My husband and I love good wine and good beer, but we also love various fermented drinks that I make at home. In summer, tepache is my favorite. It’s a traditional Mexican drink which, as I make it, is light, barely sweet, and contains at most 0.5-1% alcohol, probably less. It’s great for drinking with grilled dinners on the patio. I treat myself to fresh pineapple regularly during the summer, and making tepache uses up the rind and scraps and prevents waste.
I have a great interest in natural fermentations, from sourdough bread to tepache. If you share my enthusiasm, you’ll want to read Sandor Katz’s weird and fascinating book Wild Fermentation. But you don’t need his book or any technical knowledge of fermentation to make this drink. Fermentation has been happening for millions of years, and it will happen in your fermenting jar without much input from you.
I love to use agave nectar as a sweetening agent. It’s available at La Montanita Co-op in Albuquerque, and it’s showing up in ordinary grocery stores everywhere. (Addendum 2019: later evidence cause me to completely change my mind about agave nectar as a sweetening agent, and I know longer use it, but make up your own mind.)
My urban homestead 