The Stems Brew is a wild brew recipe based on Pascal Baudar‘s book The Wildcrafting Brewer:
“A while ago while flavoring my juice with aromatic stems, I discovered that stems were so loaded with wild yeast that fermentation was pretty much guaranteed…so what about making a light stem beer?
Nothing complicated: 1 L (1/4 gallon) bottle and around 130 ml (a bit more than 1/2 cup) maple syrup.
You can also go by flavor, the liquid should taste very sugary. The yeast will eat the sugar and convert it to alcohol.
Juice of one lemon. Make the content acidic to start which is good for food safety and for avoiding spoiling (mold, etc…)
Stems used:
- Mugwort (Artemisia douglasiana) Bitter, Aromatic
- California Sagebrush (Artemisia californica) Bitter, Highly aromatic
- Black Sage (Salvia mellifera) Sweet, highly aromatic
- Willow stems (Arroyo willow) Bitter
Same plants I use for making primitive wild beers. First time I ferment just stems so I based the quantity from experience in flavoring my previous juices.
Not much to do… No boiling (you don’t want to kill the yeast), just place the stems and store the bottle on the side so the stems are under the liquid. Fermentation should start within 48 hrs. I’ll burp the bottle to check how it’s going.
When the fermentation has started, it’s placed in the fridge to age for a week or so.
Then I’ll enjoy it! Actually, I’ll serve it at my wild beer workshop next weekend.
I expect maybe 2% of alcohol. Enough to make you a tad happy.
Simplicity: Stems, tree sap (maple syrup), lemon and water.”