Tumgik
#we also added a cap of vanilla because while the recipe doesn’t call for it
deityofhearts · 7 months
Text
I did not take pictures because I simply didn’t care to but my roommate and I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins last night and they were so good
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junewild · 3 years
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may we have your cupcake recipe? <3
HELL YEAH, thank u anon. i’ll give you vanilla, citrus, spice, and chocolate cupcakes & if you want anything else let me know! this is going to be stream-of-consciousness rather than linear recipe, because unfortunately that is how i bake. if you want a linear recipe, let me know which particular set of pieces you want and i can write it up for you. i’ll even guesstimate times and such.
BEFORE YOU READ FURTHER: this is very long. if you are not into cupcakes, bookmark this for later when you suddenly decide to make cupcakes and keep scrolling. now with new added read more for additional readability <3
making cupcakes takes me about two hours if i’m doing two batches or an hour and a half if i’m doing one. it might take you a little longer the first time because you don’t quite know what order to do things in or how long everything takes. i like to start my fillings first because they take longer to be ready, then turn on my oven, then mix my batter, then make the frosting while cupcakes are baking.
SUPPLIES
you will need: a cupcake tin, cupcake wrappers, at least one large mixing bowl (2 is recommended to avoid a lot of washing dishes between steps), a hand mixer or a lot of elbow grease, spatula, whisk, small bowl, a small grater or microplaner, a piping tip + bag (or just a plastic bag with a hole cut in one corner) and at least one saucepan or small frying pan. measuring spoons/cups are useful but i’ve tried to include thicknesses and alternatives so you can eyeball it if you have to (i usually do, just because i know what i’m looking for lol)
you will also need some of the following (check your specific cupcake type to find out which): a box of cake mix or ingredients to make your own cake mix, cream cheese, condensed milk, butter, powdered sugar, lemons/limes/oranges, chocolate, vanilla extract (real is recommended; i know it’s more expensive but the increase in quality is worth it if you can), lemon extract, heavy cream, pumpkin pie spice (or at least nutmeg + cinnamon), and fruit of your choice.
CUPCAKE
okay so: box mix is fine. it’s good. great, even. as long as you do this: replace the oil with butter. add an extra egg. i don’t care how many eggs it calls for. i know it feels like a lot of eggs. add an egg anyway. add a sprinkle of extra salt. a tsp or so. you’ve already made a good cupcake!
vanilla:
add a tablespoon (about three capfuls, if you don’t have measuring spoons) of REAL vanilla extract if you can afford it (or i really like the vanilla paste that has specks of bean in it. 10/10)
citrus:
one teaspoon (one capful) vanilla extract. two-ish teaspoons of lemon extract. zest of one lemon. zest of one orange (i like blood orange particularly much) or lime. replace 1/2 cup of the water with lemon and lime or orange juice. add about a tbsp of extra sugar.
spice:
two teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (you can see the spice in the batter without it discoloring the batter) + one tablespoon vanilla extract.
chocolate:
it’s already perfect xoxo. JUST KIDDING. add a tablespoon of vanilla extract.
instructions:
these ratios are for 24 cupcakes. take your cupcake pan and line it with cupcake papers. you can grease the top of the pan if you’re anxious, but it shouldn’t be necessary, especially if you have a nonstick pan. then just mix your batter until it’s not particularly lumpy and fill your cupcake papers about a third of the way full. a quarter cup measure is easiest for me to use bc the amount that easily comes out of it is about the right amount & it drips less than a spoon does. then i like to use a spoon to push the batter up the sides a little so it holds the fillings better.
FILLINGS
you can mix and match the hell out of these, honestly. i typically do cheesecake in everything & then fruit in vanilla or citrus cupcakes, specifically apple or cranberry in spice cupcakes, & chocolate in vanilla or chocolate cupcakes.
cheesecake:
one package softened cream cheese + 10 oz (2/3 a 14 oz can) condensed milk. stir on low heat until smooth, then add 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. DON’T add sugar. it’s not supposed to be very sweet.
fruit compote:
literally just half a cup or so of frozen or fresh fruit. i’ve done this with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cranberries, apples (fresh and cubed is best), and peaches. anything is fair game, honestly. i want to try stewed kumquats and plums at some point. if frozen, add a tiny bit of water. if fresh, add about as much water as you have fruit. squeeze some lemon and lime in there. add sugar to taste. for the apple spice mix, add another teaspoon of vanilla and a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.
