The Brewers' Guild

[morozow]

Want to make a couple of comments. In order to avoid mistakes, injuries and nervous shock

1) in any case, this photo is not of my creation. I want to put but a little later. They look not so nice.

2) I'm not a real cook. And for me, the preparation of such salted, that field for self-expression, creativity and relentless experimentation with cooking.

So. General principles of salting:

To use some stainless dishes. I take a wide but low enamelled crockery that would brisket  lay there in 1 or 2 layers maximum. Taking into account that the thickness of a piece 5-10 cm is Possible tolshe, but then salting longer. Other parameters of the piece - how easy to cook, that would be in the dishes climbed. I got a 10x20 cm, But if tolshe

On 1 kg of the original product need 4 tablespoons of salt. Preferably coarsely ground.

Spices to taste, and ingenuity (the Foundation of spice - black pepper). Garlic, too.

To suppress a piece of garlic. Part of the garlic I chop into pieces. Now it looks better.

Salt, spices and garlic to mix. grate this mixture pieces of brisket.

You can lard brisket  garlic.

On the bottom of the dish sprinkle a little salt. And tightly stack the pieces. Between them you can put Bay leaves or black pepper.

If several layers are put - piling of fat produced by the rule: fat to fat, skin to skin.

The rest of the salt, to sprinkle on top.

Top cover lid.

At night, leave at room temperature. And then in the refrigerator (not the freezer), 5-7 days (with stock).

Salt extracts the portion contained in the meat water and forms a brine. This is normal. After cooking pour out.

The finished product is stored in the refrigerator.

Before drinking extra salt to clean off with a knife. And cut into small pieces.

And God help us.

Actually, it's all done quite simply and quickly. I have to prepare 1-2 of brisket to go somewhere for half an hour, 40 minutes. The longest - cleaning garlic.

Below are a few illustrations of how it looks

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

the finished product

P.S. You can do the same as the picture in the previous post. But they need not take the breast, that's pure fat, with a minimum of meat. Then there will be brine. And I will be such beautiful white bars covered with spices

[Synistor 303]

Thank you so much for that! The pictures are particularly helpful - especially in the translation of 'brisket', which is not a term used in Australia. That looks like pork belly in your pictures. I have a good spice blend of paprika, salt, black pepper and garlic that I use for prosciutto which should work very well for this recipe. I'll give it a shot. (which will probably translate into Russian as "I will shoot a gun at it." ha ha ha...) I will also look on Len Poli's web site to see if he has a similar recipe there. Well worth a look if you like to make your own sausages or salami or any other similar product.

Thanks!

[Synistor 303]

A bit more research has shown it is pork BACK fat, not belly. Lardo (Italian) or Salo (Ukrainian).

[morozow]

Again a question of terminology and translation .

It was better to give a link to this article - Salo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salo_(food)

Salo is a common Eastern European word.

Probably the problem is that there is no classification of the different types and varieties. No matter how prepared (and there are several methods of salting), no matter what part of the pig did not take ( the main thing that was a layer of fat) - still Salo.


And Yes, I also want to advise. Keep ready Salo in the freezer. And try to eat here for such a cold piece of  Salo.

Well, there is a lot of salt and fat. You know how bad that is

[J. Wilhelm]

Bad news for wine lovers in America. California's Napa Valley and other areas which are the centre for wine producers are being destroyed by wildfires. California's dry weather combined with a warm autumn and hight winds is spelling disaster for the region.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41559875

[Synistor 303]

They have our sympathy - we have had the same problem here in Australia. To add to the disaster of burned vines, after the fires, any vines/grapes that survived were then tainted with smoke. It really destroyed two vintages. The ash in the soil had to leach out for a year before the next vintage was any good for wine.

[J. Wilhelm]

They have our sympathy - we have had the same problem here in Australia. To add to the disaster of burned vines, after the fires, any vines/grapes that survived were then tainted with smoke. It really destroyed two vintages. The ash in the soil had to leach out for a year before the next vintage was any good for wine.

I don't drink American wine that often, as I have a predilection for Spanish wine and bubbly and if I'm in a sweet tooth mood, German wine, but American wine can be very good. They go by grape type rather than region (obviously since all vines were imported) , thus they can produce very interesting varieties and blends as well. It's a shame to see all that hard work go in flames. The Napa and Sonoma areas are beautiful - all of Northern California is.

[von Corax]

After mumblemumble years, I have finally acquired one Round Tuit, and have begun brewing.

To date, I have started three batches using the FestaBrew English Pale Ale dump-and-stir kits (wort ready-to-brew, no boiling or diluting required.) Batch 1 was started in a 6 gal. glass carboy and, despite energetically disassembling the airlock, was quite drinkable after one week in primary, two in secondary, and two in the bottles. Batch 2 started in my 26ℓ bottling bucket, which overflowed in the kreusen stage, and spent three weeks in primary; despite this, it has a better head and is at least as drinkable as Batch 1. (The second bottle is at my elbow as I type this.) Batch 3 started in a 30ℓ bucket fermenter, spent one week in primary, and will be bottled next weekend after two weeks in secondary.

