Tej

anyone ever made this type of honey wine? It is Ethiopian and it is a honey wine bittered with gursha or gurshu. I have heard these plants called Ethiopian hops but i dont think they are hops at all. They are also used in makeing Ethiopian beer. Tej is also made with fruit like bananas and mangoes also sometiems with things like carrots or tea and coffee.

also plain tej is a key ingridient in ethipian cooking.

I cant find the gursha any where maybe it is not available on this side of the world.

Maybe someone knows a substitute type of hops to use.

I remember about a year ago someone posted about this subject. They had a source for the ingredients too. Try searching for it and see what you come up with.

found that thread. Thanks. Brundo.com Seems they have the gesho sticks or hop sticks. their recipe calls for sticks and leaves. They only supply the sticks. I guess I would still have to find the leaves.

found that thread. Thanks. Brundo.com Seems they have the gesho sticks or hop sticks. their recipe calls for sticks and leaves. They only supply the sticks. I guess I would still have to find the leaves.

Yikes! Their recipe doesn't even call for yeast!

Now that is an adventurous brew.

I believe that Sam Col. listed his recipe for Teg in The "Extreme Beers" book Dogfish Head put out..might find an interesting variation there...I'm at work otherwise I would get you some more details.
Cheers,
Brian

Yeah how bout that it does not even call for yeast. I would add a yeast that is good for mead. They must expect what ever cultures are in the raw honey to do the job. Or maybe you are supposed to put some of your own saliva in it to kick it off. I sure hope not!

I have to say, Brotherhood Winery makes their own Tej (Te'j). It's amazing. awesome. They also make a mead. Carroll's Mead. Weak from an alcohol point of view (like 8%), but damn tasty.

http://www.brotherhoodwinery.net/pages/ ... tegoryid=1

their recipe calls for sticks and leaves. They only supply the sticks. I guess I would still have to find the leaves.

No, they have both the sticks and leaves. The leaves are listed under "Staples to Ethiopian Living". The sticks are listed under "Spices and Herbs".

I'm going to follow the Brundo recipe and brew maybe two gallons of the T'ej this Saturday morning. At first I had thought that I would just add some dry ale yeast to it to get it started. But after reading about T'ej and about how to make T'ej on this web site:
http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/tej.html#making

I have decided to go with the natural fermentation. That is what makes it T'ej, and that is the whole point of using the gesho. The gesho is a fermentation agent as well as a flavoring. This is what the web site suthor says about it:

"Now, seal the lid and forget about it for one week. That's how long you'll leave the gesho in the liquid. After two or three days, you'll begin to see fuzz and mold forming on the gesho. That's fermentation, a bacterial process that happens in the presence of sugar and yeast. All plants have yeast on them naturally, but not all plants have an appealing flavor. Gesho does, so when it's used to provoke the fermentation process, the flavor of the gesho also soaks into the liquid".

I'm eager to try this.

After it ferments I'll put it in bottles and let it carbonate. It should be interesting.

******
This is the ultimate in cool. Type in Tej on ebay. You can buy gesho direct from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:
http://cgi.ebay.com/REAL-ETHIOPIAN-GESH ... dZViewItem

Here is a really good t'ej web site. "All About Tej" by Harry Kloman . I'll follow his description on how to make this stuff:

http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/tej.html

Here is another site to buy gesho. http://www.xtremebrewing.com/store/beer_flavoring.html
They sell the sticks. A mention referenced in Harry Kloman's web site said that inferior t'ej was made from the sticks. The good stuff is made with the leaves. Harry says to use about a handful of sticks per gallon for a light colored sweet tej, and two table spoons of leaves per gallon for a "richer flavor and amber hue". I'll try making some of each type. What is interesting is that the X-treme brew site recipe says that they use 10 oz of gesho in a 5 gallon batch. The Brundo.com recipe says to use 8 oz of leaves and 4 oz of sticks in ONE gallon. The "X-treme" recipe must have been toned down for American tastes.

