Fermented Brussel Sprouts

It's Brussel sprout season so I fermented some with some carrots and caraway seeds. I was hoping that they'd taste like sauerkraut. They were very bubbly during their time on top of the fridge and they were pretty powerful in their odor (Jordan thought they were quite foul), but they didn't taste like sauerkraut. They were pretty good though. I ate them all up.

Licorice Carrots

I had some licorice root left over from the gin infusion that I made so I added some to a batch of fermented carrots. They turned out to be delicious! (But I'm partial to licorice.)

Gin Infusion Harvest

I harvested the gin infusion after four days. While it was definitely gin, I felt that it was to heavy on the cardamom and licorice. If I make it again, I'll dail those ingredients back a bit.

Here are all the ingredients after I strained them out.

Here's the gin in the jar.

Here's the gin in a class.

I have also tasted and am eating the gin fermented carrots. They are delicious! I'm definitely going to make more of them.

Cherry Sour

I filled up a 32oz growler with Odin Brewing's Cherry Sour Ale. It was pretty good. Nice and sour. But it was also very pretty!

Gin

I fermented a batch of carrots recently with juniper berries. That batch turned out deliciously! It got me thinking about using the same ingredients as gin to do a batch of fermented veggies. I started a small experimental batch of gin carrots today. It'll be about seven to ten days before I get to taste it. 

And since I had the ingredients... I am making a small batch of gin botanicals infused vodka (I'm making my own gin). The jar of vodka smelled like gin after only thirty minutes! I get to taste this in about three days. I can let it go longer if I want a more intense flavor.

I found the recipe for homemade gin here.

Raspberry Infused Tequila

I filled up a 10 oz jar with home grown raspberries and reposado tequila about a month ago. I keep forgetting to harvest the tequila. I finally did and it tastes very much like raspberries. The raspberry scent is extremely strong! I decided to make a tequila and tonic with some of it. I used the last of my Kina tonic and some sparkling water. I didn't use any lime. It was very tasty.

Fermented Radishes

I started a small batch of radishes fermented with ginger. It's interesting how the red of the radish skin gets absorbed by the brine and then everything turns pink. I've never really liked radishes, but I am enjoying the fermented ones. In fact, I even ate the cabbage left that I use as the starter and the weight to keep the radishes under the brine!

Bourbon Barrel Aged Hard Cider

Locust Cider bottled one thousand bottles of their bourbon barrel aged hard cider (aged for nine months). I bought two bottles back in February and gave one to a friend. I saved mine to share with my father-in-law for Father's Day. It was worth the wait! Even though I had tasted it in the store, it was better than I remembered. I guess this cider might be best described as an apple wine: dry, strong, and a nice apple flavor. I really enjoyed this bottle, but at $18 each, I probably won't be buying very many bottles.

Grumpy Bear Nitro

Schilling Hard Cider released a canned cider on nitro (instead of carbonated). It also has cold brew coffee in it. I was very excited to taste the nitro cider, but I must admit I was skeptical about the coffee addition since I am not a coffee drinker. 

The cider pours with much less head than a can of Guinness. The nitro cider that Schilling has on tap pours with a much thicker head. Still, the nitro makes for a very smooth mouth-feel. The coffee is almost all in the nose with very little coffee flavor showing up on the tongue. The cider is also pretty sweet. I enjoyed the can I had and am glad that I bought the full four pack of cans.

Tieton's Apricot Cider

Tieton Cider Works made the first hopped cider that I ever had. It was amazing! The following year's hopped cider was underwhelming, but they seem to generally make some nice ciders. I haven't been buying many bottled ciders since there are a few local hard cider makers that I can get growler fills from, but I picked up a bottle of Tieton's Apricot Cider recently. I really enjoyed it! The apricot was very forward in both flavor and tartness.

Elemental Hard Cider

I see bottles of Elemental Hard Cider in stores and just haven't gotten around to buying one. I saw that they have bottled some root beer infused hard cider and decided that I would drop by their shop in Woodinville a couple of weeks ago.

I got to taste their root beer cider, blood orange cider, pear cider, cherry cider, dry cider, and jalapeño lime cilantro cider. They were all good. A bit on the sweet side except for the dry cider. The sweetness wasn't a detriment, and the jalapeño lime cilantro cider was amazing! I brought a 32 ounce growler of it home with me.

Anderson Valley Bourbon Stout

I recently had some Anderson Valley Bourbon Barrel Stout on draft (via my growler) and was very impressed. I decided to buy some bottles of it as Xmas presents for my father-in-law and my brother-and-sister-in-law (in Japan). I, of course, had to taste a bottle of it to make sure that the bottles tasted good enough to be presents. The bottles were very good, but they weren't as good as the draft.

Anderson Valley Brewery is not far from Alexander Valley Vineyards (in California). My wife and I both enjoy Alexander Valley's wines. We had a 2003 merlot that scored an 89. Yum! It was our first "Wow" experience with a wine.