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Salsa

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Like everyone else these days, I have tomatoes getting ripe one after the other. So let’s make salsa!

But not just any salsa. Fermented salsa.

This makes about 1 quart jar,, which we will be fermenting in as well. I like this size because I only usually have one or two tomato plants and get 5-6 or so tomatoes ripe at a time. Tomorrow I’ll probably have another 5-6 ready…

This quart is:

  • 5-6 medium tomatoes
  • 1/2 small onion
  • 3-4-5 garlic cloves
  • Cilatro depending your taste
  • Hot pepper depending on you again
  • Kosher or your kraut salt

Chop everything up into Salsa sized bits

Now the fermenting part. You need to use between 3-5% salt. So just weigh what you just chopped up. (It easier in grams.)

This batch I had 750g and I want 3% salt so.. 750x.03=22.5. So I mix in 22.5g of my salt. (23g really just round up)

If you let it sit a few minutes it will start to pull water out of the tomatoes. That’s good! Then just fill your jar up to the neck. The either use your weights or a hunk of onion or pepper to wedge in there to keep everything under the liquid.

Then just loosely put lid on and leave sit out on the cupboard for a few days to ferment.

You will start to see bubbles like this. And a bit more liquid. It’s probably good after 3 days of this. But better after a week! Refrigerate when it’s where you want it.

Cranberry Mead

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Now, mead is not one of my favorite things for some reason. I mean, I should like them, right? Who don’t like honey?

Oh I have had a few that were phenomenal, and also some that were the worst homebrewed things I ever had. (one was so bad it turned me off of an entire genre of beers)

I have made a couple of meads in the past. They ranged from ok, to maybe not. Mostly because of ingredient choices. Somethings just aint cut out for mead.

But I’m not a quitter. I’m going to find a combination that I like sooner or later. And this past version may be just that. Cranberry mead.

Now I put a little thought into it this time, I was looking at a 3 gallon batch. Lower alcohol so it can be drinkable relatively sooner than normal. A sweeter version. And,, well… cheap. Meads can quickly deplete the wallet quickly.

So what I came up with is: Cranberry Mead
5lbs Costco Wildflower Honey
3 lbs can Vinters Harvest Cranberry Puree
3.25 gallons filtered water
Nutrient
Nottingham Yeast

Using honey and puree is just a matter of dumping and stirring. And while yes I did figure on a bit of displacement, I didn’t figure on quite as much as we got. After getting everything mixed in as measured, it appears we have about 4-4.5 gallons of must.
Am going to assume we will lose atleast a .25 gallon on first rack then maybe another .25 between the next rack and bottling.

The last wine was the same volume and we just racked to my 3 gallon carboy and a separate 1 gallon fermenter. (its nice to have odd ball sizes of jugs laying around) But in the future I will have to adjust for this. 

We had an OG at pitch of 1.052,, and I would expect the Notty to stop around 1.010. That would be around 5.5%, and perfect for what I’m looking for. 

Will be doing staggered nutrient additions, which for mead, especially cranberry, is really needed because the honey has nearly nothing. So I’m going to put in ½ teaspoon today. Stirring every day for 5 days but adding nutrient only every other day. This helps the yeast by releasing some C02 and getting that nutrient in.

This right now is some tasty stuff. Would be a good mixer for some vodka. I hope it holds some of this character when its finished. I guess we will see.

Kveik and more Kveik

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Back in the first week of June we were getting set to have the first of the summer heat stretches. It was looking like 90s for a week. And that means that my garage would then be the perfect place to brew a Kveik yeast beer.
Last summer I did my first Kviek brew in the garage. and it turned out to be great! So I knew I had to make the most of this heat wave.
Thought that maybe a bit maltier beer may show off the Kviek a bit better, so we went with a Vienna Lager type recipe.

  • 5lbs DArk munich
  • 4 lbs 2row
  • 1 oz saaz at 60
  • 1/2 oz saas at 15
  • 1/2 oz saaz at flame out.
  • Voss Kviek — mashed the grains at 152

So the Kviek kveiked great. and as last time with it, there is about double the yeast sludge as regular yeasts. So I wanted to save some. And I remember reading some where that the old Norwegians would dry the yeast on wood planks to repitch later….

I didnt have any planks ready to go when I thought of this, so I went out and clipped off a cedar branch.

slopped it in the sludge

and let it dry in my hot garage.

For over a month of 100+ degrees of heat.

Then just dropped it into the next batch.

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It did have a day lag, but there was activity around the branch. Kinda like an alka seltzer tab. I think it was the yeast rehydrating and starting to work, because less than 5 hours after I looked at it, it was in FULL ON ferment. at 90 degrees.

The original batch with a full pack of yeast took almost 4 days to complete, and a week to clear (as much as Kveik clears anyway). This batch with just that sticks worth was pitched, fermented full and cleared in only 3 days and we were kegged and drinking it in 7 days from pitch. But I guess this yeast does work better when under pitched.

After tasting it now for a few weeks, I really have to say that the second stick pitched beer is cleaner and less yeasty tasting.

Now since I have done this, I see there are all a bunch of articles on drying an freezing this yeast, so it was a good idea after all.

I think after now doing 3 batches with Kveik, that I am ready to start incorporating it into more of the summer beers. There are more strains coming out,, so will b trying those too,, as long as the garage stays hot.