We’re pretty excited about this gem coming out in 2019! This is the third book by our good friends Kirsten & Christopher Shockey and we’re super excited that you find some of our Miso recipes in this gem! Get those orders in!
Berkshire Fermentation Festival Presenter Videos
What a lovely weekend at the Berkshire Fermentation Festival! This was our third year back teaching and we’re happy to announce that the videos from all the presenters are now up online for you to enjoy!
Catch our Miso Workshop along with presenters Sandor Katz, Adam Elabd, Amanda Feifer, Anne Yonetani, and Alana Chernila!!
CHECK IT OUT HERE!
Misozuke (Asian Quick Pickles)
Miso Pickles (Misozuke)
** Adapted from Karen Solomon’s Book “Asian Pickles”
2/3 cup white or red miso
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ tsp red chili flakes
Combine the miso, garlic, miring, and sherry in a bowl to make a thick paste.
Clean and slice vegetables to ¼-1/2” pieces. Vegetables that tend to be watery such as cucumbers, daikon, etc so should be lightly salted and left to drain their excess moisture for an hour; less watery vegetables such as carrots and other root veggies do not need to be pre salted. Pat vegetables dry before submerging them in the paste. Use ONLY the amount of vegetables that can be covered by a thick layer of paste. Let them sit out room temperature in a cool, dark space for 1 hour to 24 hours. Wipe off the miso mixture before eating.
Hoshigaki
Hoshigaki are a Japanese delicacy made by gently massaging persimmons while they air dry.
The persimmons used to make Hoshigaki are astringent varieties such as Hachiya. Ideally, choose fruit that still has part of the stem. We've used a couple different varieties of persimmons with nice success.
1) The first step is to cut the top off, while carefully leaving the stem that you will tie string to and they will hang from. And then use a knife of peeler to trim away the skins of the persimmon. Then attach the string and find a good place for your Hosigaki to hang. Broom handles work great for this, we've also used knitting needles, drumsticks and hangers to hang the Hoshigaki from.
2) The first week you just let the Hoshigaki hang and dry till they start to create a thin skin. After a week has passed you begin to gently massage each persimmon every other day. Be careful not to break the skin.
3) As you keep massaging every other day the fructose in the fruit will begin to come to the surface. The "bloom" begins to appear...it looks like powdered sugar on your persimmons. Keep massaging until the persimmons are more like a dried fruit, changing into a darker color with the bloom, and then enjoy!
Hoshigaki
Cranberry Bean with Red Chili, Garlic, and Leek Miso
Ingredients: (makes 1 quart)
1.5 cups dry cranberry beans
1.5 cups dried koji
2 cloves minced garlic cloves
¼ cup chopped leeks
1 strip chopped seaweed (dulse, kombu, or other)
1-2 tsp red chili flakes (pending on your desired heat level)
4 tbs sea salt
Directions:
1. Soak beans overnight (we usually soak for 8 hours)
2. Drain the soaking water and move beans to stock pot and cover with fresh water and cook on medium until al’dente. Other options for cooking beans would be to use a pressure cooker or Instapot.
3. Drain the beans, saving the bean liquid from cooking.
4. Once the bean juice has cooled put your koji in a bowl and add enough bean juice to moisten the koji. You will likely have to add more liquid once the first bit is soaked up. You want it to be wet enough that the koji feels well hydrated.
5. In a separate bowl, take all of your strained beans and start mashing the beans being sure to break the hulls on each bean.
6. Once your beans are mashed combine the bean and koji mixtures into one bowl and start mixing. Next add the leeks, red chili flakes, seaweed, and 3 tbs sea salt.
7. Stir everything together well. It should be a toothpaste like consistency and put it aside.
8. Take your jar and using bean juice or water rinse the inside of the jar making sure to well coat all of the sides of the jar and then sprinkle with the last tablespoon of salt making sure to coat all the sides and the bottom of the jar.
9. Spoon the miso mixture into your jar doing your best to well pack the jar getting out as many air bubbles as possible.
10. Salt the top of the miso well and then add a small piece of wax paper that is the size of the diameter of your jar on top of the salt layer. This will help with any potential mold growth. You have the option to add a weight if you choose, I tend not to with smaller jars and like to add a plate or other weight on bigger batches of miso.
