The Best Fermentation Weights - My Humble Review

There are many fermentation weights and styles out there, but I wanted to share with you my simple set up.  Many years ago, I used a variety of methods from glass jars filled with water to Ziploc bags and all of them had drawbacks whether it be mold growth or smell or just plain hassle. Online you could find weights made in China, but the thought of shipping materials back and forth across the ocean just didn't sit right with me. So, I decided to start to make my own - through trial and error, I came up with a very elegant weight that looks great and is easy to use which you can find on bubblycrock.com or in my Etsy shop. Over the years, I've come up with several styles, but my favorite is the weight with the handles as you keep your fingers out of the ferment.  

Below is a video showing how to use my weights and shows just how easy it is to get your ferments off on the right foot. 

To finish it off, I toss a fermentation cap on the jar to keep any wandering bugs or fruit flies out. 

It's simple, but I have found this to be the best way to ferment. I'm sure there are other great way to ferment out there; I just want to get more people doing it, and I think it's a small step towards making the planet a better, more sustainable place where you can grow your food and package it all in your home. Finally, all of my products are shipped using repurposed packing materials; Etsy offsets the carbon emissions from shipping and packaging. My garage is filled with boxes and repurposed packing materials that friends have brought over.  I hope you found this helpful. As Bob from Bob's Red Mill would say, "To your good health".

Homemade Strawberry Soda

Our strawberry patch is producing really well for its 2nd year and we are busy filling bags for the freezer, making jam, strawberry wine, and soda!  I included step-by-step instructions on how to make strawberry soda so you can enjoy a homemade beverage right at home.  This recipe can be adapted for all berries.

1 1/3 cups mashed strawberries

1 1/2 cups sugar (preferably brown cane)

7 cups water

1 T lemon juice

8 cups cool water

1/8 tsp. champagne yeast

-Add the first 4 ingredients to soup pot, bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

-Remove from stovetop and allow to cool slightly.

-In a gallon glass jug add 8 cups cool water and add the strawberry mixture. 

-Let it cool until the soda reaches a temperature around 90 degrees.

-Add yeast to jar and shake vigorously to incorporate throughout.

-Using a funnel, pour soda into grolsch bottles.

-Fill right below the neck of the bottle.

-Store bottles at room temperature in a cooler or somewhere that keeps the bottles contained in case a bottle blows up from too much carbonation.  We learned the hard way and stored them in a sealed cardboard box on the kitchen counter...a bottle blew up, opened the cardboard box, and splattered soda everywhere, including the ceiling that had to be repainted.  

-Everyday check the bottles for carbonation.  It's difficult to explain how to tell when the carbonation is perfect, but we push on the cap and listen for the hiss of air that escapes when pressure is applied.  You want a medium to strong hiss.  On your first batch you can refrigerate the bottles on consecutive days so you get an idea how the hiss becomes stronger the longer they are left to carbonate and how the carbonation levels affect the final product.  (We recommend wearing safety goggles for this.)  

-When the soda is at the right carbonation, store bottles in the refrigeration to halt the yeast and use within about 2 weeks.  Common question is how long do the bottles take to carbonate...that all depends on the temperature of the soda when the yeast was added and how warm the storage room is.  This batch took 24 hours but in the winter it can take about 5 days.   

-If you prefer, you can strain the berries and yeast sediment before drinking, but it's not necessary.

Homemade Vinegar

I attended a vinegar making class at the Hollywood Library on Oct. 23rd.  Author, Jean Johnson, of Hippie kitchen : a measurefree vegetarian cookbook taught the class.  She also has a blog: Measure Free Hippie Cook.  Jean is one of those people who light up the room.  She spoke with enthusiasm and inspired everyone!  I sum up a lot of what I learned from the class below:

-To make homemade vinegar, you need a mother culture.  This "mother" will multiply in your solution and you can divide it whenever you start another batch (kinda like sour dough starter).  Only a speck of "mother" is enough to inoculate an entire jar. Jean mentioned that when she was a young girl (in the 60's), all vinegar purchased at the store had "mother" in it.  She remembers seeing the hazy, filmy, layer resting on the bottom of the jug.  When pasteurization became wide-spread, the "mothers" were killed under the high heat.  Each attendee at the class was given a "mother" to start their own vinegar at home.  If you don't know someone with homemade vinegar, then you can get some mother from unpasteurized vinegar from the grocery store.