IMPORTANT: you do NOT want this to be sweet. this is NOT jam. it should be a little tart when you taste it. if it’s not thick enough, slurry a tbsp of cornstarch in a little bit of cold water and stir it in. it should be thick enough to not drip off of a spoon when you turn it upside down.
ganache:
heat a cup of heavy cream on very low heat. i like to do a double boiler: saucepan half-full of water, bowl full of cream in the saucepan. when the cream is warm, stir in most of a package of dark chocolate chips. stir HARD—whisk the shit out of it. DO NOT let any of the water get into the bowl!! you want the ganache to be gloppy when you lift it with a spoon—it has to not soak into the cupcake mix.
instructions:
so you have your 1/3 full cupcake wrappers with the batter spooned a little bit up the sides. using a small kitchen spoon, drop a spoonful of cheesecake into each cupcake. then top that with a spoonful of ganache or a spoonful of fruit compote (or both! it’s your kitchen!). spoon batter over the top and down the sides. fully covered, it should come to just under the top of the cupcake wrapper—i usually have 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch grace.
pop that in the oven according to the box instructions. i usually find that cupcakes with fillings take the longer time listed, rather than the shortest one. when your time goes off, touch the top of a cupcake. if it feels firm (think: ripe plum; you can push on it and it’s soft but it doesn’t cave in), it’s probably done. you can also put a toothpick down one of the sides, rather than the middle. pull your cupcakes out of the oven, put in your second batch, and set these aside to cool.
FROSTINGS
there are two frostings that go well here. i tend to like buttercream for vanilla and citrus and cream cheese for apple spice and chocolate. your mileage may vary. this is where the sweetness comes from, without overwhelming the cupcake!
buttercream:
let two sticks of butter (one unsalted and one salted) soften on your countertop. DON’T melt them. when they’re room temperature and you could mold them with your fingers, put them in a bowl. a mixer is best for this stage, but you can do it with a whisk and spatula if you’re determined, have patience, or can switch out with someone else. whip the butter a little. add five cups of powdered sugar, a cup at a time.
for a vanilla cupcake, add a tablespoon of vanilla extract (or vanilla paste! the specks are SO cool looking!) and use heavy cream to even out the texture until you think it’s pipeable (you’re looking for “holds its shape without being Chunky”). for a citrus cupcake, add a teaspoon of citrus extract and lime juice until it’s pipeable. two sticks of butter is too much, but one stick usually isn’t quite enough, and i prefer to have extra to practice piping with.
cream cheese frosting:
let one package (8oz) of cream cheese soften on your countertop. mix it in a bowl until smooth. add about four cups (3/4 a regular water cup, i think) of powdered sugar—again, we’re looking for “pipeable without being inflexible”. add a tablespoon of vanilla extract/paste and use heavy cream if you need to soften the texture at all.
both of these frostings take coloring very well. something that i personally love is doing a sort of gradient, where i’ll add red to one side and mix it well, yellow to another side and mix it well, make some orange in the middle, and leave some white here and there. then spoon from each section into a piping bag and voila, free beautiful swirls. you can also use a knife to frost your cupcakes, but i think piping is fairly easy to pick up on if you try it a few times, and it makes your cupcakes look that much more professional.
instructions:
make SURE your cupcakes are COOL TO THE TOUCH before you frost them! pop them in the fridge if you’re in a hurry! a single layer of piping should be enough, but decorate if you want. icing sugar is pretty. don’t go too overboard with sprinkles—they make it hard to eat.
voila! cupcakes.
SUBSTITUTIONS
i have made these gluten-free, dairy-free, corn-free, vegan, etc etc. gluten free box mix is fine. your own powdered sugar (powdered sugar + tapioca starch) is great. you can do a coconut milk pudding instead of cheesecake or ganache. you can do baking soda + vinegar instead of baking powder (1/4 tsp bs + 1/2 tsp vinegar per tsp baking powder). if you’re allergic to fruit, i am SO SORRY for you but please try the chocolate ones. you can substitute any extract, any flavor profile, any combination of ingredients. if you’re using a commercial egg substitute, just add an extra 1/4 cup of it. if you’re using flaxseed, just add an extra tablespoon of flaxseed + 3 tablespoons water.
it may not come out exactly the same as the standard ones, but my friends with dietary restrictions still swear by them. i have never brought cupcakes home from a party. i don’t think anyone who’s ever tried one has not gotten a second helping. people who swear they aren’t cupcake people love these cupcakes. (it’s because they aren’t overly sweet or moist or dry and they aren’t one-note, because the fillings add complexity of texture and flavor. there you go, now you know how to describe your new cupcakes to people).
congrats! you’re about to be everyone’s favorite party guest!
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skrltwtch · 5 years
Text
Sleep Talk
Prompt: Persons A and B are cuddling on the couch together watching a movie late at night. Person B (who tends to sleep talk) falls asleep, and A doesn’t notice. B begins saying progressively weirder stuff until they finally mutter “I love you.” A internally freaks out and grabs B’s hand, then says, “I love you, too.” Person B wakes up confused and terrified because it was the first time they ever said “I love you” to each other. (Source of prompt in link at bottom of post.)
Word count: 2,026 words
Author's note: Spoilers for Wonder Woman. I also didn't quite follow the prompt to a T.
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
‘It’s movie night!’ I said in a sing-song voice upon entering the living room, fresh out of the shower and in my best jammies, a set cut from cat-printed periwinkle blue cloth. George, sadly, wasn’t wearing his matching set. Shame; I’d packed this set with the intention of us spending this iteration of a three-year-old tradition in couple jammies. That’d have been such a sight — and the Instagram story.