11. Put a lid on your miso, and then label and date it. Store in a cool dark place away from direct sunlight. We like to keep ours under our bed!
12. We like to start our miso in the winter and let it ferment for atleast 10 months (making it a one year miso in miso years)
13. When you are ready to harvest your miso, open it up and take off the weight if you have one and wax paper. Then scrape the top surface of the miso till you get to something that looks nice and rich in color.
14. From here you have a couple options: 1) You can strain off the tamari (liquid pooling in the top of the miso) and save for later use as a flavoring agent. And then you can use the miso in it’s chunky form or take it and food process it into a paste. 2) You can mix it up well and eat it as is.
15. Move it to the fridge and enjoy for months and years to come!
Fermented Cranberries in Honey
Winter fermentation life can be so different that the bounty that comes in late Spring and runs through late Fall. One of our favorites is Cranberries. I know most of us associate them with cranberry sauce but, we like this spin on these amazing potent berries.
INGREDIENTS: (Makes 1 quart)
4 cups Raw Cranberries
4-5 cups Honey
1" inch Ginger Root
Take your cranberries and give them a rinse under water and then you can either lightly food process them or leave them whole and prick each berry with a knife or fork. We like the later option for this process.
Put your cranberries in a clean jar with the ginger root cut into think slices. Pour honey over the top of the cranberries until you just cover them. Make sure to leave at least 2" of space in the top of the jar to allow for gases and also for the liquid that will be released from the cranberries as the honey ferments them.
We like to let them sit for 5-7 days, periodically giving the jar a little shake. And then enjoy! We like to add this to cocktails, into salads cut with vinegar and other vegetables, and more!
Blackberry Wine
Wine. That tasty beverage has captured us. Obsessed is more like it. This winter we've thrown ourselves head first into the world of wine making and we're loving it! Combine fruit, sugar, water and yeast and through a little magic and thinking you too can make your own wines.
We just made a nice Blackberry Wine that we are going to let sit a little longer this winter after we ciphon it and we can't wait to drink it! Makes 1 gallon
Ingredients:
3 pints blackberries
2 cups sugar
Water
1 packet of Lalvin D47 yeast
Instructions:
Take your blackberries and heat them up in in pan with some water to get them soft. We heated ours for about 5 minutes. Set the aside and let them cool. Once you sterilize your jars or carboys with Sani Star and then fill 1/3 of the way with water. Add sugar and shake. Once your berries have cooled I like to pour the liquid through a mesh strainer and then take a spoon and press the berries through. Alternatively you could take the mixture and run it through a blender or food processor. Add the puree to the container and then your yeast and top off with water. Only fill to the bend in your jar leaving enough space. Shake well and then add a airlock. Label and date your wine and put it in a cool dark place to ferment.
Fermented Cranberry Relish
I think a lot of people have a love hate relationship with cranberries. As the holidays have rolled around and Thanksgiving came I was thinking a lot about cranberry sauce and how I like it and yet I don't like it but, something in me wanted to redeem what magic cranberries do have so I took it to the kitchen and with the power of fermentation by my side decided to whip up a fermented cranberry relish and the result was a good one! I packed multiple jars for friends and family on a recent Thanksgiving trip to Virginia and Washington DC and it was a hit! Lovers of cranberries and non lovers alike enjoyed this tangy fermented gift. With the hollidays in full swing we hope you'll take a stab at this yummy ferment for the holidays.
Fermented Cranberry Relish
Ingredients:
- Fresh cranberries (3 cups)
- Dried cranberries (1 cup)
- Ginger root (2 inch piece)
- Sugar (3 tablespoons)
- Sea salt (1 tablespoon)
- Cinnamon (optional)
- Walnuts (optional)
Take your cranberries and put them in a food processer and rough chop them. Move to a bowl and add a sea salt. Stir well to allow the brine to start coming out of the cranberries. Grate the ginger root. Add the ginger, sugar, and dried cranberries to the bowl. Mix well. Add cinnamon or chopped walnuts as an optional added bit of magic. Move the mixture to a jar and pack it down, add a weight to keep it submerged below the brine. Cover with a lid or towel and put in a cool dark place to ferment. We let our sit for about 5 days before harvesting.
