`okolehao

A recipe for making `okolehao

The following is the directions that we have been following to generate a beverage. This is not entirely traditional but is based upon results learned from interviews with traditional makers modified by our own experiences making this beverage.

1. Select medium size ki plants, maybe 2-4 inch diameter stems. It is not hard to find larger stems that will have larger roots but what you will find is that the roots are more woody and harder to work with. There is also a lot more that gets wasted so it is more efficient and responsible to cut the medium ki trees.

2. Cut the plants and replant the tops (probably into multiple stems.

3. Dig up the roots. These go quite deep unless they hit a flat rock. We have dug them down to 9 feet and they were still going.

4. Wash the roots off really good. Keep only the larger parts that are at least as big as carrots. Wash them in a kitchen and try to remove all of the dirt. Any dirt will cause problems later on. Chop up the ki roots into pieces that are about the size of your thumb.

5. Prepare an imu. Place the cleaned ki roots in either several layers of ki leaves or in aluminum foil. Place the wrapped ki roots in a pan if this is possible and place it in what is expected to be the hottest part of the imu. The hotter the better.

6. After the imu is opened, carefully remove the ki roots and save any juice that has collected in the pan. If no pan was used, then this juice will have been lost. The juice is very high in sugar and is the most valuable. If the imu was hot enough then the roots will now be somewhat candied and like brown sugar on the outside.

7. Place the candied roots in a large pot. Add enough water to cover the roots plus maybe an inch more. Boil the water and stir the pot every once in a while so it does not burn. If you have a double boiler use that since it will be better. Boil the pot until the water level drops down well below the level of the roots but don't let the pot boil dry. Add more water and boil again. Repeat boiling several times (this may take much of a day). At the end the roots will break down into a soup/syrup. Add water to the syrup and bring to a final boil so that it becomes a liquid that flows easily.

8. Place the ki liquid into a fermentation container. We use 3-6 gallon glass carboys, but many different sorts of containers could be used. Add yeast to the container. We have tried about 9 different strains of yeast including bread, champaign, beer, cider and "turbo" yeast. Bread or beer yeasts are most likely what were used originally. Different yeasts give very different flavors so it is worth trying different ones. Adding more yeast is better than less. We add at least 5 ml of concentrated yeast culture per gallon of ki liquid.

9. If the container can be sealed then seal it BUT place some sort of air-lock on it so that as CO2 gas is generated by the fermentation process, it can be released. If the container cannot be sealed, then it is important to keep it covered so that other organisms do not get into it and thus contaminate the mixture.

10. The liquid will ferment for a week or two and slowly change color as part of the sugars are converted into alcohol. When CO2 gas stops being generated then the process is completed. The product is now ki-root beer and could be consumed as an alcoholic beverage. We have gotten between 4-9% alcohol depending on the efficiency of sugar conversion in the imu (temperature dependent), boiling to release the sugars, and strain of yeast. Others have reported higher percentages.

Up to this point this is legal to do at home. Distillation requires a license in many U.S. states.

11. The ki-root beer can now be placed into a distillation device. We use a professional still or rotary evaporator but there are numerous directions on-line for making or buying home-made stills. The still concentrates the alcohol from the beer and also retains small amounts of volatile compounds.

12. We used the resulting product as an ethanol biofuel. However, traditionally in Hawai`i the resulting high concentration alcohol could be drunk as a form of moonshine or could be stored for several years in oak barrels to become `okolehao, a product with a taste not dissimilar from a single-malt whiskey.