Time Frame: 1 year
Initial Ingredients for 5 gallons:
2 pounds fresh organic ginger root
12 pounds organic sugar
Juice of 5 Lemons
1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
1 package champagne yeast
Grate Ginger. This took a lot longer than I expected. Thank to everyone who contributed.
Add Sugar and Ginger into a large pot with 5 gallons of water
Cover, Bring to a Boil, and simmer for 1 hour
After an hour turn off the heat. Add lemon juice and vanilla. Cover to keep flies away and leave to cool to body temperature. We got impatient, as it was a school night, and decided to use La Levadura's chiller.
Once the concoction reached body temperature we scooped out one cup and dissolved one packet of champagne yeast into it. During this time we transferred the yeast of the ginger-sugar-water into a carboy. Once the starter was bubbling we added it into the carboy and put on the airlock.
This process took about three or four hours in total and made for a wonderful evening filled with friends and hope.
In 3 months, god willing the creek don't rise, we will begin step 2...
In the meantime I've been drinking some extra ginger-sugar-vanilla-lemon water and it's delicious.
ps I got all of my directions for this project from Sandor Ellix Katz incredible book wild fermentation. This book is so filled with engaging projects and delicious food ideas that I leaf through it just for fun sometimes.
pps I don't believe this beverage can technically be called champagne as per the technical rules of what is what. Proper champagne comes from a particular region in France and I'm pretty sure must involve grapes at some point.
hey what happened to it?!!!! we are 4 months into the recipe, and after stacking it into another carboy, we had 1/2 a cup of the mixture and it is like straight up hooch!!! so alcoholic, we are trying to figure out what we should do now!!
ReplyDeleteplease write back nursehoneydew@gmail.com
love,
kbear