Cinnamon Fig Shrub
Shrubs! We first fell in love with shrubs on a trip to Portland, Oregon when we hit up the coffeeshop Barista and they had an amazing Fig Shrub based Espresso drink with some other magic mixed in. It was absolutely amazing and when when we got home we started making these easy and tasty drink mixers. We like them in bourbon, gin, seltzer, and more!
This is our Cinnamon Fig Shrub that we recently made after being asked by our friends Thomasin and Alex to make a drink mixer for their upcoming wedding. They wanted something that people could take away as a gift and that would be a nice mixer....so Cinnamon Fig Shrub it was! We love this delightful fall mixer and we think you will too! Note: if you save all those ends and tips you can use them to make a nice Fruit Scrap Vinegar which is what we did!
Cinnamon Fig Shrub
Ingredients:
Fresh Figs
Sugar
Raw Apple Cider Vinegar
Water
Cinnamon Stick (optional)
Directions:
- Add equal parts of sugar and water to a saucepan, and heat and stir until the sugar dissolves.
- Add figs and simmer until the fruit's juice blends well into the syrup.
- Let it rest till it cools
- Add vinegar to the syrup in a large (ideally glass) container
- Cover with a lid or airlock and let ferment for 5-10 days
- Filter your shrub through a strainer and enjoy!
Fermented Apple Pear Sauce
When I was a kid at basically every dinner there would be either applesauce or apple butter on the table. The apple butter usually came from the Amish farm or the local apple farm, and the applesauce...well, Mott's was what we had.
Thinking about my love of applesauce and over the years of hauling home a huge CSA loot of apples and pears I started making a slow cooker Apple Pear Sauce somewhere around September. Always the maker and always the person wanting to re-invent things I decided that this year we would do a few batches of Fermented Apple Pear Sauce to add to our fall goodies...promptly followed by Apple Cider Vinegar, Hard Cider, Cyszar, and a fall Apple Kraut.
Here's our recipe for our Fermented Apple Pear Sauce. Hope you enjoy it as much as we have!
Ingredients:
- 5 medium apples and 2-3 medium pears
- 2 Tbsp. water kefir
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Instructions:
- Chop apples and pears into chunks. Optional is to peel them -- we like them with peels on with the cores removed. Throw them into a food processor and blend until you get your desired consistency.
- Mix in water kefir, ginger, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.
- Transfer to a quart jar, leave room for the ferment to do it's thing, we suggest 1 inch (or at the curve of the jar).
- Cover the jar with a cloth, lid, airlock, pickle pipe, or whatever method of your choosing.
- Ferment for 1-3 days until you reach a flavor and texture that you like. We suggest tasting it daily to see how the flavor profile changes daily. It's really the best way to learn how you like your ferments! Once you like the flavor, put a lid on the jar, and store in the fridge. We suggest eating within 1-2 months.
Pistachio Miso
One of my favorite things about winter is teaching Miso Workshops. We only teach Miso making in the winter since Miso is traditionally started in the winter months, so when it was time to start amping up for our winter workshops at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and Enlightenment Wines we went and started digging through our Miso stash to see what we wanted to share with our students. If you got a chance to make it to the NYC Fermentation Festival then you likely got to test out some of our Miso's there as well. From our Chickpea Leek Kelp Miso, Blackbean Miso, to our Cashew Miso we've been all about Miso this winter so we wanted to share one of our favorite recipes of late with you. We've be playing with nuts and seeds a lot lately and Pistachio Miso has become one of our favorites. A quick and easy ferment, guaranteed to be a nice accoutrement to any meal.
Here's our recipe:
1 cup Raw unsalted pistachios
1/2 cup Koji (rice or barley koji)
Sea salt
Instructions:
Soak the pistachios for 2-4 hours. Drain the excess liquid. Soak the koji in a few tablespoons of water while you prep the nuts and blender.
In a blender combine the soaked pistachios with the koji and 1 tbs of sea salt and blend into a paste. You will likely have to add a little filtered water while you blend. You ultimately want it to be a toothpaste consistency.
Take a wide mouth jar and pour the mixture into the jar, leaving room at the top, put on a lid and let sit for 2-4 days in a cool dark place.
