary fermenter (brewing with wine yeast, instead of the bread yeast I used for the
w(h)ine) is about ready to rack into a secondary fermenter… which I’ve yet to make. It’s about as experimental as can be. I am going to add a couple of cans of frozen, concentrated apple juice to the secondary fermenter before I rack the cider into it. Could be interesting.
Again, “apple wine” is just for fun. A lil chemistry experiment. Not going to make a whole lot of it. No hops, for one thing. *heh* I don’t expect it’ll get used up quickly.
Later this winter, I plan to take about 6# of honey and make some mead. Again, no hops. Many of the beer-ish health benefits will be missing (though the honey itself will add different health benefits of its own), and though I’ve never tasted mead, I hold no high hopes I’ll like it much, since it’s supposed to be very sweet stuff. I may have to use it to soak pancakes or make some flaming crepes or some such. 🙂
All this is in aid of
1. Cheap entertainment
2. Healthful foods and drink.
3. Stretching the boundaries of new things I can do.
4. Making things on the cheap (part of entertainment, part of “survival with style” etc.–Imagine: a lil barley patch, a lil hops growin’ on the side of trhe house: barter material. Heck, the “possum grapes” growing all over the fence could make some interesting “w(h)ine” I imagine: more barter material)
Other “weird entertainment/survival with style” posts may come up in future: “making furniture from windfalls–the downed limbs desk” for example. 🙂
Thanks for dropping by, Lucy.