I made your Tej and a traditional Tej and brought them to our local brewing club, your version won hands down except for the one man from Ethiopia, he like the one made with sticks best and said it was just like home.
Tej(ጠጅ) is our traditional drink made from honey and gesho(leaf and stem). The traditional way of brewing Tej is kind of cold process. We don't use any kind of yeast. The gesho stem is washed and sun dried. It will be added in the MUST on the 3rd day of brewing. It will be left for fermentation (even though we don't pitch yeast) for 3 to 4 weeks. We don't use hydrometer to measure the potential alcohol... we back sweetened the MUST after testing the Tej..... Luckily I tried to make Tej using Red Star yeast and gesho leafs a week ago. The OG was 1.070... will see how the FG will be and the Tej test and color
I am making Tej again tomorrow, my first batch was wonderful. I used the sticks, boiled them first for 20 minutes and it was a hit with my friends, which is why I am making more.
I made tej recently, I did it the way that was done locally, which means I didn’t add the yogurt, I will make it with yogurt and compare to see if liked the funkiness, I used the boiled gesho stem but I bought the stem from local Ethiopian store.
I just finished make Tej with the sticks, it tasted like sticks day 10 when I removed them but it was really tasty about 10 days later, the stick taste was gone. I did simmer the sticks for 30 minutes first. Now I want to try it with the leaves. Thanks for the recipe.
Great work and a perfect step by step explanation … originally from the birth place of Tej never have tried to make it lol but now I definitely want to try to make it after I see your video Thanks!
There is a lot of variation in the taste of Tej because there are many recipes for making Tej. I have heard many stories about people not liking the earthy/musky taste of Tej. I did not like the overall taste of Tej, from the samples I had. Some were too earthy. Some were too sweet. However, I could tell there was something underneath that would potentially taste good. I've made Tej for the past 6 years and never seen/read the need to add yogurt prior to this video. That addition may take your version into the experimental category instead of traditional Tej. I've stuck to the traditional recipe of gesho, honey, and water. The only difference is I add 2g of Lalvin D47. The foaming (mold) happens 100% of the time. If back sweetening is needed, I suggest using that same honey that was initially used. That keeps the recipe closer to the traditional way it would have been made. My Tej won Best of Show for a State Fair Amatuer Homebrewing competition and most recently 2nd in a larger competition in the Specialty/Experimental/Historical Mead categories. After my current batch finish aging, I might send a sample in to the Mead Stampede competition. 🙂 I previously used Brundo's Gesho with good results. Maybe you received an old pack of Gesho. Brundo is located in Oakland where there is a lot of Tej brewing. I would imagine they have a good turnaround time on their product.
I will have to give this mead a shot! I wish I snagged one of your bottles cause it was legit really enjoyable! It was so much fun making a guest appearance on your channel! :-D
I had Tej once when I was in Columbus, OH down at a Ethiopian restaurant and I fell in love with it. Never thought I'd see it again, nonetheless an tutorial!!
It would help if you had someone that's Ethiopian try it. You more then welcome to send me one of you have one left. 😁 I did try your recipe, by the way. I added more Sugar than you did.
Great recipe! Interesting components. It's also inspiration for an infinite amount of possible variations. Bravo BC! Loved to see Padawan Fae in your studio.
Great video, as always. A question and a comment. The question: if I want to add erythritol in place of sugar but I would typically add, say 4 oz of sugar to back sweeten a wine, how much more erythritol do I need to add to create the same sweetness? Thanks The comment: to add additional sourness you might "simply" malt a cup of wheat berries (get them to sprout over say, 3 or 4 days) and then pour a gallon of water over the berries and allow the sprouted berries to sit in the water. The water will be full of lacto bacteria and you can use that to sour a mead or indeed, any drink. This "tea" was known as rejuvelac back in the 60's.
@@DointheMost It was light and crisp before going into secondary. I made one bottle of carbonated. I have the second batch that I was going to leave the Gesho in for 4 weeks instead of 2 weeks.
