Welcome to Episode 0 of “She Brews, He Brews, a jewish fermenting podcast”, where we hope to discuss all thing homebrewing and fermenting both biblical and modern from a Jewish perspective including beers, meads, ciders, wines, breads, pickles, cheese, and much more.
Goals of the podcast
Aiming every two weeks
Discuss our most recent brewdays:
Find us at @jewishfermentationpodcast
Welcome to Episode 0 of “She Brews, He Brews, a jewish fermenting podcast”, where we hope to discuss all thing homebrewing and fermenting both biblical and modern from a Jewish perspective including beers, meads, ciders, wines, breads, pickles, cheese, and much more.
Goals of the podcast
Aiming every two weeks
Discuss our most recent brewdays:
Find us at @jewishfermentationpodcast
[00:00:00] Evan: [00:00:00] Welcome to episode zero of She Brews, Hebrews, a Jewish fermenting podcast, where we hope to discuss all things, home brewing and fermentation, both biblical and modern from a Jewish perspective, including beers, meads, siders, breads, pickles, cheeses, and much, much more. I'm your host. Evan Harris and with me today is my cohost.
Alison Shay.
Alison: [00:00:24] hi there.
Evan: [00:00:25] Hi, how are you doing?
Alison: [00:00:27] I'm good. how are you doing?
Evan: [00:00:29] Doing pretty well. So this is episode zero, because of course we have to start properly with zero.
Alison: [00:00:35] That's how things are numbered.
Evan: [00:00:37] we're both engineers. Things are numbered starting with zero. Today we're going to try and introduce the podcast and so let's just start by both introducing ourselves.
Alison: [00:00:49] I am the Alison as previously mentioned I am a long time baker since I was a little kid, grew up in a household with a lot of allergies. [00:01:00] So handling how to work around things, make things from scratch a lot of the time. And as I got older, I started making more and more things from scratch, just for fun, because it's interesting because.Kitchen science is cool. And sometimes you end up with cookies.
And that turned into me making a lot of breads. I've made all sorts of breads and other yeasted doughs been doing that for a long time. And as the pandemic started I started attempting some cheese making I've done miscellaneous cheese making in the past, just ricotta.And paneer, but trying a few new things as it was going on making some lactic acid starters did not go well, but a story for another time.
Evan: [00:01:45] our failures are part of the podcast as well,
Alison: [00:01:48] oh yeah.
Evan: [00:01:49] where we've made the failure. So hopefully our listeners can learn
Alison: [00:01:53] Oh, Yeah. definitely avoid our mistakes folks. Oh. But as I was working on the [00:02:00] cheese-making and more and more bread making Evan and I started talking about his home brewing and I thought it sounded rad. I'm about to start my fourth batch of Homebrew and getting the hang of how this works.
So Evan has been. Very much teaching me a lot of the ways of home brewing. As I'm learning the ropes on
Evan: [00:02:23] Yeah.
Alison: [00:02:24] how'd you get into this.
Evan: [00:02:25] So I've been home brewing since about 2014. A friend while I was in undergrad. A friend of mine from rowing taught me how to Homebrew he's a chemical engineer and his family grow their own hops in fact. So his family home brews and he was really useful and taught me how to start home brewing. Cause I learned from it from him and he was homebrewing somewhat on the side [00:03:00] though.
My father actually home brewed. When it was first legal while he was in college, but stopped when my sister and I were little kids. So I didn't pick it up until I was in college, but my father and I have brewed together which is a very fun activity. I think I've not done as much yeasted breads and doughs.
Or cheeses, but I want to get better at all of them. And I've never done pickles in the such which are from another type of fermentation. So we hope to cover all of them. Both of us, obviously our engineers, as we've said in undergrad, I also minored in history. So I find the history of all of these items, really interesting.
And of course in the tanakh there is a ton off, there's a huge history of. Various fermented products, obviously wine. We have kiddish but there's also archeological records and both of them say a lot of really interesting things that I hope to discuss more.
Alison: [00:03:54] And even just your modern Jewish foods that we're really familiar with, you go through them. And [00:04:00] how many of those are pickled pickles are a common Jewish food that is pickled herring, just Pickled fishes, of pickled vegetables, pickled meats.
Evan: [00:04:11] Pickled meats. Yeah.
Alison: [00:04:13] or super, super common. And it's not something that's often thought about as.
As liken an ancient and storied
Evan: [00:04:23] it's not yogurt. Yogurt., not pickled, but fermented.
Alison: [00:04:26] Yeah. Yogurt's a fun one to make.
Evan: [00:04:29] I've not made it, but I want to try
Alison: [00:04:31] it's real easy. Really easy, fun, fermentation that like also introduces you to a bunch of different baking principles, scalding milk, for example, just all part of the really simple fermentation process of yogurt.
