rejuvelac question

[alicemagooey]

Hello again,all.
One of my first forays into the world of fermentation was making
rejuvelac.

i did this for some time..

I just recieved my BOOK "WILD FERMENTATION", which i am devouring, as
i am devouring my first batch of pickled cucumbers/kale and chard. ...
(only three days old..am trying to use self dicipline here).. ( i
posted my recipe in an earlier post and many of you kindly responded)

back to the REJUVELAC question.:

recently, i experimented with making rejuvelac again.
Every time i made it, unlike times previously , every batch really
stank (smelled foul).

I just checked in the book "Wild Fermentation" and i used exactly the
recipe
sandor mentioned. He did not mention temperature.

I went back to some previous posts at this forum, and a Mr Gopal gave
some good temperature guidelines.

Would too high a temperature be the main cause of this rank smelling
rejuvelac.
or would grains of wheat ( i used soft , spring wheat, as called for )
which had been cut into smaller pieces, ie. integrity of whole grain
compromised, be a possible cause of more foul fermentation?

I had to stop making it.
when i used to make the rejuvelac brew, it smelled and tasted rather
lemony.
no more.

I did some further research into the topic and found that a Dr Ann
Wigmore,( who made rejuvelac more popular in the USA,,) the groups
which followed in promoting the health benefits of greens and living
foods, per her past direction, stopped serving and recommending
rejuvelac at all in their clinics and elsewhere.
They sent many samples to a laboratory, and a percentage of them were
harbouring very bad and not beneficial bacteria.

So how good is rejuvelac, and how can we ensure that our personal
home made batches do not attract bad bugs., and non beneficial
bacteria.

thank you in advance, should you choose to respond
alice

[Gopal Sharma]

Hi Alice,

 

Let's come to the rejuvelac topic immediately. It is definitely the temperature higher than 80F which causes stinking. I have established this fact in my experiments on rejuvelac. I love rejuvelac for its taste and nutrition value. I consume it daily about a cup an hour before two main meals. Let me guide you how to make it.

 

1.   Sprout a cup and a half (360 ml) wheat berries till the shoots are about half an inch long. Be careful that the sprouts are very appetising in flavour. This is very critical since any misstep will spoil the sprouts. The sprouting machine is not essential and careful scientific handling will do the magic. Let me know if you want to know how I do it.

 

2. Put the rinsed sprouts in a one gallon wide mouthed jar. This will occupy slightly less than one fourth height (space) of the jar. Don't pound the berries into small pieces. 

You gave me the apt words "Integrity of the whole grains compromised, be a possible cause of more foul fermentation". It is very true. Fermenting the whole berries and not the broken pieces or say a coarse pulp is the secret. 

 

3. Add further 1 inch piece of fresh ginger thinly sliced, a 1 inch piece of onion with outer skin intact and two tablespoonfuls of sea salt or kosher salt. Never use the iodised salt. It inhibits fermentation.

 

4. Fill the jar with cold water at about 65-70 F up to about an inch from the top.

 

5. Cover the jar completely with a coloured cloth and put in a dark corner of the room. The temperature of the room should be about 75 F but not exceeding 80 F.  

 

6. In case the room temperature can't be maintained at 75 F round the clock or for some hours for non-availability of air conditioning, there is a very simple way of achieving it still for the rejuvelac mass as follows.

             

Place the jar in a tray with a clear space of about 3 inches around. Take a thick cloth napkin of size big enough to wrap around the jar its full height. Drench it completely in water and squeeze to remove the extra suspended water. Flutter it in the air a few times and it will be cooled by water evaporation.Wrap the cool wet napkin around the jar it's full height and to touch the tray. Fill the tray with water up to an inch depth. This water in the tray will rise to the wet napkin by capillary action and keep it wet and cool. The napkin and the jar will remain cool because of evaporative cooling effect. This is the same principle on which the desert cooler works for space cooling. As the water evaporates, it can be made up at times. Now stir the entire mass gently and cover the mouth of the jar with a small cloth. Secure it with a rubber band in position. 