‘The best night of the week — which also happens to be Friday night,’ he said, grinning. He patted the space next to him. ‘Saved you a seat. Best one in the house.’
‘Thank you, my darling.’ I put down the bowl of popcorn mixed with funfetti and chocolate, a recipe I nicked off the Internet, and bottle of Coke, and joined him on the couch, its real estate reduced to fit us both as snugly as bugs in a rug by all the pillows he’d added to the living room’s already hefty count. His idea of home improvement made it difficult for me to ever want to leave this couch and live life off of it. Could I put in a request to work from home like this next week? Senior management were strong advocates of ‘flexible arrangements’ and ‘work-life balance’ after all, and none were more deserving of the latter after the week’s events than I.
‘What are you in the mood for?’
‘What are you in the mood for? It’s your turn this week to choose,’ he said.
‘I was being democratic.’
‘For once, you can pretend my opinion doesn’t matter.’
‘“For once”?’
‘Oi.’ He sank deeper into his seat.
The corners of my mouth ached from chortling a little too much at his expense. I almost choked, actually, to which he said under his breath, ‘Karma’, his face gleaming with smug glee. Fair enough.
I reached for the remote and also handed him the popcorn to keep his mouth busy while I picked our poison; I knew, too, that what he’d said about his opinion not mattering this time had to be a bluff. George? Not having an opinion about movies? The next Pope being Buddhist was far likelier. I counted myself fortunate that we had similar tastes.
So, what was I feeling this week? Last week was Ingrid Goes West, which reinforced his decision to stay the fuck away from social media and reinforced my crush on Elizabeth Olsen. It was one of the unspoken rules to not repeat genres to keep things interesting. If there were no such rule, I’d have watched the entirety of Netflix’s sci-fi thrillers, and he its dark comedies, twice over. I navigated to the superhero movies section. I wanted something loud, light, and that wasn’t too long because of the late start.
The cursor found itself on Wonder Woman. Excellent: it was familiar — this would be our second time watching; we had no compunctions about re-watching stuff on movie night, as long as it was within ‘reason’ (whatever that meant — for instance, watching Thor: Ragnarok five times was perfectly acceptable to me) — and didn’t require a tremendous amount of cerebral effort to follow. It was what the doctor ordered for capping off a long, pretty shitty week. I needed the reminder that it was possible, and worthwhile, to find hope in and remain optimistic about such a bleak, ugly world. Besides, what was more cathartic than watching a superheroine, the world’s first, doing her thing in a movie that was, for the most part, also tastefully done? I didn’t want to enter the weekend continuing feeling like shit, so I hit play without further ado.
‘Hey, don’t finish that,’ I said to George, who’d been popping fistfuls of kernels and chocolates into his mouth like there wasn’t a finite supply.
‘You were taking so long to decide.’
‘I’ve decided!’ I gestured at the Warner Bros logo that flashed on-screen.
‘I’m hungry.’ His pout signalled the being of a sulk. ‘We don’t usually start this late …’
I put down the remote and curled up next to him. Our arms made their way onto each other’s bodies: mine across his abdomen, and his over my shoulder. He took my hand and lay a soft kiss on my fingers before setting it back down on his lower stomach, where he preferred it belonged. Fine by me. I burrowed deeper into his side. His scent, fresh and a little sweet from all the candy he’d taken, provided warm solace, as always.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘It wouldn’t have if I hadn’t been made to stay late.’
His fingertips skimmed the curve of my jawline. ‘It’s okay. I was kidding. I know your manager’s a prick with no respect for other people’s time,’ he said. A finger landed on my lip; it tasted faintly of vanilla. ‘Now, shh. Movie’s started.’
For something we’d watched before, Wonder Woman continued to hold our attention. Neither of us succumbed to the temptation of checking our phones nor started conversing with each other about our day, whether the Internet would implode if Chris Pine were to ever join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, weekend plans, whatever. None of that was verboten on movie night. Our attention spans weren’t perfect, and we’d never pretend they were; and some movies, like it or not, were better enjoyed as background noise in the comfort of one’s home. Sometimes we could accomplish so much on movie nights.
‘How’d you think I’d look in that?’ George piped up during the famous No Man’s Land sequence.
‘In what?’
‘Her outfit.’
‘That’s something you could consider for next Halloween.’
He grunted.
‘I’d love to see it.’
‘I want cheese. Cheese in bread. Cheese on bread. Pizza?’
‘You can’t be that hungry.’ I patted his stomach. It emitted a loud, watery rumble.
‘’m puckish.’
‘“Peckish”?’
‘That’s what I said.’ His speech had a slurred quality to it.
‘There’s still popcorn left.’
‘Not chicken wings.’ How’d wings come into the picture? ‘Or Sprite.’
‘Gross, Sprite.’
Despite his and his stomach’s grievances, he didn’t take the popcorn or Coke, or get up to order whatever it was that he wanted. I wasn’t about to surrender the position into which I’d worked myself. Likewise, I was genuinely into Wonder Woman (I attributed that to the fatigue I felt toward all things Marvel after Endgame and my excitement for Wonder Woman 1984) to consider taking any interruptions in my stride. His stomach did stop its fussing after a while.