Evan: [00:04:48] So a lot of these are ancient techniques, so don't be afraid of trying them. if humanity has managed to do this for several thousand years, most home cooks can do it.
[00:05:00] Alison: [00:05:00] If humanity has managed to do it for thousands of years and not died from it.
Evan: [00:05:05] Yeah, there, there are some fermented things, which I'm not such a fan of though, but I don't think we're going to be trying to make natto, are you familiar with that
Alison: [00:05:14] No, but I have heard about garlic fermentations that gone, that have gone really badly
Evan: [00:05:20] Most of the garlic issues I've heard of were with with botulism, but not, so it's not Jewish. It is a Japanese delicacy that is fermented red beans. But it has the texture of snot.
Alison: [00:05:39] How
Evan: [00:05:40] listeners at home, the
Alison: [00:05:41] that?
Evan: [00:05:41], we will not be trying that, but for the listeners at home, Alison has a absolutely disgusted look on her face.
I've been fortunate to visit Japan and I tried it because I'm willing to try it once. And never again, it is one of the worst items I've ever had.
Alison: [00:05:58] that one.
Evan: [00:05:59] we will [00:06:00] someday though we might try and try. We might try that,
Alison: [00:06:03] Oh yeah. I like a nice saké.
Be down to try that.
Evan: [00:06:07] Sakeé is an interesting different fermentation, but we'll get to that in a later episode. So what are you eating and drinking today?
Alison: [00:06:16] So today?
I have a batch of pomegranate orange wine fermented to 11.2%. ABV that's alcohol by volume. It's a 50 50 blend of orange juice and pomegranate juice. With honey as the sweetening agent for fermentation It, it tasted pretty good before it went in the carboy. And it's fine now. But. One of the things that you have to be prepared for when mixing two really strong fruit juices, like pomegranate and orange is a, you're going to end up with something really acidic and be the flavor balance. Once the sugars are gone is going to be [00:07:00] completely different. So I was not expecting this to be nearly as orange heavy.
That's really the dominant flavor here and there is pomegranate going on. But. Really not the dominance is really the orange. And when it first came out of the carboy, tasted it right out of the siphon directly out of the siphon, but tasted it right away and oh boy, not very palatable at all.
Just really strong acidic. And now it's been fermenting for about a month. It's been bottled and just aging for about a month. And if you add a dollop of honey in there it's pleasant. That sounds bad. I wouldn't, it's just it's come out rather than being really assertive and aggressive.
Now it's a really just like pleasant and fruity drink for a hot day.
Evan: [00:07:56] interesting. It sounds tasty. And at least I don't know about by you with the weather by [00:08:00] me has been quite warm. So
Alison: [00:08:02] real toasty. I also made macaroons last week, like French macrons with a rosewater in the cookies and filled with raspberry jam.
Evan: [00:08:13] That sounds good.
Alison: [00:08:14] yeah. which is a. Not fermentation related, but a fun baking trick that I've learned over the years for it getting a meringue to stick.
Humid weather is just a little bit of cream of tartar and I've had no problems. So fantastic. Macrons.
Evan: [00:08:36] yeah. That is a tip. I will have to try. Right now I'm drinking. Just some cider that I made as I'm sure we will discuss plenty of times, cider is one of the easiest things to brew at home. This actually I found a bottle that I made in 2018, so it's been aging and it's quite nice. A lot of fruity notes, a little bit of tartness, very sharp flavor still.
If [00:09:00] you, when it's in season apple juice, especially if you live in. Roughly the Midwest where apples grow in abundance, getting a gallon of cider from the farmer's market, you can make all sorts of fun stuff with it. Which I'm sure we'll talk about plenty. But one of the things given this as our introductory episode, the pilot, as it were we wanted to talk about some of the goals of the podcast.
The biggest one of course is to share the brewing fermenting knowledge that we have.
Alison: [00:09:32] Given that we are coming from different ends of this. Evan is an experienced brewer. I am a novice brewer and working through new things, always learning new things with each batch. But I'm much more experienced with breads and some other types of fermentation.
We're learning from different directions on that. So there's always different things [00:10:00] going back and forth. We're always bouncing ideas off of
Evan: [00:10:03] yeah, always bouncing ideas off each other. And one of the things that Caused us to start this, is there at least two distinct Jewish drinking podcasts, but nothing about making these products. There is the Jewish drinking podcast and there's drinking and drashing both of which I find interesting. At least
Alison: [00:10:22] Future guests, maybe.
Evan: [00:10:24] I would love to have them as future guests.
