Wine,

Corn Beer without Yeast>

Here is the recipe given by Dr. Chase:

  1. "Cold water - 5 gallons;
  2. Sound nice corn - 1 quart;
  3. Molasses - 2 quarts;

Put all in a keg of this(?) size; shake well, and in 2 or 3 days fermentation will have been brought on as nicely as with yeast. Keep it bunged tight. It may be flavored with oils of spruce or lemon, if desired by pouring on to the oils one or two quarts of water, boiling hot. The corn will last five or six makings. If it gets too sour add more molasses and water in the same proportions. It is cheap, healthy, and no bother with yeast."

Some thirteen other recipes for beer are given by Dr. Chase. Several describing the use of malt.

Clay's Collegiate Beer

Here's a recipe from my college days. We had an informal beer club which was comprised of: brewmeister - lc, provisionaire - jw, personnel - ds, and many other fortunate and less fortunate students and faculty at Oklahoma State.

Into a five gallon carboy is placed:

1) five quart measuring cups of corn sugar

2) one hand-full of raisins,

3) one teaspoon of urea and

4) one half bottle of a previous bottle of fine beer.

5) Water is added to fill.

A bubbler was installed to maintain an anaerobic environment and the carboy was placed near the hot water heater in the bathroom to ensure proper fermentation temperatures. Being near the john, one could enjoy the pleasing sounds of gas being released through the bubbler as well as observe the raisin Cartesian divers as they were buoyed to the surface of the mash by entrapped carbon dioxide and then gently settling to the bottom once they had delivered their load to the top.

Bottling day was on Thursdays so that an adequate supply of beer would be available for the weekend. Each week a new initiate was brought into the group. The initiates sole responsibility was to operate the siphon while others were involved in more serious task. As instructed, the initiate was to maintain the syphon a distance from the bottom of the brew to avoid picking up too large a quantity of the yeast bodies. Since from time to time the syphon would be broken due to inadvertently raising the tube above the surface of the mash, allowing air into the tube, the initiate would have to suck on the tube to restart flow of the beer. Usually, a quantity of fresh beer would be consumed by the initiate as he/she restarted the flow. As time passed, the initiate would become less careful about placement of the syphon in the liquid and with the consumption of a large amount of beer would sometimes also consume a sizable quantity of the dregs at the bottom of the flask - not a good idea.

On one occasion, we had an electrical engineer, jp, who was more than enthusiastic about the process. John seemed to never be able to maintain the syphon at the proper level in the brew. At the end of the session, it was observed that he would need assistance if he was to get home for the night. As he lived in one of the older dorms, we dropped him off, but thought we should make sure he made it all the way. In his room, he announced that he thought he should wash his face. Standing with both feet firmly placed on the floor, he proceeded to fall straight forward, striking his head on the edge of his desk. Knocked him self out. So we tossed him in bed and left him to recover best as possible. After three days, no one had heard from John, so we checked by his room. Not there, but where was he. After checking around campus, we discovered him in the infirmary. He had checked himself in the previous day with. as the nurse described it, the worst case of scours she had ever seen. He insisted that he had no idea why.

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