Brandy is distilled from wine in the process I already described. But is any wine suitable for distillation? Some people even say that bad quality wine can be best used by turning it into brandy. Is there a limit to what can be turned into good, smooth brandy (or cognac)? Are there ways to adjust […]
Food science
Sleeping aids
Recently I bought some sleeping water, just out of curiosity. After testing it, I was pleasantly surprised by the effect. Well, I did follow all the advice on the bottle, what defineley greatly contributed to the end result. Relaxing 30 minutes before bedtime, no eating or electronic devices during that time and a hot shower […]
Caffeine extraction
Having pure caffeine is essential if you want to prepare your personalized energy drink. You can buy it or, even better, make caffeine extraction yourself. By extracting it from coffee or tea you will probably extract also other substances, which would further personalize your drink. Maybe even enhance the kick-start-me effect. There are several ways […]
Gut microbes
The fascinating thing about the microbes living in our gut is that they actually outnumber the number of cells in our body. And with that variety, you cannot deny that gut microbes must be important for our well-being. They are contributing at least something. However, we are still in the process of unraveling all the […]
Caffeine from coffee, tea, matcha, mate, guarana and soft drinks – is there any difference?
There are many natural sources of caffeine. The problem is that it is called by different names. Either because people want to sound more special (especially when advertising their product) or they simply don’t know. Guaranine, theine, and mateine are all the same substance – caffeine. They just differ in their plant of origin: guarana, […]
Market crash survival pack
Introduction to my Market crash survival pack Survival packs are in fashion. You can buy, or at least get a to-do list for survival packs ranging from a zombie apocalypse, nuclear holocaust to divorce. While some of these events are more probable than the other, I agree it is a good thing to be prepared. […]
Eating sawdust
While working on my bark bread idea, I had another idea about using the wood as ingredient in the bread. Basically mixing the sawdust into the dough, thereby reducing the caloric value of the bread. Very helpful if you want to lose some weight. From my experience with bark bread I know that this can […]
Beer yeast – importance of yeast at home brewing and which type to use
The most important thing in beer brewing is yeast. Without this little helpers nothing would happen. There would simply be no change from the sweet bitter tasting alcohol free mixture of carbohydrates and hops to the refreshing bubbly beer. You can change the amount or type of grain, add or remove hops, try some special […]
Beer yeast and sugars
Everyone, even a total stranger to beer making, knows that yeast (and other microbes, like bacteria) thrive on sugar. People which are more familiar with beermaking know that starch in barley needs to be broken down to sugars in order for the yeast to ferment it to alcohol. True home brewers even know that some […]
Caffeine solubility, content in coffee beans and extraction
When writing my posts on chocolate coated coffee beans and cold brew coffee, I had some hard time finding information on caffeine solubility on the internet. By coffee and tea being a really important part of our society, I thought the information about its basic – and most important – component should be easily available on […]