The Northern Central Grain Elevator in Baltimore once was the largest grain terminal on the East Coast of the United States. Inside was a maze of pipes and some of the foulest water I've ever encountered, possibly an unholy, decades-old dirt-beer from whatever was left inside.
I love this stuff. I have been fascinated with ruins and decay for literally as long as I can remember. I blame “London Bridge Is Falling Down”, the first book I clearly remember reading by myself, around age 3. It opened with a two-page spread of the bridge collapsing, and I’d spend hours studying the image. Hey, it was 1968! We didn’t have YouTube or Nintendo back then! We did what we could with what we had! (Adjusts belt onion, yells at clouds.)
@LizardSF man, London Bridge isn't just falling, it's exploding! But jokes aside, it's a great illustration and I totally get where you're coming from. For me, it may well have been the forest bedroom in Where The Wild Things Are
@jeffjarvis Grain terminals aren’t for making beer. They’re for storage and export of grain. I’m sick of seeing this boosted with such an inane comment and replies.
@DanMorgan @jeffjarvis rather than debate with you about how this is in fact something that could occur given the circumstances (water and grain are def present and yeast can come from as little as combining flour - also a grain and thus likely present! - and water) I'm instead going to point out how smug and rude your response is and just block you. To be clear, it's not because you disagree, or that you're wrong, it's because you were a jerk about it
There is much natural yeast in the air. No need to introduce it from another external source.
Had a whole barge of molasses go crazy fermenting due to extreme heat of the river it was sitting in, and vents that allowed natural yeast in the air to enter the holds.
@DanMorgan @jeffjarvis beer is made of grain and water. this place has not been used in ages. spores get in. it rains. water plus yeast plus grain makes beer. very undrinkable beer. sit down.
@crashglasshouses @DanMorgan@vmst.io @jeffjarvis what an ass. I know next to nothing about beer making and I still know enough to know this is supremely possible in a grain terminal with water pouring through it
I understood the idea in the original post, but, flour makes yeast? Yeast is a fungal organism. It’s not made from flour but is likely in the air so yeah, your dirt beer analogy wasn’t far off when you have grain, water and wild-type yeasts available
Baker’s yeast has become one of the items selling out in grocery stores as people stock up on supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you don’t have store-bought yeast, you can make a sourdough starter at home instead.
@adamhsparks The university I work at had bought an old MFA feed building. Years ago we had an odor complaint from the rear dock.
We went over to investigate and the place smelled like whiskey and mold. Molasses stored or leaked under the dock had fermented into some kind of alcohol product. We had to pump it out for disposal.
@boisdevache it would be nice. I'm fine with people disagreeing and I'll own it when I'm wrong, it does happen, but being belligerent for the sake of it is a line I draw
People that get "assy" over minor inconsequential things is usually because they don't have the intellectual acuity necessary to grasp the complicated subjects
@SkipFleming I mean, even if you're wildly smart and totally correct, being assy doesn't really help you make your point if nobody was actually being disrespectful to you
@adamhsparks I’d say you’re right on! If there’s yeast in the air and it settles in the water/grain mixture, it’ll start growing, so it makes more yeast.
@adamhsparks It was a perfectly fine analogy, and I don't know how the overly literal people in the world made it through high school English without learning about analogies, similies, and metaphors. I am refraining from adding an unnecessary two cents about how these days beer doesn't need to have hops, but in Tudor England it was the introduction of hops that made beer a newfangled thing from the continent that was different from ale. Oops. I guess I failed to refrain.
well thank you, because of that arse I went and searched to see if @seamusblackley had an account in Mastodon since he’s the one who taught me that yes, that is how you can make yeast!
@adamhsparks Yeast is just everywhere - it is naturally occuring in the environment. What they're doing for baking is 'capturing' the natural yeast, and then nurturing and cultivating it for use. Part of this is ensuring you don't get any other nasties in there, like bateria, but this is the basic process for making your own sourdough starter.
There are a number of naturally fermented beers and such out there, which use yeast from the environment.