Cool interpretation of Tej! The leaves/poweder gesho is more so used for tella while sticks are for Tej. Have you tried washing and then splitting the sticks as opposed to using it whole? Also in second ferment, try to boil the cleaned, dried, and split gesho with some of the tej, wait to cool and then add back :)
I wish I could try this sooner. Next year, though, this is going to the top of my list. I would change to chemical stabilization and backsweetening with honey, then keg carbonate and throw it on tap. I could also try pasteurizing the gesho instead of boiling, for a gentler sanitizing step.
Sounds like the sticks got you luridly close to the super-rare legendary Mulchomel. Kills in 1 hit, I hear. 😂 Gread video content as always. Good to see Faewood Mead there also! I see more collabs in our future!
I'm wanting to get into sours in general. Never thought about adding yogurt. Any insight on using it with other meads simply for the "sour" or "funk"? Great video!
I’m not sure it would always be the *best* option. It just seemed to work well here. I’ve played with kettle souring before using Philly Sour and I think it’s a great way to dial in some sourness before pasteurizing and pitching a different yeast. Then you can select a yeast that provides a known funk (like a farmhouse ale strain).
Ethiopia is going through major struggles right now and needs significant humanitarian assistance. If you can give something, even just a little bit extra on top of the cost of your ingredients, it could really help people who are suffering.
@@DointheMost did you ever get to try Dogfishhead Brewery's Bitches Brew when it first came out? (Not the barrel aged stuff or whatever) it's got gesho root in it, it was absolutely outstanding, I miss it dearly
Similar but different. I think “musk” was a good descriptor. It’s a definite fermentation flavor that is different from that contributed by a clean yeast ferment.
Hello, Thank you for doing this, I've thought about brewing a Tej before, and maybe I'll try one now! I love how clear it is, and the color is really nice too. Can you explain, in detail, how you make your brews so clear? Thanks again!
@@seanmcdonald9591 For stubborn hazes I sometimes add a product called Sparkolloid. It is being discontinued by the manufacturer though. As a first step, you might look into bentonite, which is a natural clay used for clearing.
How are you avoiding milk solids when you're adding the yogurt? I tried using coconut milk and it didn't turn out great, it definitely fermented well but it was a mess
With a quarter cup in a five gallon batch, it all dissolved and dropped out of suspension. I’ve brewed with sweetened condensed milk before and it was a huge mess. I think it’s just a quantity thing.
Interesting the choice of honey. Where I can see you wanted a lighter flavour and not all Ethiopian honey is the same. The majority of Ethiopian honey, is dark strong forest honey. I wonder how that would effect the resulting product. Well apart from the Gesho leaves, some other ingredients, I just need get a big enough container. The honey is not a problem, as I have access to honeys from around the globe, including Ethiopian forest honey.
Now I'm wondering after watching for a second time how the Gesho would taste as a hops substitute in a SMASH beer. Sounds like a project for the upcoming summer. Maybe using some Maris Otter.
Bottled about 5 weeks ago, I tried a small sample plastic bottle I use to test pressure. Not good! The only thing different I did was convert it to a 3-gallon version. 30 gm gesho leaves , 3.6 lbs honey, 7.5oz Erythritol (back sweeten), and 3 oz priming sugar. Any chance letting it sit will change it? It came out 7.2 ABV. It doesn't have the test of jet fuel like new mead, or sour like a bitter beer. I wish I had a greater vocab or culinary range to aid in describing it. Tea-like but without the tannins. Maybe a lot more sweetener might have helped. Too bad, I wanted to show this off to friends.
I was recently wondering if I have been making an assumption or am I accurate about Potassium Sorbate and Metabisulfite. Do they stop all living organisms in brews or only yeast from growing? Can you still create vinegar, or have any other type of infection?
