Is this Deal worth it?

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youngmeadman

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 27, 2006
158
0
0
Regina, SK
Hello,

I seek the wisdom of the wise people of the gotmead forums. I have an opportunity to 2L beer making kits (the really simple add yeast cap, wait, carbonates itself, kind) for quite cheap (they call for the addition of yeast by Oct. 10 so I'll be able to buy them up vs. having them thrown out)

However, as a major supporter of the Reinheitsgebot I sadly read the ingrediants and discovered this.....

Ingredients:
water, barley malt, glucose, hops, lactic acid, may contain carmel colour, yeast.

What do you think? Is it worth the time? I am really busy with school, so I don't want to do something thats going to waste my time with $h!tty beer! So is it worth my trouble?

Furthermore, I would mix about 12 to make a 24L batch. How much yeast should I add? There is a little in the cap for the 2L batch. So should 3 bottles worth be enough?

Thanks,
Youngmeadman
 
I actually bought one just like this, a red "lager" (not a lager at all...) just for laughs, it turned out decent enough, I was pretty surprised.
 
The Reinheitsgebot was all about preventing the peasants from not paying the landowners (the Church!) for beer. Defy it! :brave:

Anyway, if it's cheap enough that you won't be sad if it fails, go for it. I'd say add your own $1 of dry yeast, but I guess you could just mix everything and see what happens. There are probably worse things that I have come up with, and still consumed anyway.
 
If it's cheap, go for it. They're not terrible. One of my local places sells that but I can't remember the price...
 
As a side note, if for whatever reason you are concerned with it being vegan (I was as my girlfriend is) simply open the gel capsules and dump the yeast in, discarding the capsules.
 
As a side note, if for whatever reason you are concerned with it being vegan (I was as my girlfriend is) simply open the gel capsules and dump the yeast in, discarding the capsules.

Do yeast count as "not animal"? I guess they probably do, mushrooms count so yeast must also. What about honey? It's a bee product. Silly grey area?
 
Do yeast count as "not animal"? I guess they probably do, mushrooms count so yeast must also. What about honey? It's a bee product. Silly grey area?

I've heard that somewhere there are some confused vegans who have been missled about yeast, obviously they are ok though as they are fungi, not animal! Some people are very confused.

Honey is indeed a silly grey area. Technically it is not vegan, as it is in the list of items that the person who coined the term listed as animal products - BUT, I personally think that while honey may violate the letter of the rule, it doesn't violate the intention of the rule (my vegan girlfriend agrees, and eats honey and drinks mead). The intention being to avoid doing unnecessary harm both to things with nerves and the environment (there are lots of vegans who could care less about animal rights, some are for environmental reasons, some political some social).

Yes, some bees get hurt in the process, but by and large they are better off than in the wild, and beekeeping does so much good for the environment than it's pro's far outweigh it's con's. Plus, as my girlfriend says: they're bugs. Animals yes, but still bugs - and it's not like the beekeepers intentionally hurt them, beekeepers love them. :)

(As a side note to the side note, my girlfriend doesn't care at all if people eat animals, she just wants them treated well while they are alive. I agree, hard not to agree actually)
 
So, should I through about ten in a primary, seal the lid, let the airlock bubble.
Or should I rack to a secondary carboy? If so, when should I rack to secondary?

Youngmeadman


P.S.

A really interesting thought on the honey though! A simple google search, lead me to discover this website http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm I'm intrigued how one could see it as enslavement. In the crisis the honey bee is in now, us keeping them is turning into the little bit of hope left. I know some vegans however, I cannot say whether or not they eat honey. I do agree with you, AToE and your girlfriend.
 
While I have in the past practiced vegetarianism, as well as veganism, I have never practiced for the sake of the rights of the animals, but rather for the health benefits.

Regardless, that web site just ain’t right. ???
 
Do yeast count as "not animal"? I guess they probably do, mushrooms count so yeast must also. What about honey? It's a bee product. Silly grey area?

My understanding is that honey is NOT vegan since it is produced by an animal however it is vegetarian since it does not contain animal products, unless you count bee vomit. I am a vegetarian BTW and consume lots of honey.
 
That website is pretty awesome. I wonder what those folks would think about a farmer using horse-drawn plows to make their organic veggies...save the horses? Or would they rather have us use diesel and destroy the ozone layer? Some people are way too secure in their lives; they should be happy they can choose what they eat.
 
There are a lot of absolutely nutty vegans/vegitarians/animal rights people out there. Some think we shouldn't even keep animals as pets (never mind that dogs have practically evolved right alongside humans for tens and tens of thousands of years and would be totally helpless in the wild...).

It makes it tough for sane vegans like my girlfriend to be taken seriously, a lot of people are shocked almost speachless when she says she has no problem with people eating animals, she just thinks they shouldn't be factory farmed (should have a happy life before becoming my lunch).
 
No matter what you are going to do, you will impact the environment. And there are so many things to consider it's impossible to be perfect and not harm anything. What about using animal manure for fertilizing crops? You just can't win! Being sensible and putting the effort in and sticking to one main route (eg. animals deserve to have a life, factoring farming is not a life therefore, factoring farming is bad) is the only way to do it. If you try to cover everything you'll lose out.

$0.02
-Young
 
Agreed, you do the best you can, and use good reasoning to come up with your morals and then stick with them. Humans are destructive, no easy way around it when our populations are too high like they are right now, so damage control is the name of the game. That's why I like how my girlfriend thinks, she respects that we're at the top of the food chain, so we get to eat animals, but there's no need to be all evil in how we go about it!

I'm working towards only eating animals/dairy that I actually know where it's from. I'm not even close to there yet, but my goal is to get very close to that point in 5 years or so, and then get it nailed down 100% within say a decade.
 
What about honey? It's a bee product. Silly grey area?

Depends on how much of a hardliner the vegan is, if they're vegan like my aunt is vegetarian (she eats bacon, just fry it extra crispy) then they shouldn't have a problem. That being said I have heard some vegans say "You're enslaving the bees, exploiting them, and then stealing their food!" Granted a single hive can product about 100lbs of excess honey per season, but apparently that's not relevant to some nature-zealots... :rolleyes:
 
So I bought 11 of the premium lager, and 11 of the red ale for a total of 22L of each for a $1.50 per 2L. I pitched the yeast friday, and they're now starting to slow down. My question is, should I rack them to a secondary? Or let them finish in the primary bucket? I have brewed beer kits that have instructed both. Any suggestions?

-Young
 
The vast majority of ales do not require a secondary fermenter. If you want to lager the beer, you do need a secondary. If you want to not bottle the beer for another month for some other reason, a secondary is a good idea. Short of that, just let it drop some sediment in the primary and go straight to bottling.
 
Yep. Only rich people can be that picky about what they put into their mouths.

Very true, if by "rich" we mean "not-extremely-poor-north-american". ;) People living in the Northwest Territories certainly would have to be rich to eat a vegan diet, because pretty much all produce is flown in (no roads), but the bulk of us can do it for cheap. My girlfriend eats like royalty (we're talking good quality hearty food, not chintsy salads and such) for around $200 a month, which is easily acheivable for the vast majority of us here, we're really almost all rich. I myself spend a decent amount more than that simply due to the fact that I do eat meat and dairy, and have luxury items like coffee, mead, etc. :D

Someone in say, Rowanda, I'd hardly begrudge eating whatever they can afford of course, totally different matter!