‘Are my Neopets dead? Is there a Neopets Heaven?’
I didn’t answer. I didn’t know how to. Because he didn’t need to know I was still on Neopets and could therefore tell him with full confidence that no, Neopets wouldn’t starve to death, and no, the concepts of death and Heaven didn’t, and would never, exist on the site because its staff continued to delude themselves about the average age of their current userbase. Look, I put in too much work on my account, which I’d had since the site’s inception, to simply let it rot in the site’s current state of virtual limbo. Actually, maybe I should come clean and reintroduce him to the site … it was getting a little lonely for little ol’ me in Neopia.
‘What do you think happens to Tamagotchi when they die?’
Okay, what the fuck.
I peeled my gaze off of Gal Gadot — a herculean task — and looked up at him. Oh, God. He really was the old man he proclaimed himself to be. I let him sleep. He, too, had had a rough week at work, and I needed him at his best for what we had planned for the weekend … which, for now, was nothing. I was planning for the both of us to work on it when Wonder Woman entered standard blockbuster fare territory! Once again, work had thrown a monkey wrench into the fine-tuned machinery that constituted our countdown to the weekend: sending texts about weekend plans to each other during office hours and bringing them to fruition once our asses found themselves out the door at six o’clock and not a second later. This was called making efficient use of our time at work. Our managers should be so proud.
George’s sleep talking soon eclipsed Wonder Woman in terms of entertainment value. Frankly, Wonder Woman lost its lustre in its third act, where the filmmakers attempted to convince the audience that Remus Lupin and the fearsome Greek god of war were one and the same. That moustache? In what universe —? The nerve of Patty Jenkins, expecting me to extend my suspension of disbelief to such lengths.
Tonight’s highlights included:
‘Fucking parrots, always stealing my hot dogs in the park.’
‘I am not eating that banana without a fork.’
‘Look, that dog is wearing a tea cosy on its head.’ (I really would’ve loved to see this.)
‘Dad’s going to regret not letting mom pursue that degree in apartment science.’
When I couldn’t resist and asked him what apartment science was: ‘You know, when an apartment and science love each other very much …’
‘Government’s come out and made sex on bicycles illegal. That is a goddamn shame.’
‘Pudding’s never hurt anyone. Not physically, not emotionally.’
I was … a little fascinated, honestly. His episodes, as moderate as their occurrences were, tended to consist of brief, simple sentences and max out at four or five. Did I need to be concerned? Or was work taking a heavier toll on him than he’d let on? That was it: our weekend was going to revolve around relaxation. The beach! Massages! Studio Ghibli on Netflix! Spending the entirety of either day in bed was a need, a must; I wouldn’t care to hear otherwise.
‘I love you.’
‘I love you, George.’ I rested my head on his chest and interlaced my fingers with his.
The realisation of what the words that’d left our lips, been said in our voices, and hung in the air above our heads, begging, screaming, to be acknowledged, were drove me to undo what I did and pause the movie. Why did that sound so … natural? Why was I even questioning this? Our relationship — what we had — wasn’t invalid because those words hadn’t been said — until now, where ‘now’ happened to be borne of a sleep talking episode. Love didn’t have an on-off switch. The things we did together, the things we did for each other, the things we did to each other, said volumes louder about what we were than those three words.
Still, it felt fucking magical.
George stirred next to me. ‘Has it ended?’
‘No.’
He snuffled. ‘Did I fall asleep?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Shit. Did you stop because I —’
How was that sentence supposed to have ended? Because he talked in his sleep? Because of what he said? Do you know what you said, and did you mean it? I wanted to ask. His recollection of what he said while unconscious was a crapshoot; at least it wasn’t convenient whenever it might suit him — like now, perhaps. And I did. I meant what I said. Come on, Y/N. Don’t sweep this under the rug. Don’t play it off as a joke. Do it. Ask him. We were adults, whether or not we liked it. I couldn’t have the weekend start on a note like this.
He pressed me closer to him. His lips brushed the top of my head. ‘I’m an idiot for not saying it sooner — or more often, and when I’m awake,’ he said. ‘I love you. I love you. I love you. It sounds divine.’
Heat danced across my cheeks. ‘It does, doesn’t it?’ Our palms touched. ‘I love you,’ I said softly. ‘I love you, George MacKay.’
I resumed the movie, both better able and more unable to focus on it now. There wasn’t much left to it. Chris Pine had long left the picture, as my interest would’ve, too, notwithstanding what’d transpired.
‘What else did I say?’
‘You wanted to know if your Neopets are dead.’
‘Oh. Well, are they? Can you help me check?’
‘Why are you asking me?’
‘I know you still play.’
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aliciamyer1 · 7 years
Text
How To Make Beer Without Hops
Any beer drinker loves a beer or two to finish off another working week. Whether it is pale ales, traditional ales or hoppy beers, or craft beers, we love a glass and a chat with friends and family. 
