Hedgerow Wine

Hedgerow wine, 2007 vintage. A ripe blackberry nose with overtones of elderberry and haws leaving a damson finish on the palate with just a hint of sloes. This isn't nonsense wine-journo-speak, it's because it is made from blackberries, elderberries, haws, damson and sloes. Quaffable, and outstanding in its price bracket of about 20p/bottle.

2007 Retrospective

2007 was the year it rained. Non-stop. We had a lovely warm spring, but in May it began to rain and it didn't stop until August. This had a bad effect on our fruit and vegetable growing. Although some crops did well, others suffered either directly from the wet, or indirectly from the slugs and snails and our failure to go to the allotment as often as we should.

We got two colonies of bees from Ally of Ducking for Apples, but they went berserk and attacked all my neighbours, so I had to move them to an apiary a few miles away. We haven't taken any honey from them this year. Due to the weather the bees weren't able to forage as much nectar so their honey stores by the end of the season were low. But our own foraging efforts were pretty good as the weather dried up somewhat in the autumn. We made beer, which exploded, several batches of wine which aren't ready yet, and lots of different types of liqueur.

I became interested in ginger beer, and made a yeast-culture ginger beer plant from scratch. I later learned that real ginger beer is made using an authentic symbiotic culture called ginger beer plant. So I got one of those and now have my own continuous ginger beer production line. I picked wild mushrooms for the first time in my life. I cooked and ate them and didn't die. Which was nice. I haven't had any success identifying other types of mushrooms in my area, though, so I've left them alone. The ginger beer got me interested in other useful microbial cultures, and so I started making sourdough bread using wild yeast rather than packets of dried yeast from the shop. There are other types of useful culture, such as kefir and tibicos, and I'd like to try those in future.

I'll be glad when 2007 is over, just because of the ghastly weather we've had all year. The rain has been heavy again in November and December, and often when I've been out driving I've had to slow right down to go around puddles that cross both lanes of a dual carriageway. There are what look like ponds in the middle of many fields which should be dry, but they have had a standing puddle so long the grass underneath must be dead by now. I know there's no logical reason to imagine that on 1st January 2008, the sun will come out and everything will be different. But psychologically it feels like it might.

Fred and Ginger

I've still got a little Ginger beer left (from my yeast culture), although we are moving over to Fred beer production (made with the authentic ginger beer plant). I thought I'd show you this picture of the final brews side by side. the Fred beer is on the right. You can see it has a much redder colour. Ginger on the left is very pale in comparison.

There are other differences besides the culture. Fred is fed on brown sugar whilst Ginger has white sugar. That's 8 teaspoons over a week and presumably contributes to Fred's reddish colour. In both cases the final brew is sweetened with white sugar. Ginger has the juice of a lemon in the final brew, which might bleach out a little of her natural colour.

As well as a richer colour, Fred has the better taste, too, which is why we've killed off Ginger. The latest batch of Fred beer is extremely peppery, but the kids still drink it, although Sam has taken to getting a glass of water and a glass of Fred beer. He has a drink of Fred and then takes a sip of water to cool it down a bit.

Culture Roundup

I've been making ginger beer once a week and dividing my culture each time. Today I weighed how much culture I have and it is less than 100g. I've been advised to try to maintain it at about 150g. So I haven't divided it this week, but I'll try to build it up.

It's a bit like having a pet. You can't neglect it, you have to be faithful in feeding it, and making sure it is at a reasonable temperature, and keep an eye out for its welfare.

I have three cultures at the moment that I'm maintaining - Fred, the ginger beer plant (pictured), Fizz the sourdough bread starter, and my yogurt culture who doesn't have a name.

Recipe: Ginger Muffins

The sediment of the ginger beer plant contained yeast and ginger, so I thought I'd use some to make some yeast-risen muffins. They turned out really well, and the kids have been devouring them. The best thing about the recipe though is the smell as they cook. So don't forget to take a few great big lungfuls and enjoy.

Ginger Muffins

Mix a couple of heaped teaspoons of the yeasty/gingery dregs with half a pint of warm water and one and a half cups of plain flour (all-purpose flour). If you don't have an expired ginger beer plant, you could just add a packet of instant dried yeast and a couple of teaspoons of ground ginger. Let it sit somewhere warm for half an hour or so, it should froth up so make sure it is in a large container or it may overflow. Cream 300g of sugar with 200g of butter, beat in 3 eggs one at a time. Beat in half a cup of treacle (molasses - or if you don't have any, substitute Golden Syrup, or honey, or corn syrup. It'll taste different to mine but it will still taste good). Add two teaspoons of cinnamon, half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, a pinch of salt and a bunch of chopped nuts (I happened to have these in the cupboard. Could as well have been sultanas, chopped crystallised ginger, or just nothing). Mix it well, slop it into muffin tins and bake it at 180C for 25 minutes or so until the muffins are springy and done.

