Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

• 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!

This will be a short one because it’s like an introductory post on how and why I ferment. I will probably link to this page from the home page as well as the “Adventures in Ferment Land” home page. I see fermenting, or home brewing, as a long-term investment in the resources around us.

It’s a cultural tradition, and not just a hobby. I think it’s a way of life. I started my home brewing or fermenting journey in 2017 when I was bored and had a lot of time and decided to pick up kombucha brewing after watching dozens of YouTube videos. A kind lady in Somerville, Massachusetts, gave me her starter culture, and I was off to the races. At one time, I was brewing two gallons of kombucha every two weeks, an average of maybe 50 gallons a year. There’s a 16-ounce bottle of what was probably one of my better batches when made that still resides in a wine fridge in Somerville, Massachusetts, at a friend’s place. I have offered them $200 to open that bottle and share it with everybody, but they have refused. So, my extremely rare handmade kombucha brews and other brews have some market value, limited in liquidity, pardon the pun, as they may have. My second brew was the Indian Kanji drink. It’s basically a bunch of baby carrots with a little bit of spices in water, and you let it ferment for a couple of days. It’s supposed to be sour and sweet and a little tangy and refreshing.

I have never had a successful, awesome batch of Kanji, but I wasn’t particularly discouraged. Instead, I made a bunch of kimchi and sauerkraut after the Kanji failure.

I love home brewing and fermenting because it started as an experiment. There was no winning or losing. I wasn’t being graded, and it was my own little thing, something interesting.

The more interesting part is that it was a hobby or an experiment, the outcome of which could be drunk and shared with friends. It’s like if you went on a swim, and at the end of it, they gave you a bunch of gift hampers for yourself and to share with your friends every time.

That’s how I feel about the whole thing. Fermenting is also a really good topic of conversation, and people are really interested to hear about and understand the science and biology behind what they’re drinking. I have to stop myself with great willpower to not jump into the depths and complexities and nuances of fermenting, and fermenting with malted grains versus fermenting with rice-based molds, and so forth. But people will be quite eager to understand if they have even a hint of how weird and wild drinking and fermenting and home brewing traditions have been. So, it’s a great way to start conversations and talk to people and expand into new hobbies. So, I’ve kept on continuing with this hobby because there’s so much to learn and explore and experiment with. I’ve linked here to my post on future plans, and that’s only a small portion of the possibilities and potentials there are. My friends are asking me to consider going into commercial brewing at a small scale, but I don’t know how feasible that is, and I don’t know if I want to become an industrial-scaled brewer or just a small home brewer who does it for fun, hobby, and experimentation. But you, the reader, if you are looking for a new hobby, it’s super easy and simple and cheap to get into, and it will give you a lifetime of satisfaction.