Adventures in Fermenting #6

***I drafted this post back in August and somehow missed it in my drafts folder.***

Redcurrant season was upon us and we had a substantial harvest of redcurrants. We are always at a bit of a loss of what to do with redcurrants, so this year we decided to have a go at turning them into kefir. Redcurrants, sugar and kefir water, together in a jar for a few days, produced some beautiful red-coloured liquid.

It looked amazing, but sadly the flavour was not as impressive as the colour. The actual flavoured kefir had a strong taste of alcohol and earth to me. But still, it was pretty.

I finally had a go at making tepache. Tepache is a brewed drink made from pineapple skins, which is great, because it means you’re making something useful out of a waste product.

It’s your standard blend of fruit, sugar and water, with some additional spices thrown in – I was advised that Christmas spices work well – cloves, cinnamon stick, star anise. And you don’t need to use organic sugar for this one. I usually use a mix of 50% organic sugar with a blend of whatever other baking sugars I have in the cupboard – light brown, dark brown, demerara.

It ferments really well, you can almost hear the bubbling going on, but we had a note to keep a close check on it as it can turn sour very quickly.

After a week, decant, strain and bottle, and let it sit for a few days to build up carbonation before putting it in the fridge to chill.

Tepache is always very lively when you open it, so it’s probably better that you do this over a sink.