A winter crock of goodness

Root veggies are some of my favorite things in the world. I really love beets and rutabagas. Maybe it's my Polish heritage... I don't know. Back in December, I picked up some rutabagas and radishes from my CSA at their extended season sale. I left them in the fridge for about 6 weeks while I had sauerkraut fermenting and I finally got around to using them in a proper ferment. I had some kohlrabi and celerac in the fridge so I put them in the mix as well.

The starting ingredients



The implements of destruction



I peeled everything. I grated the rutabagas and celerac with the box grater. This really opened up a lot of cells and the grated mass started weeping even beofre I added salt. I did though salt the mass liberally and a sweet, salty brine developed. Rutabagas have a great natural sweetness especially when their season can be extended.

The radishes were a variety called a watermelon radish. Peeling the green outer skin revealed a wonderful, watermelon-like interior with a purple-ish red core transitioning to a white meat just inside the green skin. They were rather mild and themselves had a touch of a sweet note.

The radishes and kohlrabi were sliced using the box grater and added to the grated rutabagas and celerac. A touch more salt was added and I tossed the mixture well.

This is this final unfermented product

I packed it into my crock. There was a good deal of brine already forming, but I was a bit concerned that the root veggies were a bit old, so I mixed up a quart of a simple salt water mixture and added that to the crock to submerge the solids and the weight stones completely.

Since I had just moved sauerkraut from the fermeter, I had some reserved brine that I added just to jump start fermentation. I covered the crock, filled the gas lock and set it to ferment.

All in all the process took about 90 minutes including cleaning and prepping the veggies and packing the crock. I look forward to how this one turns out.

I do have a concern about using the box grater. I'm worried that the grater opened up too many cells in the rutabaga and celerac and thus that the final product will lack texture. Only time will tell.

A new ferment

This morning I decided that the sauerkraut that I had in the fermenter was ready and moved it to a flip top jar and into the fridge. Of course having an empty fermenter is a waste, and since I had ingredients for my next ferment in stock, I set about packing a new crock. I'll post more on it later, complete with pictures, but this ferment is a mix of root veggies and just above ground veggies. Literally, close to the earth. I'm excited about this product and am eager to see how it comes out.

Contents: rutabga, celerac, watermelon radishes, kohlrabi

Pics and process to come!

Sunday Funday: Feeding Yeast on a January Evening

I hate Indian Summer when it happens. Sure, it's nice to extend the garden into September or even October. I enjoy hitting the beach after the Labor Day crowds are gone. But I like my seasons to feel like seasons, and this year, I feel that I'm missing winter.

The Mid-Atlantic has been blessed with an extremely temperate early winter so far. Aside from a freak Halloween snow storm, there's been only a few scattered snow flurries flying around these parts. It's been warm too! Temperatures seem to be running 5-10 F above typical January norms. So what does this mean in relation to a fermentation blog? I took advantage of the relatively moderate temps yesterday afternoon to feed my yeast. Hey, who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth?

I had started a culture of London Ale III yeast, a commercial Sacchromyces cervissiae strain from Wyeast Labs sold under the product number 1968. I had cultured this strain previously using a low gravity media and harvested the product of their efforts as a traditional English Mild. The flavors and characteristics of their effort seemed desirable, so I wished to perpetuate the efforts of this strain of yeast.

For this second round of fermentation, I wanted to provide a media that, when harvested, would yield a traditional stout. I put together a grain bill that would allow the yeast characteristics to express themselves while also letting the flavors of the malted barley used to prepare the media to come through. My brewing session lasted about 4.5 hours and when cooled, I added the cooled media directly to the fermenter containing the yeast from the original culture. Within 2 hours, the yeast had awakened from their slumber and were fermenting the media as evidenced by airlock activity.

Many homebrewers chronically underpitch their worts. Pitching refers to the addition of yeast to the culture media. Pitching rates indicate the number of viable yeast per given volume per amount of dissolved sugar. Optimal pitching rates depend on the amount of sugar in the media, in beer parlance called wort, and on the strain of yeast. Rules of thumb suggest that homebrewers use starter cultures to increase their cell count prior to adding the culture to wort. I'll do a future, more in-depth post on pitching rates for beer. In this case, the number of viable yeast may have actually been more than recommended, but the evidence will be in the finished product. I love active, rapid fermentations like this because it limits the opportunity for wild yeast and bacteria to populate the media.

I'm hopeful that this product will be as delicious as the last and I anticipate sharing it with friends and family around my birthday in March.

Now Fermenting

Every once in a while, I'll list those things I have fermenting around my place.

Beer Ferments:
5.5 US Gallons English Mild (fermenting with Wyeast 1968, pure yeast culture)
5.5 US Gallons Belgian Saison (fermenting with Wyeast 3711, pure yeast culture)
5.5 US Gallons Belgian Saison (fermenting with White Labs 568, yeast blend)

Vegetable Ferments:
Kimchi
Sauerkraut

Grain Ferments:
Sourdough Starter

Welcome

I'm just a man, a man with millions of pets, and a passion for fermentation. I'm a brewer, a vintner, and a mead maker. I ferment grains, vegetables, beans and dairy. I believe in the power of yeast and bacteria to transform the everyday to the exceptional as well as to sustain and heal humans and the earth. I believe the sanitized food culture that starts with sterile fields, irradiated produce and extends to pasteurized yogurt and cheese creates an imbalance in the natural order; and that embracing and encouraging fermentation, we can re-establish balance in our lives and our environments.

It is my goal to explore from a practical, philosophical and scientific point of view the power of fermentation to transform life, health and the environment. I hope to offer practical lessons from my experience in fermentation, insight based on my understanding of scientific literature and my thoughts on the successes and failures of my fermentations.

I hope this will be an interesting blog and I'd like to welcome you to the beginning of my story.