“Rhubarb heaven.”
“Fruit punch, with hints of pomegranate.”
“An exciting alternative to champagne.”
“Very fruity with the perfect sweet/sour balance.”
“Pairs well with chocolate.”
I served this drink to friends tonight, and that’s what they had to say about it. (Then I told them what it was.)
This odd ferment is the liquid reserved from boiling adzuki beans. I often cook beans to make either miso paste or tempeh. And I usually drain the beans and discard the liquid. Lately I decided to ferment this liquid (juice, water, not sure what to call it) as it seems to contain lots of flavor and solids from cooking the beans. I let the liquid cool, then inoculate it with a couple tablespoons of juice from a batch of kimchee. I put it in a growler and top it with an airlock.
This batch is 3 months old. Lots of solids settle to the bottom, and a fair amount of coagulate floats to the surface. And in between is clear delicious fruity drink.
There is nothing about this beverage that even hints of beans. It is amazingly light, fruity and delicious, which is surprising considering what it’s made of. (Serve with dark chocolate with almonds and sea salt.)
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Do you mix the fermented liquid with anything to get this color ?
Surprisingly, the color is all natural.
What is a growler and airlock? Can this be made without those items? If so I’d like to know how-sounds delicious!
A quick Google search for ‘growler and airlock’ provided nearly a million hits. That might be the simplest way for you to find a source for these items near you, and discover what they are. I haven’t tried any other methods for this ferment. I chose the airlock method to prevent mold from growing on top of the beverage during the fermentation.
where do you get the “innoculation” if you don’t have kimchee?
Make a batch of kimchee, it’s easy. Some grocery stores carry unpasteurized kimchee. You could also try sauerkraut juice or ginger bug. They’re all loaded with the bacteria necessary to ferment the bean juice. (All three ferments, kimchee,sauerkraut and ginger bug, are easy to make. Both of Sandor’s books and the WWW are full of recipes and instructions.)
Hello – Thanks for the recipe – Is this a alcoholic drink ?
Nope. It’s alcohol free.
Is this just Adzuki beans and water? You don’t add salt,spices or oil to the boiling beans?
That’s correct, just beans and water.
Do you think this sounds as though it could possibly be fermented using kombucha? I use 20% kombucha to ferment fruit juices, so this may also work.
Give it a try and see how it tastes. The bean ferment I make is bacteria driven. Kombucha has both bacteria and yeast. It is possible that there would not be sufficient available sugars for the yeasts to thrive in a kombucha culture, but, try some and see how it goes.
I’m guessing that at some point you rack off the “clear delicious fruity drink” into a flip top bottle (or something) to allow carbonation to build up. When do you do that.
Anytime after a month or two, depending on the ambient temperature. You want to let it ferment long enough to build up acid concentration, but not so long the bacteria run out of steam.
Roughly what volume of aduki bean cooking liquid did you add the 2 tbsp of starter to please? If I had for example, half the amount of liquid that you used, would I then only add 1 tbsp? Thanks in advance.
I started with about a gallon of liquid. And yes, I think one tablespoon would be ample to inoculate one or two quarts.