It's a big batch - I made about 30 muffins with it. And sorry for the weird Frankenstein mix of ounces and grams, weighed measures and cup measures. It's a bit of a Frankenstein recipe.

I still have lots of ginger beer plant sediment left, so I plan to do more experimenting with recipes that need ginger and yeast. I was thinking some kind of spicy tea bread next.

Fred Beer

I made up the ginger beer from the authentic ginger-beer-plant culture I named "Fred". So now I have a 2 litre bottle of "Fred beer" on the kitchen windowsill, slowly carbonating. We'll be able to drink it in about a week, and compare it with the ginger beer from the home-made yeast culture we named "Ginger".

I gave "son of Fred" to my sister, Steph, who returned from Vienna last night with presents of Austrian chocolates and Himbeerlikör (raspberry liqueur). So now she has her own authentic ginger beer plant culture to make home-made ginger beer, and share the culture with her friends in Sunderland.

The original Fred has been made up again into another brew. I'll feed him a spoonful of ginger and a spoonful of sugar every day for a week, and then we'll make some more ginger beer. I was never a fizzy drink fan, but it's a thrill having home-made soft drinks on tap.

What's Sprouting?

My sister, Steph, dropped off her two kids, TJ and Rebecca, here yesterday and then swanned off to Vienna with her husband for a long weekend. It's not too bad today because my three kids are still at school, but it's going to be crazy on Monday and Tuesday with five kids in the house between ages three and nine.

Ed took our lot to school, and I cleared up the prodigious mess five children had made between getting up and leaving the house at 8:20 whilst TJ and Becca watched a Bagpuss DVD. Then the kids helped me feed Ginger and Fred ("OK Becca, you put the sugar in and then give Fred a stir", made me laugh. If you don't get it, try saying it out loud. And remember I have a slight Liverpool accent).

Then they sowed some cress seeds on kitchen paper, and made some bean sprouts. Becca chose a combination of fenugreek, black eyed peas and mung beans. TJ chose alfalfa, soya beans and green lentils. They spooned their beans into a glass and poured water over them. Then we put them on the windowsill to soak. Tomorrow we'll strain off the water and put them in the sprouter, and by the time their mummy and daddy return they should have a crop of bean sprouts.

Now they're eating yogurt for a mid-morning snack and I'm drinking reheated coffee I didn't have time to finish at breakfast and updating my blog. Expect my posting frequency to go down a little for the next few days. I've got my hands rather full.

I've Got A Real Ginger Beer Plant

I think I mentioned that the ginger beer plant I made wasn't a real ginger beer plant after all. The real deal is a complex symbiotic organism made up of a yeast and a bacillus (and a bunch of other microorganisms) all living together in a culture. You can't make one, any more than you can make a radish from scratch. You have to get a radish seed from someone who grew radishes themselves. And you have to get a ginger beer plant from someone who already has one.

Well mine arrived in the post this morning, sent by a lovely man in Ulster who I contacted via the internet. When it arrived in a ziploc bag inside a jiffy bag, it looked like pale yellow beads of jelly. It smelled fresh and slightly gingery. I made it up according to his instructions, by mixing it with water, sugar and ginger in a loosely-capped coffee jar. Since my yeast culture ginger beer plant is called Ginger, I have named this one Fred.

I will let you know how Fred progresses. I can't wait to make him into ginger beer, and I'm keen to compare ginger beer made this way, with the yeast culture I already have.

Real Ginger Beer Plant

I've lost the cable that connects the camera to the computer again, so I can't show you the cute pictures of the kids drinking ginger beer. They loved it, and I had to ration them or they would have drunk the whole lot at once.

Whilst surfing the web looking for ginger beer links, I found something very surprising. Apparently I haven't made a ginger beer plant at all. What I've made is a ginger beer yeast culture. It's very nice, but it's not the real deal.

The authentic traditional ginger beer plant (pictured) is a gelatinous symbiotic organism consisting of a yeast and a bacillus. You can't just make one, you have to get it from someone who already has one. Where did the first one come from? And who figured out that you could use it to make ginger beer?

I find myself fascinated by this weird compound organism that can make delicious spicy drinks. It's like the bit in the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy where someone says that the babel fish (which can translate any language if you drop it in your ear) is proof of God, because how could anything so fantastically useful have evolved by accident? Or the Eddie Izzard sketch where he expresses amazement that bees make honey. He says "Do earwigs make chutney? Do spiders make gravy?".

I'm trying to get my hands on an authentic ginger beer plant, so I can compare the ginger beer made that way with the yeast culture method.