Has anyone else done anything in the two years since this thread was last active?

[Banfili]

Nope!
at least, not in the brewing field - plenty of other stuff accomplished! I rarely drink, and have never brewed, although my younger brother has experimented with both beer and winemaking.

[Madasasteamfish]

I've been doing a fairly regular brew up, but just haven't had the inclination to post about it (thread necromancy gets a little tiring after a while).

As of this minute, I've got a batch of strawberry wine, a gallon of parsnip wine and a mixed fruit wine in secondary (I obtained several tins of fruit cocktail and used them as the basis), but haven't been able to bottle them (although the parsnip will want racking again before that happens) yet for reasons.

I've also got sone blackberry gin sat infusing (using foraged blackberries) and I have plans to make a batch of cider as I picked some crab apples whilst out foraging.

I'm also considering some heather vodka/gin, but want to see what sort of aroma dried heather produces over time...

[Synistor 303]

I have a batch of vine flower wine which tastes more like a fortified wine than a white wine. I suppose I must do something with it - bottle it or something. It is very nice if not a little strong.

I also have a Trent. (Son-in-law) who is a brewer and comes up with some marvellous things for his mother-in-law to try. I particularly liked the brewed Lemon Lime and Bitters he did, whilst my spouse loves the dark ales. I would recommend everyone gets themselves a Trent. His knowledge of wines is also excellent, and his insider knowledge ensures our cellar (OK, it is a cupboard under the stairs...) is well stocked.

[morozow]

Comrades. I have a question. I found an English recipe for honey here.

There are bottles with a gas outlet tube. They also say the English name is demijohn.

Do I understand correctly that this is about a hydraulic lock?

[von Corax]

Comrades. I have a question. I found an English recipe for honey here.

There are bottles with a gas outlet tube. They also say the English name is demijohn.

Do I understand correctly that this is about a hydraulic lock?

Yes. In English, it's called an airlock. The idea is that any air that gets sucked into the fermentor, which may contain bacteria or wild yeast that can spoil the batch, gets bubbled through a sanitizer solution to kill the wild yeast/bacteria. An airlock should be used with any type of fermentor: demijohn, gallon jug, bucket, cylindroconical fermentor etc.

Hope this helps.

[Madasasteamfish]

Comrades. I have a question. I found an English recipe for honey here.

There are bottles with a gas outlet tube. They also say the English name is demijohn.

Do I understand correctly that this is about a hydraulic lock?

Well for reference: this is a demijohn (with an airlock fitted)


When fermenting the outer part of air lock would have fluid in it so as that gasses can escape but nothing can enter.

[morozow]

Thanks. I thought so, but decided to clarify.

In return, I can tell you about one of the Soviet versions of the gateway for Braga.

Medical glove on a three-liter jar.

The glove copes with the task of preventing the surrounding air with oxygen and bacteria from entering the fermentation tank.

Put the glove on the neck of the bottle and be sure to secure it with a rubber band from the money or a string, otherwise during rapid fermentation, when the glove inflates, it will simply be blown off the bottle.

Prick a needle in one of your fingers to release the carbon dioxide. You need to watch: if the Braga is bubbling, the glove can inflate strongly, up to the point of rupture. In this case, make one or two more punctures.

During active fermentation, the glove inflates, and when the process ends, it deflates again.

[Sir Henry]

Hands up who thinks that's an ingenious idea!

[rovingjack]

was thinking of making some mead. I'm not a dry wine drinker so would likely cold crash it early before racking it to maintain a sweetness. Might let half of it go to full ferment for some of those in the family with the taste for it. I'm inclined to add mulling spices to the first batch for the holidays. but I'm currious about other ideas for flavorings (I'm thinking apricot might be worth a go, and maybe a ginger vanilla).

[Sir Henry]

was thinking of making some mead. I'm not a dry wine drinker so would likely cold crash it early before racking it to maintain a sweetness. Might let half of it go to full ferment for some of those in the family with the taste for it. I'm inclined to add mulling spices to the first batch for the holidays. but I'm currious about other ideas for flavorings (I'm thinking apricot might be worth a go, and maybe a ginger vanilla).

