Thanks to Fillmore Container, I did several demos at the PA Farm Show last week 2 weeks ago (Sorry! My cookbook photo shoot days were 18 hour days, and this baby just didn’t get posted!) and I brought a few samples along. I wasn’t sure who exactly would be in the audience. Would I be chatting with 10th-generation, farm-dwelling fermenters? Health-seekers? The never-heard-of-it crowd? Families? Phickle readers? Turns out, there was a little of everything and it was wonderful! I’ll have more about the Farm Show later, but for now, I wanted to share one of the recipes I made to share with folks there. I wanted to have a mix of both non-traditional and more standard flavor options for each demo, so for kombucha, I chose an old standard, raspberry ginger, and something a bit more fun, carrot spice.
The carrot version included a mix of whole spices that I like to include (in powdered form) in a wannabe Morrocan carrot salad that I love to make in warmer months, but honestly, this kombucha is better than that salad.
I served both booches room temp (it was just easier) and while the raspberry option would have benefited from some fridge time, the carrot was lovely as can be at Farm Show temp. I poured every drop of it at the show, so my first order of business upon returning home was making this again so my husband, booch fiend #1 in our house, could enjoy it.
I hope you dig it as much as we do!
CARROT SPICE KOMBUCHA RECIPE
Yields slightly less than a half gallon of kombucha.
New to kombucha and/or secondary fermentation? Check out my kombucha guide.
A word to the wise for all secondary fermentation of beverages. Approach with care. Although my growler didn’t explode when I left this kombucha to soak in the flavor for a few days too long, it did shoot a geyser or orange and spices ALL over the room when I opened it. My ceiling, floor, clothes, corners, crevices and appliances were all speckled with carroty booch! Unless you want to be picking whole star anise out of your laundry basket, scraping carrot puree from your ceiling, or worse yet, picking shards of glass out from the skin of loved ones, observe your secondary fermentation carefully, when it’s carbonated, refrigerate it. And always open with care.
INGREDIENTS
- 5 carrots, tops removed
- 1/4 cup filtered water, or more
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 whole star anise
- 3 whole cloves
- 2 whole allspice
- 5 1/2 to 6 cups finished kombucha, depending on the yield of your carrots and how much water you add when pureeing
HOW-TO
- Purée carrots in a food processor with 1/4 cup of filtered water. Let it run until the carrots form a paste. It should be barely pourable when fully pureed. Add up to another 1/4 cup of filtered water if needed.
- Place the puree and all spices into a 1/2 gallon container. If you like fizzy kombucha, make it a sealing container (see above and be EXTREMELY careful). Add finished kombucha, filling your container to the bottom of the neck, if it’s a long-neck bottle, or leaving a minimum of 3 inches of headspace if it’s not.
- Close/seal container and leave at room temperature for 3 days or until carbonated.* Move to the fridge for an additional 4 to 7 days, then open carefully, and pour through a fine mesh strainer before enjoying.
*You’ll know it’s carbonated when the sides of your plastic bottle are rigid. Although I will admit to bottling in glass, without precise sugar measurements, it has the potential to be very dangerous, so be aware of the explosion risk, bottle in glass at your own risk and move it to the fridge as soon as it’s carbonated.
Andrea says
What a unique flavor combo! I’m always trying to think of new flavors for my 2nd fermentation. I do use glass- reused GT’s bottles- but I burp them once or twice a day to make sure they don’t explode. Fingers crossed, no explosions since I’ve been brewing. Sorry yours did, sounds like quite a mess!
What amount of ground allspice and cloves do you suggest instead of whole?
Thanks!
Amanda says
Hi Andrea,
I can’t imagine that you’ll get any geysers with 2x daily burping. I leave mine sealed because I like it fizzy. Just a touch too fizzy this time! 🙂 I’ve only made this recipe with whole spices so I’m not sure exactly what the conversion would be. You can try using estimates from a site like this http://www.chefs-resources.com/DrySpiceYields. I’d love to hear how it turns out!
Erin says
Yum! I can’t wait to try this recipe. No harm in using a juicer instead of a food processor, right?
Amanda says
None at all! You’ll get lower yield of carrots and more sugar, so expect more fizz, more quickly and you may need to use a touch more finished kombucha than the recipe calls for! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Craig says
Sounds great! I’ve taken to doing a first round secondary fermentation in a large wide mouth flip top jar for a few days and then straining into more conventional flip top bottles so I don’t have to strain on pouring.
Amanda says
It’s a fizz trapping measure for me. The more sugars in the bottle and the less opening, the more fizz I get. Definitely a good option for less carbonated (and stuff-filled) booch, though.
The School For Wives says
Try bracing the bottle into a corner of your kitchen sink on a sponge or folded kitchen towel, holding it in place at a forty-five degree angle, then open the bottle. It works for champagne, no explosions. If you need/want more protection, slip a gallon size ziplock bag over the bottle first, then open as above. I have opened very, very fizzy bottles using the forty-five degree angle with a very slow, intermittent controlled release of the cap (I use swing top bottles) because I don’t want to lose half my bottle to needless geysering
Amanda says
The angle trick definitely does work! However, this wasn’t your well-measured sugar fermentation, and I left it for several days too long, so the pressure was gonna geyser out, no matter how we held the bottle. Thanks for sharing your tip!
Cathy says
I can’t wait to try this recipe. Can you use carrot jucie ? I do save my pulp…. So many options …. 🙂 I have been growing two new scobys. It was my first try , and they are doing fabulous so far.
Amanda says
Carrot juice is a great fermenter! Totally. I’m about to brew up a fresh batch of this for the holidays!