First Taste of Ginger Beer

I cracked open the first bottle of my home-made ginger beer. It's delicious. It's very fizzy and I had to open the bottle slowly to stop it frothing everywhere. It doesn't taste alcoholic at at all (it is very slightly alcoholic because it is fermented but the alcohol content is so low it is suitable for children). It doesn't taste too "hot". I don't like really spicy ginger beers like Fentiman's, it's too hot for me and I can't finish a whole bottle. In fact, my brew could do with being a bit spicier but I'm sure that's easy enough to fix by just adding more powdered ginger to the recipe.

I'm going to wait until the kids get home and see if they like it. They've been keen to try it whilst it's been brewing.

Meanwhile, the ginger beer plant is still going and I'll be able to make my next batch tomorrow.

Ginger Beer

I'm trying to get my head round this whole ginger beer process. In the first stage you mix water, yeast, ginger and sugar to make a sort of ginger beer plant, then you feed it more sugar and ginger every day for a week.

So during that stage I guess the yeast multiplies and turns the sugar into a weak alcohol solution, and the whole liquid takes on the flavour of the ginger.

After a week you strain the solids off the liquid, then dilute the liquid with 7 pints of water, 1 1/2 lbs of sugar and the juice of 2 lemons. Then you bottle it and keep it in a warm place for another seven days.

During this stage the yeast will continue to turn some of the sugar to alcohol and liberate carbon dioxide gas. The gas can't escape because it is in sealed bottles, so will dissolve in the drink and make it fizzy. That's why I chose plastic fizzy drinks bottles to store it in (more of the glass beer bottles in the shed have exploded, by the way).

I kept the solid part after I strained the ginger beer plant, and mixed it with more water and sugar to make the next batch. It has revived very well and gets frothy when I mix it with more sugar every day. I wonder how much ginger was still present in it. Maybe the next batch will be more fiery than the first batch.

We can drink it in a week. I can't wait.

This week's cartoon is from Climate Cartoons. Click on the panel to enlarge it.

Ginger - Update

I've been feeding Ginger every day with a teaspoonful of ground ginger and a teaspoonful of white sugar. When I remove her teatowel she looks like a puddle of clear liquid, with some pale brown sediment on the bottom and a few brownish bubbles on top. After I've fed her and given her a stir, she looks more evenly golden-brown. Then half an hour or so later, she is a lively mass of froth and bubbles. You can see by the tide-mark on the side of her bowl how big she grows at her largest. Then she settles back down to quiescence again.

I'm very fond of her and I'm looking forward to turning her into ginger beer at the weekend. Meanwhile my researches into ginger beer plants have turned up some very surprising and exciting findings. More on that later.

Ginger Beer Plant

Meet Ginger, the ginger beer plant.

We made her by adding half an ounce of baking yeast to 3/4 pint of warm water, 2 tsps sugar and 2 tsps ground ginger in a roomy bowl. Then we covered her with a clean cloth. See how much she had grown half an hour later.

We'll feed her every day for a week with a teaspoonful of sugar and a teaspoonful of ground ginger, and keep her warm and covered.

After a week, we'll strain her and add the liquid to 24oz of sugar, 2 pints of water and the juice of 2 lemons. Then we'll add 5 more pints of water and mix well. Then we'll bottle her in clean screw top bottles and store her in a cool place.

I'm pretty sure this was mum's ginger beer technique. I got it from Marguerite Patten's book 500 Recipes for Home-Made Wines and Drinks, which mum had. And I remember helping mum make and feed her ginger beer plants. The "beer" is only weakly alcoholic - the main point of the yeast is to make it fizzy and extract the flavour, not to make alcohol - so this drink is perfectly suitable for children. I think there's a way of dividing the plant at the end so you make a batch of ginger beer and keep the plant going for the next batch. I need to do a bit of research and find out how to do that, because it isn't mentioned in the book.

I'll keep you posted about Ginger's progress. Watch this space.

Rhubarb Wine

The rhubarb plants on the allotment grow across the path, so when we visit we pull any stalks that are obstructing the way. Last time I went I pulled 15lb of rhubarb (about 7kg. I know - it sounds like a lot to me, too), which is enough to make 5 gallons of rhubarb wine.

The first stage of making any wine is to extract the flavour from the main ingredient. You can squeeze the juice directly from grapes, oranges etc. But some other ingredients need different treatment, often by boiling in water then straining. Rhubarb is a bit unusual - you chop it up then cover with sugar. The sugar sucks the juice out of the rhubarb and dissolves, then you strain off the syrup, dilute it with water and ferment that. I didn't believe it either, but I had a go, and it worked just as it said in the book.

