StillSmart

SG 1.011, racked to a secondary today. Looks, smells, tastes on track.

Well done for giving it another go chill!. Is that sg or fg you mean?.

SG as in "still going". It will be a few more days before it gets below 0.

You must be keeping this in a cooler temperature setting...

But am glad its heading in the right direction for you...

FS

My basement is probably about 18C. This speed is pretty normal for my ferments but I did not have to add DAP for this one. The raw Kale should have enough nitrogen. I did have an aquarium heater in it originally, but I am not sure it is was working, the wash did not feel warm.

I finally got around to running this. Through the AirStill, I can detect a flavour different from a regular sugar wash or a lentil wash. To me, it tastes like... cherries?!!? I fermented kale and made Kirsch? Carbon filtering knocked whatever it was out. Now I am thinking that I should have saved some unfiltered. Time-wise, Scarecrow's lentil wash (with 5-7 tsp of DAP gradually added) was faster. I'd like to compare that with kale with added DAP and maybe some other greens, broccoli wash anyone? Asparagus has lots of purines which contain nitrogen, but I am afraid of the effect of any flavour carry over give what happens when I eat it... Maybe a lentil and spinach wash?

Chuck

Unaware of any ill effects of eating asparagus myself,the only problem being cost,even in season,it is expensive here.
I remember it it being a weed in my sisters lawn when she lived in Canada.
Broccoli is cheap as chips,and may be worth a whiz.
So little time,and so much to do.
Robert.

Asparagus is not that costly here. But it gives your urine an odd smell. Not a smell that I'd want in my drink. Which is not to suggest that I would ever want urine in my drink.

Kale is back on the shelf at the local greengrocer, so time to get serious.

I have the guts of the how, but have in the back of my mind I'd seen a reference to boiling it like cabbage, straining, tossing the solids and using the water in the wash.

Searched here and over at HD, can't find it. Did I imagine it, anyone?

I ground it up raw with some water in a blender and tossed it in the fermentor.

Thanks Chuck, that'll be plan B if I can't confirm A.
Had occurred that I could run A and B side by side and assess for myself :-)

Peter

Wdwell done chill, never had a cherry taste in any ive done! Lol. You got some funky ferments lol. I boiled it and used the water packapoo, I didn't like the outcome though, didn't ferment out as well, dunno why, maybe cooking it ruined some of the goodness. If you have a juicer I'd juice it, but the way chill said works well, just don't use any more than 100g, ive found anything over that gives to much flavor over. Ive done 50g minimum and wasn't enough, maybe around 70-90g would be a good figure. Good luck, and don't freak out at the foam when it starts working, its a sight to behold haha.

Thank you for the insight googe.

Interesting too, with some earlier posts getting hung up on nutrient addition, maybe the boiling is what drove that. Maybe....

Peter

Got a bunch of kale, 500gm, $3.99. Not a lot of investment there. :-)

Put down two washes, each 17.5litres. 'Cause that's the size of my fermenters - 20litre buckets. Also, only had enough sugar for two; 4.375kg each bought the volume just short of the tops.

Wash one is with the green stuff roaring around in it.
Wash two is the extract version with vit B supplement (in case boiling knocked the guts from it).

Both woke immediately the bakers yeast hit.
The green one is singing, the other not so.

Two was a point down on one for OSG.
After +/- 40 hours SGs are 1064 and 1062 so pretty line ball despite the extract looking benign.
May they continue.....

Good stuff mate, hope it works for you!. What was your exact recipes if you don't mind sharing?.