However, most beers are made from fresh hops and some of us love the hop flavors but can’t drink it. Whether it’s because of food sensitivity or flavor, some people are simply averse to hops. But should this mean that they don’t get to experience the fizzy goodness of a cold beer? Of course not!
Thankfully, there’s a way of brewing beer that doesn’t require hops and the technique has been around for centuries. Gruit is a drink from the Middle Ages and is almost exactly like beer, but instead of hops bittering herbs and other botanicals are used to create the fermented drink.
Best of all, since you are using herbs to make the drink, you can get added benefits from the herbs as well, giving you a drink that can be healthy, psychoactive or energizing as well as inebriating. Despite being wonderful, beer purity laws in the 1500s meant an extinction of gruit’s prevalence in the brewing process and the sketchy keeping of recipes of the times meant that their resurgence was minimal.
However, with new modern day technology, a rise in the craft brewing industry and the few discovered ancient recipes, gruit can be made today and be much better than its ancestors.
Ingredients: 
The list of potential ingredients is quite long. Yarrow, bog myrtle and wild rosemary were commonly used flavoring agents in the Middle Ages. Additionally, wormwood, sage lavender, hyssop, fennel seed, woodruff, juniper berries, heather, mugwort, ground ivy, mint, nettle, and lemon balm are also mentioned frequently and would suffice in making authentic gruit.
Some others lesser known and lesser used herbs include Labrador tea, St. John’s wort, and tart lemon grass. More wintery flavors like ginger, rosemary, clove, spruce, caraway seed, anise, nutmeg, cinnamon, licorice, hops, basil, oregano, vanilla, bay leaf, borage, coriander, various peppercorns, and tarragon could also be used.
Light and summery aromatics including dandelion, goldenrod, rose hips, chamomile, nasturtium, thyme, citrus rind, herbal and true teas, honeysuckle, elderberry and elderberry flowers could also flavor gruit. There are many other medicinal wild and common plants that can be used.
Brewing the Beer:
You brew the beer as you normally would with any homebrew but, instead of hops, you add your gruit botanicals. However, the nature of the herbs may mean that they will have to be prepared differently, in both boiling and preparation. This will affect how they flavor or enhance your brew.
You can add them at the beginning for flavoring purposes or at the end to prevent off putting flavors or loss of intensity of the flavoring agent.So, how one typically makes beer goes as follows (according to the fabulous Homebrewers Association):
1)  Make sure you have all the home brewing equipment and beer ingredients
2)  Make sure that all your equipment is squeaky clean! Bacteria can crete off flavors and spoil your beer.
3)  Bring a gallon of water to a boil in a large pot and, after removing the boiling pot from the heat, stir in your malt extract (or if following an all grain recipe, your ground malt). If using an extract, ensure that none of the solutions has collected on the bottom by stirring in thoroughly. Once dissolved, return the mixture to a boil.
4)  In regular beer brewing, this is where you would add your hops and other flavoring additives! For your hop-free beer, this is where you add your gruit botanical boil instead. Make sure to read up on each of your flavoring ingredients. Some herbs, while they may taste good in moderation, can become bitter or foul tasting with excessive heating or boiling.
5)  Boil for half an hour and you have created wort. With fermentation, this liquid will become your “hopless” beer.
6)  Allow your hot wort to partially cool. While you do this, you can fill your (clean), 5-gallon fermentation vessel halfway with cold water. Add your hot wort to the fermentation vessel.
7)  Fill up the rest of the fermentation jar with cold water and allow the solution to cool completely, to at least 70 – 75°F (21 – 24°C). Remember that yeast is alive and dropping it into boiling hot liquid will kill it. Once cool, you can add in the yeast package that came with your kit to the jar.
8)  Carefully seal your container for fermentation. You may need to provide an airlock to allow excess carbonation to escape. Give your vessel a good mix, not only to disperse the yeast but also to give it some oxygen.
9)  In the next few weeks, fermentation will occur. This essentially means the yeast is eating the sugars (which come from the malt extract) and, in turn, producing both carbonation and alcohol. Pick a place to store the container that is away from direct sunlight and has a stable temperature as fluctuations in temperature can cause off flavors.
10)  In the first week, you will likely be able to observe some bubbling; this is a sign of fermentation.
11)  After 3-4 weeks in the fermenter, your beer is ready to be packaged. Keep in mind that the yeast has now consumed most of the sugar from your beer. Some people choose to ferment further in the bottle for extra carbonation in a process called bottle fermentation. If you wish to do this, you can create a diluted sugar mix to add to your beer so that it continues to produce C02 in the bottle.
12)  Transfer your beer into a bottling bucket (any bucket large enough to hold your solution will do). Using food-grade tubing, fill your sanitized bottles all the way up to the neck.
13)  Cap the bottles and allow an extra 2-3 weeks for bottle conditioning to take place.
With this newfound knowledge on how to make hopless beer, you can create start your own batch today. However, keep in mind that the hop craze was born from the necessity of hops as a preservative.
With no preservatives and no added hops, your beer may spoil before you are accustomed to so ensure proper storage accordingly. Grab all the necessary ingredients and equipment you need and go to town. You’ll never want to buy beer from the store again!
