Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

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 ferment the sugars in water medium, the mustard seeds supposed to fight other pathogens to buddy up with the natural yeasts
• but it took forever, didn’t have consistent performance.
• In india bottles, containers left out in the sun, possible the pathogens are also killed by the UV rays of sunlight (disinfecting power of sunlight),
• but since I was not doing that, didn’t work out.
• Tried twice since, and the results have been mediocre.
• Have used carrots once again in water kefir ferments, wondering now if people actually use a starter culture to begin because with an existing culture, carrot is a rapid enabler, without them it’s always been super slow for me, maybe sunlight does play a more important role than otherwise?
• Carrots are amazing source of easy nitrogen for ferments!

Kanji is an Indian or South Asian drink, popular mostly in India and Pakistan. It’s made with fermented carrots and mustard seeds, and optionally added sugar.

It is traditionally a little fizzy, made and drunk in the summer because it needs warm temperatures to ferment. It is, therefore, a very popular drink for Indian spring festival celebrations and for folks to cool themselves down with a refreshing summer drink.

I have tried to ferment Kanji a few times, but every time I haven’t gotten too far. The yeasts on the vegetable surface are supposed to ferment the sugars in the water, and the mustard seeds are supposed to fight other pathogens, as a buddy-up system with the natural yeasts of the carrots. The first few times I tried it in Somerville, Massachusetts, it took forever, and the outcome was not consistent at all. I realize it may have something to do with the super cold temperatures of early spring and winter and the carrots I used, which, I will admit, weren’t the healthiest and youngest of the bunch. But still, I don’t fully understand why my earlier experiments failed. In India, bottles or containers are left out in the sun, with the potential pathogens possibly also being killed by the UV rays of the sunlight because it is disinfecting to some extent. I tried doing that. I did not try to do that.

I figured maybe it was just the heat of the sun that the drink needed and kept the fermentation vessel on my heated fermentation pad, and that didn’t work. I have tried twice recently, and the results have been mediocre. The outcome is often a vaguely carrot-flavored, sadly bubbly, salsa-ish drink that is a bit underwhelming. I have used carrots more recently in water kefir ferments, and now I’m wondering if, in India, people actually use a starter culture to begin fermentation? Because with an existing culture, carrots are a rapid enabler, but without any culture to get started, it’s always been super slow for me.

I wonder also if, in India, the mud containers, the ugly ceramic pots they use, might have existing microbes that assist in the fermentation that my glass fermentation vessels don’t have. It’s also possible that sunlight might play a more important role than just the temperature that I don’t realize, and that it’s not just the temperature, but the UV rays that matter to the fermentation.

Either way, I don’t want to underestimate or undermine the role of carrots as their source, their role as the source of carrots in fermentation. They are fantastic. If you’re looking to energize one of your slower ferments, adding a couple of pieces of freshly cut carrots or store-bought baby carrots might just be the key.

I don’t know if I want to explore Kanji fermentation further because I’ve been doing a lot of other, more exciting things, and a slightly carrot-flavored bubbly drink isn’t anybody’s idea of an exciting summer day. Plus, the multiple failures have been kind of a downer, and I don’t know if I’m ready to be disappointed again. But in the end, it takes so little effort, and the cost of the ingredients is so little. It almost takes no effort to get the projects started. So, this is definitely a project I would recommend for new brewers, with the expectation that it might probably fail, but it’s not like you’ve invested a lot anyway.