Shirish Pokharel's Adventures in Fermentland

This is my "Adventures in Fermentland" blog. As you can see, I've drafted the outlines, but need to expand on the pieces, and properly format them etc. It's taken a lot longer than I anticipated, and so my original timeline has been messed up. Please be patient.

As a dare to myself, I'm dumping all of my notes/drafts/rough works that I've worked on over the last year. I MUST complete these by the month-end (Feb 2025) or else it's gonna look comical, isn't it?

My experiments with training milk kefir grains into acting as water kefir tibicos replacement

In this post I want to share one of my smaller long-running experiments with milk kefir grains. This is about my experiments to turn milk kefir grains into consuming only sugar-water. It’s been going for almost four years now. It’s not yielded super exciting or revolutionary results. I’m sharing it...

Reading time: 5 minutes

Future fermentation plans, and an amazing new way to drink grain wines!

I want to record and share my plans for making wines from novel (to me) grains in the next few months. To recap, I’ve fermented fruits and sweet glutinous rice for a few years now, and done several batches of kodo millet fermentation.

Reading time: 3 minutes

The equipment I use for my fermentation projects

What they are, how they are used, when they need to be used, alternatives etc. ~10 wide-top food-safe gallon jars

Reading time: 5 minutes

Failures and challenging brews from my 8-year journey

proper fruit wines haven’t turned out the best. water kefir is always either overcarbonated or undercarbonated. Have eventually been figuring out what’s up. The results are weird and unexpected! nettle leaves as addons will make the ferment go crazy! pasturizing without losing the proper health profile and flavor and texture...

Reading time: 8 minutes

My ferment: banana / ginger / carrot wines (fruit wines)

Alcoholic fermentation first began here. I learned to make invert sugars accidentally and saw they were extraordinarily potent. Classic ferments: use a source of sugar (carbon), proteins (not really protein but nitrogen), flavor, add yeast and nutrients, added extra sugar, let sit for many weeks to months, with a blowoff...

Reading time: 5 minutes

Grand plans for the future: Where I intend to take my fermentation hobby

join homebrewers association, attend the convention red rice yeast other grain ferments experiment with drinking methods more complex recipe, following old, traditional recipes using fruit and herbal infusions ‘jhhwain khattey’ chicha, maybe?

Reading time: 6 minutes

How I got into fermentation OR The beginning of this grand journey

long term investment started with kombucha kanji was so easy I had to just do it loved it because it was an experiment, a hobby, the outcome of which could be drunk good topic of conversation continuing because so much to learn, explore, and experiment with!

Reading time: 4 minutes

My ferments: kaanji drink

Indian / South Asian drink, fermented carrots and mustard seeds with optional added sugar, traditionally a bit fizzy and done in the summer, need warm temperature, the sort of Indian Spring / Summer. I tried but it failed miserably, didn’t getfar. The yeasts on the veggie surface are supposed to...

Reading time: 4 minutes

My ferments: different kinds of kimchi

Napa cabbage, daikon radish. Fermented vegetables in the Korean style. How is it different from sauerkraut? Using korean recipes, spices and methods. Done cabbage and radish, with pineapple added too. RUb salt on veggies, let them dehydrate, pack tightly with addition of certain addons like fish sauce, rice flour etc....

Reading time: 4 minutes

My ferments: Kinema

Fermented soy product of South Asia, Limbu and other tribal groups in Eastern Nepal and north-eastern India. Basic solid-state fermentation, cooked soybeans provided alkaline conditions and high humidity and left out in the air for several days. Takes a bit funky smell and flavor, sticky, slimy texturesimilar to that of...

Reading time: 4 minutes

My ferments: Kombucha

What is kombucha anyway?. Mention SCOBY and pellicle. Takes tea, all kinds (except oily ones) and sugar. Carbon from sugar, nitrogen and minerals from tea. Different ratios of green tea, black tea and sugar can encourage different sorts of fermentation. High sugar leads yeast-heavy, longer too, high tea content leads...

Reading time: 2 minutes

Lessons in fermentation: adaptive and hardy creatures

ADAPTIVE Using milk kefir for water kefir Using kefir and kombucha combined rice fermentation molds for millet etc. kombucha adapted to take new sugars after so long.

My ferments: Milk Kefir

Milk kefir. What is it? Put the ‘grains’ of starter in cold milk, leave for 24-72, hours, longer means more sour. Milk can ‘break’ if for longer, but it’s not ‘spoiled’, vigorous shaking will reconstitute the mixture. Can be flavored (with tea, juices, infusions), can be used for cooking, can...

My philosophy of fermentation

Why do I do this? How’s it help me? why need a philosophy of fermentation? how does a philosophy thus defined shape everyday tasks? what exactly is my philosophy? let the ecosystems do their work, align their interests to ours. what are the consequences of the philosophy?

My (future) ferments: Making chinese yeast balls, red rice yeast

What are the species of these two. What is chinese yeast balls? ?What is red rice yeast? What are they ysed for? The recipe is to basically used the starter culture into rice that is semi-cooked and let it ferment in protected environment for a couple of weeks. In the...

Reading time: 1 minutes

My ferments: rice wine/beer

Rice beer made in Asia over thousands of years. Use a. oryzae and yeasts (natural or store bought, with their own ferments). Easy. Steam sweet glutionous rice, add rice yeast (it’s mold culture with local yeasts) and some yeast. Let sit for a week or two depending on the temperature,...

Reading time: 1 minutes

My ferments: different kinds of sauerkrauts

Soured veggies, fermented in their own juices. First thing to do is to salt the vegetables to dehydrate them slightly, to break the cell walls, then clean off the salt (otherwise its too salty). Cut them to small pieces to begin with. Then pack them tight in a preferably glass...

Reading time: 5 minutes

Special techniques and discoveries in fermentation

Where do I learn the special techniques from? HOw do I validate them? How do I accept/reject them? * add carrots, * add the bubbler, * add whey protein, * use kefir to carbonate, * kefir cheese * so many flavors * red rice yeast

Reading time: 5 minutes

My ferments: Tempeh

Ferment from Indonesia, soy-based, uses R ryzope (look it up online), makes solid structure out of soy grains. White mold-like structure, traditionally made inside banana leaves. Consumed in curry form, stew, fried, in sandwiches, and numerous other ways in Indonesia. Quickly arising in popularity in the states, great depth and...

Reading time: 3 minutes

My ferments: Millet wine / tongba

Made by the Limbu people in eastern Nepal, millet grains fermented by mold and amylase enzymes, plus yeast from the air. Ferment it by boiling millet grains, adding mold starter after cooling and putting the mixture in a warm sport for couple of months. The more important and interesting part...

Reading time: 3 minutes

My ferments: soy-rice ferment (tu'ong)

Inspiration: https://www.travelling-fermenter.com/tuong-ban

Reading time: 4 minutes

My ferments: Water kefir

What is water kefir? is it kefir at all? Tibicos. Took me long time to figure out. Needs sugar water, mineral source, and nitrogen source. Mineral + nitrogen source can be fruit juices or veggies, such as carrots or potatoes. Recipe: sugar solution + nitrogen source (juice, or carrot pieces)...

Reading time: 5 minutes

My ferments: yogurt

Introduction

Reading time: 8 minutes

That Zymurgy article which changed everything: Chicha Chhyang and a revelation in traditional brewing techniques

where did I hear about this article? From the ancient and mystical herbal brews book. Give a high-level summary for the article advantages, interesting points refer to other blog