Fizzing first for fermentation fest
Nelson’s first Kombucha Festival promises an effervescent evening.
The Kitchen co-owner Grant Maxwell said the festival, planned for September 15, came to fruition from a discussion between him and Renegade Ferments owner Brendan Turnage.
‘‘[He] and I decided it would be fun to hold an evening focused around fermentation and predominantly kombucha, a fermented tea.
‘‘It’s becoming quite fashionable in the market and lots of people are making it at home or buying kombucha as an alternative something to drink.’’
The Kitchen, Urban Hippie Miso, Banjo Brews, MamaZing Kombucha, Craft Beer Depot and Renegade Ferments all teamed up together for this year’s inaugural fermentation festival.
Maxwell said there would be tastings of different kinds of kombucha as well as canapes with the businesses holding talks on their products.
Craft Beer Depot would be doing cocktails with kombucha.
Maxwell said the idea was to start small and grow the festival in coming years.
‘‘Next year we widen the scope and we get more people involved and could even end up with fermenting classes as well and teaching people how to make it as well.’’
Maxwell said the Kombucha Festival would make a good addition to others festivals in the region and could become ‘‘as big as people want to make it’’.
‘‘The cider festival recently started in Nelson and it’s getting a whole lot of really good momentum.’’
The Nelson Kombucha Festival is on September 15 at The Kitchen’s outside seating area. Tickets $20 via the Kitchen’s website. A recipe for carrot cake by Emma Boyd, published in Wednesday’s paper, omitted 4 cups of grated carrot, which should be combined with the egg, oil and sugar mix. The error is regretted.