Okay, this has taken on a life of it's own, and I think I'll see it to its conclusion.

We're still talking about Open Source Beer . After getting a post from a brewer which claimed that the recipe uses a lot of sugar. So much so, that any beverage that comes from it may not, in fact be beer. It may be alcoholic, but certainly not beer. I came to the conclusion that the Open Source Beer recipe was simply a marketing ploy.

Then Thorarinn Stefansson posted the following:

Being one of the students who published the recipe (and actually the one who wrote the english texts of the site) I'd like to point out that the "iffy beer recipe" whas produced in collaboration with a food scientist with over 20 years of experience in home brewing and who has published a book on the subject :)

The question wheiter or not a beer with added sugar for fermentation is a "real beer" is almost a religious issue to some, but it should be mentioned that the added sugar is only about 1/4 of the fermentable sugars.

Since I've also tasted the beer I can confirm that it in no way tastes like american style beers" (don't forget that the guarana beans add a lot to the bitterness of the hops). It's a real European with flavour and great color.

I'd also like to point out that on purpose the recipe is kept short, as the aim of the site isn't to teach home brewing. But then I can't see how the part of the recipe that says "[the wort] is then filtered and cooled in a sealed container" - is
"only inviting bacterial infection".

Of course you have to use common sense when cooling, but I can't see how, for instance in our brewing, cooling the wort in a sterilized sealed metal container in a cold storage room for 24 hours invites bacteria infection?

And Owen, please read the recipe again - the wort is boiled for 1.5 hours.

I don't want to sound to negative (after all, beer is ment to be fun) - but I wanted
to explain a bit of our side.

Marketing ploy? Well, remember that this is a school project. The basic idea was to see how far the "open source" concept could be applied to something as old-fashioned as beer recipe. But I can confirm that the idea has gotten a lot of attention and publicity - although we of course have nothing to gain financially from it all.

(But we do hope to get a decent grade for the project :)

Cheers!

Well, I'm willing to take his word for it that it's not a marketing ploy. But I'm not willing to say conclusively that the recipe will end up in a "beer" or not. The only evidence I will be willing to accept is the end result of the recipe. What that means is...Someone needs to make the brew.

Any takers? More importantly, anyone willing to send me a sample once the brew is complete?