On an other thing, mustard. I assume nobody reading this topic is buying it anymore?
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are you making your own? i havenât gotten into making mustards yet, please do tell.
i buy some lovely french mustards in half gallon spring top jars, i love mustard.
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I do, and when I buy mustard, itâs generally the yellow stuff, a vinegar paste whose nearest association with actual mustard seed is that it may once have been trucked past a field of the stuff
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OK, mustard then. You probably wont believe it, but the base is dead simple.
If you can buy mustard seeds. Iâve no idea how the shops in the US work, but over here you buy them in âthe tokoâ, or/and âthe street marketâ, or âbiological shopsâ (whoa expensive, but okay).
Put them1 in a jar, pour vinegar2 over them, just till âunderâ, you can always use some more vinegar later. Close the lid and rest/soak for plm 3 weeks. After that, put in a blender, or something else that have a fast rotating blade in a small compartment*3. Done.*4
*1 Seeds can be roasted, or with some basil or other herbs, I like a herb I canât remember the name in English. (Or very dry seeds, milled, but that will make a special mustard)
*2 Red, white, whine, rice, all give different end result.
*3 If you like âroughâ maybe just a âvijzelâ? https://stock-foto.nationalebeeldbank.nl/nationalebeeldbank_2009-3-274191-2_vijzel.jpg
*4 Maybe some salt needed, but please taste first, less is needed.
Have fun experimenting!
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Continuing here from the Lumberjack Cake threadâŚ
Not worth it to try to brew fast, unless there was a fuck-up and time suddenly became an issue.
If we are trying to speed it up, might as well do an extract brew.
You can cut corners a few different ways. Besides extract or playing with the ingredients, one big way to speed things up and remove a step is to expect to filter the beer later. Therefore, you can do things like brew a concentrated wort from a thick mash that you didnât lauter the living hell out of, and end up with less water in the boil, around 3 gallons that reduces to 2.5 over a 45 minute rolling boil.
These thick mashes are motherfuckers to stir because they are so thick. But they still convert and then you have freed up a gallon or more of water to use for lautering.
With this technique, you are using a smaller amount of grains, around a 5 to 6 pound mash. You are lautering with only a few gallons of very warm water at a slow feed rate. Then cut the lautering short instead of trying to get every last bit of sugar. Do your boil. Pour boiled, hopped wort into 1 gallon of cold water in a carboy and top off with more cold. If the water really is cold, you can get it immediately to pitchable temp.
With this technique, there is no need for a wort chiller step, though you will end up with a chill haze and therefore either accept a cloudier beer that you need to try to clarify later, leave it alone, or force it through a filter on its way to the keg.
Thatâs one way. It saves you all of what? 15 minutes for the chill step. About 15 minutes off the lautering since you are using less water. But then that time gets tacked on later if you want a clear beer.
As I said, not really worth it.
Another thing I do is donât stir my mash much. And I donât step mash. I mash in the oven. I mix in water then bring it up through the temp range slowly, stir maybe once, and when it has moved to the top of the desired range, I call it and start the lauter with hot-ish water that arrests the amylaze. I know brewers who also do not mash to completely complete anal completion. They mash for 45 minutes and call it. If there is unconverted starch, so be it, and their beers are fine.
At some point I am going to weld my own brewing tower and get a conical fermenter.
My opinion is that most of the fuckups with beer happen with fermentation. Wrong temp for that yeast, got lazy and waited too long, didnât transfer to secondary, etc.
Anywho⌠Could go on and on and on⌠and have.
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I just thought the juxtaposition of cooking a pound cake vs an all grain batch time wise was a little funny. If you time everything perfectly you donât cut any corners, but you certainly can have a conversation or deal with any outside distractions.
Oh, and that was a ten gallon all grain batch, with propane and electric heating. I may have exaggerated, it might have been 4:45, but it was way less than 5:00 from whole grain to spotless kettles.
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The Art of Fermentation is one of my favorites! Wild Fermentation is a fun read and a great back story that will make you appreciate the other book even more. Enjoy your reading!
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Well, two more jars of stuff ready to go!
I was hoping to have enough cabbage to mix with the beets, but no dice. So itâs one jar oâ kraut with garlic and mustard seeds, and one jar of beets with garlic, in brine. I added 1T of kraut juice from batch 5a to each jar. The beets are part shredded and part thin sticks. And each jar has a pickle pebble to keep the veg below the brine.
I wish I had a time machine, because I want to try the beets out RIGHT NOW. Hurry up and ferment already!
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Iâve been wanting to try doing home made kimchi and your pictures are definitely adding fuel to the fire. Those look awesome!
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I have two gallons of rough shredded kraut taking its sweet time. I got the cabbages for free, and they were huuuge. I may have to braise it for sandwiches, I just didnât have time to slice it etherally thin.
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It is quite easy. Fish sauce is your flavor pal for world class kimchi. Or you could ferment oysters yourself, but Iâve never been that brave.
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I know all about the fish sauce, and have had many a kimchi where I could tell it was lacking. I just havenât tried making my own yet. I honestly donât know whatâs been stopping me.
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Whatâs holdinâ you back? 
I have to say, itâs way easier than I thought it would be. Thereâs definitely some trial-and-error involved, but itâs a fun exploration.
Ferment all the things!
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Iâve been using a cheapo mandoline to shred my cabbage and itâs such a great timesaver!
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I just got started with fermented hot sauce, still working my way up to mustard 
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Please, do tell!
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I was given a crock last summer, the kind with the water seal. Batch 1 was Thai chiles, bishop hat chiles (I think), garlic and onions with mustard seeds, cumin seeds and the brine. I let it go for three weeks and then blended it. It was kind of thin compared to commercial sauces but the flavor was nice.
Iâm not great at following directions precisely, but I read the Katz book which made me feel confident that I wasnât going to poison myself.
Batch 2 had more garlic and a stalk of lemongrass. It fermented for 6 weeks. And it smells pungent but pleasant to me. My partner called it funky but not on a mean way.
Edit: on my phone the pic looks weirdly stretched, sorry.
Thatâs what it looked like before I blended it. Iâm not sure about fermenting whole then blending but itâs a big experiment. I separated the different components so I could see each piece. Maybe not necessary but I wanted to see everything.
Edit for typo.
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As a former vegan who used to hang with lots of hardcore vegans, for most veggie folks, it isnât about the âick factorâ but about the principle of the thing. Folks who are avoiding foods made with animal products are protesting the use of dead animals to make their food, not necessarily the actual presence of animal products in that food.
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