I think that what the Brundo recipe means (after reading the Harry's web site) is to mix the honey, water, and gesho, and wait three days for spontaneous fermentation to begin. THEN they dip out some of the mix and boil it to get more flavor, and then dump it back in. The web site says to let it sit for seven days after fermentation starts, rack it off the gesho, the let it ferment for another two weeks. It is supposed to be drank fresh and effervesent. I'll bottle it like beer and let it carbonate in the bottle.

Tej Recipe
From: Brundo Spices and Herbs (Brundo.com)
1 Gallon
32 oz of honey
8 oz of ground hopps
4 oz of hopps sticks
DIRECTIONS
Mix and let stand at room temperature for three days.

Take about 6 cups of the mixture and bring to a boil with the hops and hopps stick.

Cook for 15 minute in low heat. Let cool and add to the mixtures. In a sealed container leave at room temperature for 15 days.

If too dry add a cup of honey and leave over night. If too sweet, add more hopps directly into the mixture and let it ferment more. Strain and serve cold.
END

Yikes! Their recipe doesn't even call for yeast!

Now that is an adventurous brew.

I've done a mead using wild yeast for fun. I mixed honey and water in an open top vessel and covered the top with cloth (to keep out dust, bugs, etc.). I waited a week, stirring occasionally until it started to taste a bit alcoholic then put it into a carboy under an airlock.

I bottled it not too long ago and I have to say that, coming up on a year of age, it's quite drinkable. I may have fermented it in too warm an environment though - it tastes like it has quite a bit of diacetyl. I moved it to a warm room and forgot about it when I didn't see appreciable airlock activity right away. It's very buttery tasting though not so much as to make it undrinkable. I'm going to uncork a bottle when it hits 1 year of age (early march i think).

Obviously the results of fermenting using this method is completely unpredictable but I thought it was fun.

I may have fermented it in too warm an environment though - it tastes like it has quite a bit of diacetyl.

Maybe you picked up a wild lager yeast?

I brewed my first tej tonight. I was under time pressure, because my jug of honey had a crack and ants (a lot) had gotten into it. I had to use the honey before my wife saw it and freaked out. After mixing the honey with water I poured it though a tea strainer and filtered out the ants. I made two 3/4 gallon batches of t'ej. One with 1 1/2 tbs of leaves and the other with a handful of twigs. Each batch was made with 1 1/2 pounds or raw, unfiltered, unboiled, ant-free orange blossom honey for an OG og 1.074. I've made beers and ciders with wild yeasts from apple peels, grape skins, and from something floating in the air. They all tuned out good. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

thanks ew1usnnr,
That recipe looks great. I am going to order some sticks and leaves.
So how did you get interested in Tej? My wife and I go out for and cook Ethiopian food at home a lot. I got a great Ethiopian cook book with several recipes for different types of Tej.

Hello, Capozzolli.

What is the name of that Ethiopian cook book?

Hold off on copying my recipe until we see how it turns out. I'll wait a week and if I don't see anything happening, I will pasturize the honey (heat to 160), and add some ale yeast to the mix.

I like trying historical recipes and I've never tasted t'ej before. Doing it this way, with the authentic herbs and fermented in the actual manner, will give me the real thing. There was an Ethiopian restaraunt in my town, and I ate there once some years back, but it closed. I've heard that a new one has opened. I'll make a point to eat there.

One other point: The bag of gesho leaves cost $6.75. But at two table spoons per gallon, there is probably enough gesho to make 20 gallons of t'ej, so it really is not that expensive. The sticks only cost $2.50 (I think), but you will use half the bag to make a gallon. The leaves did turn the liquid dark.

Later, ew1usnrr.

This cook book is great It is named "Exotic Ethiopian Cooking"
All of the other Ethiopian cook books seem to have Americanized recipes. This one has real Ethiopian recipes.

http://www.amazon.com/Exotic-Ethiopian-Cooking-Hospitality-Traditions/dp/0961634529/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200675265&sr=8-1

You can thumb through the table of contents by clicking on the picture of that book, check out the recipes for alcoholic beverages. It has Tej and a recipe for Ethiopian beer which uses gesho instead of hops. It also has a recipe for ethipian Vodka! I cant seem to find the book. Ill keep looking tonight.