Fullsteam

Now I know why most kudzu root is harvested in winter.

Why? Because the foot-a-night vine grows so dense in summer, it’s nearly impossible to dig out the roots. Or, put another way,

1 pick axe + 12 inches of super-fine topsoil + 1,000,000 feet of thick kudzu vines
= 2 hours of frustration + 5,204 chigger bites

In short, we won’t be digging our own kudzu roots. I did manage to harvest enough root (one root, really) to soak it into vodka. We’ll give it 30 days to check out the flavor and color characteristics. (Three days in, the vodka has developed some pleasant licorice and earthy notes and turned a light-purple/brown.)

We’ve got a source lined up for local kudzu root: Kudzu Cow Farm in Rutherfordton. And we’ve harvested enough leaves and flowers to do some experimentation in the coming months. So we’ll still chronicle the kudzu…once we get our roots. I’ll probably get them on the next trip to Asheville, which is always a welcome excursion.

For now, there’s a ton of Southern goodness out there that we’re working with: scuppernong, sweet potatoes, paw paws, and more.

We leave you with this awesome email from Bret Bolton of Irving, TX. Bret recently shared his experience brewing with kudzu:

While I was living in Goldsboro, NC I became re-fascinated by the vine. I consider myself a southern boy (born in Forth Worth, and now living in the house my great-grandfather converted from a farm shack in the 20′s in a suburb of Dallas), but we don’t have kudzu this far west.   When I was a kid, I used to see it on road trips, and hear all the great stories from my grandparents, and even then, it held some sort of interest.

I had just read Stephen Buhner’s “Sacred and Herbal Healing Brews”, and I’m not sure if that set me off on kudzu or not, but while I was in NC, I made a mental note to brew with kudzu one day.    Skip ahead past a divorce and my subsequent move back to Texas from NC, and my then fiance (now wife of 7 years) and I were thinking of names for a record store to open here (we came to our senses and didn’t do it) she came up with the name ‘Kudzu Records’ and it all came back in an instant.

That very weekend, I made a long coffee-inspired drive southeast from DFW and grabbed several bags of the vine and got things started.   I brewed a simple porter and did the ‘before then unthinkable’ .  The results were surprisingly good, and definitely worth repeating. When I dry-hopped the beer with Cascade, I added a full ounce of dried kudzu leaves.  I didn’t have any trouble with any vegetable overtones, but maybe I didn’t use enough.  To be honest, there was only slightly noticeable, it was more of a “what is that hop?” or “what is that spice?” and guesses were made but (as you’d expect) nobody could come up with it.

Again, we’ll resume the series once we get those roots. For now, we raise our pints to Bret and all the other mad scientist homebrewers out there who are pushing the boundaries of beer.