Participating in a discussion is a great way to learn and contribute to ideas for superstructing. When you post a comment, try to provide information that others may not know, and avoid getting into arguments. Winning discussions are all about working together to get smarter.

Please login or register to post


    Ravenous: What's the end of the world with nothing to drink?

    Home fermentation

    Started by: spinnerin Raves:15 Badge Winner! Influency

    Subscribe » RSS

    Seriously. If the world is going to end, you'll want a drink. If it's not, this could be a valuable skill as grain costs kill Amheiser-Busch. I've been making honey fruit wines for a while. 1 part honey, three parts water, with some smashed fruit if you have it. Yeast in the air (and from the fruit, if you included it) will kick in after a while and do the work. Honey and fruit is still pretty available here in the PNW, but if you're elsewhere you might have to find other sources of sugar. Do you know how to ferment things? Want to learn? I'm starting another batch tonight.

    I\\\'d be well keen to see some photos and some more detailed instructions Spinnerin - I\\\'ve wanted to make my own liquor for years, but have never taken the plunge. With the ridiculous cost of beer these days, making your own warming liquid seems like a great option!

    After living in Korea I learned that home fermentation is an excellent way to keep food around for a while as well. This nation had to deal with food rationing for most of its history. Kimchi is basically well-washed cabbage, put in a pot with salt, and left to sit. Flavor varies accordingly, but even as the kimchi ages it can still be used for stews. Great for people who don\\\'t have the luxury of affordable electricity!

    For the wine I\\\'m basically using this recipe: http://cafemama.com/recipes/strawberry_honey_wine.xml I also have a batch of fermented cider going, which is even easier because the apples provide both sugar and yeast, so you basically just leave it at room temperature until it starts to bubble. Fermentation is also key to one of my staple foods, sourdough bread. Getting a starter going is pretty easy if you have access to a good quality, unbleached, organic flour. I\\\'ll do a couple of blog posts with more details, but my reference books are Wild Fermentation, and Classic Sourdoughs. You might google for recipes with those titles in your query.

    Any of you winemakers having trouble getting/affording sugar? I know it\\\'s been skyrocketing in price in my area. Used to be that mead was 10 times as expensive as country wine and the most expensive part of country wine was the fruit. Lately the couple of pounds of sugar needed for a gallon of peach wine has felt expensive enough that I\\\'ve thought long and hard about starting that batch. I miss 2007 when I made pea pod wine because I had the pea pods and the sugar felt so cheap as to be almost free.

    Pea pod wine sounds interesting. What does it taste like?

    Hi. We\\\'re in lower PNW and are on the same path. We started with the kombucha culture, as a foundation. Now looking to expand into wine. Awesome formula!

    If you want to make a still, you can have hard liquor, and alcohol to run your motorcycle and generator. uses less food than biodeisel, and still pretty effective combustion. We are switching over all our generators since we don\\\'t have line power in the Verde Enclave (central AZ. NorAm.) http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=45.534341,-122.604268&spn=0.007245,0.019312&z=16&msid=117565148957344197743.000458c362e796fac2a3c

    Actually brewing beer (and beer-related beverages, like mead) is pretty simple and sustainable, especially if you live in a semi-moist part of the world - growing your own grains and hops takes patience but will produce year after year, and a single batch of yeast (or multiple strains of yeast, if you want variety) can be kept alive quite easily as long as you keep it well-fed.

    @canis.solaris: That\\\'s a good point. After all, beer and wine date back to antiquity. It may have tasted a little different (the very hoppy PNW IPA is a pretty recent development), but the basic technique is the same. My cider and wine are bubbling away, so I think beer will be the next step, when I can scrounge up a bigger container to brew it in.

    Pea pod wine tastes like a light white wine. It also tastes a lot like whatever you use to add acid. But there is a definite background of pea. That fresh green flavor you get crunching into snow peas fresh from the vine.

    yea thats good we could make snow pea beer

    I moved the cider from its initial fermentation jar to a jug with an airlock yesterday. Even though I've been working with wild yeasts for awhile, I'm still impressed by how actively they bubble when things get going. A couple of pictures of the fermentation in progress: http://flickr.com/photos/ame/2924123333/ and http://flickr.com/photos/ame/2922666549/

    there are still keepers of forgotten knowledge who were interested in components of existence that so many took for granted and, at an extreme, felt that it didn't matter where things came from as long as the labels were meeting the trendy descriptors but were conveniently available at the megacenter in quantity. there are still a few of us who remember, and make, mead, wine, and other beverages because we've also paid attention to water and what we can do with it.

    *slaps head* another sentimentalist daydreaming about a romantic age that never was. You people aren't preparing for a globola collapse scenario, you are bourgeous unworldy renaissance fair enthusiasts. Keep this up and in a few years you will be : http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/serfs.htm

    @Ruud: Bourgeois nothing. There is a reason that medieval society ran on beer, and it's staring you in the face: poor/suspect water quality. Turning fruit juice and grain into beer, wine and liquor keeps the calories around, and the alcohol kills off pathogens. You may be able to treat cistern water with ozonators, UV bulbs, and chlorinators. I don't have the power to spare, and I'd rather treat mine with Cascade hops anyway. Salut! @others: Sugar price is terrible indeed. I know this isn't the environment for beets, but I'm going to try a few anyway. If not beets, then carrots, parsnips... whatever biennial root veg stores sugar over the winter should work. I'd rather have funny-tasting sugar than no sugar at all. And bees? Who has bees?! How's your colony survive? I can't even find honeybees. GA

    @Gary- Bravo on trying beets. Southeast VA isn't a great beet zone either (we get a early spring crop and a late fall crop barely and those are very water dependent) and it'll be interesting to see what we can do to provide concentrated sugar. The bees at the parent's house (we live suburban and they almost live rural) have been doing marvelously. I assume you're thinking about Colony Collapse Disorder. That mostly affected west coast bees that were moved a lot. A significant chunk of them couldn't find their way back to hives that were trucked around the country for pollination. Our bees are not moved and while mites are an issue, with just one little hive we haven't had too much problem. And they really do keep the apples producing.

    @Ruud: What are you using for barter? What greases the gears of your community? With cheapo beer at the market over $12 a six pack and something that might be drinkable at twice that it makes sense to make your own. Hell, wine is so expensive lately no one I know drinks it at all unless someone like me brings it to the party. I get it that you feel like the only real solutions for food problems are global scale solutions, but remember, every little bit helps and if you've got a lot more time then cash, and ready access to seasonal grains and fruits it makes sense to make booze. It keeps, and you'll always find a market for it. It's not like people here are saying that it's their only job or that it makes them self sufficient, just that as staples prices go up and employment goes down it makes sense to do as much craft type work as you can. It keeps you busy and contributes to society even if you can't find a "real job" sometimes.




    Nominate For A Badge

    Badge:
    More detail on badges



    NOMINATE CANCEL