Fermentation
The Best Lamb Is Fermented by Sea Air
The Faroe Islands make Skerpikjøt by hanging sheep's leg in outdoor sheds. It’s one of the many unusual culinary techniques from an island that gets just four hours of daylight in the winter months.
A Lost Soy Sauce Fungus Is Helping Post-Tsunami Japan to Bounce Back
In January, Japanese officials declared that foods produced around Fukushima are all but radiation-free and safe to consume. But the rest of Japan—and its food producers—have continued to struggle to pick up the pieces left by a natural disaster that...
This Austrian Winemaker Is Using Music to Ferment His Wines
Forget about the weather or the terroir. What if music was the secret ingredient to forging tasty, full-bodied, flavorsome wines?
Illegal Beer Is Brewing a Massive Following in Venezuela
Small-batch artisanal Venezuelan craft breweries are on the rise and trying to meet demand for their illegal beers. Prohibition-era laws and black-market economics, be damned.
Being Hit with Branches and Eating Crayfish at Russian Banyas Is a Blast
Russian banyas are a magnet for the country's émigrés in Britain. They're where homesick oligarchs, Russian footballers, and dancers come to act tough in the sauna and shoot the breeze over vodka, crayfish, and kvass. Turns out they're pretty welcoming...
Mexican Pulque Is the Original Boozy Energy Drink
Researchers have found evidence of pulque, a viscous booze made from maguey plants that looks a lot like bodily fluids, among ancient amphorae in Mexico. People weren't just getting drunk—they were drinking it to survive.
Sniff at Your Own Risk: Beers That Reek
Some craft brews treat you kindly, like a overeager gentleman on a first date. But other beers put some stank on the nose and throw your senses into an orgy of odors. These are just some those beers, and they smell to high heaven.
Deep in Germany's Apple Wine Country
Billy Wagner takes us on a tour through Frankfurt's Sachsenhausen district to visit traditional Apfelwein pubs and taste different versions of this tart, golden-colored booze.
Berlin's New French Cider Bar Wants to Get Cows Drunk
Two expats in Berlin gave themselves the task of introducing Apfelwein-drinking Germans to French cider. But cranky producers in Normandy and exploding bottles of raw cider don't make things any easier for them.
I Got Wasted on Drinking Vinegar
Drinking vinegars (or, "shrubs", as they're otherwise known) are having a quiet resurgence here in the UK. They're not just tasty and good for you, either—if you're of sensitive disposition, they'll get you a bit wasted.
Someone Threw a Fermented Fish Bomb at a Swedish Music Festival
Last week at a music festival in Sweden, attendees were rocked by an IED made from a can of surströmming, or rotten herring. But these cans of fermented fish are already plenty explosive on their own.
The Mick Jagger of Whisky Wants You to Drink It Your Way
Opinions on whisky are like assholes—everyone has one. Next time a barmen gives you the stink eye for adding water (or even Coca-Cola) to your single malt, though, tell them that one of Scotland's top distillers says you should drink it just how you...