Apple Cider Vinegar, Infused with Raspberry, why?

These cut the impact of sugar on the body, into the blood by at least 40% each.  Together, ACV is more palatable than that dramatic vinegar flavor.   I'm adding moringa, I'm adding Black seed, I'm adding trusty, very dusty cinnamon.  This is my new favorite bev.

Anti Viral Elixirs and Tinctures made from Kalonji or Nigella Sativa (containing thymoquinone)

 

What if there were a seed that contained compounds that slow down and thwart COVID. People might wonder the best way to take it, right?  

Sure, you could eat seeds, directly.  And I even found recipes for foods-- mostly Turkish and Pakistani, using Kalonji.  Cauliflower in butter with Kalonji seeds was tasted nice enough.

But what about beverages?

Historically, people made elixirs (sweetened beverages with healing properties) and tinctures (unsweetened high ethanol based healing beverages) with herbs, seeds, berries (Gin) and other various compounds that fight maladies and boost health; so I set out to make one using Organic Kalonji or Nigella Sativa based on some recent medical research and findings in India for its use to fight COVID.  Why Nigella Sativa?  Extraordinary findings are why. 

The Times India reports of Australian research:  

"There is growing evidence from modelling studies that thymoquinone, an active ingredient of Nigella Sativa, more commonly known as the Fennel Flower, can stick to the COVID- 19 virus spike protein and stop the virus from causing a lung infection.

The Australian study is published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology.

To make a tincture in this case, 1. you just start with something 80 proof or higher-- 40% ethanol.  Vodka has the least added flavoring vs. Gin or Whiskey.  

2. Add 1/2 purified water.  

3. Grind up your seeds, spices and herbs-- Kalonji alone is a bit odd to the taste-- like ashes, so a spice like cinnamon and or nutmeg can save the day, altering the flavor profile to something more "delicious" and "amazing".  

4. Add your seeds and spices to a bottle of vodka that's on its way out, and let stand for 4 weeks... or 4 hours. Ethanol will preserve the ingredients for months if not years, so you don't need to worry about refrigeration to avoid spoil.  You can strain or not strain-- the seeds in this are edible fiber.  You can sweeten a tincture too, but I saved that for a proper elixir version. 

For an Elixir, I infused some old brandy I made from homemade wine, vermouth I had laying around and Elderberry juice powder. Brandy is sweetened wine, with vodka mixed to bring the ethanol content up to the 20% range, vs. wine at 12%.  It's a sweeter mix to be sure, but no worse a vehicle to transport the black seeds chemistry to the body.  Elderberry juice is a food with very high levels of Quercetin, which is a zinc "ionophore" (a chemical that allows zinc to kill viruses) much more readily.  

Capers are even higher in quercetin, so, I'm think very dirty Martinis using the black seed tincture and giant capers. Dill and Arugula ("rocket") are also high in quercetin, and can taste great mixed as juice in the tincture of vodka.  

Links about Nigella Sativa and COVID19:

https://onedaymd.aestheticsadvisor.com/2021/08/black-seed-and-covid-19-australian.html

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/diet/kalonji-for-the-treatment-of-covid-19-infection-all-about-it/articleshow/85303820.cms

Quercetin with Zinc (elements contained in Nigella Sativa too):

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04468139

https://www.superfoodly.com/quercetin-foods/

I found the Best Brewery in America, in Pompano, FL

I've been there twice, and have not posted about it because this place and these dude require a proper introduction; so let's call this a preface. The brewer is a Rock star virtuoso, like the guy from Smashing Pumpkins. 

So, if you can relate to Lambics, and Sour Belgians and naturally, wild fermented experiments and you're within 400 miles of Pompano, then get in your car and go. It's happened twice, and I can confirm, like some new scientific finding after massive data crunching, it's hands down, the best beer I've ever had.

It's called:

https://www.oddbreed.com/

Comparing Grains for Belgians

Best Beer Camp puts in the work:

https://brulosophy.com/2021/02/22/grain-comparison-us-caramel-vs-uk-crystal-malt-in-a-belgian-pale-ale-exbeeriment-results/

The Podcast:

https://brulosophy.com/podcasts/the-bru-lab/

Dr Robert Lustig - How To Protect The Liver and Feed The Gut

Unicorn Swap Disruptor Porter, Cider, Catawaba Beer, Hard Cider Wine Beverage (Not a Lambic)

We called this our "Unicorn Swap Disruptor" #Homebrew a study in Porter, Cider, Catawaba beverage that we made comes in; in that order.  And it's not a Lambic either-- no wild yeast. EC 1118, often used for White wines or wine with funky alts adjuncts like this crazy as F beer cider, wine that is very very as drinkable as any Craft beer out there.

