Comments on: Elderberry Sparkle: A Beginner’s Guide to Lacto-Fermented Herbal Brews

By: Alonna Hawkshead

Alonna Hawkshead — Thu, 13 May 2010 03:05:17 +0000

This sounds like so much fun and very interesting! I have a lot of herbs that I need to use up.

By: Kiva Rose

Kiva Rose — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:52:01 +0000

Hi Amelia, I don’t really know. Being rather intolerant of wheat myself, I’ve never tried rejuvelac.

By: Amelia

Amelia — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:42:25 +0000

I was wondering if one could use Rejuvelac (fermented drink from wheat berries) instead of the whey?
Thanks
Amelia

By: wendy west

wendy west — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:21:24 +0000

I know this posts are older, but I’ve just found this site. I have elderberries that I picked last summer, and they are frozen. How much of those do I use with the quart of water, and do I need to cook them first?

Thanks
Wendy

By: Inka

Inka — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:17:49 +0000

Hi – I enjoyed reading the discussion, and am interested in trying lacto-fermented drinks. We only drink water, and no sodas or juices, but natures sodas might be a nice addition. I make a lot of goat cheese, some hard, some soft. I also make my own goat yogurt. I have a lot of whey from the cheesemaking, but not much from my yogurt. Do I have to use yogurt whey, or can I use the whey from my cheeses? When I make chevre (the cheese I make most often), the culture is a mesophilic DVI culture.

Thanks for your help.

By: K Niven

K Niven — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:43:11 +0000

Hi – just wanted to let lactose intolerant people know that it’s possible to get kefir for fermenting in water with sugar – brown or white. Information here:

http://www.thekefirshop.co.uk/water_kefir_crystals.htm

Also, I wanted to let people know that if they are using whey from yoghurt, then they have to ensure that the yoghurt contains LIVE cultures.

This is a beautiful site. I happened on it while searching for recipes for lactofermenting my elderberries. I see that there is much more here to feed my mind, body and spirit.

Thank you

By: Kiva Rose

Kiva Rose — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 21:41:37 +0000

hi molly… I don’t like putting most of my herbal concoction out in the sun so I don’t really know whether it would work or not. If you try it, let me know.

Yeah, I’d say to leave about two inches of room…

Thank you for reading!

By: molly k

molly k — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:45:53 +0000

Hi Kiva,

Is there a reason not to brew these outside in the sun? For optimal warmth, I guess is my (totally uninformed) thinking, but I don’t know if perhaps it would be excessive and/or damaging to the fermentation somehow. Thoughts?

Oh, also, by filling up “close to the neck of the jar,” you mean that one leaves an inch or so of space at the top, yes?

And thanks for this beautiful website…

By: Kiva Rose

Kiva Rose — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:24:42 +0000

Jonas, thanks for that info. I suspected as much but hadn’t had time to research it. I certainly have seen people react to it as if there were milk proteins therein.

By: Jonas Gaertner

Jonas Gaertner — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:53:53 +0000

Kiva, there will still be some milk proteins even in the whey that you may not be able to see. In the process of making cheese, one tradition is to take the whey, mix it with vinegar and cook this until the vinegar reacts with those proteins to solidify them. This solidification of the leftover milk proteins in the whey is what we call Ricotta Cheese. Once all of the Ricotta is out then the whey should be protein free. Unfortunately it also means it’s been exposed to high heats and vinegar which would leave it unusable for this.

For anyone who makes homemade sauerkraut, some of that liquid should be usable for some fermentations as well I would imagine. I know that would affect the taste, but it would be a substitute for those who are intolerant to the whey.

By: Kiva Rose

Kiva Rose — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:25:17 +0000

Hi Sage, hmm, I’ve never had this problem so I’m not sure what to say… did you add a few slices of fresh ginger and some raisins?

By: Sage

Sage — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:49:02 +0000

Hi there.
I made an elderflower version of this fizz and it did not get fizzy. I’ve tried other recipes before with dandelion too and it never got fizzy. Do you have any suggestions as to why?
Thanks.

By: Kiva Rose

Kiva Rose — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:27:33 +0000

Hi Ruby, thanks for reading. I do understand that lactic acid is not the same as alcohol. However, sometimes, yeasts get in there too, and I’ve had lacto fermented drinks go alcoholic at some point (probably should have drank it the week before LOL). I think it’s just a mix of fermentations happening. Also, my understanding is the kefir grains based ferments often end up with a small alcohol percentage. I don’t know that that’s from the kefir itself or from some other fermentation process. Your clarifications are helpful though, and next time I do a fermentation post I’ll be sure to add something like that to the initial explanation.

I’ve seen very dairy sensitive people sometimes react to lacto-fermented veggies or beverages. Yeah, there’s some interesting transformations going on, but there seems to be something to still be sensitive to in there.

I’m wheat intolerant as well, and still intolerant to sprouted grains, so I think it just has to do with the sensitivity of the individual…. it all comes down to a really long term and very interesting organic experiment for each of us.

I will check out the Urban Homesteading site, sounds like good work! Thanks again for your input.

By: K.Ruby

K.Ruby — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:04:38 +0000

Hi Kiva Rose,
I found your recipe while researching various types of lactic fermentation online. I wanted to make one correction to what you write: When you lacto-ferment no alcohol is produced. That is only a by-product of yeast ferments. There are three ways to ferment:
~ alcohol fermentation is the action of yeasts on sugar which produces alcohol
~ acetic acid fermentation is the action of acetic acid bacteria on sugars and produces vinegar
~ lacto-fermentation is the action of lactic-acid bacteria on sugars which produces lactic acid.
All of these are cultures (just like a yogurt culture or a kombucha culture), but only yeasts produce alcohol. Lacto-ferments, like yogurt and kombucha are alcohol-free.
Also, in regards to the last post above, I wonder if folks who are allergic to dairy would still be allergic to the whey. Most people who have issues with dairy have problems with the milk proteins. The process of separating curds from whey is the process of separating out those proteins. Further, the whey is cultured which means its chemistry is altered by the lactobacilli–this may mean that technically whey is no longer dairy at all. It would be interesting to look into this.
I know for example that I am wheat-intolerant, but sprouted wheat breads are no problem, as the sprouting changes the chemical structure of the wheat–no more gluten involved!
Anyway, I have rambled on long enough. Now I will take a look at the rest of your site. If you are interested in what I am up to here in California. Check out The Institute of Urban Homesteading In Oakland, CA. Thanks for your wealth of information and
Happy Fermenting!
Ruby

By: Kiva Rose

Kiva Rose — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:33:08 +0000

Hi Becca…. well hmmm, there’s lots of way to ferment infusions including just putting in some dried fruit and letting it go, but you’ll end up with alcohol with most of them. The two options that might work the best for you are the ginger bug and the water kefir grains. You might try Riana’s recipe over on her excellent food blog: http://garlic-breath.blogspot.com/2008/01/ginger-pop.html