Hm interesting. I bet you can find that stuff somehow... it sounds tougher to find than what I need though.
It's all a matter of patience. For what I've found out, millet can be found at pet stores, and I found the quinine tea online, so I'm not worried. For what I've seen about t'ella, yo can also use finger millet or sorghum, so you may get a break there...
Yeah, that's the one I saw. I guess I'll be buying a bag soon enough.:rockin:
My friend's family is actually from Minnesota ('from' meaning lives there now, haha) and there's a big Ethiopian population there. She's since moved to St. Louis but will be going up there soon and will be mailing me some supplies for making t'ella and te'j (which is the honey wine that makes up part of Dogfish Head's Bitches Brew). The bittering agent they use in Ethiopia is gesho and the yeast lives on gesho sticks and leaves. They actually call gesho 'hops' which is kind of confusing.
You could go there, or ask somebody to find the stuff for you. Normally, in cities with a big foreign population, there's plenty of stores that sell stuff from that country.
Yeah, I read about gesho. They use the leaves for the t'ella. I'm guessing the biggest problem we're both gonna have, is the impossibility of getting the fresh stuff, like they most likely use in Africa. There's always a big taste difference between fresh and dried vegetable materials.
Eventually once I get it down I plan on making a thread with info on how to make te'j and t'ella. I've been helping my friend come up with a carbonated version of te'j... the issue is that the gesho is relied upon for the yeast so you always get an infection, thus the drinks are meant to be had relatively young (both are usually drank before fermentation finishes), so the carbonating process could take too long and just result in sourness.
You could always kill the fermentation with some potassium sorbate, and then force carbonate. Just make sure you add a crushed campden tablet, so you don't get any off flavors off the potassium sorbate.
It would be awesome to isolate the yeast strain but she has zero microbio background and I lack the supplies, so I'm having her try a short boil and champagne yeast. I don't detect any yeasty flavors so I don't think it will change much about the flavor. I didn't realize she was making this stuff all the time, when I told her she had a homebrew/winemaking shop within a mile of her place she was kinda shocked, haha... makes it a lot easier to produce fermented beverages!
I'd go with small batches (maybe 1/2 gallon each), and have your friend taste them, until you get the flavor right. Short of laboratory equipment, that'd be the best way to get the right strain of yeast. Then, once you have it, you can cultivate from it. Other than that, champagne is always my first choice, because it doesn't introduce any strong flavor to the brew, and it's tough as nails. I have pitched dry champagne directly into the chick pea "wort", and had it bubbling consistently within 15 minutes.
I've learned that recipes for both, but especially the beer, vary a LOT between individuals... typically everyone is making this stuff at home and has their own ways of doing it. So if I can't find the black barley that's in my friend's family recipe I'll just have to come up with my own family recipe!
Yeah they do. It's the same in my country. My family has their own recipes for plum wine, grape "aguardiente" (kinda like moonshine, but made with fruit), sauces, etc. It's kinda like a double edged sword: it makes it difficult to get the "right" recipe, but at the same time, since there's so much variation, it makes it more difficult to be completely wrong...
So I guess that's my "secret project", hopefully soon I can share what I've learned though! There's surprisingly little information about these drinks out there and they're both really tasty and relatively easy to make... I mean, you can make them without even knowing what a homebrew store is!
I will have to hold you to it. I want to try it too, once you get the right recipe.
Sprecher Brewing put on a mbege. never had it.
Yeah, they're the ones I was talking about, I just didn't remember their name. But they didn't use the right recipe. They used barley and hops (neither of which are used in the real mbege), basically making just a banana beer.
Wow its funny you mentioned this. I was at whole foods the other day and saw black barley and immediately started to think of brewing uses for it. I see you are also in MA. It was at the whole foods on route 3 in Woburn.