I think we agree here. You’re right in the spirit of what you were saying, I was just pointing out that yeast isn’t made from flour. It’s an organism. I do have a degree that lent to studying lots of fungi and their ecology so I may be overly pedantic on this. 😉
Obviously OBVIOUSLY the only people who can say anything about beer on the internet are people who understand brewing and have actually done brewing themselves. The same goes for guns and sex. Only actual beer brewers are permitted to talk about guns and/or sex.
@seikoliz thanks, and that's a great shot! I feel like I could have spent muuuuuuuch more time in there and not run out of things I wanted to photograph
@adamhsparks PS in case anyone is reading this Adam isn't the guy I was talking about when I mentioned the person being assy, no offense was given or taken by his comment
@theotherbrook @adamhsparks Reasonable people: What an evocative term, I know exactly what that probably smelled like! The "ready to throw down over whether a hot dog is a taco" contingent: IF THERE WEREN'T AGED OAK BARRELS INVOLVED THE TERM IS INACCURATE
@theotherbrook @adamhsparks When I was writing a book on fermentation, I toured a brewery owned by ABInBev, and they go to extraordinary lengths to preserve the purity of the Budweiser yeast. Different lines, etc. Any contamination and bam! Different yeasts.
@PhilMoscovitch @theotherbrook @adamhsparks I am learning so much here! It's kind of a fascinating subject. We live in a world with so many oddities like, for example, yeast
@iragsdale Indeed. As a homebrewer, there's a reason we keep everything as clean as we can so as to not infect the beer with wild yeast, which is pretty much everywhere. @AbandonedAmerica @adamhsparks
@PhilMoscovitch @adamhsparks Meanwhile at places like Samuel Smith's old Tadcaster Brewery and the Belgian lambic breweries they use open vats that pick up whatever yeast is in the air. Which, to be fair, in these places that have been doing it for centuries is mostly a few strains that permeate everything, but it's still amazing they don't try to control it more.
@adamhsparks I figured. I am by no means an expert so the phrasing may not have been correct but I do understand that wheat doesn't spontaneously create yeast when combined with water.
In the wine world terroir refers to the impact that local environments have on the flavour and characteristics of wine. The nature of the soil, water and air where the grapes are grown affect the…
Kaj of the Creek
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in reply to Dan Morgan :ksu: • • •AnthropoceneMan
in reply to Abandoned America • • •There is much natural yeast in the air. No need to introduce it from another external source.
Had a whole barge of molasses go crazy fermenting due to extreme heat of the river it was sitting in, and vents that allowed natural yeast in the air to enter the holds.
Looked like a can of brown spray foam.
Inken Paper 🇵🇸
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Unknown parent • • •Abandoned America
in reply to Adam Sparks • • •How to make your own yeast for baking
Justine Calma (The Verge)Jeff
in reply to Adam Sparks • • •The university I work at had bought an old MFA feed building. Years ago we had an odor complaint from the rear dock.
We went over to investigate and the place smelled like whiskey and mold. Molasses stored or leaked under the dock had fermented into some kind of alcohol product. We had to pump it out for disposal.
Abandoned America
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in reply to Abandoned America • • •There are a number of naturally fermented beers and such out there, which use yeast from the environment.
SpaceLifeForm
Unknown parent • • •Pots with grain that got flooded via heavy rain that had yeast mixed in.
Mesopotamia comes to mind.
Adam Sparks
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in reply to The Other Brook • • •Sean
in reply to The Other Brook • • •Reasonable people: What an evocative term, I know exactly what that probably smelled like!
The "ready to throw down over whether a hot dog is a taco" contingent: IF THERE WEREN'T AGED OAK BARRELS INVOLVED THE TERM IS INACCURATE
Abandoned America
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in reply to Ian Ragsdale • • •Indeed. As a homebrewer, there's a reason we keep everything as clean as we can so as to not infect the beer with wild yeast, which is pretty much everywhere.
@AbandonedAmerica @adamhsparks
Abandoned America
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in reply to Abandoned America • • •A Calgary brewery wanted to make a 100% Alberta beer, down to the yeast. So they went out and collected some: http://onbeer.org/2017/07/albertas-first-terroir-beer/
Alberta’s First Terroir Beer? | On Beer
On BeerThe Other Brook
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