 

I may tell you that I use this quite often. It is very simple, cheap and effective. I use this even in fruit wine making during primary as well as secondary fermentation. The results are wonderful always.

 

I feel bad about the controversy on benefits of rejuvelac. I and my friends have been using it for a long time with wonderful results. We are hale and hearty, without any disease. We don't require any medicines. We follow MACROBIOTIC cooking. When sprouts are good, when fermentation is good, when fermented pickles are good, when wine (pomegranate wine especially) is good then why not REJUVELAC. 

 

So alice go ahead and be in bliss.

 

Gopal

[alicemagooey]

Thank you, thank you , dear Gopal,

for your kind words of peace, and for your wonderful explanation of
rejuvelac making principles.

I am going to copy and print it and put it in my kitchen.

You answered ALL the questions and queries i had been making to myself
lately, expecially now that i am learning more about PROPER
fermentation techniques of different things.

I just used to make and use rejuvelac occasionally, because i heard
that there were many health benefits.
But i had problems, occasionally, which is why i gave it up.

But now that i have read some of the posts at this GOOGLE GROUP/Wild
fermentation,, specifically one of Ross's , which i read a couple days
ago where he said that 'salt inhibits many harmful bugs'..

well, i wondered immediately why on earth i had not put salt in my
rejuvelac.?? That would no doubt have kept the foul bugs at bay !!

YOUR POST perfectly answered all my questions..Now i WILL add salt.!
(the ginger will add a lovely touch , also )

i am happily looking foreward to making rejuvelac the CORRECT
WAY..now.

I will go through the berries first to ensure that there are no broken
bits, then rinse them and allow them to grow to half inch length, and
will continue on with your superbly written instructions..

many many thanks.
i was rather hoping you would respond to my question, as you seem to
have a good deal of rejuvelac-specific experience.

( good information about cooling methods, also..Thank you.)

best wishes,thanks,
peace ,and happiness to you also
alice

[Gopal Sharma]

Dear Alice,

 

I want to continue with my previous description of rejuvelac making.

 

After you covered the mouth of the jar, keep it in a dark corner. Wait for 24 hours and taste and smell the contents. There may be just a little change. Now stir the mass gently about twice a day. In about next two days you may get  very appetising smell and taste. Don't hesitate to examine it every day. Once the taste and flavour are of your liking, strain the mass to the extent that the sprouts just remain submerged in the liquid. This little liquid serves as a starter for the second batch. Fill the rejuvelac in bottles and put inside the  refrigerator. The caps should be just loose to let any gases inside to escape. Fish out the ginger slices and the onion piece if you want to use them as pickle. So your first batch of about 3 litres of rejuverac is ready. Now for the second batch, add ginger slices, salt and water as before over the drained berries in the jar. Proceed as before. After draining the second batch of about 3 litres, fish out the ginger slices and onion piece if you need them as pickle and throw away the sprouts on your flower beds to be used as compost.

 

ECONOMY : Out of one and a half cup (360 ml.) of wheat berries you get 24 cups (6 litres) of REJUVELAC. Or to say that 16 quarts of REJUVELAC from 1 quart of wheat berries.

 

[alicemagooey]

QUESTIONS: HELP, Please... i had some questions..
THE SPECIFIC QUESTIONS ARE BELOW WITH ASTERISKS BEFORE THEM
(like this ****)

DEAR GOPAL:

you said:
1. Sprout a cup and a half (360 ml) wheat berries till the shoots
are
about half an inch long. Be careful that the sprouts are very
appetising in
flavour.

MY QUESTION:
***HOW does a person test a few sprouts to see if they taste ok.
if there is a bad taste, is that a bad batch of wheat.?

you said further:

" and careful scientific handling will do
the magic. Let me know if you want to know how I do it. "

MY QUESTION: I guess i had better ask you
****how to do it.!! (YOU ASKED ME TO ASK YOU WHAT THE SCIENTIFIC
HANDLING MAGIC IS ..)
****what is the 'scientific handling magic'???

you said further:

2. Put the rinsed sprouts in a one gallon wide mouthed jar.

MY QUESTION;
*****can i rinse with distilled water?

