Drinking mead

[Rose Garden]

I just got new water kefir grains today!!! :ymparty: :ymparty: :ymparty:

Homemade root beer, here I come!!!

[SmallFarm]

Really? I've made home made root beer and it tastes very different from kotikalja. Also, there are various ways of making root beer that doesn't require any fermentation. You can use dry ice, Sprite, carbonated mineral water or just plain carbonated water and mix it with some root beer extract. I'm sure there are other ways making it as well. With kotikalja, the mixture of sugar and rye malt gets heated. Once it cools down just a bit, you add in the yeast. Then you let it ferment in a dark, warm place for a day or so. Really, you are fermenting just enough to get the drink to have the bubbles or suds. Once it gets bubbly, you place it in the fridge and let it get cold to stop/slow down the fermentation process and then serve. Obviously if you let it ferment for longer, the alcohol content will increase. But, if this is done then it doesn't get served to the kids and its no longer considered okay to drink by members of the Church.

-Finrock

So "real" old fashioned root beer was a fermented beverage with various roots, berries, bark and herbs. The main flavor component of root beer is wintergreen, interestingly. Modern day "root beer extract" is a petroleum product :ymsick: so there's nothing good in there.
Some day, I'll be able to gather up all these ingredients and make this recipe, lots of good stuff in there for what ails ya:
http://nourishedkitchen.com/homemade-root-beer-recipe/

Ingredients
¼ cup sassafras root bark
¼ cup winter green leaf
2 tablespoons sarsaparilla root
1 tablespoon licorice root
1 tablespoon ginger root
1 tablespoon dandelion root
1 tablespoon hops flowers
1 tablespoon birch bark
1 tablespoon wild cherry tree bark
1 teaspoon juniper berries
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup unrefined cane sugar
½ cup ginger bug (get the tutorial), fresh whey or 1 packet kefir starter culture (available here)

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Instructions
Bring two and one-half quarts filtered water to a boil and stir in sassafras, sarsaparilla, wintergreen, licorice, ginger, hops, juniper, birch and wild cherry bark. Reduce the heat to a slow simmer and simmer the roots, berries, barks, leaves and flowers for twenty minutes.
After twenty minutes, turn off the heat and strain the infusion through a fine-mesh sieve or a colander lined with cheesecloth into a pitcher. Stir unrefined cane sugar into the hot infusion until it dissolves and allow it to cool until it reaches blood temperature. Once the sweetened infusion has cooled to blood temperature, stir in the ginger bug or fresh whey and pour into individual bottles (preferably flip-top bottles which are easy enough to find online, leaving at least one inch head space in each bottle.
Allow the root beer to ferment for three to four days at room temperature, then transfer to the refrigerator for an additional two days to age. When you arere ready to serve the root beer, be careful as it, like any other fermented beverage, is under pressure due to the accumulation of carbon-dioxide, a byproduct of fermentation. Open it over a sink and note that homemade sodas, like this one, have been known to explode under pressure. Serve over ice

[Finrock]

Really? I've made home made root beer and it tastes very different from kotikalja. Also, there are various ways of making root beer that doesn't require any fermentation. You can use dry ice, Sprite, carbonated mineral water or just plain carbonated water and mix it with some root beer extract. I'm sure there are other ways making it as well. With kotikalja, the mixture of sugar and rye malt gets heated. Once it cools down just a bit, you add in the yeast. Then you let it ferment in a dark, warm place for a day or so. Really, you are fermenting just enough to get the drink to have the bubbles or suds. Once it gets bubbly, you place it in the fridge and let it get cold to stop/slow down the fermentation process and then serve. Obviously if you let it ferment for longer, the alcohol content will increase. But, if this is done then it doesn't get served to the kids and its no longer considered okay to drink by members of the Church.