We have a lot of ideas for guests. We'd love to talk with rabbis who do kashrut. We'd love to talk with People who actually run delis and kosher bakeries kosher, winemakers, distillers. I definitely know. I can get for an interview, a non-Jewish distiller. As I've done some work, I have a lot of experience with distillation from working with a distiller.
I cannot distill it's against the law in the United States to distill at home,
Alison: [00:10:55] side note.
Evan: [00:10:56] Yeah. As a side note, we shouldn't say we, we should say this. One of the [00:11:00] things we want to make clear, and we'll probably make sure to say this a lot is that you should be drinking and consuming in general responsibly.
Alison: [00:11:11] Also be aware of your local laws. We are in the United States. Evan and I are located in different states. So we have different local fermentation laws which we have checked ahead.
of time to make sure that everything that we're working on is fully legal. No issues. be aware that wherever you are, it's going to vary whether you're inside the states or.
Outside the states, what states you're in how much you're making what types of techniques you can do. There's there are limitations.
Evan: [00:11:43] Correct. There are great resources which I will try and put in the show notes, like the American homebrewers association and home brewing academy, which can help you find your relevant. Laws within the United States in general, these are general [00:12:00] laws. A lot of which are based around the federal ones in general.
Brewing is legal. It has been legal since the Carter administration and in general, you can produce up to a hundred gallons per year, per adult, over 21 in the household.
Alison: [00:12:18] I don't think anybody's going to get there on a regular basis or just as a homebrewer in general,
Evan: [00:12:24] if you're managing to produce and consume that much by yourself or in a small group,
Alison: [00:12:33] alcoholics anonymous.
Evan: [00:12:35] Yes. I would suggest that you seek professional help for your own health, more than anything else. But just staying healthy is the, now is above anything else that we're doing.
But, and drinking responsibly as part of staying healthy, but in the right quantities, all of these things are enjoyable and based on a lot of recent studies, moderate amounts of alcohol can be good for your health, both physical and mental.
. One of the other things is that we're both academically curious. I would say,
Alison: [00:13:22] I would agree with that statement.
Evan: [00:13:24] given between the two of us, we so far have four degrees.
Alison: [00:13:28] Oh yeah. And presumably some more down the road.
Evan: [00:13:34] All right.
Alison: [00:13:34] Not for me. Not for me. I'm done.
Evan: [00:13:37] I'm hoping I only need, I'm hoping I only need one more.
Alison: [00:13:40] Fingers crossed
Evan: [00:13:42] Yeah. But we'd like learning new things and both by and by sharing those things with each other and with you our listener we get to learn more and figure out what we're talking about.
Alison: [00:13:56] at least as engineers, we're basically just doing [00:14:00] science that we can eat here
Evan: [00:14:01] yeah. With science we can eat and drink.
Alison: [00:14:04] Yeah.
And that's one of the things that I love about baking is that as opposed to cooking, which is more about being creative about things, when it's baking is very scientific. Even though, you end up with a fluffy cake, but you've got your tough nerves and your softeners and your structure and your fats, and everything's coming together in different ways to make a chemical reaction.
Evan: [00:14:33] Yeah.
Alison: [00:14:33] that's all we're doing here. We're making tasty chemical reactions.
Alison: [00:14:37] sciencing.
Evan: [00:14:39] absolutely. As I said, the friend who taught me how to Homebrew is a chemical engineer. And so these, this is chemistry, but chemistry and biochemistry is fermentation is a biochemical reaction to be technical. It is tasty science and hopefully we can inspire some of you to see it that way and try things yourselves.
Alison: [00:14:59] there is definitely [00:15:00] occasionally physics involved. I let's just say. If you think carbonation hasn't worked, you should behave as if the carbonation has worked or else just don't shake things. Just don't shake
Evan: [00:15:16] speaking of that, I'm going to jump a little out of order in the show notes. Why don't you try opening that link in the show notes?
Alison: [00:15:24] Oh no. Should I worry?
Evan: [00:15:30] Maybe
Alison: [00:15:43] Oh, God. Yeah,
Evan: [00:15:45] So for our listeners at home in the link will be in the show notes. This is I found it on the Reddit Mead. A subreddit. And there are a lot of great homebrewing subreddits for all sorts of potent potables.
Alison: [00:15:56] Also some great Facebook groups,
Evan: [00:15:58] there are some good Facebook [00:16:00] groups as well. I need to join more of the Facebook groups.
I'm on some slacks and Subreddits. Yeah, please do. But it's a barrel that is clearly started re fermenting and the bung on the barrel. Just the whole, you fell through the plug on that is popped. And there's just a Geyser of meat of wine spewing out of this barrel which is a science and physics.
Alison: [00:16:27] Okay. Yeah. My personal experience with this one is something, it happened just yesterday with this exact batch we thought, so this tastes a little bit like a. Like a screwdriver just straight up. That's what the flavor is which is a little interesting. It's not, yeah, I'm pointing to my pomegranate orange wine here.