We like to use this miso as a spread on baked fish, toast, as a soup, in salad dressings and more. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Fermentation and the Human Microbiome Resource List
The First Annual NYC Fermentation Festival was a couple weekends ago here in Brooklyn, NY. It was a fantastic turnout and filled with amazing vendors, workshops, and more! Erin Cramm and I taught on Fermentation and the Human Microbiome this year at the festival and we wanted to share out list of favorite reads and more on this topic with you. So here are our picks and we hope you get a chance to enjoy them as much as we have!
Erin’s List:
I Contain Multitudes - Ed Yong
Food Rules - Michael Pollan
Gut - Giulia Enders
The Human Super-Organism - Dr. Rodney Dietert
Brainmaker - Dr. David Perlmutter
This is Your Brain on Parasites - Kathleen McAuliffe
The Gene - Siddhartha Mukherjee
Cheryl’s List:
The Art of Fermentation - Sandor Katz
Wild Fermentation - Sandor Katz
The Good Gut - Justin Sonnenburg
The Symbiont Factor - Dr. Richard Matthews
Cooked (Book & Netflix Series) - Michael Pollan
An Epidemic of Absence - Moses Velasques-Manoff
Missing Microbes - Dr. Martin J. Blaser
Check out the latest from us! The Art of Secondary Fermentation for Edible Brooklyn!
Wondering how to flavor your kombucha? Want to know how it's ready? Check out our recent article written by our Chief Fermentationist, Cheryl Paswater for Edible Brooklyn! Also, you can find us in February's Drink's Issue of Edible Brooklyn with a look inside our home fermentation station and more!
https://www.ediblebrooklyn.com/2017/secondary-kombucha-fermentation/
Fermented Nut Cheeses
Fermented Nut Cheeses
Ingredients:
- 2 cups raw nuts of your choice (Almonds, Cashews, Brazil, Macadamia, etc). This will make 2 cups of nut cheese.
- 1 cup Rejuvelac, water kefir, probiotic capsules (crack open two capsules), brine from a previous ferments, even kvass works.
Soak your nuts:
Nuts are best soaked or partially sprouted because they contain enzyme inhibitors that can strain the digestive tract when consumed in excess. Soaking your nuts makes them easier to digest and their nutrients more readily available. To soak your nuts leave them overnight in salt water, then dry them in a warm oven or dehydrator. Salt activates enzymes that neutralize enzyme inhibitors. You can also soak them in just water and it will still help break down the nuts. Note: Make sure you are always using raw nuts.
Cashews should be soaked no longer than 6 hrs. And all other nuts can be soaked overnight. Once soaked you can blanch the nuts for 3-5 minutes and then the peels should slide right off the nuts. You can skip this step with cashews as they do not have skins. This helps get rid of the bitter taste the skins have but also makes a better consistency cheese.
Mix ingredients:
Blend all the ingredients together in a high-speed blender and continue to mix until smooth. Add more of your liquid if necessary to form a smooth, creamy texture.
Strain & Ferment:
Pour into a nut milk bag or cheesecloth-lined strainer. (Paint strainer bags make great nut bags and can be easily found online or at your local hardware store). Allow to strain for 24-48 hours. You can hang the nut bag over a bowl or place it in a colander with a weight on top. This will apply pressure and push out the excess liquid over the process time. The longer it sits the more tart your nut cheese will be, so feel free to give it a little taste along the way to suit your pallet. Additionally, you could wrap the nut cheese bag around a wooden spoon and find a place to hang it from to allow it to strain.
After 24-48 hours, remove your cheese from the nut bag or cheese cloth. I like to add lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and salt for a very basic cheese. I also to create different flavors of cheese like a Almond Dill cheese where I add lemon zest, fresh dill, and use a almond base. You can add garlic, cumin, roll the cheese in dill or peppercorns. The sky is the limit! Store in the fridge for several weeks and enjoy!