Source: http://www.thebrewerscircle.com/how-to-make-beer-without-hops/
0 notes
patricktrimble · 7 years
Text
How To Make Beer Without Hops
Any beer drinker loves a beer or two to finish off another working week. Whether it is pale ales, traditional ales or hoppy beers, or craft beers, we love a glass and a chat with friends and family. 
However, most beers are made from fresh hops and some of us love the hop flavors but can’t drink it. Whether it’s because of food sensitivity or flavor, some people are simply averse to hops. But should this mean that they don’t get to experience the fizzy goodness of a cold beer? Of course not!
Thankfully, there’s a way of brewing beer that doesn’t require hops and the technique has been around for centuries. Gruit is a drink from the Middle Ages and is almost exactly like beer, but instead of hops bittering herbs and other botanicals are used to create the fermented drink.
Best of all, since you are using herbs to make the drink, you can get added benefits from the herbs as well, giving you a drink that can be healthy, psychoactive or energizing as well as inebriating. Despite being wonderful, beer purity laws in the 1500s meant an extinction of gruit’s prevalence in the brewing process and the sketchy keeping of recipes of the times meant that their resurgence was minimal.
However, with new modern day technology, a rise in the craft brewing industry and the few discovered ancient recipes, gruit can be made today and be much better than its ancestors.
Ingredients: 
The list of potential ingredients is quite long. Yarrow, bog myrtle and wild rosemary were commonly used flavoring agents in the Middle Ages. Additionally, wormwood, sage lavender, hyssop, fennel seed, woodruff, juniper berries, heather, mugwort, ground ivy, mint, nettle, and lemon balm are also mentioned frequently and would suffice in making authentic gruit.
Some others lesser known and lesser used herbs include Labrador tea, St. John’s wort, and tart lemon grass. More wintery flavors like ginger, rosemary, clove, spruce, caraway seed, anise, nutmeg, cinnamon, licorice, hops, basil, oregano, vanilla, bay leaf, borage, coriander, various peppercorns, and tarragon could also be used.
Light and summery aromatics including dandelion, goldenrod, rose hips, chamomile, nasturtium, thyme, citrus rind, herbal and true teas, honeysuckle, elderberry and elderberry flowers could also flavor gruit. There are many other medicinal wild and common plants that can be used.
Brewing the Beer:
You brew the beer as you normally would with any homebrew but, instead of hops, you add your gruit botanicals. However, the nature of the herbs may mean that they will have to be prepared differently, in both boiling and preparation. This will affect how they flavor or enhance your brew.
You can add them at the beginning for flavoring purposes or at the end to prevent off putting flavors or loss of intensity of the flavoring agent.So, how one typically makes beer goes as follows (according to the fabulous Homebrewers Association):
1)  Make sure you have all the home brewing equipment and beer ingredients
2)  Make sure that all your equipment is squeaky clean! Bacteria can crete off flavors and spoil your beer.
3)  Bring a gallon of water to a boil in a large pot and, after removing the boiling pot from the heat, stir in your malt extract (or if following an all grain recipe, your ground malt). If using an extract, ensure that none of the solutions has collected on the bottom by stirring in thoroughly. Once dissolved, return the mixture to a boil.
4)  In regular beer brewing, this is where you would add your hops and other flavoring additives! For your hop-free beer, this is where you add your gruit botanical boil instead. Make sure to read up on each of your flavoring ingredients. Some herbs, while they may taste good in moderation, can become bitter or foul tasting with excessive heating or boiling.
5)  Boil for half an hour and you have created wort. With fermentation, this liquid will become your “hopless” beer.
6)  Allow your hot wort to partially cool. While you do this, you can fill your (clean), 5-gallon fermentation vessel halfway with cold water. Add your hot wort to the fermentation vessel.
7)  Fill up the rest of the fermentation jar with cold water and allow the solution to cool completely, to at least 70 – 75°F (21 – 24°C). Remember that yeast is alive and dropping it into boiling hot liquid will kill it. Once cool, you can add in the yeast package that came with your kit to the jar.
8)  Carefully seal your container for fermentation. You may need to provide an airlock to allow excess carbonation to escape. Give your vessel a good mix, not only to disperse the yeast but also to give it some oxygen.
9)  In the next few weeks, fermentation will occur. This essentially means the yeast is eating the sugars (which come from the malt extract) and, in turn, producing both carbonation and alcohol. Pick a place to store the container that is away from direct sunlight and has a stable temperature as fluctuations in temperature can cause off flavors.
10)  In the first week, you will likely be able to observe some bubbling; this is a sign of fermentation.
11)  After 3-4 weeks in the fermenter, your beer is ready to be packaged. Keep in mind that the yeast has now consumed most of the sugar from your beer. Some people choose to ferment further in the bottle for extra carbonation in a process called bottle fermentation. If you wish to do this, you can create a diluted sugar mix to add to your beer so that it continues to produce C02 in the bottle.
12)  Transfer your beer into a bottling bucket (any bucket large enough to hold your solution will do). Using food-grade tubing, fill your sanitized bottles all the way up to the neck.