It's got a distinctly screwdriver anus to it. And I'm not really sure why there's no vodka involved here. The orange juice, I guess
Evan: [00:16:56] The orange juice and vodka by law is supposed to be [00:17:00] flavorless. So you're tasting the alcohol
Alison: [00:17:02] Yeah, but it really, if somebody were to glasses and then you swapped this and they probably wouldn't notice just that kind of vibe to it. I use these one liter bottles which, depending on how nine to 15 tabs of sugar, depending on how strong I want the carbonation to be. Okay. I wasn't sure how this was going to be. So I added three to a couple of my bottles labeled them clearly not large enough, cause I didn't notice it when I poured a bottle out into a carafe yesterday, added some ice and honey and started to shake it up. I think you can guess where this is [00:18:00] going
Evan: [00:18:00] Yep.
Alison: [00:18:01] because the lid went flying off and I ended up covered in wine. Yeah. It's if you taste it, it's totally flat. There's no evidence of fizz when you actually look at it. But when you actually shake it up with some honey, all of the sudden there is certainly carbon dioxide in there.
Evan: [00:18:20] I, last week also had my first bottle pop a cork. I've never had a bottle bomb, which is bottled the actually explodes. But I've had a bottle pop, a cork because my AC was broken and just whether it was slightly overfilled and there wasn't enough air or whatever it spent enough cork blew out of a year of a Mead.
That's really good. I'm sad. I lost a bottle. They don't, that yeast was a limited edition. I still have most of the case left. And saved most of the bottles. So it's in my fridge now,
Alison: [00:18:51] that's
Evan: [00:18:51] but it's a really interesting yeast.
Alison: [00:18:54] Just a general reminder here. We are not professionals at this. [00:19:00] We are amateurs. Evan is experienced at this. I am a beginner at this, but We have no degrees in this. We have not studied this in an academic setting. And anyways, we have not been apprenticed in this. We're doing this stuff for fun. I call it my closet.
hooch because I have a fermentation unit in my closet.
Evan: [00:19:22] Yeah, so we're not, we are knowledgeable. We are not experts. At least not yet in this, we hope to learn more. As we're talking about.
Alison: [00:19:33] be experts, hopefully.
Evan: [00:19:34] Theoretically, we're talking about the goals of the pie chest tangents. I'm sure, but knowing both of us, there are several things which there will be plenty of tangents.
Alison: [00:19:45] Oh yeah.
Evan: [00:19:46] But as we've tangented several times, we're going to talk about our various experiments and things we've learned from them and what has, and hasn't worked be careful about carbonation and bottles. If you're using it to mix it up.
Alison: [00:19:59] don't do [00:20:00] that.
Evan: [00:20:00] Yeah. So also what you were mentioning earlier tabs, a lot of place, a lot of home brew shops sell what mine, at least calls fizz drops, which you can add to bottles and their pre-measured sugar for carbonation,
Alison: [00:20:15] Handy dandy. You don't want to be measuring that stuff out by yourself. Also, there are certain ingredients That are used in brewing that aren't really used in other places. There are terms that I have come across a couple of times that are used in different contexts, in fermentation, in different types of fermentation.
So that's something to always be on the lookout and make sure that any equipment you're getting or special ingredients are specific to brewing as opposed to something else you don't want to. One fun example that Evan and I have come across recently is if somebody tells you, you need pectin for [00:21:00] something, pectin is a common ingredient for canning, which is something that I work with.
I work with a lot of canners Some scientists who work with canners engineers who work with canning. I personally am not familiar with it, but there's a lot of. Pectin around in my workspace. And I said, great, I'm going to get some pectin from them to do this brewing experiment. I want to try, as it turns out, I did not try this cause I did some research beforehand and it turns out the brewing pectin and canning picked up are very different things.
Evan: [00:21:34] they are. They're in fact, opposites canning pectin is packed in itself. It is, it will make things gel. And stitched together brewing pectin is, hectic enzyme, which breaks it apart. And it is useful. Quick brewing tip. It is useful if you're ever brewing with juices that are thicker or have particulate in them, you have a little bit of pectin at the start, just so it works, its magic while it's brewing [00:22:00] and all of the solids will fall out and you'll get clear drink.
Alison: [00:22:03] So just keep an eye on those things. If there's anything specialty something, what was it there? Oh, I got some questions from someone about yeast brewers. There are different types of yeast, brewers, yeast champagne, yeast I cite or use. They taste different. They are very different from bread yeast.
We have a sour, my roommate and I have a sourdough starter, which technically yes,, there are types of beer that use sourdough starters, but
Evan: [00:22:37] Actually,
Alison: [00:22:38] yeah.
