THE CRAFT OF HERBAL FERMENTATION COURSE

UNIVERSAL EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES

• Stainless steel or enamel pot (at least 6 quarts)
• Stainless steel funnel and strainer (or plastic)
• 1 quart canning jar or ½ gallon glass canning jar
• Food-grade thermometer
• Bottle brushes or bottle rinser
• Wooden spoon
• Stainless steel strainer
• Stainless steel funnel
• Knife
• Cutting board
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Kitchen scale
• Labels
• Fermentation log book

Beer and Mead Specific Equipment/Supplies

• Fermentation containers (1 gallon glass carboy or gallon glass jug)
• Swan-neck or 3-piece airlock with stopper
• Wine, beer, champagne bottles, or Grolsch bottles
• Bottle caps, corks, or plastic corks /cages
• Hand capper or Free-standing capper or Corker
• Hydrometer
• Tubing and auto-siphon
• Optional: Fermentation bucket

Kombucha and Water Kefir Specific Equipment/Supplies

• Glass or pyrex graduated measuring vessels
• Glass bowl
• 1 gallon glass wide-mouth canning jar
• Unbleached coffee filter and rubber band or kombucha cap
• Grolsch bottles, kombucha growlers, or reuseable kombucha bottles
• Hermetic glass jar
• Optional: tea ball, wooden tongs, pH test strips, kombucha heating mat or homebrew fermentation heater

Lacto-Fermentation Specific Equipment/Supplies

• Lead-free sauerkraut crock -or- 1 quart canning jar or ½ gallon glass canning jar with cheesecloth covering or two-part lid and airlock
• A rock or other fermentation weight sized to fit fermentation vessel
• Medium to large mixing bowls
• Wide mouth canning funnel
• Optional: Pickle/vegetable pounder, pH test strips, wax paper

INGREDIENTS

Kombucha

• 1 kombucha SCOBY (¼” thick or thicker) such as this
• Kombucha starter tea or distilled white vinegar
• Green and black tea
• Organic cane sugar
• Filtered, dechlorinated water
• Herbs of choice  – herbal combinations used in the sample recipes include ginger & hibiscus; nettle & lemon balm; hawthorn, linden, & rose; astragalus, turmeric, & elderberry; elderflower, lemon verbena, & linden; bilberries, hibiscus, & lavender; nettle, alfalfa, & oatstraw

Water Kefir

• Dechlorinated, mineral-rich water
• Sucanat sugar or blend of brown and white cane sugar
• Water kefir grains such as this or this
• Herbs of choice – herbal combinations used in the sample recipes include elderflower, lemon verbena, & hibiscus; ginger; sassafrass, dandelion, cinnamon, licorice, wintergreen, & ginger
• Optional: Unsulfured dried raisins or apricots, mineral drops such as this

Herbal Mead

• Filtered, dechlorinated water
• Honey
• Brewers yeast such as Lalvin EC-1118
• Herbs of choice – herbal combinations used in the sample recipes include chai spices (cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon, clove, & ginger); wildcrafted fresh dandelion flowers, leaves, & roots; fresh basil & blueberries
• Optional: Fruit of choice

Herbal Beer

• Filtered, dechlorinated water
• Brewers yeast such as Safbrew or Nottingham style strains
• Brown sugar or other sugar/sweetener of choice
• Herbs of choice – herbal combinations included in the sample recipes include sarsaparilla, astragalus, licorice, marshmallow, & ginger; coriander seed & bitter orange peel; nettle & fresh ginger; elderflowers; fresh cleavers

Herbal Lacto-fermentation

• Iodine-free, mineral dense, finely ground sea salt or Utah red salt
• Vegetables of choice
• Fresh herbs of choice – examples include burdock root, fresh dandelion leaves, fresh ginger, garlic
• Dried herbs of choice – examples include coriander seed, fennel seed, lemongrass, spearmint, oregano, cayenne, black pepper
• Optional: Doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste)