Recent content by flowerysong

Vinegar won't be a problem, but flavouring after the fact is probably still the way to go.

That's pretty funky looking.

Acetobacter xylinum (the main contributor to the structure of a scoby) is aerobic, so your beer shouldn't form much of a scoby after bottling. Acetobacter are also responsible for metabolising alcohol into acetic acid, so once the beer's sealed away from air you shouldn't need to worry about...

You're being impatient. Let the wee beasties work for a while; if after two weeks to a month you've got nothing, then you can start worrying.

A SCOBY mainly acts by the yeast fermenting the sugar into ethanol, which the Acetobacter (can include various strains, but Acetobacter xylinum is always present, and its production of cellulose is the source of the SCOBY's characteristic structure) metabolise into acetic acid. Some breakdown...

Foil dinners. http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1933,155190-252199,00.html looks about right. For dessert, http://www.food.com/recipe/campfire-baked-apples-221171 (though we always used Red Hots).

Shepherd's pie is a relatively recent term (1880s, if I recall correctly) and has, for most of that time, been used interchangeably with the older term cottage pie. The idea that shepherd's pie must be made with lamb is even more recent, and appears to be a result of folk etymology. ("Sheep are...

The original one is in Dexter, but there's also one in Ann Arbor.

Measuring flour by volume is also fairly inaccurate, to the point where six cups one day can be the same actual amount as five cups another day, just less compacted.

None of the brands that I've seen have taken up pasteurization; Kombucha Wonder Drink was always pasteurised (as, I believe, was another one that I can't recall), but most of the brands in my local Whole Foods still contain active cultures. Any reformulation that occurred was to change the...

I had it once. It wasn't bad. http://blog.flowerysong.com/2009/05/11/budweiser-american-ale/

Christmas sausage: Lamb sausage:

Wrong. Saltpeter has been used in preserving meat for centuries.

Of course, I first heard of A. xylinum in connection with an actual food eaten by people (nata de coco), so eating a scoby isn't perhaps as absurd as all that. Nata de coco is cleaned, cubed, and repeatedly washed (to remove the acid), then sweetened.

The structure of a scoby is formed in large part by the action of Acetobacter xylinum, which synthesises cellulose. Mmm, fried paper.