Evan: [00:22:38] so you can brew with baking yeast. However, and it baking yeast is in fact cheaper than brewing yeast, but not significantly.
Alison: [00:22:48] and they just have different effects to it
Evan: [00:22:51] they have different effects. with a known brewing, you just, you can design what effects [00:23:00] you want to flavor. That's why there's so many varieties.
And when I'm talking, it's more expensive, I'm talking $3, a packet for five gallons. I'm at the low end 10 at the high end.
Alison: [00:23:12] but also being careful with the use that you use just in general as something that's It's something that I think is nice. My first east that I ever tried brewing with was I was told it was called a cider yeast. Now that I've tried it, I believe it's certainly more of a beer brewing yeast because the flavor and the smell that comes out of it is very distinctly similar to something that would come out of a beer and not something you would expect out of a cider.
Evan: [00:23:44] So speaking of so much of our recent brewing days did you, you started a new brew today, didn't you?
Alison: [00:23:49] I was going to start a new brew today
Evan: [00:23:51] You are
Alison: [00:23:53] and
Evan: [00:23:53] and we're doing this,
Alison: [00:23:55] Yeah, also, I didn't have enough, honey.
Evan: [00:23:58] But why don't you tell us about what you [00:24:00] are going to make?
Alison: [00:24:01] okay. Hopefully once I get to the store tomorrow the plan is to make a. I can say this. I definitely am going to figure out how to say this. metheglin, I'm going to make a metheglin a medical in is, so there are different types of Meads depending on what you're adding to it.
Evan: [00:24:26] So ma method Lynn is with fruit juice, had this someplace where, and I know just a little so Mead has a lot of interesting names for things. So like in beers, which most people are more familiar with you've got your porters, your stouts, your ales, which technically the first two are part of your IPA's, your red ales, Ryer, stouts, and all sorts of other things, which are based on the style Meade, because it's almost all hunting.
Instead, if you miss something into it, you get a different name for it. And there are a lot of fun names method Lynn is one of them.
Alison: [00:24:59] I guess [00:25:00] technically when I'll be making would be a combination of a metheglin and a mellow Mel, I just finished brewing, or I just recently bottled a batch of mellow melamines that has fruit knit, a metheglin has spices or herbs in it. so, when I'm. My batch of mellow. Mellow is pomegranate need.
Instead of using water, I use pomegranate juice is the liquid that's aging right now, but initial tastes out of the curbs were very tasty and very alcoholic. So we're at 16% ABV on that guy. Yeah. the metheglin that I was planning to start today. And it's going to have to be tomorrow. Once I get enough honey to do this.
Is going to be a lemon and Rosemary, which is a really old and really classic recipe. There are recipes dating to the 16 hundreds for lemon, Rosemary, Mead. So it's a fun and an old [00:26:00] school
Evan: [00:26:00] So Mead so a slight aside, again, we're going to have plenty of tangents. Is that Mead is probably made insider, in my opinion, are the two easiest things to brew at home. Mead is one of the Mo one of the oldest, if not the oldest fermented beverage in the world based on the archeological record the beer dates to around the same time period.
Alison: [00:26:26] One thing I want to note real quick. I seeing as this is a Jewish podcast something that may show up a couple of times here. I keep kosher,
Evan: [00:26:36] I do not.
Alison: [00:26:37] but also I have, I did grow up in a household with a lot of allergies. So that is something that's on my mind, but also my original batch of cider, I finished and bottled and age in time for Passover.
And given that all of my equipment was new and clean and everything I used was special for this. Everything was considered [00:27:00] kosher for Passover. I confirmed with a rabbi. That everything was good to go and kosher for Passover. It was something that I intend to maintain. So that is probably something that will factor into some of my decisions involving involving yeasts then I'll use or ingredients and methods.
Evan: [00:27:18] Yeah, no, that, that is a very pertinent fact, but you also don't happen to like beer if I recall,
Alison: [00:27:25] Oh yeah.
Evan: [00:27:26] So that may, that makes it, that does make it a lot easier, but just the only thing which you theoretically would, could be fermenting, otherwise that would be more complex with Kashrut laws. As I'm remembering them off hand would be wine
Alison: [00:27:40] Wine. And also there are certain types because again, we have my roommate and I have a sourdough starter.
Evan: [00:27:48] oh, true. If you use that would be a problem.
Alison: [00:27:51] yeah. So I'm not going to use the sourdough starter to make any home brews. I might. I might get some real small, like pickling [00:28:00] jars,
Alison: [00:28:01] but
Evan: [00:28:02] done an idea that we will, I have an idea for that we can discuss in the next episode, how about that?
