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The Wildcrafting Brewer
Fermenting a Beverage Representing an Environment
Over the years I’ve developed a sort o methodology or creating brews based on specific locations. It works or whole environments such as “the Mountains” or smaller ones like “Gloria’s Goat Farm in the Mountains.”I basically do three things: 1. Survey the area. 2. Establish the flavor characteristics. 3. Determine the “essence” o a place.Surveying is pretty easy: ake hikes and observe what is growing and living in that area. You can observe, take notes and lots o photos, then, once you’re back home, research what you ound through books, online plant identification groups, websites, and so on. Tere are usually a lot o such plant identification groups or photos o local flora (with names) on social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and so on. Once you have the Latin name o a plant, it’s much easier to research it. Always make sure it’s okay to collect plants at your site, and always check whether a plant is protected or rare; in such cases it’s much better to work with local native plant nurseries than to collect rom the wild.Te more hikes you take, the better. In the beginning you may notice all the minute details o a place and which specific plants, mushrooms, trees, and herbs grow there. Afer a while, and once you know the place well, you’ll develop a sense o its base flavors. For example, the closest orest to my home is mainly composed o interesting bitter or aromatic plants and trees such as Caliornia sagebrush, mugwort, horehound, black sage, yerba santa, and alder and willow trees, but it has interesting ruity components as well, with eral fig trees and Mexican elder (elderberries) nearby.Tinking about the type o drinks you want to create may add some ocus to your quest. For beer, I’m very interested in those bitter and aro-matic herbs, plants, or barks. For wines or sodas, I ocus more on the ruits, berries, and aromatic plants. You can create several different types o drinks rom the same location, each one being a different creative interpretation o that environment.Once you’re surveyed the area and established its main flavor character-istics, here comes the magic.Te next step in grasping the essence o an environment is a bit unusual: Forget everything you’ve learned—let it go and clear your mind . . .Be Zen! Stop the constant flow o thoughts in your head, orget the lists o plants you’ve made, and put the camera aside. Sit down and just be there. Become one with the environment; let it speak to all your senses: sight,
Sugar, Molasses, and Syrup-Based Beers
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hearing, touch, smell, and taste. It’s very much like meditation. Not only is the experience extremely therapeutic in our modern world, but letting the environment talk to you is probably the best way to eel and comprehend its intrinsic qualities and sacredness. It’s extremely spiritual. Ten, and only then, can you start the process o interpretation and creation through drinks.By letting a place talk to you, you’ll pick up the subtle notes, the intricate blends or accents you missed beore. Tat hint o sweetness you smell may tell you to add a bit o those manzanita berries or a touch o wild ennel to your brew.My riend Gloria has a goat arm in the local mountains, and it’s all about pinyon pine with sagebrush accents. In the same location or nearby, you can find white fir, manzanita berries, elderberries, scrub oaks, coffee berries, Mormon tea (
Ephedra californica
, not the plant rom Asia used or weight loss), Caliornia juniper berries, and yarrow. Within a 10-minute drive, mugwort is also abundant.Overall, though, the essence is definitely pinyon pine and sagebrush. Pinyon is probably my avorite pine. Munch on a needle and you get very interesting tangerine/lemon/pine accents. In my opinion, the best flavors are actually in the branches, so I usually brew with whole small branches and not just needles.Locally, mountain colors are blue (rom the sky) then green and tan. Te greens are quite muted. Te tans come rom various desert plants, while dirt and rocks can turn a muddy red in some locations.I experience a lot o emotions in the mountains, including a sense o reedom and space. I seem to be floating above it all. I I had to convey those eelings and colors into a beer, I would make it light, not too alco-holic, and give it amber or reddish colors. Te bitterness would come rom yarrow, and undertones would come rom pinyon pine or white fir. I might add some Caliornia sycamore bark to lend it some reddish accents. o add some lemony flavors, I would use some o the bigberry manzanita (
Arcto- staphylos glauca
) available on the property; the dry skins o the berries have some definite sour qualities.O course, the beer would change with the seasons. In summer I would make it more floral with some elderflowers and add some young Caliornia juniper berries or extra zing. In winter, when the pines have less flavor, I might add some local oak bark and older white fir needles, which, or me, convey a sense o maturity and timelessness.Te recipe you create and how you mix the ingredients are part o inter- preting the essence o place. It’s really something personal, and there is nothing wrong i you add ruits, spices, and other flavorul herbs, barks, or
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The Wildcrafting Brewer
Local forest: bitter (mugwort, horehound, alder, willow, sagebrush). Wise and complex (oak). Sweetness (figs, elderberries). Decomposing soil, fall leaves, mushrooms. Hints of fennel. Humid, dark, trails, streams. Green flavors (grass, chickweed, miner’s lettuce). Solitude, birds, cold (winter).