Brot-Trunk (fermented sourdough bread drink)

hey...

has anybody heard of this? i m not sure if it s widespread outsided germany. here some supermarkets have it. it s about 2,30€ per 0,75litre. it s clear, light-brown. it s sour and tastes a bit like thinned lemon juice. it is non-pasteurized and advertised as "having living cultures" (lacto-bazilla). ppl drink it for gut flora or use it to treat skin diseases.

i used it as a starter in sauerkraut and other fermented veggies

has anybody heard of that?

could it be used to start sour-dough?



i am trying to make it myself by feeding the culture with flour. i m still experimenting. i ve got some kahm-yeast on top, which should be acceptable.


i think a culture of it could be a good way to use leftover bits of bread. that brot-trunk tastes quite good with water, should be even better with water and apple-juice.

i ll keep experimenting

blesses and have a nice weekend!
tobias

I have never heard of it but there is a fermented grain drink called Rejuvelac that a lot of people use for health purposes. I have personally never tried either.

I think that I would be careful about assuming that the probiotics in one type of food would necessarily transfer to another.

I would be interested in hearing about your experiments, though.
John S
PDX OR

i started sauerkraut in 3 batches 3 weeks ago. 1 with greek yoghurt, 1 with brottrunk, 1 without starter.
all had sea salt and water added.

the kraut was finely chopped and beaten in a kitchen machine


they all turned out good and tasted the same. they started bubbling at (nearly?) the same time .. i have no clue about what kind of bacteria did what ... but the result was very similar


John, but what does happen when you mix veggies in your ferment? Will each type bring it s own specific bacteria? so we ll end up with some kind of mixture ... or probably one type of bacteria will win over the other kinds and dominate the whole batch...


edit: i looked it up. rejuvelac is close but not exactly the same. brottrunk will be fermente sour dough bread. rejuvelac will be fresh grain sprouts put in 2-3 times the volume of water. then fermented for 2-3 days. then strained. the sprouts can be used for a second batch with new water

My understanding is that there is a kind of bacteria that occurs naturally on all vegetables called lacto bacillus. It is especially prominent on cruciferous vegetables like cabbage. It kind of takes over and doesn't allow harmful bacteria into the food. I believe that the other species of bacteria will be affected by the species of plants you put in the sauerkraut. That's how I understand it.
John S
PDX OR

closest thing I can think of is described in sandor katz wild fermentation called bouza. I tried making it and it didn't turn out. It sounds like a great beverage, wish I knew how it was really made and really supposed to taste like. Mine taste exactly like rejuvelac, which yours might as well. I liken rejuvelac to lemon-ade in flavor.

just thinking... i was doing wheat sprouts quite alot (and wheatgrass). one major problem was the quality of the grain. many were broken and did not sprout and would later start to ferment or get moldy. wheat for sprouting would cost around 2€ per 75g. normal wheat around 1,50€ or less per kg (both organic).

what about making sprouts and then blending it with water. this will increase surface area and will result in a quick and thourough fermentation. maybe keep some rejuvelac as starter for that culture...



btw (OT) my sourdough starter (water + whole grain organic rye flour) is starting to bubble and foam. i ll keep it warm, stirr it a few times per day and feed it with water and flour (rye + wheat)

blesses

Sprouts have more bioavailable nutrition than just wheat, and fewer gluten/allergenic problems. I think it sounds like a great experiment. I don't see why it would not work.
John S
PDX OR

ok... wheat sprouts are nearly finished. i washed them with brot-trunk (quite acidic atm) and rinsed them. i did that to prevent mold.
i ll see if the sporuts survived the acid and will keep on growing. if not, they ll ferment. the brot-trunk bacteria where fed with wheat, so they ll start eating them sprouts.

after rinsing with that acidic brine the sprouts continued growing...

that rejuvelac is staring to bubble and foam a bit. but the sprouts still keep on growing, underwater.


I am starting another Brot-Trunk culture. The Beagle started munching on my freshmade sourdough-bread, so I have taken pieces from that bread (where she did not gnaw at), mixed them with water and Brot-Trunk as starter. I´ll see how well that works out

I´ll see which drink will taste best.


What I m thinking about: what about having a continuous brew of this kind of culture and feed it with stale bread etc? It could be great for toilet-cleaning. Has anybody done that, yet? Using lacto-fermented acid for cleaning? Just wondering... the lacto-bacteria might eat up all starch and sugar. So there wont be any of it left for bad kinds of bacteria.

ok ... the rejuvelac from wheat sprouts had lots of yeast in it, growing on surface. it tasted sour but not very good. i ll try again and use brot-trunk as starter. and have a lid on the glass and shake it often. i hope that the acid will then deal with the yeast.

the batch i started with sourdough bread and brot-trunk turned into beer, i think. it s somewhat sour but has that beer-aroma. the glass has a screw on lid which is allowed to burp. but it could have gone un-aerobic due to co² buildup in the glass.

that brot-trunk ferment is now about 1 month old. it s very sour and tastes well. i fed made it with store bought brot-trunk and fed it with rye and wheat flour. one time i fed it with sugar, but that should not be neccessary