Alison: [00:28:09] Good to me.
Evan: [00:28:10] the basic next episode, I want to give you a basic recipe for give all of our listeners that basic recipe for how to get started with home brewing, with minimal equipment.
next episode in about two weeks, hopefully we can give you that that but so my most recent brew day I started this a few days ago is also using an interesting yeast called . Which is a Norwegian farmhouse yeast
Alison: [00:28:39] What makes that different than a standard east? Just being from Norway
Evan: [00:28:44] pretty much. Yeah.
Alison: [00:28:45] a farmhouse in Norway?
Evan: [00:28:47] So the yeast manufacturers go around the world to traditional brewers and. And culture the yeasts. So champagne yeasts cultured from champagne career [00:29:00] grapes and certified kosher, et cetera. Beer, various beer yeasts are from various traditional breweries that have co started their own cultures.
And these east manufacturers replicate them. So is the yeast that is generated from Norwegian. I should say Scandinavian, but mostly Norway in this case. A farmhouse ale. For men, it can ferment very hot temperatures. And my AC was broken when I started this batch. So it can ferment up to 92 degrees Fahrenheit.
Alison: [00:29:28] Jeepers
Evan: [00:29:29] Most of the time you want to keep your brews in 70 or below. Not really quite that cold, but a lot of yeasts, especially ale and lager yeast, laundry, use lights to be cold.
Alison: [00:29:39] a little bit different from From a bread yeast where the sweet spot is in the low eighties,
Evan: [00:29:46] So the reason behind that is with yeast with Bruin yeast, you are wanting bread yeast. A lot of the flavors from the yeast don't stay in the bread. So you just want it to ferment faster. [00:30:00] We're brewing yeast, because it's going to take longer. You want to Do you have at that time, slow and steady to develop the right character that you want.
So traffic can generate a lot of floral and fruity notes and something that has no fruit or flower. So I have a Mead that I did a few a year ago. That is delicious. It's not all these complex fruity notes in it. And all that's in it is yeast, water, and honey. That's it. It's amazing. So you should double check that the yeast is in fact, would in fact be good for you or use another vessel.
But they are, the provide yeast is a really fun thing. It also ferments fast, it ferments strong and fast. So that is one thing, but your next batch you're going to be using champagne used or you're not,
Alison: [00:30:46] Yes. I just got some champagne, Easton and excited to try that out with the lemon Rosemary.
Evan: [00:30:53] Is it the Lavilin EC-1118 1118
Alison: [00:30:58] Yes,
Evan: [00:30:59] two. That is a [00:31:00] great yeast to start. I would not recommend starting with some electric provide to any of our listeners. But I like I've used the device because I have a decent amount of experience now. I think you should start with, get an idea of brewing with the simple, clean yeasts.
So most of those are wine-based your red they're red wine Lavalle and makes a ton of Quebecois company. They make a ton of stuff. If you have a local Homebrew store, they are almost always have either lanolin and or Redstar both of them make good yeasts. There are a lot of liquid yeast, liquid yeasts are more expensive.
So don't start with them. Start with the cheaper, dry yeast.
Alison: [00:31:38] So my first was cider house select east which did a good job at brewing. It was fairly fast. The one thing that I noted about it is that again, along with a distinctly Beery yeasty newness to it, It really is something that I think would go fantastically in a beer, but it doesn't go as well with a [00:32:00] fruit one.
But also some yeasts are going to produce certain. Smells. It's not really a smell. I don't know, if you would call it a smell so much as it seems like my carboys farting. It just has that stale air quality.
It's
Evan: [00:32:15] what you mean. It's
Alison: [00:32:16] smell. It's just,
like a kind of farty quality.
Evan: [00:32:21] effectively it is because the by-product of fermentation is CO2. So it is a fence. So it is effectively in stale air.
Alison: [00:32:32] it doesn't really make my closets. Like it's not the greatest, it did a great job. I've got some fantastic brews out of it that I'm really happy with, but definitely need to air out the closet.
Evan: [00:32:46] Okay. In general, I probably would suggest avoiding anything. That's specifically a cider or Mead yeast, which is most of the time they, there it's nothing special and you [00:33:00] can do as well with a champagne yeast, or a general purpose wine use like the 47 also from leveling.
Alison: [00:33:10] Basically Evan says just use level, and this is
Evan: [00:33:12] The leveling, if you'd like to sponsor the podcast
Alison: [00:33:17] mind.
Evan: [00:33:18] we wouldn't mind that.
But no Lavilin inmates. There are a lot of great yeast producers which I'm sure we'll touch on more, but Lavilin is a big one. Why he yeast white labs and omega or make liquid yeast and a very good if you have a local Homebrew store, I highly recommend you use them.