-Finrock

So "real" old fashioned root beer was a fermented beverage with various roots, berries, bark and herbs. The main flavor component of root beer is wintergreen, interestingly. Modern day "root beer extract" is a petroleum product :ymsick: so there's nothing good in there.
Some day, I'll be able to gather up all these ingredients and make this recipe, lots of good stuff in there for what ails ya:
http://nourishedkitchen.com/homemade-root-beer-recipe/

Ingredients
¼ cup sassafras root bark
¼ cup winter green leaf
2 tablespoons sarsaparilla root
1 tablespoon licorice root
1 tablespoon ginger root
1 tablespoon dandelion root
1 tablespoon hops flowers
1 tablespoon birch bark
1 tablespoon wild cherry tree bark
1 teaspoon juniper berries
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup unrefined cane sugar
½ cup ginger bug (get the tutorial), fresh whey or 1 packet kefir starter culture (available here)

Report this ad

Instructions
Bring two and one-half quarts filtered water to a boil and stir in sassafras, sarsaparilla, wintergreen, licorice, ginger, hops, juniper, birch and wild cherry bark. Reduce the heat to a slow simmer and simmer the roots, berries, barks, leaves and flowers for twenty minutes.
After twenty minutes, turn off the heat and strain the infusion through a fine-mesh sieve or a colander lined with cheesecloth into a pitcher. Stir unrefined cane sugar into the hot infusion until it dissolves and allow it to cool until it reaches blood temperature. Once the sweetened infusion has cooled to blood temperature, stir in the ginger bug or fresh whey and pour into individual bottles (preferably flip-top bottles which are easy enough to find online, leaving at least one inch head space in each bottle.
Allow the root beer to ferment for three to four days at room temperature, then transfer to the refrigerator for an additional two days to age. When you arere ready to serve the root beer, be careful as it, like any other fermented beverage, is under pressure due to the accumulation of carbon-dioxide, a byproduct of fermentation. Open it over a sink and note that homemade sodas, like this one, have been known to explode under pressure. Serve over ice

Heck yeah, sounds delicious!

-Finrock

[Rose Garden]

Really? I've made home made root beer and it tastes very different from kotikalja. Also, there are various ways of making root beer that doesn't require any fermentation. You can use dry ice, Sprite, carbonated mineral water or just plain carbonated water and mix it with some root beer extract. I'm sure there are other ways making it as well. With kotikalja, the mixture of sugar and rye malt gets heated. Once it cools down just a bit, you add in the yeast. Then you let it ferment in a dark, warm place for a day or so. Really, you are fermenting just enough to get the drink to have the bubbles or suds. Once it gets bubbly, you place it in the fridge and let it get cold to stop/slow down the fermentation process and then serve. Obviously if you let it ferment for longer, the alcohol content will increase. But, if this is done then it doesn't get served to the kids and its no longer considered okay to drink by members of the Church.

-Finrock

So "real" old fashioned root beer was a fermented beverage with various roots, berries, bark and herbs. The main flavor component of root beer is wintergreen, interestingly. Modern day "root beer extract" is a petroleum product :ymsick: so there's nothing good in there.
Some day, I'll be able to gather up all these ingredients and make this recipe, lots of good stuff in there for what ails ya:
http://nourishedkitchen.com/homemade-root-beer-recipe/

Ingredients
¼ cup sassafras root bark
¼ cup winter green leaf
2 tablespoons sarsaparilla root
1 tablespoon licorice root
1 tablespoon ginger root
1 tablespoon dandelion root
1 tablespoon hops flowers
1 tablespoon birch bark
1 tablespoon wild cherry tree bark
1 teaspoon juniper berries
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup unrefined cane sugar
½ cup ginger bug (get the tutorial), fresh whey or 1 packet kefir starter culture (available here)

Report this ad

Instructions
Bring two and one-half quarts filtered water to a boil and stir in sassafras, sarsaparilla, wintergreen, licorice, ginger, hops, juniper, birch and wild cherry bark. Reduce the heat to a slow simmer and simmer the roots, berries, barks, leaves and flowers for twenty minutes.
After twenty minutes, turn off the heat and strain the infusion through a fine-mesh sieve or a colander lined with cheesecloth into a pitcher. Stir unrefined cane sugar into the hot infusion until it dissolves and allow it to cool until it reaches blood temperature. Once the sweetened infusion has cooled to blood temperature, stir in the ginger bug or fresh whey and pour into individual bottles (preferably flip-top bottles which are easy enough to find online, leaving at least one inch head space in each bottle.
Allow the root beer to ferment for three to four days at room temperature, then transfer to the refrigerator for an additional two days to age. When you arere ready to serve the root beer, be careful as it, like any other fermented beverage, is under pressure due to the accumulation of carbon-dioxide, a byproduct of fermentation. Open it over a sink and note that homemade sodas, like this one, have been known to explode under pressure. Serve over ice

Petroleum prodect, eh? Yuck! No wonder the real thing tastes so much better!

