kefir beer

[Guest guest]

>Heidi Schuppenhauer,

>As a real beerlover and wine and beer brewer I saw You

>several times mentioning the kefirbeer You brew and drink.

>I realy like to have a recipe, like to know what kind of

>kefir I have to buy, how high the alcohol percentage can get,

>and most important of all;

Any kefir grains work, and I posted the " recipe " as far

as it goes. The alcohol percentage varies, but the vinometer

doesn't measure it accurately because of the lactic acid content.

>HOW DOES IT TASTE COMPARING WITH " NORMAL " BEER ??

Oh, well, make some and let us know! I can't drink " normal "

beer any more, so I can't do a taste compare, but I gave some

to some " normal " people this Christmas and the response was

" ooooooohhhhhh, I like this !!!!! " . I have compared it to some

alcoholic cider that some folks spoke highly of, and it's

a LOT better IMO. For one thing, it's not pasteurized, and for

another, it's fresh. Plus it has more than one organism ... most

beers are pure yeast ferments, not much in the way of overtones.

Bacteria add subtle tastes. To me it tastes more like a Lambic Ale,

but mind you, it's been 4 years since I had one.

>

Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

I've been making it for a few months and for a long time my husband wasn't

interested in trying it. He hadn't tried any of my fermented foods. He wasn't

negative - just always managed to be busy, or having something else. He finally

tried it a couple of weeks ago and now I can't keep up with demand. I loved the

smile on his face. Success! He seldom drinks beer, but he does have an

occasional cider, when it's around. He's even asked for an extra bottle to take

to work to give to 'the guys' to sample - quite an endorsment.

I had pretty much the same reaction from my son - he came over Christmas and

though polite I could tell he was a bit nervous about mom's new weird fermented

thingy 'no really, I'm fine' but I poured a bit in a glass and handed it to him

so he could not get out of it. He said with suprise - 'this is good!'. And

everyone asked for refills.

CJ

--- Heidi Schuppenhauer <heidis@...> wrote:

>

> >Heidi Schuppenhauer,

> >As a real beerlover and wine and beer brewer I saw You

> >several times mentioning the kefirbeer You brew and drink.

> >I realy like to have a recipe, like to know what kind of

> >kefir I have to buy, how high the alcohol percentage can get,

> >and most important of all;

>

> Any kefir grains work, and I posted the " recipe " as far

> as it goes. The alcohol percentage varies, but the vinometer

> doesn't measure it accurately because of the lactic acid content.

>

> >HOW DOES IT TASTE COMPARING WITH " NORMAL " BEER ??

>

> Oh, well, make some and let us know! I can't drink " normal "

> beer any more, so I can't do a taste compare, but I gave some

> to some " normal " people this Christmas and the response was

> " ooooooohhhhhh, I like this !!!!! " . I have compared it to some

> alcoholic cider that some folks spoke highly of, and it's

> a LOT better IMO. For one thing, it's not pasteurized, and for

> another, it's fresh. Plus it has more than one organism ... most

> beers are pure yeast ferments, not much in the way of overtones.

> Bacteria add subtle tastes. To me it tastes more like a Lambic Ale,

> but mind you, it's been 4 years since I had one.

> >

>

> Heidi Jean

>

>

>

>

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

Hey Heidi, Hi....I want to use cider, where would I get that cider? I can't

use pasteurized, right? Could I just juice some apples?

We have a " brew-on-premise " brew pub here in our town ( we are QUITE

fortunate for that...!), and we made a few batches of homebrew (one we made was

a

honey vanilla....which I used raw, local honey, and organic vanilla

extract...) ...well, he had hop " pellets " , could I use those until I get my own

growing?, and where could I get hop plants/seeds, any ideas? I haven't done a

search yet, I just wondered if you knew....since you know everything else :-)

!!

--

Steve ( excited to try my own " Lambic " ...from my favorite " grains " ,

even....!)

[Guest guest]

Thanks, y'all, for the nice thoughts! Rather than expand the bandwidth,

I'm replying all at once:

>[CJ] I've been making it for a few months and for a long time my husband wasn't

>interested in trying it. He hadn't tried any of my fermented foods. He wasn't

>negative - just always managed to be busy, or having something else. He finally

>tried it a couple of weeks ago and now I can't keep up with demand. I loved the

>smile on his face. Success! He seldom drinks beer, but he does have an

>occasional cider, when it's around. He's even asked for an extra bottle to take

>to work to give to 'the guys' to sample - quite an endorsment.

[Heidi] That's been my experience too ... " beer " just isn't " weird " ... my only

problem is quantity. People actually drink this up from me, whereas they

leave my kimchi stash alone. My DH suggested I get some more glass

jugs, and actually brought home some apple juice to get the next

batch started.

