7 months ago I started an experiment to see if the rice wine starter I bought could ferment other starches. I made a batch that mixed water with yellow maca powder, oat flour and a small amount of molasses.

It continued bubbling for 5 months.

I think it managed to saccharify most of the starches in the maca powder, at least. Not so much the oat flour, which mostly congealed at the bottom. I tossed two thirds of it when the sludge at the bottom was too hard to strain, and put the liquid that remained in a different container, which I left sitting under airlock while I spent two months visiting family.

Today I tasted it.

Great news!

I did not make poison!

No evidence of infection, and it tastes like drinkable alcohol.

Actually, it mostly tastes like maca, minus the sugar. The oat flour has an interesting effect on the texture of the brew, moreso than the taste. Oats contain beta-glucans, which are a type of soluble fiber that, when dissolved in a liquid, impart a very creamy, velvety mouthfeel. They also give the beverage a haze, much like a pectin haze.

They add density to the brew, raising the hydrometer reading by quite a significant margin. This is something to keep in mind if you want to add oats to a brew and you're using a hydrometer to calculate the alcohol percentage.

There's no hope of this brew clearing. The soluble fiber isn't just mixed with the liquid; it's actually dissolved into it, which is why it's able to change the hydrometer reading. Fining agents can only help clear suspensions, not solutions.

two recent beer making batches, labelled:

bone dry stout, a very simple, very dry stout, ~6% ABV

a very dank belgian dubbel, "cyle's dank monk dubbel", ~8.5% ABV

I’ve posted about this before, on Feb. 14, but this is a really good interview with Matt Adams, one of the excavators of the site, along with Deb Vischak, about the find and its worth. It’s also got some excellent photos of the beer vats.

Today is International Beer Day! We have selected four facts about beer-making for you to celebrate the occasion, perhaps while enjoying a cold brew…

Ale and stout are created using different yeasts, some of which contain ‘lager­– specific’ genes.

Non-conventional yeasts may be used someday to create new flavours of beer and even flavoursome non-alcoholic beers.

The fermentation behaviour of lager yeast is determined by the presence (or absence) of specific proteins which transport substances.

Lager yeasts are a newly emerged species which is continually evolving – maybe beer will taste different in 100 years as a result…

Calluna vulgaris, Ericaceae

A highly recognisable plant native to Europe and Western Asia, common heather is particularly important in Scotland, to which is often associated.

Here heather has dominated the acidic moorland landscape since antiquity, and has spread as deforestation was leaving the British Isles bare of the original forest cover. As often happens, habitats with severe conditions allow for more specialised connections to establish, and this plant is at the center of a wide web. 

It all starts with heather volunteering as the main species on an otherwise mossy/grassy open moor surrounded by rock or woodland. Occasional shrubs or boulders can be the center around which heather begins expanding, and as you can see in the middle photo, the flowers readily attract pollinators - a Bombus lucorum in this case. Honey has historically been produced from heather and is known for the particular texture, viscous and jelly-like until agitated, which is clearly visible in this video. The plant is also directly browsed on by a few species of insects, deer and grouse, which in turn attract more wildlife. 

But heather has much more to offer when it comes to the ways in which it has been historically used as a valuable and abundant resource by the people inhabiting its landscape. Aside from the aforementioned honey production, a tea with astringent, urinary antiseptic and diuretic properties is made with the flowering stems, traditionally used to relief coughs and colds, and the young shoots are used, together with malt, to brew heather beer in absence of hops (tried it, liked it). 

The bark is a source of tannins used for curing leather, while a yellow dye perfect for wool is produced from the whole plant. The branches are also used for thatching, crafting brooms, ropes and baskets, stuffing and insulating while, when not burnt as combustible, the roots can be used for woodcarving. 

Lastly, the plant is commonly used as an ornamental as gound cover or in hedging, and is certainly a great addition to a wildlife garden with the right soil properties, as it can be tricky to establish as successfully as in nature.