Walnut Ridge: A week with Sandor Katz
Back in November Sandor Katz came to NYC for an event hosted by Just Food. While he was here he invited me to come to Walnut Ridge in the spring. I'd heard a lot about Walnut Ridge (Sandor's school off the grid in the mountains of Tenneseee), I had friends who attended and most anyone deeply into the fermentation world has heard something about Walnut Ridge at some point or another. I was honored to be invited so, when the application process came up for the spring, I emailed Sandor and he told me I still had to apply, I immediately got my application in and started an adventure deep into my dreamy, over imaginative, and always project-minded brain thinking about what a week with Sandor would look like.
I knew it would be amazing. I knew I would meet amazing people. I knew I would learn a ton.
There is something to be said about going into something know that it's going to be amazing without a doubt. And a week spent at Walnut Ridge was nothing but all of those things, plus some and then some more and then some more. Where do I even begin? The short version would be that Walnut Ridge is magical.
The longer version would be that Walnut Ridge is a magical 1820's cabin with an amazing kitchen -- complete with a couch (my personal favorite feature), embodied by an amazing mentor, and filled with the most stellar group of people. I truly couldn't not of been paired with a more fantastic group of people! Something happens when you are thrown into the woods, into a communal situation, where you are camping, and are going to ferment a ridiculous amount of food. Shared meals, shared clean up, shared making, shared ideas, a teacher who is fully giving of his knowledge, and a space where creativity and bacteria reign. There is no way to talk about this experience other than to say it more than exceeded anything I could of wanted. We covered 57 ferments in 5 days, bacteria bands were born, friendships kindled, documentaries made, bacteria samples taken and sent back to the American Gut Project, explorations, adventures, and copius amounts of food were consumed. And two weeks after leaving I am still reeling from the experience -- one of the best weeks of my life. Dreams of doogh, and rice beer, and zakvass, miso, and homemade koji -- dreams of bottling homemade wine and making anything and everything you could want. And let me not forget to mention that Sandor is one of the most generous, caring, interested, and giving teachers I have ever worked with.
Ferment! Ferment!
Over the weekend was one of our favorite days for the year! The annual Ferment! Ferment! event in Brooklyn hosted and organized by the amazing Zack Schulman. Ferment! Ferment! is a celebration of all things fermented, for the beginner and the experienced fermenter, and nerds unite! And you better like to eat because when you walk in and see the rows of tables of everyone's homemade concoctions it's impossible to leave without sampling everything!
There was another fantastic turn out this year and four amazing workshops put on by some fantastic fermenters: Sauerkraut with Angela Davis, Fermented Nut Cheeses with our very own Cheryl Paswater, Sour Beers with James Kinnie, and Kefir based drinks with Ken Fornotoro. There was a great crowd and great food -- so many highlights from Tempeh Pigs in a Blanket with Fermented Ketchup, Dosa, Fermented Cookies, Beer, Kimichi's, Herbal Kombucha's, and more. An event guaranteed to leave your gut and microbiome in a happy place.
Thank you to everyone who came out and makes this community such a special one because that's the thing that makes Ferment! Ferment! so amazing. Gathering our amazingly interesting and creative community together in the name of fermentation. Ferment ALL the things!!
Herbal Medicine Meets Fermentation by Meghan Hintz
We're super excited to have guest blogger Meghan Hintz writing this fantastic blog on herbal medicine, fermentation, and sharing her recipe for Nettles Kraut! Meghan is a Fermentationist, Functional Nutrition Health Coach, and creator of Herba Flora, ( http://herbaflorahealth.com/) a line of herbal digestives free from alcohol, sugar, and other common allergens. She lives in the Pacific Northwest where she is currently fawning over the glorious awakening of spring.
HERBAL MEDICINE MEETS FERMENTATION
While fermented foods are celebrated – and rightly so – for their digestive and
immune support, they are also notable for the increased bio-availability of their
nutrients. As friendly microorganisms break down cellulose, vitamins and minerals
are liberated making them especially easy for our bodies to absorb. Beyond the
nutrient value, fermentation releases a more mysterious and nuanced quality of
plants – their medicinal actions.
Just as the fermentation process frees nutrients, it is able to extract the therapeutic
properties of herbs. This can be a fabulous alternative to alcohol-based tinctures, as
alcohol can increase intestinal permeability and may not be suitable for children,
pregnant women, and those experiencing alcohol sensitivity or addiction.
