Fermenting

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stikine

stikine

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What are you all doing? I used to do a lot of homebrew beer brewing a number of years ago but I let it lapse for several reasons. I might just get back into it but this time I will use a keg system and get away from all the bottle storage and washing. Here's a different kind of fermenting, Kimchi. I love this stuff but it gets expensive buying at the store, so I made a batch last night. IMG_20210202_190545.jpg
Veggies in the brine.
IMG_20210202_202250.jpg
Kimchi paste I made up. The gochugara red pepper wasn't quite spicy enough, so I added a bit of the hot sauce to get it right.
IMG_20210202_211922.jpg
All mixed up in the crockpot and now fermenting for several days before I jar it up. Stay tuned.
Other fermenters out there?
 
Never done it, but I love fermented food. That kimchi looks like it's off to a promising start. I should probably give it a try. It is a little expensive considering the ingredients.
 
Grape juice , select , expensive yeast and sugar in a glass carboy at the proper temp will make for a knock you on your dupa drink within a few weeks with AC between 8-17% ... On the rocks it makes for a tasty treat !
 
Always wanted to make beer but i never got around to it. I heard it's more expensive tho, and i would want to make stouts and stuff which i think would be like slowly falling into the abyss. Add the fact that I've done a bunch of food grade stainless work and alcohol plants, and the next thing you know i would have a whole damn brewery in my backyard.
 
F the beer ... make the wine : faster brew and higher potency ... Beer is too much of a pita and if ya make a slight error the whole batch is in the toilet ... The wine is ala Ron Popiel , set it and forget it .... You can sample the wares in as little as 14 days
 
Not a fan of wine either, but I hear if you cook it long enough, it turns into something good ;^)
 
It’s called FederweiBer (aka Neuer Wein) and it’s surprisingly tasty 😋 especially otr
 
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Frankie said:
F the beer ... make the wine : faster brew and higher potency ... Beer is too much of a pita and if ya make a slight error the whole batch is in the toilet ... The wine is ala Ron Popiel , set it and forget it .... You can sample the wares in as little as 14 days
Click to expand...
Hmmm, skeptical of the quality but I will reserve judgement of the welches recipe. I've made many batches of beer but only one that I couldn't drink...a spruce tip beer, just couldn't stomach it and tossed most of it. Never had botched batches, but I did have a pretty good stout explode during fermentation. It turned out fine in the end but made a mess on a wall. From then on I brought the fermenter bucket down to the basement until I was sure things were under control:)
 
Obviously the quality of the product can be improved upon , any fermented alcoholic beverage will benefit from time and removal/filtering of the unavoidable debris that come with the territory. That being said for a small investment (1 gal juice , some rather pricey yeast(key) , sugar and a stopper with bung / airlock ) of under $20 it might be worth a shot ymmv
 
Ive made sauerkraut in the past, super tasty and crunchier than store bought. Kimchee is delicious bit I've had a hard time getting the spice/ flavor profile where I like it.

Beer has been hit and miss for me. Some batches really good, some not great. Only ever tossed one batch out of maybe a dozen.

Always brewed from kits, which takes a lot of the guess work out. It's really not more expensive Kyle, add long as you're not billing out your time!
 
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The shipping of bulk ingredients is what got expensive for me. When I first started I used kits which helps you learn the fundamentals but I found the results not so superb. I bought a couple of brewing books which really helped up my game. I never got into the "full mash" but I did do a lot with bulk malts, malted grains, and a variety of different hops to make stouts, IPAs, hefeweizen, Grand Cru, and Pilsners. It's rewarding but definitely time consuming.
 
I'll have to try their rye if I see it. Looks like a MD style rye, which is my preference.
 
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That's a good question. As far as ingredients go there is: one head of napa cabbage, one diakon radish, a couple of leeks, handful of carrots, and a bunch of green onion. Maybe $10-12 of ingredients I would guess. The local stores charge around $9-10 per pint here for store bought, so I save quite a bit making my own.
 
I can get wegmans store brand, which is pretty good, for $7/14oz I think.

I was asking, cause there's a product called Fire Cider I like. It's $11/8oz. It has raw cider, horseradish, chili... a bunch of other stuff. I think it's supposed to be a "health tonic". I just drink it cause I like the taste. Don't feel any healthier. Anyway, I started roughing in the ingredients to make my own, and it would have been a decent chunk of change. I'm sure it would have been a bit cheaper, but factoring in my time doing something I don't consider fun, and perhaps having substandard results made me happy enough to just buy it.

edit:
Fire Cider...

firecider.com

Shire City Herbals makers of Fire Cider

Shop a wide selection of organic Fire Cider tonics crafted by Shire City Herbals. Our flavor-packed ACV tonics support wellness and energy.
firecider.com firecider.com

edit2:
Haven't looked at their site in awhile. Looks like I can get it for $110/G. I'll see if wegmans has the new African honey version to try out, and I'll order a gallon of one of them this weekend.
 
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  • #23
That cider looks pretty interesting. Given that a person isn't probably going to swill a whole bottle down at once, it probably isn't worth making your own.
 
I should consider myself lucky that the local Asian mart has $5 quarts of kimchi!

For $100 a gallon I'd be looking into making my own tonic for sure
 
We've been making saurkraut in 5-gallon crocks for years. Also, a cabbage-based fermented drink which is good raw or as a base for soups and sauce for cooking meats and liver etc. My GF spent time in Korea. She makes the kimchi, which I love with eggs in the morning.

I have long since stopped thinking of bacteria as germs and now consider them allies. Little Angels that come to our aid. The lack of fermented foods which were so common before the refrigerator, and the many medicines and other aspects of modern life that devastate the microbiome are the causes of more illness and mental disorders than most here could imagine.

I make salad dressing out of a good ferment including hibiscus flower, hibiscus tea, hemp protein, which ferments for a few weeks then add olive oil, salt pepper and anchovies.

I like to ferment smoothies that may include any combination of blueberries, oranges, bananas, hemp protein, moringa leaf powder, chlorella, wild edibles, etc. Most people wouldn't! As long as there is no kalm yeast (white floating scum). I'll drink it.

I haven't been sick in years (Thank God)

 
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