Fizzy Fermented “Soder”

Use your local WILD YEAST to make this bubbly, boozy treat

One of the more popular local ornamental trees in our area is the Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa), a smallish dogwood tree that produces abundant spiky fruits in late summer/early autumn.

Most people don’t realize that the fruit is totally edible. It’s pretty bland when it’s young, but as it ages the inside gets creamy and sweet, and tastes something like a mild persimmon, or guava. Still, since for some reason this particular fruit never caught on, trees in Seattle around this time of year are often overflowing with perfectly tasty little red treats.

They’re also excellent collectors of WILD YEAST!

The white stuff on the skins of these guys is mostly wax produced by the fruit, but it’s also a pretty good indicator that this particular fruit is a good host for the naturally occurring wild yeasts floating around the neighborhood and colonizing the local flora. You can find similar colonies of wild yeast on a wide variety of fruits we more often associate with fermentation, like apples and grapes, but also on thick-skinned local berries (Oregon grape, for instance) and pitch-pines.

In the interest of experimentation with these dogwood guys, I decided to make some kind of easy fermented drink. I didn’t want to deal with crazy brewing equipment or having to wait a super-long time for the finished product. After a few iterations, I finally landed on this quick and easy ‘folk’ method.

As usual, I’m not going to provide the exact amounts of many of the ingredients, both because your local wild fruits and their friendly yeasty occupants will vary depending on conditions in your ‘hood, and also so you’ll feel encouraged to do your own experimenting.

Until you get your own process ‘perfected,’ I recommend starting with a gallon. You could go smaller, but then you’re doing all of this for just one or two drinks. Larger, and you’ll have to toss more if the batch spoils. You’ll need one of these:

They’re super cheap and pretty easy to find. The kind of airlock (bubbler) you use doesn’t really matter. You could even do without a bubbler, but it takes some of the annoyance out of having to ‘burp’ your container every day otherwise.

You’ll also want a quart sized mason jar with banded lid, and a big pot.

As for ingredients, I wanted to use “low notes,” or fruits I know taste pretty nice, and “high notes” — experimental fruits or spices. My “low notes” here were a bunch of feral apples gleaned from my neighbor’s tree (note the lovely waxy clue that they’re yeast-heavy):

NOT “eatin’ apples.”

These are not “snacking apples,” though if you don’t have cool neighbors, you could buy some at the store in a pinch, why not? My “high notes” were the dogwood fruit.

Before you start, be sure your work area and all of your equipment is super-sterile. Also, be sure you’re using distilled water, or tap water that’s been left out for 24 hours uncovered so the chlorine dissipates. Chlorine and yeast aren’t happy together.

• First, make a starter. There’s a reason for this I’ll explain in a minute. Chop up enough of the apples and dogwood fruit to fill the mason jar. No need to pack too tightly. Cover with distilled water:

• Cover tightly, SHAKESHAKESHAKE, then loosen the lid so gasses can escape. Put the jar in a dark place at room temperature, tighten lid, shake, loosen lid daily for a week. By the end of the week, the yeasties on the fruit should be producing copious little bubbles. If they’re not, add a tablespoon of sugar or honey and try again (after week two if there are no bubbles, toss the batch and make a sacrifice to the Spirit of Yeast before trying again — you’ve obviously angered It).
• When your starter is ready, coarsely chop your apples and dogwood and put them into a a large pot.
• Next, fill your gallon carboy 7/8 (or so) full of distilled water. Empty this into the pot, and add 1.5–2 cups of sugar or honey. Bring to a boil. (This is where you would also add any other “high notes,” like spices, but keep it simple at first.)
• (Oh, and now, here’s a thing: yeast eats sugar and poops alcohol (it’s true!). If you want a ‘boozier’ concoction, add more sugar and let ferment for a longer time. If you want a sweeter, less alcoholic concoction, add *less* sugar, but ferment for only a short amount of time. You’ll need to experiment to get it just right. My method produces something between 2–4% alcohol depending on the batch.)
• Once the mix has come to a boil, stir, cover, smoosh a little with a potato masher or some such thing, and turn off the heat. Leave overnight. The boil extracts most of the flavor from the fruit, more quickly than if we’d simply let it sit. However, there are two down sides to using this method. 1) If we’re using apples/pears/berries, boiling and smooshing will activate the pectins in the fruit. Our final product will be cloudy. This is OK unless you’re a perfectionist, in which case you should try a different method. 2) Most of the wild yeast still on the fruit will die. This is why we used a separate batch as a starter.
• Next day, strain the liquid from the started into the carboy. Add the liquid from the fruit mixture. Squeeze out the fruit mixture in a cheesecloth or through a strainer to extract the OPTIMUM flavor, and add that, too. *Side note: if for some reason your starter didn’t take, or if you want an extra-potent brew, you could add some store-bought champagne yeast at this point. I tried both ways, and the ‘wild yeast’ version was less alcoholic but a little more bitter).
• Cap and shake, then put the airlock in the carboy. Let it sit in a dark place. Soon you’ll see THIS kind of thing happening:

• It’ll also get nice and bubbly:

That’s pretty much it! When it stops bubbling, it’s ready. Taste it, and feel free to add more and different flavors. If you want to make it boozier/fizzier, you could add some more sugar/honey and let it sit longer. Or, you can put it in the fridge to stop the fermentation. There will be some fruit bits left at the bottom; whether you leave them in or strain them is up to you.

The final product isn’t quite “cider” and isn’t quite “soda,” so we’ll call it “Soder.”

This isn’t likely the kind of thing you’ll sell at a farmer’s market, but it’s an easy and fun way to make tasty “home brew” with minimal input or waiting time.

I’ve done a bunch of other batches, too. Here’s one that’s pear and sumac:

I have one going now that’s granny smith, yarrow, star anise, and hot thai pepper. The possibilities are endless, and this is yet another fun way to participate in your environment!