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Ghetto Brewing
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What is it?
Taking shortcuts with conventional brewing
technique
Embracing/working withing your constraints
Still ending up with good beer
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What it is not
A replacement for well established brewing
best practices
Prison hooch / nasty compromised beer
The final answer in brewing
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Brewing with Constraints
Ghetto Brewing is all about working within
your limitations, where those limitations are:
● cost
● space
● time
Especially useful for novices, or people who are
interested in brewing but not committed
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Brewing 101
1. Malted cereal grains are mashed
2. The sweet liquor (i.e. wort) is drawn off
3. Wort is boiled and hops added
4. Wort is cooled and yeast added
5. Fermented wort, now beer is transferred to
dispense equipment and carbonated
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Brewing 101
● Many processes
● Specialised equipment
● Lots of things to do and learn
However many of the equipment and
processes are not essential to making good
beer.
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Brewing 101
Experienced brewers invest in equipment and
learn processes that allow them to make good
beer consistently, to eliminate variables, cut
down on labour and to produce beer with
complex recipes and brew schedules
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Specific Techniques
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Sanitisation
Don't compromise on the quality of sanitisation.
Complacency can set in quickly. Unspecialised
workspaces more vulnerable to bacterial
contamination.
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Sanitisation
● Contact no-rinse sanitisers save a lot of
effort
● More effective than immersion sanitising
● Cheap and easy to make
● Bleach & Vinegar is easy to make
● Star-san though expensive lasts forever
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Sanitisation
Use a kitchen spray bottle and apply liberally
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Stove Top Brewing
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Stove Top Brewing
● Very easy to do
● Very cheap to start
out on
● Can be completed
in under 2 hours
You may already have all of
the equipment necessary to
start out (10L stockpot, sheet
of muslin or voile)
Can be cooled easily by
putting the pot into a sink of
water, or water bath
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Brew in a Bag
● Mash and Boil in
the same vessel
● Vessel lined with a
strong mesh
● Hoist bag to
remove grain
● Boil as usual
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Brew in a Bag
● Full size batches
will need a
dedicated kettle
● Forgiving - you can
agitate or heat your
mash
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Brew in a Bag
● Catering Urn
● Modified F.V.
● Modified stock pot
Kettle can be re-used
in 3V systems too
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Brew in a Bag
Possible to brew a full batch on a weeknight
Wort will not run as clear as a mash tun
Hoists recommended for larger grain bills
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Hop Tea
Hops are brewed externally to a full boil
Allows all extract, no boil beers to be made
Can be used to add bitterness, or aroma same
as regular brew schedules
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Hop Tea
● Before fermentation
● Instead of dry
hopping
● After fermentation
● Priming time
Mix with wort/malt
extract for best results
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Hop Tea
● A hop tea allows you to get many of the
effects of hops without having to do a full boil
● Allows beginning brewers to build up a
palate for various hop varieties without
having to do a full batch
● You can keep tea < 80C to prevent bittering
of high alpha aroma hops
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Fermentation Temperature Control
● Swamp Chiller
● Soaked cloth keeps
FV wet
● Evaporation lowers
temperature ~ 5-7C
from ambient
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Swamp Chiller
Works best with carboys
Air circulation is important
Add bleach to water reservoir to stop mold
May aid in flocculation, but cannot crash cool or
lager
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Improvised Fermenters
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Winter Lager
● Can lager during winter
● Keep out of light, in shade
or box
● Try not to let it freeze
● Also very useful for cold
conditioning
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Improvised Bottling
● Use carbonated
beverage bottles
● Store in a dark
place to protect
from lightflash
● Drink young (within
2 months) or
oxidation will set in
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No Chill / Passive Chilling
● Hot wort added straight
to cube
● Release as much
headspace as possible
● Rotate to make contact
with all internal surfaces
● Leave to cool (24-48 hrs)
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No Chill/Passive Chilling
● Saves Water
● Wort is pasteurised
and will keep
indefinitely ***
● You get a good hot
break, but no cold
break
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No Chill/Passive Chill
● Pitch when the wort is
properly down to pitch
temp
● Siphoning will result in a
very clear wort
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No Chill Advantages
● Saves time on a brew day - you don't need
to get your wort down to pitch temperature
● You stagger brewing and pitching
● No more pitching too high a temp
● You can develop a good workflow
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No Chill Issues
● Hop schedule
needs to change as
wort stays > 80c for
longer
● To convert a
recipe, subtract
15m
● No flameout/steep
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No Chill Issues
Be aware of the risks
● Use catering grade HDPE plastic
● Risk of botulism
Use chilled wort quickly, don’t stockpile it
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Cube Hopping ● Replaces late
additions in no-chill
● Hop bags useful
● Aroma components
become trapped
● Pellets > Leaf
● Some
isomerisation
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Improvised CO2 purging
● Connect primary
blow off into
secondary after
pitching
● Fermentation will
purge secondary of
CO2
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Any Questions?