homemade beverages, not necessarily alcoholic

[cimorene]

I've got a lot of anxiety and that's why I'm currently on three weeks' medical leave, taking the SSRI again that I was eager to quit earlier this year, with two new prescriptions to boot. I have been gathering strength to make a blog post about it, and I was thinking of doing it this evening.

But in the meantime, has anyone ever heard of gooseberry cider? I'm intrigued.

We might be in the market for... recipes for homemade beverages, not necessarily alcoholic, because...

1. Applepocalypse. This year's apple harvest is insane and we have no hope of even gathering all the windfall apples. We don't have time.

2. Bottle collection: We tried an expensive imported French brand of sparkling lemonade that the supermarket here has. It's called La Mortuacienne and the cranberry lime flavor especially is irresistible. It's all natural, with old-fashioned hipster labels, and is even colored with beets and carrots. They come in lovely wine-bottle-sized glass bottles with a ceramic stopper attached with a wire latch, like canning jars, for an airtight seal. And they aren't recognized in our domestic bottle and can return scheme so they are destined just to be recycled if we don't reuse them! But we already have seven. And we don't need them as vases, as cute as that would be. We just donated most of the vases in the house, keeping two favorites, because we never use them.

Anybody who likes bottling or brewing homemade beverages? Any recs? Or wisdom?

We have a living gooseberry bush, but it's not thriving. Our blackcurrant bush is small and sad and has not ever produced berries, and our redcurrant bush is on the ropes. Blackberries and raspberries love our yard and are thriving, but we're apparently not destined to harvest any other sorts of berry. That's okay, I guess, since they're our favorites anyway. We have rhubarb and it thrives, but its season is past for this year. So in future we'll have other stuff to use up as well, but for now it's just apples and we'll have to buy any other ingredients.

Comments

[spark]

I am glad to hear you got medical leave!

What I have learned from cider making efforts (I also have an overenthusiastic apple tree) is the critical importance of a having a crusher in addition to a press. We were able to get one that is basically a white food grade polystyrene bucket set up with a blade attachment through the lid that can be connected to your power drill. That seems to be the cheap and cheerful alternative to cutting up a bazillion apples into small pieces by hand before putting them through the press.

[isilya]

I know what too many apples feels like for sure! What I discovered in all my fermenting shenanigans was that I actually don’t like to drink most of the products all that much. I made beer, cider (various flavours), mulberry wine, kombucha, jun, and ginger beer. Of all of those, I enjoyed drinking the ginger beer a lot but I was pretty meh about everything else.

What I liked a lot more were the cocktails made with distilled spirits, & limoncello. I am also a mad dried fruit fiend but the whole process of drying is a bit unrewarding (so much time to make as much dried fruit as I can very easily consume in one snacking session).

In the end I settled on:

Stewing up a pot of apples (+/- cinnamon, berries, rhubarb, etc) and having the stewed fruit available in the fridge for breakfasts/desserts. Freezing some of that too.

Apple cider vinegar

Gifts

Pies

[cimorene]

Oh no, that sounds much too hard. Though I did know that cider needs a press.

[cimorene]

Beverages sound like possibly way too much work to make. Though perhaps we'll consider doing something with berries in the future.

We have done jam and dried apple chips (which we feed to bunnies) in the past, and I guess we can continue with that. And pies. Pies and apple jam are easy to combine, at least, since pie filling and apple jam are pretty similar.

[isilya]

Cordials are super easy and delicious, I meant to say in my bit about cocktails! And could use your fancy pretty bottles.

I’ve always had a soda stream (home CO2) and a bit of homemade cordial with mint, lime, and ice is divine (+/- booze).

[anatsuno]

After reading the comments it looks like much of the beverage making choices feel like too much work to you, and I understand, but I wanted to suggest yet-another-beverage option for using your fancy bottles: Tibicos, or water kefir / fruit kefir (might be close to kombucha in preparation or drinking experience? but I don't know, since I've never had kombucha). It's easy to prepare and I find it very nice to drink on the daily. Otoh it might not require fruit in large enough quantities for you to deal with a heavy harvest... But like a ginger beer, it might be a good use of fancy bottles :D

[cimorene]

Well, we do like trying recipes together! And we try to incorporate beneficial live cultures into our diet already, but we haven't had much luck beyond yogurt. We just find the executive functioning needed to meal plan and prepare the food is so great that we end up eating mostly familiar things.

[cimorene]

Oh, that's a good idea. Wax has even made them before!