Developing Tri-X with special beer

Lee Rust · Mar 20, 2019

"Developed" with the cooperation of Kodak. I guess it makes more sense than crypto-currency.

https://petapixel.com/2019/03/20/this-beer-was-developed-to-process-kodak-super-8-film/

removed account4 · Mar 20, 2019

Hi Lee:

There is a member of this forum ( BAC1967 ) who often processes his film in beer, and
it works pretty well ! >> https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/post-your-architectural-photos-here.160923/page-2#post-2131325
Dogfish is rather pricy I think the form member uses something uber cheep like PBR

Lee Rust · Mar 20, 2019

jnantz said:
I think the form member uses something uber cheep like PBR

Thanks, John. It would be fun to try some beeranol, but I think I'm more of a coffee guy.

NedL · Mar 20, 2019

I have a feeling if you add 12g of vitamin C and 50g of baking soda to just about any drink, or water, it might develop film.

markjwyatt · Mar 20, 2019

It needs to be acidic. I imagine if your pictures are uplifting, you should process in caffinol. If they are dark, somber, or gloomy, use beer.

I would try the beer. Some Belgian style beers brewed with fruit are quite good (try Oud Beersel Oud Kriek, An old style, sour Lambic ale brewed with sour cherries; I tried the export version and it was not good. Need to get in Belgium). I think Gose is more a German style, and has a fair amount of salt in it. It is sour like the Belgian Lambic ale.

Fin · Mar 20, 2019

No no no!

Rodinal in the film tank, beer in the operator! Wait, what?

"The 5.3% ABV beer is made with 8 special ingredients: prickly pear, mango, boysenberry, blackberry, raspberry, elderberry, kiwi juices and a touch of quinoa, along with an ample addition of Hawaiian sea salt." Sounds actually quite interesting. I'm not offended by the new range of artisan beardy beers!

So... What sort of flavor does film add to a beer? (Asking for a friend!)

Photo Engineer · Mar 20, 2019

I drink my beer! Although, I am not a big fan of beer. I prefer Guiness!

PE

BAC1967 · Mar 21, 2019

I’ve had good results with most black and white films in beer but Tri-X and Plus-X are two that don’t do well. I wonder if I need to turn up the heat to 90F like they recommend. This is the recipe I came up with:

Beer (cheap Lager, like Pabst Blue Ribbon) - 12oz
Sodium Carbonate (Arm & Hammer Washing Soda) - 2.75 Tsp
Ascorbic Acid Powder (Vitamin C) - 1.25 Tsp
Salt (Morton's Iodized Table Salt) - 1/4 Tsp

Add the ingredients in the order listed above. Fully dissolve the Sodium Carbonate in the beer before adding the next two ingredients, this may take several minutes. I mix everything in a clear container so that I can see the undissolved ingredients settling in the bottom.

Develop at 20C for 20 minutes. Agitate first 30 seconds then 15 seconds every minute. I follow development with a good water rinse followed by a normal Fix.

The recipe above is for one roll of 35mm film, double the recipe for 120 film. Most cheap lagers give very similar results. I’ve also used a Porter but I like to save the good beer for drinking.

Some film I developed in beer.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/60348236@N07/albums/72157680888508674

I also created a Flickr group
https://www.flickr.com/groups/3705975@N20/

baachitraka · Mar 21, 2019

Is it the beer or the ascorbic acid that is developing the film? or the combo...

RalphLambrecht · Mar 21, 2019

yo

NedL said:
I have a feeling if you add 12g of vitamin C and 50g of baking soda to just about any drink, or water, it might develop film.

u are probably right but people would still argue that the original Budowar would work better than the US version from Anheuser Busch.

BAC1967 · Mar 21, 2019

baachitraka said:
Is it the beer or the ascorbic acid that is developing the film? or the combo...

I based my recipe on Caffenol but had to make a lot of adjustments. I would think if it was just the ascorbic acid I wouldn’t have had to make adjustments to the recipe. I think the beer and coffee have some effect but what do I know, I’m a geologist not a chemist.

baachitraka · Mar 21, 2019

I use coffee/tea to tone (technically its not toning) the papers and it works ;-)

For predictable results, it always Rodinal.

baachitraka · Mar 21, 2019

All the double-bath experiments at home have give good results but I started to wonder after going through few film that Bath B will not be same Bath B when mixed. So I stayed away from of the experiments except PC-TEA (very good stuff) but mixing might pull many down.

Sirius Glass · Mar 21, 2019

Photo Engineer said:
I drink my beer! Although, I am not a big fan of beer. I prefer Guiness!

PE

+1
I do not prefer Guiness, but beer works better when drunk than used as a developer, except when one wants to develop sleep.

markjwyatt · Mar 21, 2019

Sirius Glass said:
...beer works better when drunk than used as a developer, except when one wants to develop sleep.

Caffenol may do you some good...

Michael Firstlight · Mar 21, 2019

Beer for developer, coffee to tone......good Lord, what's next, Viagra?

Photo Engineer · Mar 21, 2019

Blue toner?

Alan Johnson · Mar 21, 2019

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/caffeic-acid-fill-of-beans.115988/
When I investigated coffee based developer I found that as well as caffeic acid there appear to be mysterious unidentified compounds which partly contribute to its developing activity.
The same may be true for beer.Is this another Kodak secret?

Michael Firstlight · Mar 21, 2019

Photo Engineer said:
Blue toner?

Over-excited developer

removed account4 · Mar 21, 2019

markjwyatt said:
Caffenol may do you some good...

+1 !

baachitraka · Mar 21, 2019

Push developer

markjwyatt · Mar 21, 2019

Alan Johnson said:
...
The same may be true for beer.Is this another Kodak secret?

The Kodak secret may involve beer, but more likely in the staff than the developer! They do make some good beer in upstate NY (there is an old styled dark beer but I cannot recall the name)...

Sirius Glass · Mar 21, 2019

markjwyatt said:
The Kodak secret may involve beer, but more likely in the staff than the developer! They do make some good beer in upstate NY (there is an old styled dark beer but I cannot recall the name)...

Have you ever seen the Genesee River in Rochester? I would not want to drink anything made with that water including beer. Heck I would not use it to flush a toilet!

eddie · Mar 21, 2019

Michael Firstlight said:
....good Lord, what's next, Viagra?

Only for extreme enlargements.

markjwyatt · Mar 21, 2019

Sirius Glass said:
Have you ever seen the Genesee River in Rochester? I would not want to drink anything made with that water including beer. Heck I would not use it to flush a toilet!

In Olympia, Washington they used to say "It's the water and a lot more". If you taste the beer you might say "It's the water and not much more"!

In Belgium (Brussels) the Faro river is said to provide the wild yeast that leads to the sour ales brewed in open vats. May not be recommended in upstate NY.

Edit: I think the beer I was thinking of is Saranac Adirondack lager...

Developing Tri-X with special beer

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