Thank you MySpace. You are a wealth of crappy pictures of girls acting gangsta.

I was thinking lately about getting back to my roots and making an easy peasy homemade extract soda that anyone can do. To really make it something that anyone can do I’m also gonna do it the ghetto way. What is the ghetto way? Well it’s the same way you make prison wine. The only difference is we stop this process before it becomes prison wine. Speaking of prison wine though, would anyone be interested in me posting a write up on that? It might be fun.

Anyway, here is what you’ll need.

2 2ltr soda bottles
Root Beer Flavoring
Yeast
2 1/2 Cups Sugar
2 ltr Water

Clean and sanitize your bottles. While that is going on heat water and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Once the bottles are sanitized and clean add 2 1/2 tsp rootbeer flavoring to each bottle. Next split the sugar water mixture in half and pour half into each bottle. Top off the bottles with water, only filling to where the bottle starts to slope towards the cap. Add 1/4 tsp of yeast to each bottle, cap, agitate, and leave out for a few days. Squeeze the bottles daily to determine how carbonation is comeing along. After to or three days the bottle should be taught. Place in the refridgerator for at least another two days before consuming. Once you place it in the refridgerator the bottle needs to stay refridgerated when it’s cap is on. If the soda goes flat then leave out until bottle is taught again.

Ghetto soda should always be accompanied by crappy cell phone pictures

Originaly posted at http://www.theweeklybrew.com/2009/03/brewing-soda

     Ever since I started using specialty grains in my extract brewing I’ve been trying to come up with uses for the depleted hulls. My first thought was toss it on the garden. Spent grain works well for composting, and it can improve soil drainage. The problem with this solution is that dogs enjoy eating spent grain, and large amounts of it aren’t good for them. The next idea was to make dog treats, which I did. The problem is one batch of dog treats made quite a bit and I ended up giving away a lot. My latest attempt to use up this grain? Bread. By the way, it goes great with beer.

Problem Solving

The main problem with bread made from barley is it’s flavor. Since wheat is a much more suitable grain we’ll use a recipe that offsets the flavor of the barley with flour and other flavors. To do this I used a honey wheat bread recipe that I love. Also another problem with spent grain is that it’s high in low quality protein and fiber, but low in sugars since those were boiled out for beer. To compensate for this your choices are cut back on flour, or mix the grain with a low protein pastry flour. I chose to do the mix since my lack of baking skills didn’t allow me to do the math needed to cut the flour.

Preparing The Grain

To prepare the grain I spread it out on sheets of wax paper and allowed it to dry for several days. Once I was certain that the grain was completely dried out I cleaned out the coffee grinder and used it as a grain mill of sorts. After I’d ground the grain to a fine powder then it was much more simple to add it into recipes.

The Recipe

2 cups stone ground whole wheat flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup ground spent grain
1 cup honey
1/4 cup shortening
1 tablespoon salt
2 1/2 cup Very Warm Water
2 packages yeast or about 2 tablespoons
3 to 4 cups all purpose flour
softened butter

Combine the whole wheat flours, the spent grain, salt, sugar, yeast, shortening, and water and mix on low speed for a couple minutes. Begin stirring in the all purpose flour in small doses until the dough comes together and is easy to handle. Knead on a floured surface or with a dough hook in your mixer for 10 min. The dough should be elastic and look smooth. Put in a greased bowl then flip so the greased side is up and cover to let rise for about an hour, or until it’s doubled. Grease two loaf pans while the bread rises. Punch down the dough and split in two. Flatten each half into rectangles with your hands then fold into thirds, pinch it to seal, then roll lightly into the desired shape. Place loaves into pans and lightly grease with softened butter. After letting them rise again till doubled bake in a 375° oven for 45 min until loaves are a deep rich brown. Pull out, spread butter over the tops, and place on racks to cool.

♦ 1 Pint Mason Jar
♦ Blueberries
♦ 1 12oz flattened Beer (I used my spoiled one)
♦ 80 proof alcohol (40% apv)

fill the jar 1/2 full with blueberries. Add the beer, top off with blueberries, and add shots of the hard stuff till full. The alcohol should just cover the blueberries. My advice on the alcohol is to choose one you like. I ended up using moonshine my first time around since I was worried about the blueberries blending well with something else. When I make my next batch though I’m going with scotch I think. Screw on the lid and store in a cool dark place. Shake daily to mix it for at least a week, constantly checking for fermentation. Once it occurs you need to refrigerate, the longer you leave it though the better. Once it’s finished then it’s time to filter, and serve over ice, or cook down into a sauce. Store in a jar with a resealable lid and check continually for fermentation. If it occurs, stick it in the fridge. This drink is a bit stronger then beer, so drink in moderation.

Ok, I can’t help adding a little history.

Tinctures are fairly old as alcohol is a very effective preservative. They are extremely common in the medical and herbal communities for preserving the medicinal qualities of items, and are often found as extracts at the local grocery store. Most Americans are more familiar though with the more recreational variety, liqueurs. Liqueurs are made by soaking volatile substances like fruit in alcohol, whereas tinctures are nonvolatile things such as herbs. Some of the most common tinctures that you may be familiar with are things like absinthe and ouzo. My friends who I drink with might get a chuckle out of the fact I made this since ouzo on ice is one of my favorite drinks.

Ninsaki Oatmeal Stout – I tried two separate stouts (for research purposes) and this was by far the better

Rogue’s Chocolate Stout

Guinness- from the bottle, that way you get those neat little nitrogen bubbles

Cappuccino Stout – I’m not normally a fan of this style, but love RedHooks Double Black. I used this as my other stout, and it didn’t work out so well for me since the bitterness overpowered the ice cream

The cappucino, oatmeal, chocolate, and dry stouts deffinatly seem to be the more popular, but the choices are far from limited. I could see this being made with a sweet stout or a milk stout also. However I’d stay away from american stouts due to the brighter hop flavors, and the russian stouts due to their complexity. Also if it says double, triple, or extra in the name realize that the bitter flavors will be stronger.

• 1 1/2 tbl butter
• 12 onces beer (one bottle)
• 4 1/2 cups cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp werschetchire sauce
• 1 1/2 tbl hot sauce
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp mustard powder
• 1 tsp salt

melt the butter, combine with the booze, and heat. Next add the cheese slowly, stiring till it’s melted. Once the chese is melted and smoothwhip up 1/4 cup of the mixture with the egg, then add it to the pot. add the rest of the ingrediants, stir, and serve over toast.

Score

Me = 1         Spoiled beer = 0

Dogs Beer Bars

• 4 cups spent grain
• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup peanut butter (beef tallow or bacon grease can be substituted)
• 1 egg

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Press down into a dense layer on a large cookie sheet. Score almost all the way through into the shapes you want. Bake for about half an hour at 350 F to solidify them. Loosen them from the sheet, break the biscuits apart and return them, loosely spread out on the cookie sheet, to the oven at 225 F for 3 to 4 hours to dry.