If you can't gather all those ingredients, I'm finding that sassafras mixed with vanilla or with anise seed tastes lovely. All by itself it doesn't taste like much, even though it smells divine, but sassafras kefir poured over a vanilla bean and left to sit for a couple of days tastes incredible. I've also made tea with the sassafras and anise seed but the fermentation failed. Non-fermented it was soooo delicious, so I'm sure it will also be good as kefir. If I can get my hands on more vanilla beans, maybe I'll try all three together.

[Silver Pie]

Honey, water and yeast seem pretty harmless to me.

I just tasted my mead a few minutes ago. It has the bite of homemade soda. Since I've never made it before, I can't tell you how long it will go before it is actually alcohol. I will probably drink most of it before it has a chance to have enough alcohol in it to be considered actual alcohol. I'll be letting some of it continue to ferment out of curiosity.

It is too sweet. Next time, I'll measure the sugar and adjust here and there. Who knew that mead would make a good soda?

[Silver Pie]

Meili, how did your root beer turn out? I really wish we had made the time to drink some when you were down here with it.

[Rose Garden]

Meili, how did your root beer turn out? I really wish we had made the time to drink some when you were down here with it.

It never got bubbly at all. It was a total flop. I dumped it out because it just turned sour. Now I've got water kefir so I've got some new root beer fermenting. It's already a little bubbly after one day so I think it'll work this time. Hallelujah! My root beer habit can now be satisfied!

[Rose Garden]

Honey, water and yeast seem pretty harmless to me.

I just tasted my mead a few minutes ago. It has the bite of homemade soda. Since I've never made it before, I can't tell you how long it will go before it is actually alcohol. I will probably drink most of it before it has a chance to have enough alcohol in it to be considered actual alcohol. I'll be letting some of it continue to ferment out of curiosity.

It is too sweet. Next time, I'll measure the sugar and adjust here and there. Who knew that mead would make a good soda?

I wonder if I would like it as a soda. I didn't like it as an alcoholic drink.

[Silver Pie]

Too sad it didn't work out. I'm glad the latest batch is working.
The mead just tastes like mild honey. You might like it. I expect that I would hate fully fermented mead as much as I've hated beer. Nasty stuff! No wonder they have flavored beers and ales. Now, the sodas that have "beer" or "ale" in their names are not nasty - and I understand the fermented versions have good stuff for the body in them.

[Rose Garden]

I can't remember for sure but I think I disliked the mead even more than beer. I just remember thinking that I never wanted any ever again. Of course, different meads will have different flavors so I probably shouldn't be too hasty.

I think I might like the soda if it tastes like mild honey. I'm not sure. I love honey on things and in things but not usually by itself because of the strong flavor. I'll have to try it sometime.

[Silver Pie]

Okay, I confess, the mead soda was so good, there's none left (I only made a quart).

I'll have to try the root beer recipe that was posted above after I can get the ingredients.



(edited spelling)

[Rose Garden]

My first day's batch of root beer has also been consumed. It was also only one quart. I've repented and started making half a gallon per day. I want some for my kids which means I somehow need to produce more than I take in...

[butterfly]

My husband and I had a similar question when he made tepache, a traditional Mexican drink made with pineapple, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

If you drink it early in the fermentation process, like 1-2 days into it, there is little to no alcohol. The pineapple rinds, which you include with the fermentation, already have the necessary yeast so yeast does not have to be added.

If you let it ferment for too long, you'll get vinegar, which is basically the same way apple cider vinegar is made- I wonder if the health benefits of tepache or all these other fermented drinks that have been discussed, are available after 1 day of fermentation? Or do you need to wait for the drink to become vinegar to really get the benefits?

[Silver Pie]

I want some for my kids which means I somehow need to produce more than I take in...

:)) :))

[Silver Pie]

Butterfly, the directions for water kefir (fermented water) say to ferment it 24-48 hours, with some few people saying you could go as far as 3 days, so I would say that the benefits would be available after one day. Kombucha takes longer, but it is a different kind of thing than regular fermentation.