Don't you hate paying an enormous premium to your government when you buy beer? Wouldn't you like to be able to combine the ease and reasonable taste beer from the convenience store with the cheap prices of home brewed beer?
Enter the Self Brewing Beer Can.
At the point of sale, the chilled contents are firmly non-alcoholic and therefore treated as a soft drink for tax purposes. When you get it home and allow it to reach room temperature, the yeast inside picks up activity and converts the contents into beer.
Clearing may be achieved by affixing finings to the inside of the can using something which breaks down with alcohol.
Readyness can be tested by sufficient pressure being built up within the can - think of the 'tamper proof' cans which pop out when they're bad or opened - but in reverse - a panel should push itself outward when the beer is ready, based on gas pressure.
Transferring the same to the fridge would give you very cheap beer without any home-brew fuss, and with the assurance of the right mix of ingredients and yeast from your favourite brewery.-- vincevincevince, Aug 06 2007 Brewing (Beer) http://en.wikipedia...wiki/Brewing_(beer)Outline of the technical process involved [vincevincevince, Aug 06 2007] Not the mountaineers I mentioned, who set that record years ago, but the current record holders http://www.whitelab...m/highaltitude.html [normzone, Aug 06 2007] Beer, beer, beer! http://www.rathergood.com/beer/A little ditty about... [wagster, Aug 06 2007] Likely not enough head room http://www.brewandc...orter_explosion.jpgOne problem with your system. [Worldgineer, Aug 07 2007] Baked! http://en.wikipedia.../Malta_(soft_drink)Just add yeast (and a balloon, I tell ya') [Worldgineer, Aug 07 2007] Not that I drink beer, but my understanding was that you bought cans and/or of beer for the convenience of not having to wait around for the hops to brew. This kinda defeats the purpose.
And surely this is just a ham-fisted work-around for the more obvious solution of voting a less greedy, more beer-friendly government into office?-- DrCurry, Aug 06 2007 Ah! results in cheaper beer! and the government gets screwed on the tax too! screw the technicalities![+]-- the dog's breakfast, Aug 06 2007 Sounds like a cleaner, disposable home-brew kit. Nearly a + from me but I think the government would change the tax laws fairly quickly if it caught on, and then proper home brewers would be out of pocket.-- Srimech, Aug 06 2007 I was once told that something like this was sold during America's Prohibition. Folks could buy containers of non-alcoholic liquid featuring warning labels that listed conditions to be avoided to prevent fermentation.-- baconbrain, Aug 06 2007 "...more beer-friendly government..."
Amen, brothers and sisters.-- bibliotaphist, Aug 06 2007 maybe [triplevince] lives in a dictatorship and he cannot vote! + for tinier microbrews.-- k_sra, Aug 06 2007 This has been done in a different package. Plastic bag, sealed yeast capsule suspended in malt.
Add water, seal, smash capsule and wait.
I believe the folks who hold the record for the highest altitude homebrewing used one of these, and kept it in their sleeping bags at night to provide enough warmth for fermentation.-- normzone, Aug 06 2007 I doubt that it would be great beer if brewed in this manner, but it's both feasible and logical. And it involves cheap beer, beer, beer (linky).-- wagster, Aug 06 2007 You can buy some specialty beers that are refermented by virtue of having yeast added to the bottle before the beer is added. Gives it an extra jaw-clenching kick.
[+] for simplifying the process.-- shapu, Aug 06 2007 You are underestimating the amount of CO2 that's produced during fermentation - it's a lot. I suppose you could attach a very large plastic bag to the top, or a one-way valve, but watch out for blowout.-- Worldgineer, Aug 07 2007 hehe. voice of knowledge talking. (hi, World)-- k_sra, Aug 07 2007 Good grief, man, do you know nothing at all about brewing? (I'm tempted to just label this for deletion as "bad beer".)-- jutta, Aug 07 2007 HA!-- k_sra, Aug 07 2007 It's quite embarrassing that I missed the CO2 problem, given how many batches of Wag's Doom I've brewed. A release valve would help could get messy. Brewing is often messy.-- wagster, Aug 07 2007 I would think that a release valve can easily be engineered for this critter.-- shapu, Aug 07 2007 One that would 100% reliably only release gas and not fermenting must?-- wagster, Aug 07 2007 You could make the condition that the can has to be stored upright while brewing, which should make the CO2 venting easier. It needs to keep a certain pressure of CO2 back, though, to give the beer some carbonation.-- Srimech, Aug 07 2007 Without some serious head room, any valving will just squirt out foam or get clogged and explode. See my first link for an example. I think attaching a large balloon on top might be the best method, but then you have to worry about how to carbonate this.