When choosing herbs for your ferment consider flavor and herbal actions. Food
herbs like fennel, ginger, and turmeric are naturals and help ease gas, settle an upset
stomach and decrease inflammation, respectively. Rose is calming to the nerves and
pleasantly floral, but also astringent so start with small amounts. Remember that
your ferment will take time so herbs that become harsh after a long steep (think
lavender) may not be the best fit. Likewise, steer clear of herbs with strong
antimicrobial actions that could kill off friendly bacteria and halt fermentation.
Favorite spring tonic herbs, all suitable for sauerkraut and miso, include burdock
root for the liver and skin, dandelion root and leaf (the leaves can be quite bitter, the
root more mild) for the liver and kidneys, and my favorite: nettles.
Stinging Nettles, Urtica dioica, are exceptionally high in minerals, anti-inflammatory,
and supportive of the adrenal glands. With their bright color, grassy flavor, and
nutritional boost they are the epitome of spring. They grow wild in parts of North
America and can be found at farmers markets this time of year, but you can also use
dried nettles. They lose their sting when cooked, dried, or fermented, but be sure to
wear gloves while handling them fresh!
Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal. It’s the perfect time to look beyond the well-loved
traditional benefits of fermentation and experiment with the new flavors and beneficial actions
spring herbs have to offer.
Nettle Sauerkraut (1 quart)
1.25 lbs Green cabbage, evenly sliced (reserve the core and one outer leaf)
½ cup packed fresh nettle leaves, chopped (don’t forget the gloves!)
OR
2 Tbsp dried nettles moistened with 1 Tbsp heated water
2-3 scallions, sliced into rings
2 ½ tsp coarse grey Celtic sea salt
Use your favorite fermentation technique to make your Nettle Sauerkraut. I use
Sandor Katz’s technique.
Now that you’re wildly curious about nettles, here’s a lovely write-up for more info:
http://www.susunweed.com/Article_Energy_Stamina.htm
This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease. Please consult
a medical professional before beginning any healthcare regimen.
The Illustrated Journal with Caroline Choe
We had the honor to be on The Illustrated Journal with Caroline Choe (S3E1: "Around the Table"). She videoed somer of the collaborative dinners put on by Contraband Ferments and goldpennyloafer (www.goldpennyloafer.com). We love this video that greatly captures community and how food brings people together!
Just Food Conference 2016
Just Food Conference 2016 by Cheryl Paswater, Chief Fermentationist, Contraband Ferments
One of my favorite events of the year was this past weekend, the Just Food Conference at Teachers College, Columbia University. It's a yearly conference dedicated to ethical food practices, food advocacy, greenmarkets, CSA's, farming, education, and more! It's always been a wonderful learning experience, filled with so many amazing people, and a strong current around building communities. After all, food brings communities together!
I've always attended the conference as a attendee that squeezes in as many workshops and lectures as possible and talking to as many people I can but, this year I had the honor and privilege to to get to be a presenter with my good friend Erin Cramm (also notoriously known as my fermentation wife) on the Human Microbiome and Fermentation. So after spending the morning catching up with friends and fellow food nerds, and squeezing in multiple workshops that morning from Herbal Medicine, to GMO Laws in NY, to Using Food as a Tool to End Mass Incarceration, and even catching part of Andrea Beamans lecture on Detoxing your Liver, and a lovely locally grown lunch we powered up or an afternoon of nerdy bacteria talk.
I won't go into all the details because I would be here all day but, I do want to share our favorites list for all things Fermentation and the Human Microbiome! We hope you enjoy it!
Resources for the Gut Microbiome and Ferments
Gut
Giulia Enders (Book)
The Good Gut
Justin and Erica Sonnenburg (Book)
Cooked, Book & Netflix Series
Michael Pollan (Episode/Chapter: Earth)
How Bacteria “Talk”
Bonnie Bassler (TED talk)
Missing Microbes
Martin J. Blaser, MD
Fuhmentaboudit! (Radio Show)
http://heritageradionetwork.org/series/fuhmentaboudit/
Wild Fermentation & The Art of Fermentation
Sandor Katz (Book)
Body Ecology Diet
Donna Gates
Gut and Psychology Syndrome
Dr. Natasha Campbell- McBride, MD
The Symbiont Factor
Richard Matthews, DC, DACNB, FACFN
The Epidemic of Absence
Moises Velasquez-Manoff
The Human Microbiome Project
Cider, Bringing People Together by Rachel Jacobs
We are super excited to have the amazing Rachel Jacobs writing for us this month! She is the co-producer of the radio show Fuhmentaboudit! on the Heritage Radio Network, an avid beer and cider brewer, fermenter, and all around awesome lady! Check out her post on Cider Making and Bringing People together -- one of the best things that fermentation does!
