Odd/interesting fermentables?

[Valcarion]

So I can’t justify buying honey right now, as I’m between jobs and trying to conserve funds. However, I want to ferment something! I have no batches running and I’m not happy about that. So just looking for any and all ideas on other brewing projects I can look into that aren’t wine/beer/mead. Cheaper the better, but I’ll take any suggestions for the future as well!


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[Toxxyc]

Cider. A bottle of preservative-free concentrate or cheap juice, a packet of yeast and a bottle of water and you're good to go. Apple is a golden oldie, but most combinations will yield...interesting results.

PS: If you can't get preservative-free concentrate (or cheap juice), you can boil off the preservatives. Read up on the process and which preservatives it'll work with. The rest is the same procedure as honey - keep the yeast happy and you're good to go. The pro with fruit juices (and plenty other fermentables) is that they contain a lot of the nutrients and food that yeast needs already, so you don't have to be so anal about feeding.

EDIT: Oh, and also look at kvass. Doesn't look appealing to me (at all), but perhaps you might like to experiment?

 

[bernardsmith]

Any fruit juice will ferment. Go to your local supermarket and look for the juices that are on shelves - The ones in the chillers are great too but the range will be far smaller. You can find anything from sour cherry to mango. But they are about as expensive as honey must per gallon... and by that I mean there is no law of nature that demands that a) you make 5 gallon batches at a time - You are permitted by the constitution to make 1 gallon batches - and even 1 quart**if that is what you want/need to make and b) there is also no law of nature that requires every batch of mead to have enough alcohol to power a rocket to Mars. Leave that to Elon Musk. You can make session meads - using 1 lb of honey dissolved to make 1 gallon. The potential ABV is about 5% which is a strong beer (almost twice the ABV of a Guinness). Because of the relative thinness of flavor you might carbonate such session meads and you might ferment them at higher temperatures to produce more complex flavors, normally viewed as flaws in richer flavored meads...
** if even the price of yeast is a challenge, one pack in a quart (or gallon) of must can be re-used if you simply rack the mead off the lees and then add more must to the lees to begin the cycle a second or third or fifth time... So your yeast can be recycled numerous times.. AND 1 lb of honey dissolved to make 1 qt is the same as 4 lbs of honey in one gallon... the starting gravity of both is 1.140... or 18% ABV... but 1 qt is a heavy bottle of wine (about 1000 ccs compared to 750 cc so 1 wine bottle + 1 beer bottle)

Last point. Milk can be fermented too - Mare's milk is an indigenous alcoholic drink (called Kumis) in the Urals. I've made Kumis a couple of times... Not perhaps my "go to" drink but you can also use the soft cheese that forms - and that cheese is deliciously sweet. I would use baker's yeast for this... Good luck - and good luck finding a new job.

 

[Devin Petry-Johnson]

Before I made my banana meads I did a bunch of research and it seems like banana wine is pretty common. There’s brown sugar in the recipe in addition to the banana sugars. I mention it because bananas are typically pretty cheap. I think I spent like $3 on bananas.

 

[bernardsmith]

But I think you need about 5-8 lbs of bananas per gallon to make a wine... So while that might be $3-5 a bottle, it still costs $15 -24 to make a gallon.

 

[Crispy]

Rice is quite cheap - rice wine?

 

[Squatchy]

Sometime in the near future I'm going to make some corn mash as a base and then add honey as well to try that. I know it's not what you were asking. But you could try that without any honey

 

[EvolvingCaveman]

I made an Apfelwein (German Dry Apple Wine)
with K1v-1116
Apple Juice without preservatives

I did three batches, one with table sugar, one with light brown sugar, and one with dark brown sugar.
All were 10% ABV
I did not like the one with table sugar.
Bottle them in beer bottles and carbonated.
Gets better with age.

 

[Valcarion]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! I picked up a gallon of Mrs Hooch’s unfiltered non pasteurized apple juice today from Whole Foods. On sale for 6 bucks, so I figured I better give it a shot! The flavor of this juice is almost savory, I’m really interested to see how it turns out. Starting it tonight when I get back from the LHBS.


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[Toxxyc]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! I picked up a gallon of Mrs Hooch’s unfiltered non pasteurized apple juice today from Whole Foods. On sale for 6 bucks, so I figured I better give it a shot! The flavor of this juice is almost savory, I’m really interested to see how it turns out. Starting it tonight when I get back from the LHBS.


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Chances are it'll ferment to VERY dry, as is the nature of a cider. Backsweetening might be needed. I would recommend you let it ferment bone dry, stabilize and then backsweeten with concentrated apple juice.

 

[Valcarion]

Chances are it'll ferment to VERY dry, as is the nature of a cider. Backsweetening might be needed. I would recommend you let it ferment bone dry, stabilize and then backsweeten with concentrated apple juice.

That was my plan exactly

Shooting for 7% abv, I’ve got an acid blend just in case, as the juice pre-ferment was more savory than crisp, and I figured when it was time to backsweeten I’ll go for either concentrate or a very sweet juice, depending on how it turns out. Thought about backsweetening with honey if I’ve got income by that point. Any thoughts?


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[Toxxyc]

I would rather stick to a cider and stick to one flavour, but that's maybe just me. You might wish to backsweeten with honey, but remember that there's no guarantee that the flavours will play well together. If you stick to apple, at least you'll know what you're getting. That being said, an experiment might be a lot of fun

 

[Valcarion]

I would rather stick to a cider and stick to one flavour, but that's maybe just me. You might wish to backsweeten with honey, but remember that there's no guarantee that the flavours will play well together. If you stick to apple, at least you'll know what you're getting. That being said, an experiment might be a lot of fun

Copy that. Thank you! I made a log thread for this one, I’ll report in over there


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[Robert Scogins]

I downloaded a recipe for Rice Wine. Will try to make. Did make Sake once. Very time consuming, and laborious, but won a 1st place at the San Diego County fair, back in the 90's. Might try Basmati or Jasmine rice for the wine.

 

[Robert Scogins]

Downloaded a recipe for banana wine, will definitely give that a try!

 

[Lumenbeing]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! I picked up a gallon of Mrs Hooch’s unfiltered non pasteurized apple juice today from Whole Foods. On sale for 6 bucks, so I figured I better give it a shot! The flavor of this juice is almost savory, I’m really interested to see how it turns out. Starting it tonight when I get back from the LHBS.


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I thought you said you were broke? What are you doing shopping at Whole Foods? JK

It tickles me that you are going to make some hooch out of a product called Ms. Hooch, though.

 

[Sparked_Tiger]

Has anyone tried to ferment soda or beans? He did say odd. Those are odd.