(hi [k])-- Worldgineer, Aug 07 2007 How much headroom is serious? I normally do the first stage of brewing in a 5 gallon bin, which could contain about 6 gallons up to the rim, and I don't get froth bursting through the lid.-- Srimech, Aug 08 2007 Yes, but the size of the bubbles won't scale linearly - testing would be needed, but it seems like you'll need half the can empty.
(oh, and I hope you knocked on wood after that last sentence - my setup is identical and my ceiling tells me sometimes this isn't enough headroom)-- Worldgineer, Aug 08 2007 Good point on the amount of CO2. My vote is to use a gas-permeable membrane in the lid which allows seepage of CO2 outward and even diffusion of O2 inward, but no fluid outflow.
I do my personal brewing by covering with two layer of cling-film - does pretty well as a gas-permeable exchange membrane.-- vincevincevince, Aug 08 2007 It's a long shot cap'n, but it might just work!-- wagster, Aug 08 2007 Nice (+)
I'd prefer a self-fermenting wine bottle, with appropriate fine grape juice, appropriate yeastie-beasties, conforming CO2 balloon, and the addition of balloon volume - triggered sulfates and filtering.
"Ah, yes, an irrepressable vintage, with clear aristocratic heritage, nonetheless suitable for everyday quaffing..."-- csea, Aug 08 2007 I'd like to see a mains option just for the fun of it.."Plug it in 'n' brew"-- skinflaps, Aug 08 2007 In Japan, self-heating cans of saki are available, but it sucks to use up all that material just to heat a half can of rice wine.-- nuclear hobo, Aug 08 2007 [+] Not to mention the marketing benefits. Since this would not technically be alcoholic, you could quite legally sell this to minors without the patience or spare cash to buy their own home brewing equipment.-- sprogga, Oct 08 2007 Re semipermeable membrane: You will find that addition of O2 to the proceedings will result in vinegar, rather than alcohol.-- GutPunchLullabies, Oct 09 2007 How long before it gets banned and the loophole closed? I'm thinking very soon if minors and people on probation are downing it. Anyway, the second the juice becomes beer, it is treated as beer in a foriegn container and you can be charged for minor possesion of alcohol/DUI/purchasing and obtaining alcohol without booze tax/whatever the cops can add involving alcohol. Besides, there are many flaws that could result in exploding beer grenades or drunkards drinking 10 gallons of vinegar.-- Shadow Phoenix, Oct 25 2007 //Shadow Phoenix// If you live somewhere where you are not permitted to brew alcohol for personal consumption within your own home, then this idea does not apply to you. Permitted countries include almost all US states (100 gallons/person over 21 per houshold, 200 gallons per year limit); the UK; Sweden; Australia and New Zealand.-- vincevincevince, Oct 25 2007 Since each can would have to sit 2-5 weeks before you could drink it, and since you would normally drink 20-30 cans a week, you'd risk filling up your fridge -- what i would recommend is hiring dozens of Mexicans to store the beer in their fridges (it won't cost much, honest) and when it matures, they bring it by, with maybe a taco.
If you really want to make money, you'll make self-cooking tacos in a can.
I miss tacos.-- mylodon, Oct 25 2007 Sort of baked with places like http://www.myhomebrew.com/ and others that allow you to circumvent the law a little. You use their equipment on their premises, and pay a rental for that. You are the one who adds the sugar, hence it qualifies as "non-commercial", but they then monitor and ensure that your beer succeeds.-- the_jxc, Oct 25 2007 I have recently moved to Singapore and now I like this idea even more. A pint of beer at the pub costs up to SGD$15 = US$10 = £5.45 = €6,95
But I would then have to spend SGD $10 for a home brewing license from the government.-- sprogga, Mar 20 2008 ... and do you sing and pour in Singapore?-- xenzag, Mar 20 2008 Only when I kareoke-- sprogga, Apr 05 2008 A self-brewing can of beer would change its configuration to where an explosion may occure. Best to provide a helmet.
Does anyone know why beer is always packaged in a cylinder shaped contaniner?-- el dueno, Apr 06 2008 random, halfbakery