Prohibition Style Beer "Sneaky Pete" (a.k.a. Alaska Bush Beer)

This is a recipe I pulled from The Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible by Leon W. Kania, a fascinating DIY reference for the homebrewer. This book has recipes for wine, beer, liqueur, and whiskey; and it also covers equipment and brewing techniques.

This recipe was handed down to Kania from his grandmother. He admits there are a few flaws, "i.e., no fermentation lock, bottling the murky wort before it clarified, using bakers yeast and not much hops", but it's basic and cheap. "There's probably been more of this beer made in Alaska than any other style. The ingredients are easy to get and when you're packing in several months of provisions to a remote homestead or mine, it can mean the difference between beer or no beer." Indeed, I think many of us are from time to time haunted by visions of remote homesteads with no liquid bread.


So if you're looking for an easy first homebrew experiment, this might be it. Kania says the Blue Ribbon Malt is available in most grocery stores (I haven't done any recon on this yet). Let us know if you make some and if you do send us pics/video and if possible, a sample.


SNEAKY PETE
3 Lb. Can Blue Ribbon Malt Syrup (hops flavored)
4 Lb. Cane sugar
5 Gal. Water
1 Pkt. Bakers' yeast

In the biggest pot you can get your hands on, boil and dissolve in a total of 5 gallons of water, the malt and sugar. Put this wort in a primary fermenter (a crock in my younger days) and when it's cool, crumble in a cake of bakers' yeast. When almost all the little bubbles stop, bottle it, adding 1/4 teaspoon of sugar to each bottle.

Our Trip to the Stone Brewery

So we recently went to the Stone Brewery in Escondido, CA just outside of San Diego. We took the tour, ate some great food and drank some terrific beer. Here are some of the things we saw.

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Carboy Films Arts and Culture Series - Agriculture: Demon Engine of Civilization

In keeping with our commitment to improve the world through beer-making and the Video Arts, we humbly present to you the Carboy Films Arts and Culture Series - a panoply of significant contributions to the human experience that we feel should be savored like a fine wine (or beer). From time to time this blog will highlight such items for your edification and enjoyment.

First up is John Zerzan's inconvenient essay Agriculture: Demon Engine of Civilization. Zerzan is an anarcho-primitivist philosopher living in the Pacific Northwest who doesn't pull punches.  Some of you may consider this work a big downer, but sit with it a while and you might find a certain resonance with your inner gatherer-hunter.   

Agriculture, the indispensable basis of civilization, was originally encountered as time, language, number, and art emerged.  As the materialization of alienation, agriculture is the triumph of estrangement and the definite divide between culture and nature and humans from each other...

Read more here

Pic by Gabu-chan

Setting Up the Greenscreen

It's hard work making films about talking dogs. So to prove it, here is an old-timey silent film to show you how we did some of it.

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A friend of ours, Joel Svensen, gave us a butt roll of greenscreen material and we built a pvc frame to hold it based on plans we found online. It's a very inexpensive way to have a lot of fun.

Dog School Part 1

Professor McGrueder teaches his students the finer points of American History. Enjoy!

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