13)  Cap the bottles and allow an extra 2-3 weeks for bottle conditioning to take place.
With this newfound knowledge on how to make hopless beer, you can create start your own batch today. However, keep in mind that the hop craze was born from the necessity of hops as a preservative.
With no preservatives and no added hops, your beer may spoil before you are accustomed to so ensure proper storage accordingly. Grab all the necessary ingredients and equipment you need and go to town. You’ll never want to buy beer from the store again!
Source: http://www.thebrewerscircle.com/how-to-make-beer-without-hops/
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thebrewerscircle · 7 years
Text
How To Make Beer Without Hops
Any beer drinker loves a beer or two to finish off another working week. Whether it is pale ales, traditional ales or hoppy beers, or craft beers, we love a glass and a chat with friends and family. 
However, most beers are made from fresh hops and some of us love the hop flavors but can’t drink it. Whether it’s because of food sensitivity or flavor, some people are simply averse to hops. But should this mean that they don’t get to experience the fizzy goodness of a cold beer? Of course not!
Thankfully, there’s a way of brewing beer that doesn’t require hops and the technique has been around for centuries. Gruit is a drink from the Middle Ages and is almost exactly like beer, but instead of hops bittering herbs and other botanicals are used to create the fermented drink.
Best of all, since you are using herbs to make the drink, you can get added benefits from the herbs as well, giving you a drink that can be healthy, psychoactive or energizing as well as inebriating. Despite being wonderful, beer purity laws in the 1500s meant an extinction of gruit's prevalence in the brewing process and the sketchy keeping of recipes of the times meant that their resurgence was minimal.
However, with new modern day technology, a rise in the craft brewing industry and the few discovered ancient recipes, gruit can be made today and be much better than its ancestors.
Ingredients: 
The list of potential ingredients is quite long. Yarrow, bog myrtle and wild rosemary were commonly used flavoring agents in the Middle Ages. Additionally, wormwood, sage lavender, hyssop, fennel seed, woodruff, juniper berries, heather, mugwort, ground ivy, mint, nettle, and lemon balm are also mentioned frequently and would suffice in making authentic gruit.
Some others lesser known and lesser used herbs include Labrador tea, St. John’s wort, and tart lemon grass. More wintery flavors like ginger, rosemary, clove, spruce, caraway seed, anise, nutmeg, cinnamon, licorice, hops, basil, oregano, vanilla, bay leaf, borage, coriander, various peppercorns, and tarragon could also be used.
Light and summery aromatics including dandelion, goldenrod, rose hips, chamomile, nasturtium, thyme, citrus rind, herbal and true teas, honeysuckle, elderberry and elderberry flowers could also flavor gruit. There are many other medicinal wild and common plants that can be used.
Brewing the Beer:
You brew the beer as you normally would with any homebrew but, instead of hops, you add your gruit botanicals. However, the nature of the herbs may mean that they will have to be prepared differently, in both boiling and preparation. This will affect how they flavor or enhance your brew.
You can add them at the beginning for flavoring purposes or at the end to prevent off putting flavors or loss of intensity of the flavoring agent.So, how one typically makes beer goes as follows (according to the fabulous Homebrewers Association):
1)  Make sure you have all the home brewing equipment and beer ingredients
2)  Make sure that all your equipment is squeaky clean! Bacteria can crete off flavors and spoil your beer.
3)  Bring a gallon of water to a boil in a large pot and, after removing the boiling pot from the heat, stir in your malt extract (or if following an all grain recipe, your ground malt). If using an extract, ensure that none of the solutions has collected on the bottom by stirring in thoroughly. Once dissolved, return the mixture to a boil.
4)  In regular beer brewing, this is where you would add your hops and other flavoring additives! For your hop-free beer, this is where you add your gruit botanical boil instead. Make sure to read up on each of your flavoring ingredients. Some herbs, while they may taste good in moderation, can become bitter or foul tasting with excessive heating or boiling.
5)  Boil for half an hour and you have created wort. With fermentation, this liquid will become your “hopless” beer.
6)  Allow your hot wort to partially cool. While you do this, you can fill your (clean), 5-gallon fermentation vessel halfway with cold water. Add your hot wort to the fermentation vessel.
7)  Fill up the rest of the fermentation jar with cold water and allow the solution to cool completely, to at least 70 – 75°F (21 – 24°C). Remember that yeast is alive and dropping it into boiling hot liquid will kill it. Once cool, you can add in the yeast package that came with your kit to the jar.
8)  Carefully seal your container for fermentation. You may need to provide an airlock to allow excess carbonation to escape. Give your vessel a good mix, not only to disperse the yeast but also to give it some oxygen.
9)  In the next few weeks, fermentation will occur. This essentially means the yeast is eating the sugars (which come from the malt extract) and, in turn, producing both carbonation and alcohol. Pick a place to store the container that is away from direct sunlight and has a stable temperature as fluctuations in temperature can cause off flavors.
10)  In the first week, you will likely be able to observe some bubbling; this is a sign of fermentation.
