North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Rondi Anderson <nafex@mokalive.com>]

I've used the whey drained from culturing milk with kefir grains to 
culture grape juices (clear and purple) and it can makes a wonderful 
clear sparkly drink.  Kefir grains are 1-2 to 6 inch clusters of 
bacteria and yeasts living together in a symbionic relationship. It's 
very good for those struggling with yeast infections of the digestive 
track. Anyway, the cultured milk will seperate after sitting at room 
temp for a while and the whey has  yeast in it my experience and 
cultures any fruit juice from my understanding.

If you are interested in more look up Dom's kefir site on google or 
yahoo.

Rondi


On Apr 5, 2004, at 8:41 AM, nafex-request@lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

> My understanding is that perry is typically fermented pear juice.
> Cider is fermented apple juice nearly everywhere except North America,
> where we assume that it is apple juice.
>
> Even in North America it used to mean apple juice in various states of
> fermentation.  I know many an old-timer who laments the near universal
> sterilization of apple juice.  They like a slight CO2 tingle to their
> cider.  It just does not taste right to them.
>
> I predict that "cultured" ciders will hit the market in the next five
> years.  They will be analogous to cultured yogurts.  Cultured apple
> juice has several selling points.
> -It recaptures the taste of old cider
> -The cultured organisms will shoulder aside any bad-nasties that drop
> into the jug out of the sky
> -If stored in a 65F room it will turn into hard cider with no tax hit
>
> Champaign yeast has been the most robust fermenter.  Unfortunately, it
> also ferments at refrigeration temperatures and has a near neutral
> flavor profile.  It does not add much to the flavor.
>
> The other yeasts I used were either excrutiatingly slow fermenters or
> had "airplane glue" odors that required 4 weeks to age out of.
>
> --
> Joe Hecksel
> Personal Webpage http://my.voyager.net/~jhecksel