-To make vinegar, you only need peelings and cores from fruit.  Apple, pear, and pineapple peelings are excellent.  Since I have only made vinegar with pears and apples, I don't have an inclusive list of fruit, sorry.

-Just to be on the safe side, don't use homemade vinegar for canning or preserving.  Botulism is not something to mess with, and when pickling, the acidity levels need to be spot on!

-Once the vinegar is to your liking, you can add raspberries, herbs, and other flavorings.  I haven't done this, but I suppose you would add the fruit or herb and let it marinate for a few weeks.

-You can use the vinegar for cooking and cleaning.

How to make vinegar: 
-Sterilize the jar you will be using.  Any jar will do, but select a jar that will leave about a 1 inch head space when full.
-Add fruit peelings and cores.  Do not include bruises or wormy spots---they can taint the flavor.
-Add enough water to cover the fruit and then some.
-Add the "mother" to the jar.
-Add sugar to the jar if you prefer.  Sugar will speed up the fermentation process but it's not necessary.  The sugar in the fruit should be enough.  The sugar will probably add a little flavor too.
-Cover the jar with cheesecloth and put a rubber band around the rim.  To keep fruit flies out, be sure to overlap your cheesecloth layers or use a t-shirt if you don't have cheesecloth.  Airflow is important here---without it, you can't make vinegar.
-Set the jar in a dark place where there is adequate airflow with temperatures between 65-80 degrees.  I leave mine on the counter behind my mixer because I don't have any other place in my house that is out of the way and receives adequate air flow.
-When the fruit darkens (about 3-4 weeks), remove the fruit and let the mixture sit with "mother" all alone.
-When is the vinegar finished and ready to use?  That all depends on how strong you like your vinegar.  Jean says 6 months or so.  She knows hers is finished by how it tastes.
-Mother can be removed once the vinegar is finished or it can be left in the jar.
-If you remove the mother from the finished vinegar, it can be stored in a mason jar in the refrigerator with a little vinegar in it so it doesn't dry out.

I started out with one apple core and a little mother in a quart mason jar...  

Then I decided to make a large amount of vinegar by using the squished apples from the cider press. 

Here is the finished vinegar!

This is what the mother looks like.  It's kind of like a Kombucha pad. 

What can I do with vinegar?  I am constantly learning about things I can do with vinegar.  My main use is for cleaning.  I use it on my tile and hardwood floors, countertops, mirrors, windows, walls, etc.  I mix 1/2 cup vinegar with 5 cups warm water.  I always dilute it and it seems to work just fine.  


Ironically, one week before I took the vinegar class, a Yahoo headline was all about vinegar.  I listed the article's uses for vinegar below, but for more detailed information about each item, go here. 

• Condition hair
• Kill weeds
• Remove underarm stains
• Soften fabrics
• Remedy sore throats
• Deter ants
• Soak sore muscles
• Freshen air
• Remove stickers
• Cure hiccups
• Clean crusty paintbrushes
• Dissolve rust
• Eliminate stale odors
• Remove mineral deposits
• Neutralize spice in foods
• Prolong the life of cut flowers
• Clean glass, plastic, chrome, and floors
• Treat fungal infections
• Tenderize and kill bacteria in meat
• Open drains and freshen garbage disposals

Making and Bottling Perry (Sparkling Pear Cider)!!

Today we had our first experience bottling wine!  We started our Perry (sparkling pear cider) on September 24th when we gleaned pears from a neighborhood lot that was for sale.  I used a juicer to extract the juice and used the pulp for pear butter.

Perry recipe:

1 gallon pear juice (12-14 pounds)

sugar to 1.060 Specific Gravity (S.G.)    (~1/4 cup/gallon)

1/2 tsp. Pectic Enzyme

3/4 tsp. Energizer

1 Campden, crushed

1 pkg. Champ. yeast

• In a food grade bucket, add campden to juice to prevent spoilage and browning.  Stir in all other ingredients except yeast.  Cover.  
• After 24 hours, add yeast.  Cover.
• Stir daily, check S.G..  When ferment reaches S.G. 1.040 (3-5 days), syphon off wine into a carboy (leave sediment behind).  Attach airlock.
• When ferment reaches 1.000 (about 3 weeks), syphon off sediment into another carboy.  Reattach airlock.
• To aid clearing, syphon again in 2 months and again if necessary before bottling.

When ferment is complete, gently stir in 1/4 cup dissolved sugar per gallon.  Bottle in champagne or returnable pop bottles.  Age for 3 months.  Cool and enjoy!