It definitely depends on the organisms and the concentration. Metabisulphite gets used up, sorbate can eventually break down. So we use them in specific ways, mostly around stunting yeast and preventing their reproduction. And sometimes they still keep going. Certainly not foolproof!
Quite often I see you going for a 5 gal batch en mentioning that you had to try it several times. Do you make 1 gal batch tests before? Sounds like an expensive mistake otherwise :( Do you reckon that would work with a kettle souring? I try to keep bacteria away from my fermenters
I can see a kettle sour work - but I think you’d be better off following typical practices than trying to inoculate with yogurt. I give away tons of brews from test batches, so I very rarely am doing 1-gallon batches. They don’t feel worth the effort for the amount of work. Fortunately ad rev from the channel offsets costs pretty well.
@@tim-tim-timmy6571 I haven’t worked with it so I can’t say for sure, but as I understand it, I can see it working ok. The souring is very light. I don’t think you would want it to go too tangy.
anyone know what to do when 50/50 honey and blackstrap molasses stop fermentation OG 1.150 i started with 71 b when it it stalled 1.070 I pitched ec -118 and days later no change and no positive pressure in the airlock. did take a sample and pitched bread yeast and there is activity in the sample.
What nutrient did you use, if any? That's a very high starting gravity if there wasn't plenty of nutrient added for the yeast. A fermentation stall, and potentially an inability to restart, would not be surprising, unfortunately.
@@DointheMost Thank you for the quick reply I add tomato paste and have worked with high gravity before with no add nutrition without any problems, although they were 16 % and not a possible 19.69 %. Also I have never worked with molasses before. I did add tomato paste but it was added later in fermentation it was something I just came across as fair source of food not as good as dap from what I read. My sample i pulled seems to be active with the bread yeast. I'm going to try and keep the brew in a warner controlled space and see if i can get it to start fermenting again. But in the end you are probably right about no being able to restart it. However i think if i can get this small sample to take off I make break the brew up into smaller batches to see if i can finish the fermentation or get it closer to dry. What do you think of trying those two options?
@@jasonlayman8817 Working with a high grav must and no real nutrient and having no problems is usually a matter of luck. Here it seems it didn’t work out. You could create a yeast starter with EC 1118 and get it really foaming and maybe get it restarted, but it sounds like you’ve hit the wall with this one. Keep me posted on progress!
@@DointheMost ok so i made a big starter and let it build for 2 days as well as kept the brew warm around 76 degrees. it had pretty good signs of fermentation for about 2 days and then slowed. So i did some research and it turns out that because molasses is a left over from processing cane sugar it has a low amount of fermentables and is heavier then water so readings are almost moot other then to subtract the the og and fg to get and idea. So to test this i had added more sugar when the big pitch stop showing signs of active fermentation and fermentation kicked right back in. The funny this is i started this brew thinking i could sub maple syrup and after a quick search others though the same thing. And the thought is that it making terrible mead so it's been repurposed to rum. This was a good experience and I did also start and acerglyn and a starter yeast just to watch the difference in fermentation and have decided going forward especial in the cold season to do starters and build the colony before pitching. The process seem to be quicker so far. And thank you for always doin the most I appreciate it.
Quick question on the LAB culturing choice: I can see why you went to yogurt, but is there any particular reason why you didn’t buy regular active culture yogurt and then strain that to add the whey only? I guess a natural follow up to this is why not simply is a LAB culture like you can get from White Labs? I guess the cost of that culture is steep at almost $10
Adding a little bit of milk solids didn’t seem to affect anything and we wanted to make sure this recipe was easily repeatable around the world - those lab cultured bacteria packets are not super accessible outside the US. My goal with developing this recipe was to keep it incredibly simple and approachable!