11)  After 3-4 weeks in the fermenter, your beer is ready to be packaged. Keep in mind that the yeast has now consumed most of the sugar from your beer. Some people choose to ferment further in the bottle for extra carbonation in a process called bottle fermentation. If you wish to do this, you can create a diluted sugar mix to add to your beer so that it continues to produce C02 in the bottle.
12)  Transfer your beer into a bottling bucket (any bucket large enough to hold your solution will do). Using food-grade tubing, fill your sanitized bottles all the way up to the neck.
13)  Cap the bottles and allow an extra 2-3 weeks for bottle conditioning to take place.
With this newfound knowledge on how to make hopless beer, you can create start your own batch today. However, keep in mind that the hop craze was born from the necessity of hops as a preservative.
With no preservatives and no added hops, your beer may spoil before you are accustomed to so ensure proper storage accordingly. Grab all the necessary ingredients and equipment you need and go to town. You’ll never want to buy beer from the store again!
Source: http://www.thebrewerscircle.com/how-to-make-beer-without-hops/
0 notes
allinetonishask · 8 years
Text
The (Not So Wonderful) Scent of Spring
One morning, as I waited for my teapot to boil, I checked my phone and saw a frantic text from a student whose dog surprised a skunk during his early pre-breakfast romp in the backyard.  Poor Sully learned the hard way that sometimes curiosity gets you into trouble.
Every year, after even a few days of warm, pre-spring weather, forest creatures (who may have been absent during the cold winter), start to emerge.  This is “Skunk Time” (like “Hammer Time” but a lot less fun), and if you’ve ever had a dog who’s had a close encounter with a skunk, you already know how hard it is to get rid of the smell!  Forget tomato juice (because it doesn’t actually remove the smell, it can leave your dog smelling like a tomato, and, if your dog shakes off while you’re applying it, your bathroom will look like a scene from a horror movie!)  Instead, use this, a tried and true recipe to de-skunk your dog:
What you’ll need:
A fresh, unopened bottle of 3%Hydrogen Peroxide (at least 2 quarts – more for larger dogs)
Baking soda (a fresh box, not the one that’s been in the freezer for a month!)
Dishwashing detergent (Dawn works best which is why it’s used to clean animals contaminated after an ocean oil spill).
Mineral Oil
Eyedropper (the type used to give medicine to a baby)
Saline solution (pure saline, not the kind with cleaning agents used for contacts)
Empty soda bottle
Latex Gloves
Patience, patience, and more patience
What to do:
Limit the contamination: Skunk spray is an oil containing mercaptan, a very foul-smelling substance that is added to dangerous, odorless gases, so we notice them.  Wetting your dog or allowing him in the house after he’s been sprayed increases the risk of spreading the nightmare.  Have someone stay with your dog outside, or, move his crate to the yard (or in the garage) while you prepare what you’ll need.  As for you, this is the point I would “glove up” and get into some old clothes that you won’t mind parting with (forever) later……
Protect the eyes, nose, and mouth: Flush the eyes with saline for several seconds and then use an eye dropper to put the mineral oil directly into the eye.  This will not only have a soothing effect, it will also protect the eyes from the skunk removing mixture.  For the nose and mouth, wipe the, with a paper towel or cotton ball soaked in saline.
Absorb the oil: Using paper towels press the towels against the dog’s fur to dog remove as much oil as possible. Be careful not just to use one piece and rub it all over, as it will spread the oil. This step will also help you discover what areas have the most damage so you can be sure to use extra solution in that area. Notice that I said “paper” and not “bath” towels.  That’s because if you use a bath towel, you can pretty much kiss goodbye ever using it on anything you value.  There’s a slim chance that by washing it (and any other clothing/fabric that made contact with your skunked dog) with vinegar and baking soda
Mix the magic potion in the empty bottle
1 quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide (new, unopened bottle)
¼  cup of baking soda
1-2 teaspoons of liquid soap (most people use Dawn)
 This bottle must stay open throughout the process because if you put the cap on it, there’s a strong probability that an explosion will occur. That will lead to a far wilder situation than the one that you currently are dealing with, so please, keep the lid off.
Apply: Most dogs get sprayed in the face, so be sure to saturate each area completely. Cotton balls work well, especially around the eyes. Allow the solution to soak in for 5 minutes, then rinse well and follow with regular shampoo. Don’t forget to soak your dog’s collar in the magic solution as well.  When you’re done, pour whatever’s left down the drain.
Now that you’ve completed the hardest part, you can focus on making your house smell better. Vanilla candles and bowls of white vinegar in the house will help dissipate the odor.  You can also soak cotton balls with vanilla extract and place them around the house (obviously where your dog can’t reach them unless you want “vet visit” added to your ‘Things I Have To Do That I Never Planned On Doing” list today!)
If all of that sounds dandy, but way more than you’d like to handle, do what Sully’s owner did and call our grooming shop – Kathy Santo’s Pet*A*Groom.  They have lots of experience making even the “skunkiest” dog smell fresh as a daisy!
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