Citrus trees are weird dudes. Wired for reproduction, they are unlike almost any other plant in that they’ll always put more energy into flowering and fruiting than growing. Even when they’re tiny and should *absolutely* be working on putting on leaves, citrus trees will stuff […]
I’m relatively new to beer making, and in fact beer drinking. So it surprised me to find that the ones I love best aren’t the refreshing pale ales that most closely resemble the lagers of my youth; or even fruity fresh IPAs; but huge, mellow, […]
I love good produce and take recipe creation pretty seriously. But as the great Arlo Guthrie once said, “I know I’m supposed to be singing. But you can’t always do what you’re supposed to do.” Sometimes you have to be silly. Noodling around on the […]
A year and a half has gone by since I made my experimental batch of carrot whiskey. Time to taste! The batch took a long, long (long) time to stop fermenting. I don’t really know what these carrots added in terms of fermentables, and the […]
So, friends, I’ve been on a bit of a high. This Monday night, I found out that I won best cider, best mead, best novice, and best brewer (tied), at the Victorian amateur brewing championships (Vicbrew). That means that three of my creations are going […]
…That decade or more past Keats’s span makes me an older not a wiser man, who knows that it’s too late for dying young, but since youth leaves some sweetnesses unsung, he’s granted days and kumquats to express Man’s Being ripened by his Nothingness… ‘A Kumquat for John Keats’, by […]
This is is part seven of a series on making sake at home, part one is here. I’ve been married to Mr. Small Batch for almost ten years now, and in that time I’ve picked up some instincts about Japanese food. For example, if your leftovers […]
This is is part six of a series on making sake at home, part one is here. As we came to day 20 (conveniently, a Saturday), the sake fermentation had slowed down significantly. There were still small signs of fermentation but we decided to stop and […]
This is part five of a series on making sake at home, part one is here. After ten days of gently stirring and peering at our moto for ten days, it was time to build the main fermentation, or moromi. During the moromi, you add more […]
This is part three of a series on making sake at home, part one is here. The next step in sake homebrew is ten days with very little to do. High time, because I was done babying that koji: we had that picnic cooler in our […]