@@DointheMost sweet! Definitely a solid mindset. I also noticed you used a fat free yogurt in the video, and I think that’s a pretty good deal to note for the recipe too since fats often aren’t the best to have in brews
So this doesn't feel very much like tej to me, this feels very much like a sour buckthorn mead/saisson. Tej is not meant to be that complicated. At it's purest, its honey, water and gesho, no yogurt, no yeast, no sugar ,no erythritol. And the gesho twigs are integral to most tejs. You may have gave up on the twigs too early in the process because I use the entchet and kitel and my tej comes out just fine. I typically would not use yeast in mine but because I am preparing it for friends as much as I am preparing for myself, my process has to be somewhat sterile, so I boil the twigs and leaves to kill the natural wild cultures/bacteria that you would find in traditional tej which is usually a cold process and not a "sterile" process. That boiling can also kill off the natural yeast found in the honey as well. I used sterile sachet bags to keep the twigs and sticks separately contained within the mixture but allows for the gesho to incorporate into the flavor profile.
It freaks my husband out how much sanitizer remains in your bottle. They always let their container dry after adding the sanitizer and he gives me grief every time.
I’m sure you trying, but let the people of Ethiopia 🇪🇹 Tell it. We don’t add any yogurt or yeast. I don’t know we’re you find that or told you that’s how u make it but it’s all the way you make it is WRONG 😑.
Thanks for this - I am well aware. We don’t have access to the same ingredients and processes you do, so we have to replicate it in the ways we can here.
We love to see peer reviewed journals for product research! Recently published literature from Int journal of microbiology and Food Microbiology are two amazing journals!
I made your Tej and a traditional Tej and brought them to our local brewing club, your version won hands down except for the one man from Ethiopia, he like the one made with sticks best and said it was just like home.
Tej(ጠጅ) is our traditional drink made from honey and gesho(leaf and stem). The traditional way of brewing Tej is kind of cold process. We don't use any kind of yeast. The gesho stem is washed and sun dried. It will be added in the MUST on the 3rd day of brewing. It will be left for fermentation (even though we don't pitch yeast) for 3 to 4 weeks. We don't use hydrometer to measure the potential alcohol... we back sweetened the MUST after testing the Tej..... Luckily I tried to make Tej using Red Star yeast and gesho leafs a week ago. The OG was 1.070... will see how the FG will be and the Tej test and color
What’s the foam in the demijohn before filling it up?
@@serpentserpent9308 starsan
@@serpentserpent9308 it's the sanitizer's foam
Bruh i had tej the other day at an Ethiopian restaurant the drink was so good with a taste almost like a plum wine
Why is this channel so big and still responding to comments mad respect
I enjoy your company :)
Yay for inviting Fay! Thanks for making this video. Thoroughly enjoyed it!
I was so glad we had the opportunity to shoot some video together!
I am making Tej again tomorrow, my first batch was wonderful. I used the sticks, boiled them first for 20 minutes and it was a hit with my friends, which is why I am making more.
I made tej recently, I did it the way that was done locally, which means I didn’t add the yogurt, I will make it with yogurt and compare to see if liked the funkiness, I used the boiled gesho stem but I bought the stem from local Ethiopian store.
I don't know why, but i just love the Stir, Stir, Stir with effect.
It's one of those classics that I just can't help but keep including, haha. It's like it's mandatory these days.
I just finished make Tej with the sticks, it tasted like sticks day 10 when I removed them but it was really tasty about 10 days later, the stick taste was gone. I did simmer the sticks for 30 minutes first. Now I want to try it with the leaves. Thanks for the recipe.
My father adores Ethiopian food, so I've had Tej before. Very enjoyable.
Excellent content as always.
I’m dying to get my hands on some authentic Tej.
Great work and a perfect step by step explanation … originally from the birth place of Tej never have tried to make it lol but now I definitely want to try to make it after I see your video
Thanks!