And we brewed the whole 7 gallons for about 1/40th of an Ethereum coin (trading at $3,900 US fiat as of today).

You make 7 gallons of this with your best girl, or boy, or pug and you've got the chance to not only bond over it, but also to get bombed for weeks thereafter. 

We used some for an IPA variation, and some straight, unadorned with hops or adjuncts. with an alkaline mouth feel, but a really very shockingly good beverage, here, man. Color and froth is loverly, as you can see from my phone pix. ferments out. I got this from a winery. I try to avoid chemical herbicides and such, hormone disruption is not my favorite disruption, as my wise guy remarks suggest at the top of the column, so Organics... but you never know.

Here, to the Left is a version I did after dry hopping it with my cheesy favorites-- Chinook, Centennial and other misc hops I had laying about, which ended up very much like New Belgium VooDoo Hop Ranger Imperial IPA, in case you're looking for the path to that door.   You can see the White,thin head that came from adding hops in the bottled IPA version.   This one was very thin because was added even more sugars to raise the ethanol level (so it would last a longer time without getting stale.. bottle aging a bit).  That did not work for this bottle because we saw no reason to wait for the next pandemic before YOLOing it down, right? 

You can probably get very close using a Porter boil, and mixing cider and a good quality fresh grape juice (no sulfites to kill the yeast). I know Costco's apple juice (Kirkland?)


This current batch under review that we've come together to sample in a pairing that with some fermented cabbage and beat Kraut here today is no IPA by contrast. It was never so dramatic with bitters and hops. You can see the different color of the head here compared to the IPA version that we bottled with corks.

I added very little hops here, and mostly pie flavors (clove and cinnamon). And so-- the flavor was clean, mild, smooth, and more cider-wine on the spectrum-- in fact, not unlike Kombucha G- damn it-- which is a big find for me. It smelled wonderful, like a cab driver's Ocean Breeze Air freshener wrapped in angle's underwear.

But this ended up like Kombucha with legs, or horns or lets call it prowess. No dank diesel notes, but so dry and alkaline that is seems to evaporate from the tongue, like your high school girlfriend/boyfriend, when their parents walked into the laundry room with you. Nearly sweet, but wait-- hell no-- the sugars are gone baby gone. Sorry, Magner fans. You can add fruit juice on pouring for a sweeter beverage, but not before, because it's all going to Ethanol in this show. And I'll be DAMNED if it weren writing home about... home being here, of course..

Fresh and light and nice, without diesel odors or flavors that some other American vitis Labrusca grapes impart from their Lambrusca heritage. Lambrusca...  Lambrusca is like that pipe hitting great great great great great ancestor Pirate who robbed ships and traded slaves and plundered sugar cane after getting kicked out of the British Navy (laid off, not fired for cause), and who saved Europe and advanced capitalism by resisting monopolies, but who nobody really wants to discuss at length. Or that hit man brother of one your Mafia grandpa who paid for everyone's emergencies with ill gotten gains.  Strong ingredient so approach with caution. This one is great-- Catawaba-- and others too probably won't give you that kind of trouble. Concord grape juice I will not vouch.  It's find in Welch's jams, but it's powerful stuff when fermented, and not for it's ethanol but for it's very Diesel flavors.  You might like that flavor, but be warned.

If you're going to brew something radical, these ingredients are a good path to the rally. You can find Catawaba grape juice for shipping direct in Ohio vineyards and Buffalo, NY. Cider too. No need to limit yourself to Porter malts either.

Single Sourced Colombian Coffee, at the Truck Stop...

 

I kid you not-- just when I needed a good long laugh on a long drive from Cleveland to NY, I walked right into this at the Pilot, when I stopped to drain and replenish.  

"Single Sourced" Colombian coffee... so important to over the road truck drivers and other long hawlers (the highway type).  No beans from the Dominican Republic mixed in here, to destroy the integrity of the terroir coming out of this spigot. 

No way. 

Such a relief... comic relief.