New Books

I got two books through the post yesterday. One was Richard Mabey's "Food For Free" which lots of people have been telling me I must get. Thanks to my sister, Steph, for sending me that one.

The other was a copy of the now out-of-print Marguerite Patten book "500 Recipes Home-Made Wines and Drinks". I remember mum had this, and I suspect it is the source of her ginger beer recipe, so I'm going to give it a try.

The book is delightfully 1970s, with tips on throwing the perfect cocktail party (apparently Campari is becoming increasingly popular), and suggestions for dinner parties (she recomends serving creme de menthe, Drambuie or cherry brandy with after-dinner coffee). But it also has recipes for home-made wines, cider, perry, beer and mead. It also has instructions for a variety of liqueurs (like sloe gin), cordials and fruit syrups, and mulled drinks. I don't really need the cocktail recipes - I have survived this long without being able to mix the perfect Singapore sling - but there is plenty more in here I'd like to try.

Exploding Beer Bottles

One of the bottles of home-made beer exploded in the kitchen, and made a hell of a mess. I hope it was just a one-off. Maybe we did something wrong (added too much sugar at the bottling stage, for example) which will cause more of them to go. I'm moving them out of the kitchen and into the shed, anyway.

Gottle of Geer

Ed and I bottled the beer we made from a kit last weekend. It's quite a lengthy process - you have to wash and sterilise 50 or so bottles, carefully tip a spoonful of sugar into each one, fill it with beer using a siphon, and the put the metal crown cap on. Our crown capper is old and seized up, which made the process even tougher than it needed to be.

Ed says I should go back to the home brew shop and buy a pressure barrel because it's a lot less bother. Oh, and another beer kit.

Piece of Cake

I set a competition on Thursday, asking "How can you cut an apple pie into eight pieces with three straight cuts?". The answer was:

Cut the pie in half with one vertical cut through the centre (that is, how you would normally cut a cake in two). Then cut it into four with a further vertical cut through the centre, at right angles to the first (again, all normal so far). Then stack two pieces on top of the other two, and make one further vertical cut through all four pieces, making eight pieces.

Some people offered a slightly different solution, cutting the pie horizontally after cutting it in four. I don't think I'd be pleased to get a piece of apple pie with no crunchy piecrust on top. But I didn't specify "eight equally appetizing pieces" so I accepted this solution.

There were seven correct answers in all, and the winner (pulled out of a hat this morning by Eleanor) was Matt Shacklady of St. Helens. Congratulations, Matt. I gave the books to your mum and sister as as I passed through St Helens today. They seemed really nice. Say "hi" to them for me.

Wine Sleuth

My damson wine stopped bubbling, which was a surprise. I expected the initial fermentation to last around three months or so, not two or three weeks. I tried giving it a good stir, but that had no effect. I moved it to a warmer place. No effect.

So I tasted the wine, to see if that gave any clues. The wine tasted pleasant, with no sign of mould or any other foreign microorganism that might have killed off my yeast. It tasted very slightly alcoholic, so the fermentation had been going well (as I knew from the activity there had been in the airlock before it ground to a halt). And it tasted very dry and sharp.

That was my answer. I had forgotten to add the sugar, and the fermentation had stopped when the yeast consumed the last of the natural sugar from the damsons. Doh!

But it was good news. At least it ought to be easy to fix. I added 20lbs of sugar. As you can imagine, this displaced quite a large volume of the wine, which I scooped off with a sterilised jug and tipped into the hedgerow wine in the adjacent bucket. I gave the now-sweetened damson wine a damn good stir. Then I waited.

There was a chance that the yeast had all starved to death, and I would need to add more yeast to get it going again. If that had happened, I planned to tip a cupful of the vigorously fermenting hedgerow wine back into the damson wine. But fortunately by the next morning the damson wine was bubbling merrily away.

So I'm working on a treatment for a new hit TV drama series, combining the growing public interest in sustainable living with the tried-and-tested appeal of CSI or Cracker. It's about an ex-forensic scientist who has downshifted to living on a smallholding. She brings her training in differential diagnosis and the Socratic method to bear on the problems presented by stuck batches of wine, chickens who mysteriously stop laying, and jam that refuses to set. What do you think?

Win Cider Making Books

As it happens, I had just bought a copy of "Real Cidermaking on a Small Scale" for myself when another arrived with my new crusher and press. What is more, both new bits of equipment came with a booklet entitled "Basic Cider & Juice Making" by Alex Hill. If you'd like to win the book and the booklet, email me your answer to the following riddle:

How can you cut an apple pie into eight pieces with three straight cuts?

UK residents only please (think of the carbon released in airmail!). Don't forget to send your name and postal address along with your answer.