I included some pictures of the process below.  I also included a video of the bottling process: 

Make sure your pears are firm and ripe.  We used Bartlett pears. 

This is what the carboys looked like after sitting for 2 months.  Sediment and dead yeast is at the bottom.  

This is what the jar looks like after syphoning off the wine.

This is how you check for specific gravity (S.G.).

Bottles given to us from our friends.  It's amazing what a simple email brings someone.  We are eternally grateful that we didn't have to purchase bottles.  To remove labels, soak in warm water and use a razor blade.

We invested in this carboy lifter.  These carboys get very heavy and can be difficult to hold.  The clear/white thing is an airlock.  It lets carbon dioxide out but doesn't let anything in.

Before bottling, all supplies need to be sanitized, including the bucket and spigot.  We use a Star San sanitizer solution.

This is the syphoning process.  The wine flows through the plastic tubing from the carboy to the bucket.  When syphoning, you have to be careful that you don't suck up any of the sediment on the bottom...you want a clear wine. 

We added 3/4 cups granulated sugar to our 3.5 gallons of Perry.  The sugar was dissolved before bottling. 

Fill the bottles with wine leaving about a 2 inch head space.  The bottle is dark green so it's hard to see it in the picture. 

The cork is being inserted into the bottle with the help of a floor corker.  We used #9 corks and don't know if they are the correct size for what we bottled.

This is the floor corker we purchased at Portland U-Brew & Pub for ~$60.00.  We chose this corker because it's metal and very sturdy.  Many people recommend a floor corker because it's less cumbersome than the hand corkers.  

3.5 gallons yielded 16 bottles and 2 grolsch bottles. 

This is our first year making wine and we have a few questions.  If you have advice, please submit in the comments section, thanks!

Question 1: How do you know when to cork vs. cap the bottles?  Does it matter?  

Question 2: Is it safe to reuse bottles from the grocery store or does it depend on what you're bottling?

Question 3: How do you know what size cork to use?

Question 4: Can wine ever really spoil?  I've always been told that wine gets better with age, but isn't there a chance that the cork could fail and potentially leach bacteria in the bottle?  

Question 5: How do you get bottles dry inside?  I washed the bottles with warm soapy water and after 4 days, some of the bottles were still full of condensation.  I don't have a wine rack dryer---would that do the trick?  Some bottles dried really quickly and others never completely dried.  I noticed the bottles with thicker glass tended not to dry.

Sarsaparilla Soda

On hot summer days, I like to drink soda.  I purchase the more expensive brands (A&W move out of the way!) because I don't drink soda all that often, and when I do, I like to really enjoy it.  Jon decided last summer to try making our own soda.  Recently we made Sarsaparilla!
We got this recipe from Homemade Root Beer, Soda, and Pop by: Stephen Cresswell

3 to 4 quarts of water

9 T chopped dried sarsaparilla root

5 T chopped dried sassafras root bark

1/4 cup raisins, coarsely chopped

1 3/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp. yeast (we use champagne yeast)

1/4 cup lukewarm water

1. Heat 2 quarts of water to a simmer.  As the water heats, add the chopped roots, chopped raisins, and sugar.  Simmer uncovered for about 25 minutes.  Remove from heat, cover, and let cool for 30 minutes.

2. After the sarsaparilla mixture has cooled 30 minutes, pour it slowly into a jug with 1 quart of cool water, straining as you pour.  (I use a one gallon jar with a metal lid).  Fill the jug to the top with water until there is about a 2 inch headspace.

3.  In a small bowl, proof the yeast----add yeast to 1/4 cup lukewarm water.

4. Shake the water & sarsparilla mixture in the jug vigorously for about a minute. 

5.  Add the yeast mixture to the jug and agitate vigorously again. 

6.  To reduce the sediment that will settle to the bottom, use a coffee filter to catch the debris.  Pour the mixture into your sterilized bottles.  Cap and let sit for 48-72 hours.  After 48 hours, check the carbonation.  When the carbonation is right, refrigerate and use within 6 weeks. 

Makes 7, 12-ounce bottles. 

This was our first attempt at making sarsaparilla.  Next time we will use less sassafras root bark and add a vanilla bean for a little milder flavor.  The carbonation results were pretty impressive---probably the result of the champagne yeast.  In the past, our soda results had a strong yeasty smell and flavor because we were using brewer's yeast.  Champagne yeast doesn't produce that yeasty smell and taste, but it certainly produces the bubbles quite nicely!!