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 all-grain 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 CO2 & 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

Short mead

Water Kefir

Whey ferments

Ginger Bug/Culture

My Favorite 4 of 2013:

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: 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

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

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

Resources/References BIAB bags: Bagbrewer.com

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