Fermenting foods

An evening of fermentation.  Learn how to ferment a range of vegetables to create refreshing new flavours. Create your own to take away, learn how to combine them into salads, solve the problem of allotment gluts and learn some preserving techniques. This course is for complete beginners and also for people who have already started fermenting but are not completely satisfied with the results. Friday 23rd May and Friday 20th June, 6:30 to 9:30 at the Fermentarium (Sutherland Road Path London E17 6BX). £30. To book a place email : hornbeambakers@gmail.com

Fermenting gherkins – after 2 days

Baking and brewing reunited!

The connection between baking and brewing has been restored at the Fermentarium. Our first brew made with organic pale malt, crystal malt and Sovereign hops is now fermenting happily. For centuries baking and brewing were carried on side by side so that yeast could be shared. After all they are similar techniques, fermenting dough creates alcohol which is lost during the baking process, while the mashing wort is a bit like a very runny dough. A result of the close proximity of baking and brewing was barm bread which was made by scrapping the yeast head off the fermenting beer, mixing it overnight with flour and then using that to leaven the bread. So some barm bread experiments on the horizon…

First wort downloading from the mash tun to the copper