Simple Cider from Scratch, Bringing People Togetherby Rachel Jacobs
When your roommates don’t drink beer and you want to start home brewing, you can do one of two things: either drink all the home-made beer yourself while sticking your tongue out at your friends – or you can brew something that everyone will enjoy. A homebrew is a thing meant to be shared, and a lot of my friends and family members have one stomach problem or another – gluten intolerance, dairy allergies, strawberry sensitivity – so something with a large amount of ingredients and high in allergens meant that someone won't be able to have it.
My first hesitation with cider was that there seemed to be less room for creativity– there are less ingredients, there’s less types of yeast to inoculate the juice, and the whole science of making cider is much less complicated. After all, I thought, if you buy a jug of Red Jacket’s cold pressed cider and you use champagne yeast, doesn't it turn out to be exactly the same thing?
This is not strictly speaking true. Yeast, as I’ve come to learn, are finicky, and the slightest variation of temperature, pH, or pressure can cause it to act slightly differently. Each batch of something home-made, unless in an ultra-controlled environment, will turn out differently.
But I didn’t know this when I first started. And that’s how I got to pressing my own juice to make hard cider. And you can, too!
If you’re patient and not averse to pruney hands, you don’t actually need all that much in the way of materials. In addition to a carboy, airlock, and yeast, you’ll need:
-Apples, whatever varieties you like. I prefer to get about 10 pounds of nice apples and the rest of cheap filler – Macintosh, Cortland.
-Food processor/ blender
-Cheese cloth
It takes about 15 pounds of apples to make a gallon of juice, which is about 35 apples of sufficient size. Very often, you can get 5-lb bags at the grocery store for cheap, or get the bags of ugly apples at the famer’s market for less than the more marketable, pretty apples.
1. Cut the apples into manageable pieces and toss them in the blender until they’re more or less applesauce consistency.
2. Next, spoon the pulp into a cheesecloth, twist, and squeeze, collecting the juice in a bowl.
3. Once the bowl is full, strain it through the cheesecloth once more before putting it in the carboy.
4. Add the yeast – I’m a fan of 71B when using fresh fruit because that sucker will eat through everything, but Champagne Yeast will do it faster and give you the satisfaction of watching a bubbly airlock.
5. Add the airlock and let it sit somewhere temperate for 2-4 weeks. Sediment will collect at the bottom, just like store-bought cider, and you can choose to siphon the cider to another carboy and rack it for another 2-4 weeks; or if you don’t care, you can bottle it as-is.
The first time I did this, I spent the entire day crushing and squeezing apples with a tiny Cuisinart food processor and cheese cloth. (I bought 30 pounds of apples but lost my patience at a gallon and a half, and 5 pounds were actually no good because they were – and I’m not kidding – full of spiders. Very farm fresh).
Yes, the process is fatiguing and sometimes tries my patience, but with a Netflix account and good pair of headphones, it’s all good. Or you could do it in batches. When I don’t have a full day to spare, I press some of the apples and freeze the juice; when I’ve collected a few gallons, I defrost, put in the carboy, and add the yeast.
Cider is a good compromising homebrew if you want to share with a lot of people and not worry about their various dietary restrictions, because there is only one ingredient: apples. You can still make it your own, though, if you want to get fancy, you can add different fruit juices or flavoring agents. The last batch I bottled was made with Skittles and tastes vaguely like a bootleg Smirnoff Ice, and one that’s sitting under my sink is mixed with tart cherry juice. The roommates love it and I’ve been giving it out to friends for weddings and birthdays, too. People can be picky with beer, but everyone drinks cider. Everyone. Even George Washington.
Conclusion: drinks are more fun when shared with friends, and it doesn’t have to make your brews boring.