[kate] i have the idiots guide to beer, but it still felt " unfamiliar " now,

wow !! i get it

i will never forget yerr ... hic !

[Heidi] Thanks! Here's one to yer too! I'm always amazed at how

much *easier* this is than " real " beer ... sheesh,

after spending all those hours sanitizing carbouys ...

You have no idea how much $$$$ we spent on making beer, and

most of it never got drank (drunk?) because it wasn't near as good

as this is.

[Drieske] Thanks for the recipe, I think I go for the porter.

All I have to find now are the kefir grains.

As long I can't find any kefir grains, would it be

possible to substitute them by dry bakers-yeast ???

[Heidi] Sure, you can use any yeast. Or use the " wild yeast " method

ala Sandor Katz and just use any ol' yeast floating

around. I use kefir grains because they have a great

probiotic effect, and they produce a reliable

very mold-resistant product. Baker's yeast works

fine too, and you WILL get some lactobacilli in there

if you don't sterilize the dickens out of everything

(like homebrewers do to avoid lactobacilli).

[steve] Hey Heidi, Hi....I want to use cider, where would I get that cider? I

can't

use pasteurized, right? Could I just juice some apples?

We have a " brew-on-premise " brew pub here in our town ( we are QUITE

fortunate for that...!), and we made a few batches of homebrew (one we made was

a

honey vanilla....which I used raw, local honey, and organic vanilla

extract...) ...well, he had hop " pellets " , could I use those until I get my own

growing?, and where could I get hop plants/seeds, any ideas? I haven't done a

search yet, I just wondered if you knew....since you know everything else :-)

!!

--

Steve ( excited to try my own " Lambic " ...from my favorite " grains " ,

even....!)

[Heidi]

Sure, you can use pasteurized. I can't get apple juice any

other way, as I don't have an apple juicer. If you use fresh-juiced

I'd guess it would taste a lot better. (Beer is traditionally boiled

a long time anyway, so a little pasteurization isn't going to

make any difference).

Hop pellets, and frozen hops from the homebrew store, work fine. I

got my hop rhizomes from an online homebrew store. Several stores

seem to sell them in the spring. I got mine (and the EZ Cap bottles)

from:

http://www.thebeeressentials.com

They don't seem to have them listed right now, it was a special deal

for the spring, but you might write them. These particular hops

are SUPERB (a Cascade specie). I had to dig them up because of some construction

going on, but if they re-take maybe I'll distribute some.

Try the site above first though.

Hops are very inexpensive as plants go, but this

is the first time I've used my own. I used to just buy them

as needed. I've made a philisophical game out of trying to grow

as much stuff as I can, but it's not a requirement. My last hops

vine grew nicely, but didn't make very good beer.

>

Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

Does anyone here make kefir beer a la Heidi's PDF file? I followed it to the

letter using apple cider and it's day 3 and so far no bubbles in the

waterlock (though the little floating doohicky has moved around a bit) and

no separation has occuderd like it did when I made a smaller batch with

kefir whey. This time I added some whey and a couple kefir grains (adding

the whey is the only deviation from Heidi's PDF). What's up?

--

D. Siemens

WAPF Chapter Leader

http://www.freewebs.com/wapfontario/index.htm

Wife of Tim, Mother of Zack and Lydia, Child of God.

[Guest guest]

> Does anyone here make kefir beer a la Heidi's PDF file? I followed

it to the

> letter using apple cider and it's day 3 and so far no bubbles in the

> waterlock (though the little floating doohicky has moved around a

bit) and

> no separation has occuderd like it did when I made a smaller batch with

> kefir whey. This time I added some whey and a couple kefir grains

(adding

> the whey is the only deviation from Heidi's PDF). What's up?

,

I start with a 'handful' or two of grains, rather than a grain or

two. (That just seemed too few.) At minimum about 1/2 cup of grains to

a gallon. They grow, so I've ended up with my gallon fermenting jar

being almost 1/2 grains before I finally dumped some out.

Jan

[Guest guest]

>> My kefir beer/wine isn't doing anything. I've got kefir apple

wine/beer going, and a test batch of the same with yeast. the yeast

batch has the balloons swelling, but the kefir batch isn't. Am I doing

something wrong?

>> Neil

Probably it is fine. For reasons I'm not clear on,

my kefir beer rarely produces much gas. It DOES ferment,

and it tastes good, but I think most of the ferment is lacto,

not yeasto. Which means less ethanol, but since I'm

not drinking it for the ethanol I don't really care.

The same is true for kimchi, BTW. I made a batch

of kimchi once in a plastic bag, to watch the gas

production, and it produced hardly any. But once in

awhile I get a batch of kimchi that produces LOTS

of gas. Part of it might be the amount of sugar?

If you save the dregs, you get more yeast action and

less bacterial action eventually. I find that adding

hops or honey slows things down too.

-- Heidi