A warm afternoon, birds chirping, and a glass of fizzing beer or cider brewed with your hands—Nirvana! This is what backyard homesteading of the brewing process is: bubbly fermenters, aromas of hops, and most importantly, the sweetness of making your own beer.
Gear first. You can brew without a lab. Oh! And malt extract, or grains if you’re getting fancy, hops, yeast, and water.
Good news for cider enthusiasts—the process is even simpler. The equipment remains the same, but this time, the grains are replaced with fresh apple juice or cider. We want the good thing—no preservatives!
Great, now! Because who doesn’t love beer, first comes beer brewing.
Magic Potion: Brewing Beer
Put water into a very large pot—like a cauldron, much less witchy, though. Add malt extract, stirring constantly until boiling. The hops are the grandma’s secret spices—add at junctures.
Let it cool fast after an hour of boiling, adding hops if necessary. Use ice baths; avoid a lot of splashing to prevent sticky floors!
Siphon this chilled wort gently into your fermentation bucket—nobody likes lost, spilt beer! Sprinkle yeast like fairy dust and airlock it.
Now the tricky part – patience! Let me assure you it is well worth a couple of weeks fermenting.
Bottle or keg that magnum opus after two weeks, if you haven’t chewed off your fingernails by then. Before bottling, add some priming sugar to induce the carbonation bubbles.
Then, après encore one week, open one and voilà: home-made beer!
Making Cider: Ease at Its Finest
Apples aren’t just for pies anymore; let’s make cider!
Get apple juice—fresh and without preservatives—to avoid the doctor. Liquid sunshine will ferment and fizz, so add it to your cleaned fermentation container, leaving some headspace.
Vegetable Fermentation, Dairy for the Homesteader
Home fermentation of veggies and dairy can be unique. Imagine converting simple garden or market ingredients into something special. It’s about producing flavors that dance on your tongue, not just preserving food.
Begin with vegetables. Visualize cabbage being turned into sauerkraut or cucumbers into pickles. No special equipment is required other than fresh vegetables, salt, and a container.
Take cabbage, salt, and chop it into fine pieces. Then, with your hands, massage the cabbage until it releases juices—fun times. The brine is what’s going to ferment this. Pack the cabbage down tight in the jar, and below the liquid to avoid mold.
Store the weight of a filled water bottle inside it. After a week, taste, then refrigerate it when it reaches that perfect acidity.
Slice cukes lengthwise or in rounds and place them into jars with your spices in them, topping them with two tablespoons of salted water per quart, and let them lie at room temperature for several days.
Now, for dairy—yogurt, and kefir are magic. For yogurt, it takes milk and a starting culture; plain yogurt will work just great. Kill bacteria by heating the milk to 180°F, cool it to 110°F, and add your starter.
Refrigerate this mixture into jars, then reheat them in a light-on oven for several hours. Creamy homemade yogurt can be sweetened or flavored after 6-12 hours.
Kefir is easier, yet healthier because it contains a variety of probiotics. You’ll want to have small cauliflower-floret-shaped kefir grains. You will leave these grains in milk of any type at room temperature for 24 hours loosely covered for air exchange.
Then strain out the grains—they’re reusable—and drink your fizzy drink straight or in smoothies. Sour, and slightly bubbly, it’s a taste you’ll get used to and never go back from!
Tell me a story: The first batch went off, mainly because I just plain forgot about the stuff for two weeks during the summer. Well, of course, it smelled foul when it came to remembrance—a beginner mistake, but hey, live and learn!
Remember: cleanliness is important. Do not let microorganisms ruin your fermentation party; wash your hands before touching the components.
No worries if your efforts result in rotting veggies or curdled milk! Not every batch turns out great, even for the best fermenters.
Another gem from my experiences? Fermented foods make for great presents! A friend once made homemade kimchi that was really good—spicy and full of flavor! It got me into trying to ferment spicy cabbage blends myself at home.
Why bother when store shelves have these goodies? The no-nonsense reason is that ingredients controlled mean healthier alternatives sans preservatives or a surfeit of sodium found in commercially prepared products, and it means frugality!
Moreover, preparing nutritious food from scratch is so rewarding. Between the wealth of the earth and our plates, nothing store-bought can compare!
If you haven’t fermented, let yourself ferment in short bursts of enthusiasm today. It opens doors beyond sustenance to culinary pleasures, bound only by the imagination—and perhaps a few kitchen mistakes that shall be laughed over.
Think of a sunny afternoon, birds chirping, and a foamy pint of your very own home-brewed beer or hard cider. Idealistic. Find the magic in homesteading brewing in the backyard! This voyage will involve bubbling fermenters, aroma hops, and that sweet homebrewing joy.
Equipment first. Brew without a lab. Oh! Let’s not forget malt extract—or grains, if you are an adventurous soul—along with hops, yeast, and water.
Good news for cider enthusiasts—the process is less cumbersome: just substitute the grains with fresh apple juice or cider in the same equipment. Want the good stuff, preservative-free?
Automatically, because everybody loves beer, the brewing begins.
Magic Potion: Brew
Start the largest pot and bring water to a boil, add malt extract, then stir until hot. Add hops in all the right intervals—like grandma’s secret spice recipe.
Let the liquid gold cool down rapidly once an hour of boiling with hops has taken place. Ice baths are great, just avoid too much splashing for sticky floors.
Siphon this cooled wort into your fermentation bucket carefully; nobody likes to waste beer! Sprinkle in some fairy dust, and airlock.
What’s left is the hardest—waiting! I promise it’s worth two weeks of fermentation. After a couple of weeks—if you still need to munch your fingernails—bottle or keg your masterpiece, adding some priming sugar before bottling so the beer can make some carbonation bubbles.
Turn apples into cider, not pies!
Options include completely avoiding doctor visits with fresh, preservative-free apple juice; sunshine fizzes, so fill sanitized fermentation container to headspace with your product and pitch the yeast, and airlock. You can bottle in two weeks. Glitter’s nice, so do not forget priming sugar before sealing.
Homesteader Vegetable and Dairy Fermentation
From imagining an ‘out-of-this-world’ thing made from ingredients in your garden or from the market, to creating amazing vegetable and dairy fermentation at home, this would make flavors jive in your mouth. Start with vegetables. Visualize cabbage or cucumbers as sauerkraut or pickles in your mind. The process is incredibly simple in itself. Use fresh vegetables, salt, and a jar. Start with cabbage.
Salt it after finely cutting
Playfully massage the cabbage to release its juices. Brine is necessary for fermentation. Pack cabbage tightly in a jar and soak it in liquid to avoid mold. A narrow-mouthed water-filled crock will weight that down. Let nature take her course under a cloth for a week.
Taste and refrigerate when tangy enough
Flavorings for pickles include garlic, dill, and peppercorns. Slice cucumbers lengthwise or into rounds, set into a jar with spices; covering the jar with two tablespoons of salted water per quart, set them in a cool place for days.
