Fuhmentaboudit!

Today on Fuhmentaboudit!, Mary and Chris are joined in the studio by Stephen Valand, a long-time fermenter. "We just wanted to kind of do what we did with beer with the rest of food", Valand says of Farm Steady, a company which like Brooklyn Brew Shop helps customers make their own ingredients at home with special kits. All you need for "the best ricotta I've ever tasted", for instance, is milk, citric acid, salt, and less than an hour.

Today on Fuhmentaboudit!, Mary and Chris are away at the Westchester Homebrewers Organization. But, hustlers as they are, they put together a few in-the-field interviews with beer-makers all over New York, from Astoria Distilling Company and KCBC Beer to Rockaway Brew Co. and Strong Rope Brewery.

This week on Fuhmentaboudit, Mary Izett brings us more clips from Homebrew Con in Baltimore. Topics include how to brew beer in the middle of a heat wave, banana-flavored disasters, and great brewing accessories you might want to put on your wishlist.

Today on Fuhmentaboudit!, Sean Z. Paxton of homebrewchef.com joins us (again!) to talk about cooking with beer. We cover everything from smoked garbanzo bean couscous with witbier to beer jams and sorbets (and don't forget about the chocolate stout pastry cream). We also bring you a special investigation into what the "Z" in Sean Z. Paxton stands for.

An interview with Olivier Dedeycker of Brasserie Dupont and Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey Brewery, on their collaboration beer Deux Amis. Plus, a seasonal check-in with Rob Handel of Bee's Knees about what summer ferments you can make.

After a whirlwind of a time at Homebrew Con in Baltimore last week, Mary and Chris are back in the studio to bring you bits of wisdom from some of the seminar organizers! Topics include mapping a beer-brewing yeast's genome, home-brewed kombucha, and bringing consistency to the sudsy stuff you make at home.

Are you for real? Chris and Mary brought their listeners a souvenir from Iceland: cool info about the craft beer scene! Valgeir Valgeirsson of Borg Brugghús (brew house), and Steinn Stefánsson & the crew from the Icelandic Beer Academy talk Icelandic hops, sap, skyr, and cool collaborations. Emphasis on the cool.

Mead pioneer Sergio Moutela calls in to talk to us about the challenges and rewards of opening a meadery in New Jersey. The Garden State makes it tricky to ferment honey on a large scale; unlike other states, it doesn't count meaderies as a type of winery for registration purposes and has some acreage requirements. Along the way, we talk about "apple pie in a glass" and the basics of making a delicious mead. Pro tip: go for the quality honey. Melovino Meadery's award-winning products are available in New York State starting today (and they're coming to NYC soon). Budding mead brewers can find useful resources at meadmaderight.com and mead-makers.org.

On this week's episode of Fuhmentaboudit!, hosts Mary, Chris, and Rachel are joined in the studio by Lana Guggenheim of Noah's Vice Meadery. Mead is essentially wine made with honey, and Lana has been brewing her own for about three years now. She is one half of Noah's Vice Meadery in New Jersey, the name of which refers to certain events depicted in the Book of Genesis. Tune in for this "official unofficial" Mead Week edition of...Fuhmentaboudit!

It’s a brewerpalooza! Chris and Mary head off to the Blind Tiger to talk about the Beer Camp collaboration project: brewers from Sierra Nevada, Odell, Bear Republic, and more are being set up into supergroups to make even better beers than they could on their own. Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head) and Brian Grossman (Sierra Nevada) talk about this craft brewing project, what made it come about, and where you, the listener and consumer, can participate, support, and try the brews yourself! Also, after the break, Chris reunites with old friends at the Craft Brewer’s Conference: Julia Herz (Brewer’s Association), David Myers (Redstone Meadery), Jimmy Stockwell, and Sean White (Littlefish) talk about the state of craft beer and wines in New York and the USA.