There is a lot of variation in the taste of Tej because there are many recipes for making Tej. I have heard many stories about people not liking the earthy/musky taste of Tej. I did not like the overall taste of Tej, from the samples I had. Some were too earthy. Some were too sweet. However, I could tell there was something underneath that would potentially taste good. I've made Tej for the past 6 years and never seen/read the need to add yogurt prior to this video. That addition may take your version into the experimental category instead of traditional Tej. I've stuck to the traditional recipe of gesho, honey, and water. The only difference is I add 2g of Lalvin D47. The foaming (mold) happens 100% of the time. If back sweetening is needed, I suggest using that same honey that was initially used. That keeps the recipe closer to the traditional way it would have been made. My Tej won Best of Show for a State Fair Amatuer Homebrewing competition and most recently 2nd in a larger competition in the Specialty/Experimental/Historical Mead categories. After my current batch finish aging, I might send a sample in to the Mead Stampede competition. 🙂
I previously used Brundo's Gesho with good results. Maybe you received an old pack of Gesho. Brundo is located in Oakland where there is a lot of Tej brewing. I would imagine they have a good turnaround time on their product.
How can I get a sample of your tej
@@almightyroachkillaz I can mail a 375ml bottle of it to you.
Haven't told you in a while, but thank you for your great channel. I have learned so much.
I appreciate this! 🍻
I will have to give this mead a shot! I wish I snagged one of your bottles cause it was legit really enjoyable! It was so much fun making a guest appearance on your channel! :-D
I had Tej once when I was in Columbus, OH down at a Ethiopian restaurant and I fell in love with it. Never thought I'd see it again, nonetheless an tutorial!!
I’d love to get my hands on authentic Tej, but in the meantime I’ll have to make my own!
You can buy Tej here in Dallas, Texas
It would help if you had someone that's Ethiopian try it.
You more then welcome to send me one of you have one left. 😁
I did try your recipe, by the way. I added more Sugar than you did.
Great recipe! Interesting components. It's also inspiration for an infinite amount of possible variations.
Bravo BC!
Loved to see Padawan Fae in your studio.
Fae is on her way to master in no time!
The dancing fruit music in the background caught me unawares, thought i was absolutely loosing it.
Great video, as always. A question and a comment. The question: if I want to add erythritol in place of sugar but I would typically add, say 4 oz of sugar to back sweeten a wine, how much more erythritol do I need to add to create the same sweetness? Thanks
The comment: to add additional sourness you might "simply" malt a cup of wheat berries (get them to sprout over say, 3 or 4 days) and then pour a gallon of water over the berries and allow the sprouted berries to sit in the water. The water will be full of lacto bacteria and you can use that to sour a mead or indeed, any drink. This "tea" was known as rejuvelac back in the 60's.
I have a couple of batches in the works. There is so little info (in English) on Tej. I used the sticks and 71B. I boiled the sticks into. tea.
How is it? I was very put off by the aroma/flavor. Definitely preferred the leaves.
@@DointheMost It was light and crisp before going into secondary. I made one bottle of carbonated. I have the second batch that I was going to leave the Gesho in for 4 weeks instead of 2 weeks.
@@DointheMost I'm going to make a brew with the leaves in the near future. I also added orange zest to my Tej if that makes any difference.
@@mdspider Orange zest sounds like a nice addition!
Cool interpretation of Tej! The leaves/poweder gesho is more so used for tella while sticks are for Tej. Have you tried washing and then splitting the sticks as opposed to using it whole? Also in second ferment, try to boil the cleaned, dried, and split gesho with some of the tej, wait to cool and then add back :)
I wish I could try this sooner. Next year, though, this is going to the top of my list. I would change to chemical stabilization and backsweetening with honey, then keg carbonate and throw it on tap. I could also try pasteurizing the gesho instead of boiling, for a gentler sanitizing step.
I think the boiling helped with tannin extraction but I can’t be 100% certain on that. I do think a kegged version would be quite nice!
Getting my first honey harvest ans will try making this
Hope you enjoy! It's definitely not for everyone, but I really like it!
Been thinking of this one for some time!
Let us know how it goes!
Love the intro!
