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Leah Russell2 min

New Wildcrafted Cuisine: White Sage–Lime Cider

October 9, 2023

Image by Pascal Baudar This is one of my favourite recipes; the taste is akin to a nice light cider with some sage flavours. It’s great to drink but also a fantastic brew to cook seafood, such as mussels and clams. For cooking, I usually substitute lemons for limes in the recipe.

Ingredients

1 gallon (3.75 l) springwater or distilled water
0.15 ounce (around 4 g) dried white sage leaves
11⁄4 pounds (577 g) light brown sugar
3 large limes
Yeast (beer yeast or wild yeast)

Procedure

1. Mix the water, sage, and brown sugar in a large pot. Cut and squeeze the limes into the pot. Bring the solution to a boil; let it boil for 30 minutes. 2. Place the pot into a pan of cold water; cool to 70°F (21°C), then add the yeast. One bag of commercial yeast is usually enough for 5 gallons, so you don’t need to use the entire contents of the bag. Just use around one-fifth of the bag. 3. Strain the brew into the fermenter. Position the airlock or cover your fermenter with a paper towel or cheesecloth. Let the brew ferment for 10 days. (See note below.) 4. Siphon into beer bottles and prime the bottles with 1⁄2 teaspoon (2 g) brown sugar for carbonation. Close the bottles and store somewhere not too hot. The cider will be ready to drink in 3 to 4 weeks. I usually wait at least 7 or 8 weeks, however, for better taste and carbonation. Note: The fermentation speed will vary quite considerably depending on the season, soil composition where your ingredients grew, and other factors. Wild sages are quite peculiar sometimes. It’s a bit of an advanced fermentation; it takes some experience to determine when exactly to bottle the brew and the length of fermentation after bottling. I’ve had cases of above-average carbonation in the bottles, and have experienced below-average carbonation as well, despite following the same exact recipe.