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.