Fermenting on the Flip Side Mary Izett Co-host of Fuhmentaboudit! on Heritage Radio Network
Urban Brewing & Alternative Fermentations: Techniques & beverages for anyone short on space and time but long on creativity
My Journey in Fermentation
Urban Brewing Brew in a Bag Kettle souring Short fermentations Extracts, teas & potions Carbonation drops & caps French press infusions The Cuberator Fermentation tanks Use your resources: local, seasonal & exotic
Brew in A Bag Requires less equipment, less time & less clean-up Allows you to brew allgrain in only one vessel: your brew pot Only requires a brew pot & a bag; you can BIAB almost anywhere
Kettle Souring A quick method to get clean lactic sourness while minimizing risk of contaminating your brewing equipment Basic technique: Mash as normal and transfer to kettle Reduce temperature to around 108, add unmilled malt, purge with CO 2 & seal Allow to rest until desired sourness Strain out malt, bring to a boil, add hops & boil for 15 minutes Finish as normal, fermenting with desired Saccharomyces strain
Short fermentations Table beers : beers less than 3% ABV. Extremely quenchable beverages that can be brewed in mere days. Pennsylvania Swankey Grätzer Wee Scottish Ale Petit Grisette/Saison Herbed/Spiced/Fruit beers
Infusions, Extracts & Teas Effective way to add flavorings post-fermentation Water or alcohol extraction of fruit, vegetable, tea, spice, herb, etc Multiple beers out of one batch
French Press Infusions: An easy way to infuse flavors into homebrew Enhance a meh beer or get more flavors out of a single batch Experiment with flavor combinations for future batches Add ingredients & beer, infuse for 3 minutes, press & enjoy!
The Cuberator Credit goes to OldStyleCubFan on the Northern Brewer forum
Local, Seasonal & Exotic Ingredients What s in your neighborhood? Greenmarkets & Farmers markets International grocers & bodegas Tea & coffee shops
Union Square Greenmarket
Kalustyan s Curry Hill
spices and tease Chelsea Market
Staying organized
Alternative Beverages My Favorite 4 of 2013: Short mead Water Kefir Whey ferments Ginger Bug/Culture
Tools of the Trade Sugars: Organic white, organic brown, demerara, turbinado Salt: sea or celtic. My favorite is Himalayan pink salt Plastic strainers Wide-mouthed glass containers Cloth & rubber bands to cover containers
Short Meads Fermented honey beverage Lower alcohol than a traditional mead Easy & quick to make
Short Mead How-to: Ingredients for One Gallon: Gallon jug of water Flavorings: fruit (Trader Joe s freeze-dried fruit works wonderfully), spices, herbs, teas, etc Honey (1-2 lbs per gallon) Dry champagne yeast Basic Directions: Remove 3-4 cups of water from gallon jug and prepare flavoring tea with it. Remove 3 more cups of water from jug, place on scale and add desired amount of honey (1-2 lbs per gallon) Shake, shake, shake until dissolved Once flavoring tea has cooled to 70 F, add to honey water jug, pitch yeast & ferment
Water Kefir (Tibicos) A culture of bacteria and yeasts held in a polysaccharide biofilm matrix created by the bacteria Act in symbiosis to maintain a stable culture Feed off sugar to produce lactic acid, alcohol (ethanol), and carbon dioxide gas
Water Kefir 453 different bacterial & yeast strains have been identified in water kefir Bacteria: Lactobacillus: L brevis, L. casei, L. hilgardii, L. hordei, L. nagelii Leuconostoc: L. citreum, L. mesenteroides Acetobacter: A. fabarum, A. orientalis Streptococcus lactis Yeasts: Hanseniaospora valbyensis, Lachancea fermentati, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Zygotorulaspora florentina
Water Kefir How-to: Obtain grains: Locally Online: Cultures for Health, Yemoos, Amazon Primary ferment: 1 Quart de-chlorinated water: ¼ cup sugar: 3-4 Tbsp grains Culture for 24-48 hours Secondary ferment: Strain off cultured water (plastic strainer recommended) & add fruit, tea, herbs or fruit juice (if using juice use 1 part juice: 4-5 parts culture) Culture to taste Bottle if desired & refrigerated when carbonated Restart primary ferment with grains, as above
Ginger Starter Grated or diced fresh ginger + water + sugar = ginger starter! Can be used to create a variety of sodas
Ginger Starter How-to: 1 quart de-chlorinated water: 2 Tbsp sugar: 2 organic ginger root Daily: feed with 2 tsps ginger & 2 tsps water and aerate/stir 2 times Ready in 3-7 days typically (temperature dependent) Strain out ginger Secondary: use about 1/4 cup starter liquid for every quart of soda starter (fruit juice, tea, herb/spice infusion, etc)
Whey Ferments Strain the whey from a fresh quality yogurt to obtain a stellar soda starter Whey contains a variety of microorganisms: Lactobacillus bulgaricus or Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, and Streptococcus thermophilus or Streptococcus salivarius subsp. Thermophilus & possibly more
Whey Ferments How-to: Separate whey from yogurt by straining (local, fresh yogurt best) Bring ½ cup tea, fruit juice, infusion and ¼ cup sugar to a simmer. Turn off heat, add 2 cups filtered water and mix Cool to around 100 F and add ¼ cup whey Ferment 2-5 days Secondary: mix 2 cups filtered water, ¼ cup sugar (or to taste), ½ tsp sea salt & 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Add enough whey starter to make a quart. Bottle, ferment 2-5 days & chill
More Alternative Beverages Kvass Cider Rejuvelac Kombucha Sweet potato fly Mauby Tepache & many many more!
Culturing your own kombucha SCOBY
BIAB bags: Bagbrewer.com Resources/References Kettle souring: Fuhmentaboudit episodes 6 & 17, Heritageradionetwork.org/programs/87-Fuhmentaboudit Creative brewing & ingredients: Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher Infusions: Potions!, Randy Mosher, Zymurgy, Special 1994 French Press Infusions: Serious Eats Drinks, May 21, 2013 Short mead kits: Ambrosia Farms, Ambrosiafarm.com/mead Short mead how-to: Mylifeoncraft.com/?p=1747 Water kefir cultures: Yemoos.com, CulturesforHealth.com Water kefir composition: The Microbial Diversity of Water Kefir, Gulitz et al, International Journal of Food Microbiology, 2011. Find it here: biologiageral.com.sapo.pt/ficheiros/guilitz.pdf Fermentations: Wild Fermentation & The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz Cullturing a SCOBY: mylifeoncraft.com/?p=1489
Thank You! Mary Izett mylifeoncraft.@gmail.com www.fuhmentaboudit.com Fuhmentaboudit! on Heritage Radio Network.org Live every Monday at 7 pm Archived on HRN & itunes