Alison: [00:33:33] Also, if you have a local home restore, I would highly recommend going in. I go to my local home restore pretty regularly, and everybody there is very knowledgeable and very
willing to talk. If you ask them for advice on something they're very familiar with what's going on and. Usually have some really helpful advice, whether it's picking out equipment or figuring out something [00:34:00] about the next batch or figuring out what's going on, they've seen everything in those home brew stores.
Evan: [00:34:06] I’ve managed to come up with some questions that they hadn't heard before, but yet
Alison: [00:34:10] You're a little more advanced than me.
Evan: [00:34:12] yes, but the people who tend to work in your local Homebrew store are very knowledgeable and very nice. I've not had. I had a bad experience in one.
Alison: [00:34:22] Maybe we'll bump into a fellow. Homebrewer
Evan: [00:34:24] yeah, maybe I'm going to a fellow
Alison: [00:34:26] out what's up with them.
Evan: [00:34:27] There are Homebrew clubs that exist.
I've not managed to make it to any meeting of any of them that I know about. Yes. If you've not yet been vaccinated and you in the United States, please go and get vaccinated as long as you are eligible and it's safe for you to do
Alison: [00:34:41] everybody is eligible at this point.
Evan: [00:34:43] If you were under 12 and listening to this podcast, please reconsider or talk to your parents.
Alison: [00:34:49] maybe we should start with, if you're under like 18 and listening to this podcast maybe don't Yeah.
Evan: [00:34:57] All
Alison: [00:34:58] wait a few years
Evan: [00:34:59] Yeah. Oh [00:35:00] they can listen to our, anything, our discussions on baking, but it is us federal law that if you are under 21, you to not have anything that is over half a percent alcohol,
Alison: [00:35:11] with the caveat that it is permitted for sacrificial purposes. So if you're having a drink of kiddish wine, nobody's going to yell at you. It's fine.
Evan: [00:35:24] That is true kiddish. And that actually.
Alison: [00:35:26] But please don't want to be Manischewitz.
Evan: [00:35:29] Yes, I would agree with that. There, there was a lot of interesting history around that law actually. So that is another thing we hope to discuss in a future episode.
Alison: [00:35:37] It was real popular to be religious during prohibition.
Evan: [00:35:42] There were a lot of rabbis in quotation marks during prohibition from 1920 and 1933 in the United States. And it is a really fascinating historical subject. But yeah, there were a lot of fake rabbis in that timeframe, which is a [00:36:00] hope which will hopefully be a whole episode on itself.
The history of prohibition in the Jews.
Alison: [00:36:06] where we will definitely not talk about recipes for bathtub gin,
Evan: [00:36:11] No.
Alison: [00:36:11] that is definitely illegal in the United States.
Evan: [00:36:14] Home distillation of any kind is illegal on the federal level. but it's civil law. So if you happen to live on a and be a member of a native American tribe your laws may marry. Otherwise you are not allowed to be distilling at home in the United States. If you're in New Zealand, you can.
Alison: [00:36:36] Also, maybe just Don't tell us we are not responsible for anything you're doing in the home, We talking about, our own experiences and not giving advice to anybody
Evan: [00:36:48] if
Alison: [00:36:48] do anything illegal.
Evan: [00:36:49] yes, if you follow our advice on a home-brewed cider Mead, we'd love to hear how it came out. But please don't tell us if you've been violating federal law. [00:37:00] I at least like following the rules But just to make my life simpler, but it's someplace where my life a simple life is fine.
Alison: [00:37:10] I'm just not going to ask.
Evan: [00:37:11] Yeah. W
Alison: [00:37:12] I'm just not going to ask, have a good time. Don't hurt anybody.
Evan: [00:37:16] but something we will ask you is please drink responsibly. But something that we will ask for his feedback and what do you want to know about, for about home brewing and both from a Jewish perspective and just in general, a history about fermentation, any of that?
What do you want to know?
Alison: [00:37:32] if you have any really wacky ideas also of things that you think would be interesting to taste or try making, just let us know.
because again, we're doing this for fun because it's fun to experiment and it's fun to try new things. We're always, or at least I'm always looking for new suggestions of things to try and things to try to ferment.
Evan: [00:37:57] I've got a few challenges for you, so
[00:38:00] Alison: [00:37:59] Ooh. What'd you got
Evan: [00:38:01] That's fine. People will have to wait.
Alison: [00:38:04] dang it.
Evan: [00:38:06] So we're well, a few of them are seasonal, so that's the problem.
Alison: [00:38:09] Okay. If you've got anything that's like regional to me, Dan in the Carolinas over here,
Evan: [00:38:15] I can come up with something. I can definitely come up with an idea.
Alison: [00:38:19] I really want to try and find some good native fruits to try out.
