Thoughts: Ginger Beer

Like all my culinary habits, the frequency of my fermentation projects come in waves. After a fairly lengthly dry spell from fermentation I am back fermenting with a vengeance. I've started a batch of kimchi and made borscht with fermented beets. I have made yet another attempt at a fermented ginger beer.

Homemade soda was one of the first culinary projects I undertook. I was living in my horrible basement apartment in Saskatoon while I attended university. I read about a soda equivalent that was fermented in a 2 L plastic bottle and used bread yeast so I decided to give it a try. It was unsuccessful but that did not stop me from being terrified that the bottle would explode. To combat my fear I lined a cardboard box with a trash bag and stored the supposedly fermenting bottle in there. Nothing happened. 

(Bottled plain and grapefruit/rosemary ginger beer)

Years later, with multiple successful fermentation projects to my name I attempted a ginger-beer made with a ginger bug. The ginger bug never achieved 'active' status due, perhaps, to imported ginger. A few weeks ago, I decided to give home brewed ginger-beer another go. This time, due to organic ginger, the ginger bug was soon bubbling away. I managed to make a gingery and sweet beverage but it did not carbonate in the bottles the way I wanted. This could be due to my extreme fear of bottle bombs and/or I may have rushed the process a bit and should have let my active ginger bug get slightly more active. 

(In addition to failing to carbonate, I had severe problems capping my bottles!) 

(Tasted delightlful but sadly no carbonation.)

I have high hopes for the next attempt!

I've been really enjoying the tactile nature of fermentation. I loved getting my hands in that kimchi and mixing it up! But fermentation projects have the potential to remind us of several important aspects of the food industry. While we, as city dwellers, may not have much opportunity to interact with our food in the ground or even with the farmers that grow it – we do have the opportunity to interact with our food before we consume it. Fermentation and other food projects also allow us, as individuals, to quietly and in a small way, resist corporate domination and offers us an activity in which to produce more than we consume.  

Why do you ferment?

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Kombucha Ideas: Sun Brewed

The ingredients necessary to ferment tea into Kombucha are very basic - water, sugar, and tea. I figured that sun brewed tea would work just as well as tea made in the traditional manner and I was right! I made a regular sun brewed tea (water and tea bags in the sun), then I sweetened it with a simple syrup and threw in a SCOBY.

This kombucha is light and refreshing with delicate citrus notes. I drank this tea after only eight days of fermentation and I found it to be perfect - it's still sweet and refreshing. 

Future experiment: Sun Brewed Kombucha made into a Sangria beverage!

Remember to check out my online Kombucha brewing course! Enter coupon code 'vegan' for free access! 

Purchase my zine on Kombucha brewing! 

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Homebrew: In pictures

(Grains)

(Mash)

(Bottled)

(This might be beer. Stay tuned.)

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Homebrew: Kombucha Wine

I've been brewing kombucha for a while now. The plain kombucha is nice but I really enjoy experimenting with the concept and basic tenants of kombucha brewing.

I followed the basic recipe found here to brew up some kombucha wine. The wine has been fermented since 3 March 2013 and I bottled it up on 23 May 2013. A one gallon carboy made 4 500 mL bottles of wine (seen in the background here). I cannot decide if it's better to further age this in the refrigerator or at room temperature but it is currently at room temperature. It's now a recommended three month wait to taste this wine. I might break a bottle out for my upcoming Kombucha Workshop.

I have a good feeling about the final product because, at bottling, the kombucha wine was flat and slightly sour but a rich orange colour with citrus notes.    

I am counting this batch towards my goal of 24 1 gallon batches of homebrew in 2013. 

Click here for my other kombucha adventures. 

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Drinking: Home-brewing Tip

While my home-brew dreams have remained on my culinary to do list thus far, I have managed to make several batches of Kombucha. We bought this Chalk Ink market from a local art supply store after asking them for recommendations regarding labelling glass bottles. This marker works amazing. It is easy to use and easy to remove but does not wash off with condensation. I use it to keep track of the contents and the date of various fermentation projects. 

We will have to think of something else to label the final beer project as this chalk marker rubs off easily with touch.

How do you label home-brew projects?   

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From Scratching: Spent Grain Flour

Through twitter stalking Junction Craft Beer I discovered when they had brewed and headed down there to ask for some spent grains. I then dehydrated and ground those spent grains into a flour.

Now what to do with this flour?

Original inspiration here.   

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Brewing: Coffee Kombucha

I've been brewing Kombucha for the last few months. There are a lot of supposed health benefits associated with Kombucha. I am not sure if I believe such claims but I would support removing cola and soft drinks in flavor of a home-brewed, few ingredient drink such as Kombucha. I do not drink cola or soft drinks so adding Kombucha to my diet is actually an increase in non-water liquids. I like the brewing process and I enjoy finding uses for the extra scobies created. 

I read about using an extra scoby to ferment some brewed coffee. I left an inch or so of brewed kombucha in the bottom of this container and poured in room temperature coffee and an extra scoby. Apparently, the acidity of the coffee prevents a baby scoby from forming and kills the mother.

Have you brewed anything besides tea Kombucha with your scoby?
What do you do with your extra scobies?   

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Drinking: Homebrewed Kombucha

I grew a SCOBY a few months ago. I am currently brewing my third batch of Kombucha. The first batch did not work properly - I think I left it to ferment for too long - I blame the Christmas holidays! The second batch fermented from 18 December to 8 January. I bought a chalk marker that allows me to write the date on the glass bottle. This helps me keep track of when I began fermentation. I think that I fermented the batch for a long time but it seemed to work. It was highly carbonated and fizzed a lot when I poured it into the bottle to start a new batch. 

I do not drink a lot of soda and wanted to try brewing Kombucha for interest sake rather than to make a product to drink on a regular base. However, I have started the third batch. I think I like touching the SCOBY!

I want to start making flavoured Kombucha next.  

Have you brewed? Please leave me advice in the comments! 

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Eating the Web: Beer

1. Weight in on (or discover) the debate regarding buying/selling beer in growlers.
2. Can you brew beer from sourdough starter? The answer is YES! (reminds me of my kvass adventures!) 
3. Ale to the Chief! The Obamas homebrew recipe released!
4. I always vote for draught beer, but is that the best choice?
5. And of course, pairing beer with personal failure.  

 

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Dough: Spent Grain Sourdough Bread

I have been playing with homebrew as of late and by 'playing' I mean failing at making beer! It's because I started with an all grain invented recipe but, I swear, the next time it will work out. I am learning a ton about beer though so that's a plus. Another plus is that I have had a lot of spent grains to deal with as of late. I made my standard multigrain sourdough bread but used spent grains exclusivly. It worked fantastically! 

Submitted to Yeastspotting

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