Faces in Beer
Welcome to my ongoing project where I take portraits of brewers on black and white film, then develop those portraits in the beer they brewed.
There are two things that I spend way too much money on--photographic film and beer. I shoot and develop at least a few rolls of film every week. Typically this is accompanied by a good beer. For that reason, I try to keep my fridge stocked with beer and film and my cabinet stocked with developer. But last month I ran out of developer, and I remembered hearing that you can develop film other liquids like wine and coffee. I searched Google for recipes and came across a blog post "How to Develop Film With Beer." I pitched an idea to Jacylen Mendez at PorchDrinking.com, let's do a portrait series of brewers and develop their portraits in the beer they've created.
These are the results from this on-going project.
Want to develop your film in beer? Here’s my beer developer recipe.
You’ll Need
600 ml of beer
50 grams washing soda*
12 grams of ascorbic acid (powered vitamin C)
Directions
Heat 600ml of beer to 90°f.
Mix in 50 grams washing soda* and whisk until dissolved.
Stir in 12 grams of ascorbic acid (powered vitamin C) and mix until dissolved.
Develop at 68°f for 20 minutes. To get the beer down to 68°f, I suggest a cool water bath. Place your beer in a metal mixing bowl, and place that bowl in a larger mixing bowl filled with ice water. Wisk until the beer's temperature drops to 68°f.
Add your beer to the developing tank and agitate for the first minute, then again for 15 seconds at the top of each remaining minute.
Wash and fix per the film's instructions.
*Washing soda is not the same as baking soda. Don’t have washing soda? You can make it by heating baking soda to 400°f for 30 mins.