Evan: [00:38:23] Yeah. I there's there is at least one fruit that I believe. His native at least the south as you are. It is not quite as far to the Western north, as I am currently in Minneapolis. It is also in Michigan where I was introduced to it. Call it the pawpaw
Alison: [00:38:43] Never heard of it.
Evan: [00:38:44] I would love, yes. It's like a mango in flavor. It's weird. It is a native, it is a fruit native to the Americas. It is interesting. So I would love to ferment one. I have no idea. First had it in gelato to Zingerman's in Ann Arbor.
Alison: [00:38:57] Bye. pawpaw juice on line.
Evan: [00:39:03] so it is hard to process, but it is that would be my first challenge to you. A future, find an informant Papaw. That's going to be interesting.
Alison: [00:39:11] Not the easiest thing to find, trying to find it online. And the internet seems to think I'm talking about papaya, so, there's that?
Evan: [00:39:20] so we'll look into it more, but there's a challenge. W don't worry. I'll have plenty for you. Mostly from my successes as Homebrew experements.
Alison: [00:39:30] Oh, if you've got a supplier for that pawpaw. Jeez, let me know. Cause it sounds
Evan: [00:39:34] I wish
Alison: [00:39:36] I love. Mangoes. I used to live in Florida and there is, there are genuinely few things, more enjoyable to eat than picking a fresh mango off the tree. Actually, they fell off the tree when they got ripe. So we actually picked them off the ground.
Occasionally had to fight an iguana, not a joke.
[00:40:00] Evan: [00:39:59] I believe you.
Alison: [00:40:01] Definitely. Yeah.
Evan: [00:40:03] I haven't had to fight any moose here for apples.
Alison: [00:40:06] That's a nice benefit to not having iguanas around, but they will fight you on the fruit sometimes. But taking a mango off the ground, just. Cut the top off and you can peel it like, like the easiest Clementine you've ever grabbed those cuties or whatever skin comes right off and just holding it in your hands, dripping juice and biting into it.
It's like sunshine in your mouth. Fantastic. 10 out of 10
Evan: [00:40:37] good. That sounds really good.
Alison: [00:40:41] coming up on mango season is my first I guess technically it's my second since leaving Florida and man don't miss Florida summers. I do miss Florida mangoes.
Evan: [00:40:54] Yeah, I can imagine. I wouldn't want the summers there either.
Alison: [00:40:58] Oh no. Or the hurricanes. [00:41:00]
Evan: [00:41:02] Do you have anything you want to plug to as we're getting towards the end of today?
Alison: [00:41:08] Yeah, check out our Instagram account then I don't think we've put anything up on yet. Jewish.
Evan: [00:41:14] Th there will be a post about this episode.
Alison: [00:41:17] Yeah. I have an Instagram account than I almost never use. So If you want to see some bakes that I made. A year ago, you can see, Alison Platypus on Instagram. But yeah, I'm really bad about posting
Evan: [00:41:32] Yeah. If you want to see the podcasts we're, hopefully we'll post both updates about the podcast and some of our brews, you can find us at Jewish fermentation podcast on Instagram, also on Instagram, if you're interested in photography, my photography, Instagram is, Evan Harris, photography, and I am also co-host on the stationary orbit podcast, which is about fountain pens, stationary, and the mail.
We have a new episode of there every two weeks as well. I have many [00:42:00] hobbies.
Alison: [00:42:03] I have many hobbies too, but most of them involve food and trying to find other people to eat them
Evan: [00:42:10] yeah. A little harder in the last year.
Alison: [00:42:12] Yeah. Yeah. A whole lot harder. It's a
Evan: [00:42:14] you Batson, everyone. Go get vaccinated.
Alison: [00:42:17] I made three batches of cookies over shavout. What am I supposed to do with three batches of cookies? Evan, I handmade macrons. I handmade French macrons like an idiot
Evan: [00:42:33] Don't worry. I have a lot of egg white in my freezer. I might be following behind.
Alison: [00:42:39] heaven for the love of God. Use a hand mixer.
Evan: [00:42:43] Oh, I have a stand mixer.
Alison: [00:42:44] Oh, even better. Just do it. And don't do, as I did,
Evan: [00:42:49] Oh, yeah. I would not be attempting without a stand mixer.
Alison: [00:42:52] it was chag
Evan: [00:42:53] No true. Yeah. But before we get on even more unrelated tangents thank you [00:43:00] very much for listening. This has been the this podcast has been brought to you by Evan Harris, Alison Shay, with a special editing help from John West of stationary orbit.
You can find the podcast, the Jewish fermentation podcast on Instagram. Thank you very much. Hope to see you next time.
Alison: [00:43:15] Happy brewing.