8/22 Lemon Blackberry

This week we fermented for nine days since it’s been a little cooler lately. The big batch we flavored with 1/3 cup blackberry puree (thanks Rindon!) and just a tad of lemon juice (we used 6 clams of blackberries and 1 whole lemon for 10 bottles) along with the usual 1/2 tbsp of sugar for the fizz. The small batch (and one bottle from the big batch) got 1 tsp of sugar for our plain house buch, everyone’s favorite.

8/13 Strawberry

This week we made one of our favorites, Strawberry. We did the usual 1/3 cup strawberry puree (really nice from farmer’s market) and 1/2 tbsp sugar for carbonation. The plain got the usual tsp of sugar. Here’s a good article that mentions Strawberry being the champion fizz producer. As usual we’re using 22 grams of the best tea buds for the small batch (about 11 cups of water) and 35 grams for the large (about 17 cups of water). We use 2 cups starter buch and 1 2/3 cups of sugar for the large batch and 1 1/4 cup of starter buch and 1 cup of sugar for the small. We’ll refrigerate the Strawberry Thursday morning for a 2.5 day 2nd fermentation.

8/5 Apricot

This week We flavored the big batch with 1/3 cup apricot puree and 2 tsp sugar and the small with just 1 tsp of sugar.

7/27 Orange

No Cara Cara this time but some nice oranges to flavor a nine day batch. The large batch tasted a little stronger than the small but they both tasted great! We flavored the big batch with 1/3 cup of fresh squeezed OJ and 1/2 tbsp sugar. The plain got a tsp of sugar.  I tried a little different brew technique this time. For the small batch I added two more cups to the pot. Then I added 1 additional cup of cool water (almost) to each, for about 17 cups for the large and 11 cups for the small. I used 22 grams of the best tea buds for the small leaving 37 g for the large. The large got 1 2/3 cup of sugar and 2 cups of starter buch, the small 1 cup sugar and 1 1/4 cup starter. We’ll let the OJ go on the shelf for about 5 days.

July 18 – 9 day Grapefruit

We let the brew go a little long this week. After 9 warm days it’s a potent batch but with the sweet Texas grapefruit we have (1/2 cup) and a full tbsp of sugar. We made the big batch grapefruit and added just 1/2 tbsp sugar to the small batch for our plain (we tried a little extra sugar due to the strength). We’ll check it after 3 days on the shelf.