I definitely need to dedicate equipment toward sour meads. I’m a big fan of mixed cultured fermentations. Thank you for the reminder! Awesome content!
Thanks! I really enjoyed trying to nail this one down.
Real cool!
Sounds like the sticks got you luridly close to the super-rare legendary Mulchomel. Kills in 1 hit, I hear. 😂
Gread video content as always. Good to see Faewood Mead there also! I see more collabs in our future!
Fae was great! I also had her taste test that funkier Jovaru batch but cut it for time. She preferred the cleaner flavor on the final recipe! Haha
I'm wanting to get into sours in general. Never thought about adding yogurt. Any insight on using it with other meads simply for the "sour" or "funk"? Great video!
I’m not sure it would always be the *best* option. It just seemed to work well here. I’ve played with kettle souring before using Philly Sour and I think it’s a great way to dial in some sourness before pasteurizing and pitching a different yeast. Then you can select a yeast that provides a known funk (like a farmhouse ale strain).
@@DointheMost Thanks!
my grandma has that same shawl!
It was a thrift store find I couldn’t pass up lmao
Is this Pierre Kleinhouse design in the wild?!
Use Gesho stick instead of gesho leaf. If you use leaf, the test will be sour
I was looking at the leaves, the reviews are horrible. What did you think of the final product and did you have enough in 1 bag. It is only 4 ounces
Ethiopia is going through major struggles right now and needs significant humanitarian assistance. If you can give something, even just a little bit extra on top of the cost of your ingredients, it could really help people who are suffering.
Do you have a specific NGO you recommend donating to?
@@DointheMost I personally like UNHCR, MSF and UNICEF but others do good work too.
Yogurt!!!! What?!? I am impressed
I do what I want! Haha. But seriously, it worked like magic.
I was looking for a way to incorporate my instant pot into making mead......
Ever tried fermenting with raisins or black tea, 1cup???
What's a vegan to do, to get that funk?
Cool stuff
Thanks!
@@DointheMost did you ever get to try Dogfishhead Brewery's Bitches Brew when it first came out? (Not the barrel aged stuff or whatever) it's got gesho root in it, it was absolutely outstanding, I miss it dearly
@@robotcovers Haven’t had it, but it sounds up my alley. 🍻
Is the "funk" being described like that in a sour beer, or is it a completely different flavor?
Similar but different. I think “musk” was a good descriptor. It’s a definite fermentation flavor that is different from that contributed by a clean yeast ferment.
Hello,
Thank you for doing this, I've thought about brewing a Tej before, and maybe I'll try one now!
I love how clear it is, and the color is really nice too. Can you explain, in detail, how you make your brews so clear?
Thanks again!
This one just dropped clear on its own, with a little help from the cold fridge I had it in before pouring.
@@DointheMost Oh interesting. Do you usually have a process for clearing your brews? I can't seem to find a way to clear my meads. Any suggestions?
@@seanmcdonald9591 For stubborn hazes I sometimes add a product called Sparkolloid. It is being discontinued by the manufacturer though. As a first step, you might look into bentonite, which is a natural clay used for clearing.
I'll give that a try. Thank you for your help!@@DointheMost
I started my batch on the 13th. This is the ugliest batch I have made and it looks like a lava lamp, is that normal?
YAY!
What’s the foam in the demijohn before filling it up?
Star San sanitizer
How are you avoiding milk solids when you're adding the yogurt? I tried using coconut milk and it didn't turn out great, it definitely fermented well but it was a mess
With a quarter cup in a five gallon batch, it all dissolved and dropped out of suspension. I’ve brewed with sweetened condensed milk before and it was a huge mess. I think it’s just a quantity thing.
Interesting the choice of honey. Where I can see you wanted a lighter flavour and not all Ethiopian honey is the same. The majority of Ethiopian honey, is dark strong forest honey. I wonder how that would effect the resulting product.
Well apart from the Gesho leaves, some other ingredients, I just need get a big enough container. The honey is not a problem, as I have access to honeys from around the globe, including Ethiopian forest honey.
