How To Make Kombucha, Sake, Cider, Beer with Emma Christensen – GF Radio 315

Make kombucha, sake, cider and other fermented liquids on GardenFork Radio. Emma Christensen, author of True Brews: How to Craft Fermented Cider, Beer, Wine, Sake, Soda, Mead, Kefir, and Kombucha at Home, geeks out with Eric about fermentation. The first ‘ah ha’ moment comes when Eric learns from Emma how to make ginger ale and use champagne yeast to add bubbles and a tang of taste along with the ginger. The dried yeast package works fine, btw.

Emma suggests a first timer starts out making soda. All you need is an empty recycled soda bottle and a juice of your choice.  You can make your own juice if you want. With little work you can make DIY soda. neat.

Eric and Emma talk about how to make cider, – we have a few how to make hard cider videos here – and Emma lets us in on some tips on the best way to make hard cider. Eric wants to know whether one should try the wild yeast method or continue to sulfite the cider before pitching the yeast. Emma lets us in a a new flavor term called ‘ barnyard flavor’ as she experiment with sour yeasts. We learn that lower temperatures are best for hard cider fermentation and that some ciders can have high alcohol content, depending on the sugar content of the apples.

For experimenting with wild yeast hard cider, Emma suggests to try a one gallon fermenter, which is a brilliant suggestion. This way you don’t waste 5 gallons of cider on an experiment. Emma suggests using a 2 gallon jug or carboy for the initial 1 gallon fermentation, and then you can transfer it to a 1 gallon jug for a second fermentation and storage.

Its Easy To Make Kombucha

We move into how to make kombucha, which is a strong tea with a scoby added to it. Emma likes to brew kobucha herself so you can control how it tastes. If you like a sweeter kombucha, you ferment it less, and you can add ginger or fruits like pears. Cultures for Health is one place to buy a starter scoby.

You can read more of Emma’s Posts on her blog, follow her on Twitter, or read her posts on TheKitchn .

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