This week on Fuhmentaboudit!, Mary, Chris, and Rachel are joined in the studio by Derek Dellinger, brewmaster at Kent Falls Brewing Company, and author of The Fermented Man, which is due out in July. The book is a chronicle of Derek's year of fermentation, in which he ate only fermented foods for the entire year of 2014. Derek is also the author of the homebrew and craft beer blog www.bear-flavored.com, a contributing writer to Upstate Brew York magazine, and a homebrew advisor to Beacon Homebrew, a homebrew shop supplying the Hudson Valley region.

On the spring season premiere of Fuhmentaboudit!, Mary, Chris, and Rachel catch up on last weekend's TAP New York Craft Beer and Food Festival, Rachel's sima recipe for Passover, the Ferment! Ferment! festival, Chris and Mary's upcoming trip to Iceland, the importance of taking pH readings, and Mary's packed fermenting schedule for the spring!

This week on Fuhmentaboudit!, we’re joined via phone by Marie Valgarðsson and Eyglo Björk Ólafsdóttir in Iceland! Marie Valgarðsson been very interested in all aspects of Icelandic life ever since she moved there with her Icelandic husband nearly nine years ago. She has written dozens of articles on how Icelandic food and culture is changing rapidly. Eyglo Björk Ólafsdóttir is the owner of an organic farm in east Iceland, one of the few in the country, and is well versed in the traditional methods of fermentation.

On this week's episode of Fuhmentaboudit!, our guest in the studio is Rob Handel, the executive chef at Bees Knees Café, a farm to table cafe located on Heather Ridge Farm. In addition to weekly brunch and lunch offerings, they organize a monthly "Supper Club," which is a five or six course tasting dinner. Rob has a passion for seasonal, locally grown, and foraged produce, herbs, and flavors. He also teaches monthly cooking classes that aim to provide a technique based approach to cooking that is accessible to cooks of all skill levels.

On this week's episode of Fuhmentaboudit!, Chris and Rachel are joined in the studio by Dan Acosta and of LIC Beer Project, a boutique craft brewery and taphouse in Long Island City, Queens. Tune in to hear them discuss their Belgian influences, and what they have in store for beer lovers in Queens and beyond.

This week's episode of Fuhmentaboudit! is all about beer! At the top of the show, Mary, Chris, and Rachel check in with Andrew Luberto, who is running for Northeast Representative on the board of directors of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), a non-profit organization that certifies and ranks beer judges. For the rest of the show, they are joined in the studio by Mike Smith, co-author of The Comic Book Story of Beer: The World's Favorite Beverage from 7000 BC to Today's Craft Brewing Revolution. Tune in to hear them discuss how there's no greater time in history to be a beer drinker or beer brewer, and why it's only getting better!

On this week’s episode of Fuhmentaboudit!, Mary and Rachel get out of the studio to observe some fermentation right at the source. In the first half of the show, they catch up with Brian Kulbacki at Departed Soles Brewing Company in New Jersey. After the break, they make a stop at Allagash’s Saison Day at Three’s Brewing in Brooklyn.

On this week’s episode of Fuhmentaboudit!, Mary, and Rachel chat with Tony Limuaco about starters and sourdough bread. Tony is also the brains behind Kimcheelicious, a project that explores innovative ways of combining traditional Asian fermented foods with the way we Americans cook and eat.

On this week’s edition of Fuhmentaboudit!, our hosts welcome Shea Comfort (aka “The Yeast Whisperer”), head winemaker for Olin Wines and prolific home brewer. Tune in for a crash course in all things yeast! “All these different bacterias and things that are available, you have to try all [of them] because they’re not the same.” [48:00] – Shea Comfort  

This week on Fuhmentaboudit!, Jason Sahler joins Chris and guest host Rachel Jacobs in the studio to chat about Strong Rope Brewery in Gowanus, Brooklyn, New York City Beer Week, and how it takes a village to make a brewery. “I am the face that most people see when they drink Strong Rope beer, but I am the end product of a long line of people working to make unique ingredients that go into it.” [15:00] – Jason Sahler