PROCEDURE FOR BREWING A LACTO FERMENTED BEVERAGE

There are four main steps to brewing a lacto fermented beverage.

1. Obtain a suitable primary starter culture that contains the required microbial organisms.
2. Activate the starter by fermenting a starter extension.
3. Ferment the sugars with the bulk of the liquid.
4. Add any additives such as plant material, minerals and salt, and top up the liquid to the final
volume.

READ THIS SECTION TO GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TO BREW A LACTO

FERMENTED BEVERAGE
Obtain or make a starter culture. This is your primary source of microorganisms such as to be
found in a wild ginger beer starter, kefir whey, B.E. Grainfields liquid or an EM culture.

Use the primary starter to make a starter extension. In sourdough bread making parlance this
would be the equivalent of the sponge. In EM parlance this is the EM extension or activated EM.

So in the same way that you use a small amount of sourdough starter to successively feed up a
large amount of highly active sourdough sponge, which you finally mix with flour to make a
dough, with lacto fermented beverages you make a starter extension.

Once the microorganisms in the starter extension are highly active you add it to the required
amount of sugars (molasses, barley malt, honey) and water; give it 1 - 5 days to ferment and
lower the pH below 3.9, then add the remaining ingredients such as salt, rock dust, bentonite
clay, herbs, fruit juice, vitamin B12, and vitamin C, which could otherwise buffer the liquid and
prevent the pH from dropping rapidly to below pH 3.9. In this way you ensure that these
ingredients do not inhibit the proliferation of the lacto acid forming microorganisms, which could
then result in the growth of pathogens.

Once a day for 1 - 5 days, while the probiotics are colonising the liquid, you should stir the liquid
to slightly aerate it and to remix any sediment back into the brew. In this way you ensure that the
sediment does not create a subenvironment within the brew which could harbour non favourable
microorganisms, and that any scum does not dry out and form another sub environment.

Once fermentation is under way and the pH has dropped below pH3.9 you should assist the
formation of an anaerobic state by not agitating the liquid and keeping the fermentation vessel
covered. It also helps to limit the airspace by filling the fermentation vessel near to the top.

If you are using a non-breakable container such as a large PET bottle, home brewers plastic
carboy or steel keg then you may wish to screw the lid on tightly to pressurise the liquid and force
the CO2 and H back into the liquid. This may help the probiotics to proliferate and assist in a
rapid pH drop. In most cases you should ferment the brew for about 5 days until the majority of
the sugars have been digested and the liquid goes flat. If however you are making EM type brews
or elixirs with a higher concentration of sugars, then the fermentation time may need be extended
to up to 12 weeks.

At this point the brew should be transferred to bottles and capped. When filling the bottles you
should aim to agitate the brew as little as possible to avoid the introduction of oxygen which could
trigger a new fermentation cycle. To ensure a sparkling brew upon opening the bottles just add
the equivalent of 1/2 teaspoon of rice syrup per 750 mls to the brew before you bottle it. Even
without the addition of rice syrup at the bottling stage fermentation may continue for some
months. Take care as exploding bottles may cause serious injury. Please note that sometimes the
microorganisms may use up the carbon dioxide and the resultant brew will be flat.
Contingent upon the microflora present and the quality of the ingredients, fermentation times from
20 - 90 days should increase the antioxidant properties of the brew. Care should be taken with
long fermentation times and the use of simple sugars such as sugar, fructose, dextrose, rice
syrup, honey, light molasses as the pH may drop below pH 3.6 resulting in the demise of many of
the microorganisms and if the pH rises then the brew could go off.

However as long as the pH remains below pH3.9 then it is unlikely that any pathogens will be
present, however as just mentioned, pH can fluctuate over time and you should always apply the
sniff, look and taste test before you drink any sizable quantity. (pH paper in the range pH 2.0 - 5.0
is available from scientific supply houses.)

The polysaccharide and minerals in blackstrap molasses, and the minerals in sea salt and rock
dust should extend the shelf life of most lacto fermented beverages.

As with all cultured and lacto fermented foods you need to exercise some caution and common
sense. If you have survived on a diet of processed foods and have a history of antibiotic use, then
the flora in your digestive system are probably out of balance. In this case you would be well
advised to introduce lacto fermented foods and beverages a little at a time. AGM Foods Australia
recommend an initial serving size of 50ml per day for their B.E. Grainfields liquid, that can be
increased to a litre per day once the digestive system has adjusted. If you read some of the
'official' websites for Effective Microbes (EM) you will see that they definitely recommend against
consuming any more than 30 ml per day for some of their products. If the flora in your digestive
system are out of balance then you may experience mild indigestion, diarrhea and even nausea,
if you take more than 50ml per day of any lacto fermented beverage that contains live cultures.

STEP 1. OBTAIN A SUITABLE PRIMARY STARTER CULTURE THAT CONTAINS THE

REQUIRED MICROBIAL ORGANISMS

* Grainfields liquid as a source of microbes.

* Kefir whey as a source of microbes.
* Wild cultures as a source of microbes.
* EM cultures as a source of microbes.
* Other sources of phototrophic purple soil-based bacteria.

GRAINFIELDS B.E. WHOLEGRAIN LIQUID AS A SOURCE OF MICROBES

AGM Foods Australia make an excellent range of probiotic liquids for human consumption that
are suitable for use as a starter culture for lacto fermented recipes. You can use any of their
range of liquid products but the cheapest one is Grainfields B.E Wholegrain Liquid. The 'B.E.'
stands for 'Body Electronics' as per John Whitman-Ray. AGM also repackage their products
under a variety of names for resellers. I think MiEssence and NutriTech (if I have spelt it correctly)
are both originally sourced from AGM. You can usually tell by reading the microflora list on the
label. Grainfields B.E Wholegrain Liquid is also considered to be gluten free.

I don't recommend that you use a powdered culture from one of the above brands to inoculate
your lacto fermented beverages because my experience has been that the cultures are too
difficult to activate. In theory the powdered cultures contain live organisms, yet when I tried to
culture them in a solution of rice syrup, sugar and water there was zero activity. So I advise using
the liquid products.

According to the AGM literature, a typical microflora analysis of a Grainfields product is as

follows.
LACTOBACILLUS STRAINS
Lactobacillus acidophilus
Bifidus (Bifidobacterium bifidum)
Lactobacillus casei
Lactobacillus helveticus
Lactobacillus bulgaricus
Lactobacillus leichmannii
Lactobacillus caucasicus
Lactobacillus lactis
Lactobacillus fermenti
Lactobacillus brevis
Lactobacillus plantarum
Lactobacillus delbreukii

YEAST STRAINS
Saccharomyces boulardii
Saccharomyces cerevisiae