Tej is cloudy
Also, boiling =/= sterile, especially for bacillus
Now I'm wondering after watching for a second time how the Gesho would taste as a hops substitute in a SMASH beer. Sounds like a project for the upcoming summer. Maybe using some Maris Otter.
Bottled about 5 weeks ago, I tried a small sample plastic bottle I use to test pressure. Not good! The only thing different I did was convert it to a 3-gallon version.
30 gm gesho leaves
, 3.6 lbs honey, 7.5oz Erythritol (back sweeten), and 3 oz priming sugar. Any chance letting it sit will change it? It came out 7.2 ABV. It doesn't have the test of jet fuel like new mead, or sour like a bitter beer. I wish I had a greater vocab or culinary range to aid in describing it. Tea-like but without the tannins. Maybe a lot more sweetener might have helped. Too bad, I wanted to show this off to friends.
Yes yes yes 👌
Happy Friday!
I was recently wondering if I have been making an assumption or am I accurate about Potassium Sorbate and Metabisulfite. Do they stop all living organisms in brews or only yeast from growing? Can you still create vinegar, or have any other type of infection?
It definitely depends on the organisms and the concentration. Metabisulphite gets used up, sorbate can eventually break down. So we use them in specific ways, mostly around stunting yeast and preventing their reproduction. And sometimes they still keep going. Certainly not foolproof!
I wonder, Can you make a Homemade Cola ?
Quite often I see you going for a 5 gal batch en mentioning that you had to try it several times. Do you make 1 gal batch tests before? Sounds like an expensive mistake otherwise :(
Do you reckon that would work with a kettle souring? I try to keep bacteria away from my fermenters
I can see a kettle sour work - but I think you’d be better off following typical practices than trying to inoculate with yogurt.
I give away tons of brews from test batches, so I very rarely am doing 1-gallon batches. They don’t feel worth the effort for the amount of work. Fortunately ad rev from the channel offsets costs pretty well.
@@DointheMost in that case, would Sour Pitch do the job? Or would you recommend another strain?
@@tim-tim-timmy6571 I haven’t worked with it so I can’t say for sure, but as I understand it, I can see it working ok. The souring is very light. I don’t think you would want it to go too tangy.
This is not Ethiopian tej🙅🏾♂️, Ethiopian tej is made of honey water and gesho!!!!
I appreciate the effort but this is not the right way to do it.
Why are all the mead making TH-cam channels in my state though?
Tala is made with leaf. Tej is made with sticks.
anyone know what to do when 50/50 honey and blackstrap molasses stop fermentation OG 1.150 i started with 71 b when it it stalled 1.070 I pitched ec -118 and days later no change and no positive pressure in the airlock. did take a sample and pitched bread yeast and there is activity in the sample.
What nutrient did you use, if any? That's a very high starting gravity if there wasn't plenty of nutrient added for the yeast. A fermentation stall, and potentially an inability to restart, would not be surprising, unfortunately.
@@DointheMost Thank you for the quick reply I add tomato paste and have worked with high gravity before with no add nutrition without any problems, although they were 16 % and not a possible 19.69 %. Also I have never worked with molasses before. I did add tomato paste but it was added later in fermentation it was something I just came across as fair source of food not as good as dap from what I read. My sample i pulled seems to be active with the bread yeast. I'm going to try and keep the brew in a warner controlled space and see if i can get it to start fermenting again. But in the end you are probably right about no being able to restart it. However i think if i can get this small sample to take off I make break the brew up into smaller batches to see if i can finish the fermentation or get it closer to dry. What do you think of trying those two options?
@@jasonlayman8817 Working with a high grav must and no real nutrient and having no problems is usually a matter of luck. Here it seems it didn’t work out. You could create a yeast starter with EC 1118 and get it really foaming and maybe get it restarted, but it sounds like you’ve hit the wall with this one. Keep me posted on progress!
