What’s In Your Jeans?

A spot to talk general homebrew
Post Reply
User avatar
GuingesRock
Award Winner 20+
Award Winner 20+
Posts: 5190
Joined: Wed May 29, 2013 2:26 pm
Name: Mark
Location: Wolfville, NS

What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by GuingesRock » Wed Jun 26, 2013 3:54 pm

…or is that genes. My spelling is atrocious! Do you brewers come from a long line of beer makers? Do you have any heirloom beers or beer making techniques that have been passed through the generations? Did your parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts make beer, and was it good stuff, or bad stuff?

My mother has known Jonathan Guinness, baron and heir to the Guinness fortune, for most of her life. She made beer when I was a kid. My parents had 5 gallon drums of liquid malt kicking around, hops from the garden, and she had a friend at the St Austell brewery who gave her yeast. My parents were poor bohemians, living in a cottage, down a muddy lane. We lived off the land, subsidized by my mother’s part time waitressing job. They had no fancy gear, no electricity, no car, no TV. My father read us books by the fire. They met lots of other interesting and famous people in Paris and London during their earlier life before they moved down the muddy lane, and I remember a steady stream of them coming to visit, mud up to their knees, and drinking the beer with much merriment.

To make the beer, my mother used to boil water in a pot on a primus stove. Then she would pour the boiling water onto hops from the garden, LME and honey from my bees in a plastic bucket. She would wait for that to cool to what she called “blood heat”. She tested the temperature with her elbow as she didn’t have a thermometer. When it was at “blood heat” she would add the yeast.

I think there’s a bit of fermentation on my mother’s side.

Edit: picture of the cottage "down the muddy lane" as it is today.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Last edited by GuingesRock on Wed Jun 26, 2013 4:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-Mark
2nd place, Canadian Brewer of the Year, 2015
101 awards won for beers designed and brewed.
Cicerone Program - Certified Beer Server

User avatar
jeffsmith
Verified User
Verified User
Posts: 4922
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 4:18 pm
Name: Jeff Smith
Location: Amherst, NS
Contact:

Re: What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by jeffsmith » Wed Jun 26, 2013 4:14 pm

No beer makers on my side, but a few of my passed relatives were pretty apt moonshiners. I can remember being fascinated by the process as a kid.

User avatar
LeafMan66_67
Award Winner 2
Award Winner 2
Posts: 4600
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 7:10 am
Name: Derek Stapleton
Location: Lower Sackville, NS

Re: What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by LeafMan66_67 » Wed Jun 26, 2013 6:12 pm

I come from a long line of beer drinkers!
"He was a wise man who invented beer." - Plato

User avatar
canuck
Award Winner 6
Award Winner 6
Posts: 1960
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2012 11:54 am
Name: Shane
Location: Quispamsis, NB
Contact:

Re: What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by canuck » Wed Jun 26, 2013 6:14 pm

LeafMan66_67 wrote:I come from a long line of beer drinkers!
Hahaha, same here!

As far as beer makers, my cousin Kellye won the Garrison brew off last year and is now a brewer for Garrison. That's about it for me.

User avatar
LiverDance
Award Winner 6
Award Winner 6
Posts: 4013
Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2010 4:50 pm
Name: Brian
Location: Sprybeeria

Re: What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by LiverDance » Wed Jun 26, 2013 8:32 pm

I believe some of my relatives out of Nfld were rum runners. My father used to have a swish barrel with our town Councillor but he hates beer.
"Twenty years ago — a time, by the way, that hops such as Simcoe and Citra were already being developed, but weren’t about to find immediate popularity — there wasn’t a brewer on earth who would have gone to the annual Hop Growers of American convention and said, “I’m going to have a beer that we make 4,000 barrels of, one time a year. It flies off the shelf at damn near $20 a six-pack, and you know what it smells like? It smells like your cat ate your weed and then pissed in the Christmas tree.” - Bell’s Brewery Director of Operations John Mallet on the scent of their popular Hopslam.

User avatar
mr x
Mod Award Winner
Mod Award Winner
Posts: 13764
Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2010 5:30 pm
Location: Halifax/New Glasgow

Re: What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by mr x » Wed Jun 26, 2013 8:47 pm

Making shine on one side and bootlegging on the other.

Sent from Tapatalk 2, a prick of a company.
At Alexander Keith's we follow the recipes first developed by the great brewmaster to the absolute letter. :wtf:

User avatar
Woody
Award Winner 4
Award Winner 4
Posts: 1188
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 12:39 am
Name: Derek
Location: Truro, NS

Re: What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by Woody » Thu Jun 27, 2013 9:50 pm

No beer makers in my family that I know of. My parents don't drink much & always say they don't know where I got my love of beer & brewing from.

chalmers
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 5604
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 4:17 pm
Name: Chris
Location: Halifax / On The Road Again
Contact:

Re: What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by chalmers » Fri Jun 28, 2013 2:57 pm

ddwood94 wrote:No beer makers in my family that I know of. My parents don't drink much & always say they don't know where I got my love of beer & brewing from.
Ditto here (they'll have a glass of wine with XMas or Thanksgiving or Easter meal), though my dad did a bit of home brewing when he lived in England during his late twenties. He's promised me his brewing logs, but I haven't seen them yet.

User avatar
Tim Gregory
Award Winner 8
Award Winner 8
Posts: 1151
Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2010 3:18 pm
Name: Tim
Location: Downtown Dartmouth

Re: What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by Tim Gregory » Fri Jun 28, 2013 3:04 pm

My dad brewed when I was young. I've got his old recipe at home. It's scary.

User avatar
GuingesRock
Award Winner 20+
Award Winner 20+
Posts: 5190
Joined: Wed May 29, 2013 2:26 pm
Name: Mark
Location: Wolfville, NS

Re: What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by GuingesRock » Fri Jun 28, 2013 3:47 pm

Tim Gregory wrote:My dad brewed when I was young. I've got his old recipe at home. It's scary.
The suspense! Will you share it? It might be good stuff.
-Mark
2nd place, Canadian Brewer of the Year, 2015
101 awards won for beers designed and brewed.
Cicerone Program - Certified Beer Server

User avatar
Tim Gregory
Award Winner 8
Award Winner 8
Posts: 1151
Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2010 3:18 pm
Name: Tim
Location: Downtown Dartmouth

Re: What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by Tim Gregory » Fri Jun 28, 2013 3:49 pm

Sure, I'll dig it out tonight.

User avatar
dexter
Verified User
Verified User
Posts: 994
Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:59 am
Name: Phil
Location: Halifax

Re: What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by dexter » Fri Jun 28, 2013 3:58 pm

Dad brewed a bit in the 80's- and a few times in the 90s but only john bull extract cans.

User avatar
derek
Award Winner 1
Award Winner 1
Posts: 1296
Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:01 pm
Location: Musquodoboit Harbour, NS

Re: What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by derek » Fri Jun 28, 2013 4:51 pm

I come from a family of near-alcoholics (except for my brother, who died of drink). Lots of wine-making but I think I'm the only one who really got into beer (I know my brother occasionally made kit beer).
Currently on tap: Nothing!
In keg: Still nothing.
In Primary: Doggone American Rye Pale Ale

User avatar
Woody
Award Winner 4
Award Winner 4
Posts: 1188
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 12:39 am
Name: Derek
Location: Truro, NS

Re: What’s In Your Jeans?

Post by Woody » Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:43 pm

Brewing logs and old recipes sound interesting!

Post Reply

Return to “General Homebrew Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests