Brewing 100 pints of Yarrow Beer, free Economy and new desk

Posted by Andy Hamilton - 19/11/08 at 03:11:24 pm

Brewing 100 pints of Yarrow Beer for the Free Economy

Last week I turned up to a meeting in a pub regarding the free economy. More on that later. The free economy lot are throwing a party offering free food and drink to anyone that turns up at the end of the month to celebrate the founders experiment of living without spending money for a year and of course buy nothing day. The party is to be held in just over a week on buy nothing day (29th November) and I agreed to supply some home brew. Having never brewed anything over 40 pints before this was indeed to be a challenge. The ingredients were no problem being just Yarrow, Malt Extract, Sugar, Water and Yeast - I wrote up the recipe and a brief introduction just here.

The interesting thing I found out about Yarrow is that it contains Thujone an ingredient also found in Absinthe. So I am going to assume that Yarrow ale/beer could be slightly psychedelic. Well as I am brewing 100 pints of it for over 100 people I am doubtful that it will really matter as I can’t see anyone having enough of it to have any effect.

Yarrow has been used by humans for the last 60 000 years and apart from being used to brew a psychedelic beer it has had many other medicinal uses including treating toothache, kidney disorders, toothache, piles and to stem the flow of blood. In fact soldiers throughout the ages have gone into battle with a pocket full of yarrow for this very reason. Indeed, in some circles it has been called the warriors herb. I love it as it grows everywhere and I tend to take an infusion of the stuff when I am feeling a bit run down, it seems to help.

Making the beer itself was a bit tricky to say the least, I got my 100 litre (22 gallon) water butt (see below) and filled it with steralizing solution and warm water. This involved getting the hose out or I could have been there for hours; as I had no tap attachment I had to tape the hose to the tap and flooded the kitchen a little as it kept firing off. I then rinsed it out with colder water and had much the same experience.

Now knee high in water I added the malt and sugar to the brew bin which I then moved to a warmer room – The dining room. My girlfriend seems to be grinning and bearing it as my home brew collection starts to take over, I have not told her that I intend on having something brewing constantly now for ever more. She does make the odd comment that makes me think she might disapprove such as, “if that f*****ng thing bubbles one more time”, or “I can’t come into the kitchen I am going to heave”.

Boiling the yarrow did smell a little and it had to be done in two large pans that I have for home brewing, one 7 litre and one 4.  Picking the yarrow was easier than I thought as I found a spot with loads of it, I would suggest doing the same if you are to make this as you when there are only a couple of plants in one area they are best left totally alone to give them the best chance for survival; you need about 1 pannier bag or roughly one carrier bag full so you will need a lot. I later found that trying to measure out almost 2 kilograms of yarrow is not the easiest in a small kitchen with tiny scales. So to add to the water there are now bits of yarrow, grass and clover all over the kitchen.

Anyway, if you want to recreate this then here are the ingredients and the full recipe is over here.

Ingredients

• 3.4kg organic Barley malt extract (10 jars)
• 2.7 kg Brewing Sugar
• 1.75 kg Fresh Yarrow leaves
• 56 litres of water
• 1 cup of good ale yeast
• a small jar of honey (for priming)

You may ask what on earth is going on in that picture, the thing on the far right is my water butt  wrapped with a fleecy sleeping bag to keep the brew to a regular temperature without having to have the heating on all night. It is being propped up by a few bricks so that when it comes to draining out the brew into its beer barrel the job will be slightly easier. No need for siphoning tubes with this set up. I am slightly concerned that if the bricks get cold they will radiate coldness and cause the brew to cool down this is why the local paper has been pushed under as an after thought.

Free Economy

….Which according to it’s founder Mark Boyle, “It’s about making the transition from a money-based communityless society to a community-based moneyless society”. You might have heard about Mark in the past as he was the bloke who gave up everything he owned and decided to walk to India.

Dave and I have got involved with them on and off over the last few months, mostly offering free forages. What happens in short is rather like freecycle but with your skills instead. People list what they can do anyting from house building to scrabble playing. You sign up, putting in your address and it tells you who is nearby so if you need a head massage, want to borrow a drill or need help with your dahlias then it is worth a look.

New Desk

On Saturday we popped into the Bristol branch of Emmaus a big warehouse type shop full of second hand furniture. Everything there is donated and all the procedes go to help desitute people in need of a home, work and support. It is one of my favorite shops as I love second hand furniture. I saw a massive desk and immediately wanted it, my old one although it has served me well is just too small, once I have a couple of books on it, it is filled.

So I excepted delivery of my Edwardian second hand desk yesterday. Great I thought it is perfect so big that I could sleep on it. Then I awoke in the middle of Sunday night; the day before delivery. I realised that it was so big that it would not fit in the house. I measured up the staircase and the front door and indeed I felt sure it would not fit.

So all credit to the three blokes from Emmaus who worked out that by taking it around the back, through the french doors then, taking apart the bannister we could fit it in.  It was odd but I think there was a real sense of winning in the face of adversity when we eventually go it in.

2 Comments

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1. You’ve been given an award.

   http://heathenandvegan.blogspot.com/

   

   Comment by Jeni Treehugger — November 22, 2008 #

2. Now we need an updated ‘workspace’ photo with your new desk!

   Looking forward to more of the bicycle diaries Andy

   Comment by Shirley — November 25, 2008 #

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