@@DointheMost Will do that you I will get my starter setup and will keep you updated. I appreciate your help and videos thanks.
@@DointheMost ok so i made a big starter and let it build for 2 days as well as kept the brew warm around 76 degrees. it had pretty good signs of fermentation for about 2 days and then slowed. So i did some research and it turns out that because molasses is a left over from processing cane sugar it has a low amount of fermentables and is heavier then water so readings are almost moot other then to subtract the the og and fg to get and idea. So to test this i had added more sugar when the big pitch stop showing signs of active fermentation and fermentation kicked right back in. The funny this is i started this brew thinking i could sub maple syrup and after a quick search others though the same thing. And the thought is that it making terrible mead so it's been repurposed to rum. This was a good experience and I did also start and acerglyn and a starter yeast just to watch the difference in fermentation and have decided going forward especial in the cold season to do starters and build the colony before pitching. The process seem to be quicker so far. And thank you for always doin the most I appreciate it.
What’s the alchohol percentage on this drink?!
We show that in a graphic on the video, it’s about 6.5% ABV. A little less.
Everything that shouldn’t be added in it is😳 it looks good but not something I will try.🙏🏾
Quick question on the LAB culturing choice: I can see why you went to yogurt, but is there any particular reason why you didn’t buy regular active culture yogurt and then strain that to add the whey only? I guess a natural follow up to this is why not simply is a LAB culture like you can get from White Labs? I guess the cost of that culture is steep at almost $10
Adding a little bit of milk solids didn’t seem to affect anything and we wanted to make sure this recipe was easily repeatable around the world - those lab cultured bacteria packets are not super accessible outside the US. My goal with developing this recipe was to keep it incredibly simple and approachable!
@@DointheMost sweet! Definitely a solid mindset. I also noticed you used a fat free yogurt in the video, and I think that’s a pretty good deal to note for the recipe too since fats often aren’t the best to have in brews
@@johnburke8337 Well, we did brew that chicken beer a couple years ago… 😂
@@DointheMost yeah I really liked that episode. Wacky old recipes are fire
not even close, stick to budweiser
leaves? Normel you need branches...
We discuss this in the video.
So this doesn't feel very much like tej to me, this feels very much like a sour buckthorn mead/saisson. Tej is not meant to be that complicated. At it's purest, its honey, water and gesho, no yogurt, no yeast, no sugar ,no erythritol. And the gesho twigs are integral to most tejs. You may have gave up on the twigs too early in the process because I use the entchet and kitel and my tej comes out just fine. I typically would not use yeast in mine but because I am preparing it for friends as much as I am preparing for myself, my process has to be somewhat sterile, so I boil the twigs and leaves to kill the natural wild cultures/bacteria that you would find in traditional tej which is usually a cold process and not a "sterile" process. That boiling can also kill off the natural yeast found in the honey as well. I used sterile sachet bags to keep the twigs and sticks separately contained within the mixture but allows for the gesho to incorporate into the flavor profile.
maybe it was 4oz before the leaves were dried 🤷♂
Maybe! I think it’s just mis-marked.
Its just funny because TEJ means milk in hungarian. SO i can say i drink Tej every day
It freaks my husband out how much sanitizer remains in your bottle. They always let their container dry after adding the sanitizer and he gives me grief every time.
either she is tall or you are short?! spill the beans BC lol
Little bit of both. 🙃
I’m sure you trying, but let the people of Ethiopia 🇪🇹 Tell it. We don’t add any yogurt or yeast. I don’t know we’re you find that or told you that’s how u make it but it’s all the way you make it is WRONG 😑.
Thanks for this - I am well aware. We don’t have access to the same ingredients and processes you do, so we have to replicate it in the ways we can here.
Too much carbonation in my opinion!
We love to see peer reviewed journals for product research! Recently published literature from Int journal of microbiology and Food Microbiology are two amazing journals!
Trying to stay humble!