RE: How To Make Carrot Wine
I have experimented with wild fermentation and my ultimate goal is to ferment using only things we produce ourselves.
I've made apple cider with apples that I ran through my juicer, no added yeast or anything. It worked! It fermented into an alcoholic cider. It wasn't ultra flavourful, I think it needs a bit of sugar or honey for taste. I also made ACV this way and it turned out.
Some of our experiments have been complete failures. Our dandelion wine caught a bacteria that smells like nail polish remover and there have been some very stinky sludge/goo concoctions as well that got buried in a hole.
You might want to check out Pascal Baudar and his book: The Wildcrafting Brewer. I haven't bought it but plan to. I follow his facebook page and if you are into wild crafting ... his posts are beyond inspiring.
Thanks for that info! I will be adding this book to my to read list. I just learned there is a wild winery nearby and I am planning to go there and have some drinks for inspiration :) How exciting that you were able to capture some good wild yeasts! Were you able to save them for future batches?
To be honest, The jar that I saved turned to vinegar. I have a LOT to learn. That said I've got an amazing culture in there for future vinegar.
I can totally relate. That happened to me with my St John's Wort beer last year. I kept experimenting with the yeast and tried to push it to ferment as long as I could without an airlock. Actually it went really far, over a month and then finally gave up and turned into vinegar. Now I have a gallon of St John's wort vinegar and it is quite tasty!
St John's Wort beer sounds so intriguing and I am sure the vinegar is amazing. I am going to have to look into that. We are wanting to learn how to make beer. Its one thing we haven't taken a stab at yet.
In my case brewing herbal beer is the same as wine... herbs, water & sugar, with your yeast of choice. In my case i was calling it beer because i didn't intend to age it and using beer yeast. I was following recipes in Buhner's book of Herbal Beers. If you have st johns wort handy I recommend it, it was tasting amazing even without being aged.
that sounds like a really ideal way to experiment with beers. I don't really like the conventional style of doing things. This sounds much more up my alley.
I'm going to look for that book. Thank you!
You won't be dissapointed ... it's a great book!