MY next QUESTION; one quarter jar full of berries always seemed like
SO MUCH.
****are all those berries are necessary ???

my next QUESTION; i want to add ginger, but not onion,
****is onion necessary for some reason.?

my last QUESTION; regarding: you said you get 24 cups of rejuvelac.

****does that mean you strain about ten cups from batch #1, leaving
about two cups with the wheat? and then strain about 14 cups from the
second and last batch.?

*****how big are your rejuvelac bottles (not the gallon jar you use
for your batch making)

hope this is ok.. you said to ask.!!

many many thanks
alice

[Gopal Sharma]

Dear Alice,

 

Don't you think giving without expectations is always a pleasure nay bliss? It is a divine TRUTH. So please never hesitate to ask and let me have this bliss as much as I can.

 

The answers are as follows.

 

1.  Good sprouts will smell sweet, taste sweet. Bad stinking smell means the sprouting has been defective, Not necessarily that the wheat quality is bad.

 

I will send you the sprouting method in my next post soon. 

 

2. Yes you can rinse with distilled water but for rejuvelac body distilled water is not preferred. Use normal unchlorinated water.

 

One quarter jar full of berries means the sprouted ones which is an outcome of one and a half cup of original wheat berries. The berries take up about 2 times water to turn into sprouts. So it will be 360ml. plus 360x2=720ml. totaling to 1080 ml. i.e about a quarter of the 1 gallon jar.

 

The berries are not too much. You get about 3 litres of rejuvelac from them. Consuming about two cups a day, this will suffice for 6 days only for one person.

 

You may avoid onion if you like but it contributes towards starting  fermentation and adding a distinct appetising flavour. 

 

Strain the entire liquid leaving just half a cup to serve as starter for the second batch. You may get about 11.5 cups of rejuvelac, In the second batch you will get the balance to make the total yield of about 24 cups.

 

My rejuvelac bottles are 2 litres and 1 litre capacity. They are food grade plastic ones. Every batch fills one of 2 litres and one of 1 litre.

[Gopal Sharma]

Dear Alice,

 

Following is the simple way of sprouting.

 

Try the following simple way and it will never go wrong.

You don't require an EasySprouter here. Soak the grains in ample water
at 60 - 90F

for not more than 8 hours and keep in a room at not higher than 90F. It
will otherwise start

fermenting and show foam at the surface. This must be avoided.

Drain and rinse the grains in running water at least three times. Take a
cotton cloth say a cotton napkin. Wet it in water thoroughly and
squeeze/wring to remove any suspended water. Wrap the grains in this
cloth. Put this wrap in a suitable size soup seeve and overlap the
corners of the cloth. The grains should not be visible. Now rest this
seeve over a stainless steel or opaque plastic bowl. The size of the
bowl should be much smaller than of the seeve so that the bottom of the
seeve does not touch the bottom of the bowl. The ring of the seeve will
project out of the ring of the bowl. You may realise this allows perfect
breathing for the grains which is so essential for sprouting. Place this
combination in a room at70 to 85F. It must not be under any fan or air
draft. Because of cloth the grains will keep wet and cool for a long
time. You may rinse after 8 hours. Wash the cloth also in plain water
and repeat the process. You will be wondering that I have always seen
the sprouts even in first 12 hours and the final product is delicious.

You will realise that the entire set up is very scientific. The bowl and
the cloth prevent any light penetration into the mass. It is an
important requirement for sprouting. Further the wet cloth maintains
moisture and cools the mass by evaporative cooling also sometimes called
desert cooling. And also the grains can breathe properly.

Let me know if you have some individual specific questions.

Gopal

 

On 8/23/07, alicemagooey <alice....@gmail.com> wrote:

[alice magooey]

great instructions with good detail and clear as glass.
many thanks, Gopal
stay blissful!
alice