Just before the pandemic kicked off a friend and I bought 25kg of raw honey for making assorted meads. It got left at mine and every time I bottle a load, the demijohns get refilled with whatever is at hand, so we've had some rather odd meads:

Plain - as the honey is raw, it is delicious. The only problem is that the yeast we used is very alcohol-tolerant, so it ended up very dry and very strong;
Vanilla - Delicious (read 'Dangerous') We added some lactose to the mix to give it a 'creamier' texture and it worked rather well. Tastes like cream soda, kicks like champagne;
Ginger - using an out-of-date, 15p jar of ginger paste and a couple of inches of ginger root sliced. A lot of the flavour evaporated in the brewing, so subtle but pleasant;
Elderflower - similar to the ginger - subtle but pleasant. Rather dry, but it suits the flavour (and adding elderflower cordial to the glass when drinking sweetens it if that's how you like it);
Orange and Cinnamon - Christmas in a glass (probably won't last till Chritmas ;-) );
Raspberry - made this with beer yeast so not as alcohol-tolerant so more of the sweetness was left and more of the berry flavour;
Blackberry - see raspberry, above;
Cyser - caramelised honey - despite the wonderful taste of the raw honey we decided to try this. It will be very nice, I'm sure, once it has aged a bit, but the taste on bottling was dry and... not quite there. [A note on all of these descriptions: none of these meads is more than 6 months old, so these descriptions are just first impressions. All the books say that most meads fill out in flavour over time.]

but the best by far was
Oak-smoked Pasilla - there was hardly any point in bottling this batch as it all got drunk (bar one bottle being saved for my birthday) within a week. It was gorgeous, rich, full-bodied, slightly sweet and slightly hot (just a tingle, really). So good that I immediately made a second batch. Unfortunately I didn't have the 6 cherries that we threw in the first one (because they were there) and it isn't nearly as full-bodied. I'm guessing any dark fruit like plum, damson (but not a berry) would do the job. Raisins might help but unlikely to be as rich.


This is a great site for mead ideas (and other foragey stuff): https://www.growforagecookferment.com/how-to-make-a-gallon-of-mead/

And finally a couple of interesting/useful posters:
https://www.groennfell.com/store/p19/Mead_Varieties_Poster.html (the preview is so large that you don't actually need to buy the poster, just print out the preview at A3 size ;-) ) The rest of that site has some interesting info, so worth wandering through their blog.


Best of luck and have fun!

[Sir Henry]

I racked a few demijohns of mead that I made in August (lemon, ginger and blackberry) that were all made with standard beer yeast and they have all come out much sweeter (and presumably less alcoholic) than any of the ones using wine, champagne or mead yeast. For my tastes they are a bit too sweet, but rovingjack, if you're after meads that aren't too dry, that's probably the way to go.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the root beer mead (made with root beer extract). Gorgeous, not too sweet, full of flavour and short-lived.

[rovingjack]

There's a lot of sources out there that say to use raw honey and only certain brands because you don't know if they pasturize it or even cut it with other sugars... and after a bit of hoop jumping I'm kinda at the point of just saying  it. I'ma get whatever honey the store has enough of. I'll be adding yeast anyway, and so pasturized or not shouldn't matter a whole lot, as loong as it has enough sugars to ferment and is honey, it'll be mead no matter how you brew it.

So I was considering basically going with a holiday spiced mead, for one and I'm wondering if going with some fresh ginger in primary fermentation and then back sweeten with apricot might be good. I'm also wondering about primary fermenting with watermelon and honeydew melon in the mead... of course I'm also curious about cucumber too but that\s for a much later experiment. I'm looking at the star-san, airlocks, and gallon jugs I could use. and then some bottles I could maybe later rack into.

[Synistor 303]

Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! Why did I read this!!! I already make all our bread, a fair bit of cheese, as well as sausage, salami, jam, pickles, relish, fruit paste etc - now I want to make mead! What is wrong with me??

[von Corax]

Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! Why did I read this!!! I already make all our bread, a fair bit of cheese, as well as sausage, salami, jam, pickles, relish, fruit paste etc - now I want to make mead! What is wrong with me??

Nothing is wrong with you - you just need something to wash down all that bread, cheese, sausage, salami, jam, pickles, relish, fruit paste etc...

[rovingjack]

oh, if you get the chance I can recommend taking madarin oranges in light syrup, and whole cranberry sauce and simmering them together to reduce them and then run through a blender to blend it all smooth. add about a tablespoon of icing sugar... try that on some bread, muffings, pancakes, ... heck it was good on a turkey sandwhich so I'm willing to try it on all sorts of things at this point.

[Sir Henry]

rovingjack - in another thread you mention wanting to make acerglyn (maple syrup mead). A word of warning: I made some early in the year and it turned out to be the driest mead of the lot. I 'm fairly certain that I used a champagne mead and it ate whatever I threw at it to sweeten the end result. So it will be wonderfully strong, but I reckon that it will take a couple of years for the flavours to fully develop and everything I've read confirms this. Acerglyn is not a quick brew and will not be ready for this winter. Sorry.

[rovingjack]

yeah probably. I was thinking more in the way of a vanilla mead, back sweetened with some maple syrup. So maybe not a real acerglyn, but if I make a gallon of vanilla mead, and when I rack it, sweeten a bottle or two with some maple syrup and it kicks off another fermentation round I may just let it work for another year or so. Just to see what becomes of it in that time.

 My triple scale hydrometer, graduated cylander and cleaning tools arrived today. pretty quick I must say.

If my job continues the way it has lately, I may just leave and find myself with a fair bit more time to play in the coming weeks.