Brad Makes Fermented Watermelon Cocktails

Smells a little garbage-y.

It was just rotting in a bag for a few days.

How would you smell, you know?

Hey guys, today on It's Alive

we're gonna be doing a really fun summer recipe

from my book that's coming out.

It's a fermented watermelon cocktail.

A little spicy, sweet, a little hint of salty.

Makes for a great non-alcoholic

or a little adult beverage cocktail as well.

Today, we're gonna be making one

with a little bit of Mezcal.

It's coming out in my new book.

Pre-sale available now!

[upbeat guitar music]

First off, you want to go

and get yourself a real nice watermelon.

Of course, organic, if you can.

Even better if it's local, nice and sweet.

I don't know where this one came from.

This thing probably weighs, if I had to guess,

If had to guess-

Oh, I wish we had a scale.

This is a fun game.

You have a scale here out here?

[Man] It's your house.

[Brad scoffs]

If I had to guess, I'd say six pounds.

I've got my watermelon knife here.

So you can't do this without a very nice watermelon knife.

Just gonna cut off the rind, okay?

And then I just kind of peel it with the knife.

One day, next year, back over here,

or over there, or something,

I'm gonna dig up a nice little spot.

And I just want to have a big old watermelon patch.

I don't care if I lose like 60% of it

to the animals and stuff.

I get it, all right. It's just for all of us.

But I want some.

[peaceful violin music]

Yeah, so you just want to clean off any of that white.

You don't have to go crazy.

And then you just bite it.

Or go full Gallagher, get yourself a sledgehammer.

Oh, yeah. We should be doing that.

[Man] Gallagher's brother looks just like him.

He went out on the road

as Gallagher Too. Imitation?

[Brad] I wonder if he was like,

maybe he would get drunk and be [beep],

and everyone's like, Man, Gallagher sucked.

But it really was like his drunk brother.

I have the same problem.

[Man] You have a twin brother?

No, I have a sister.

Well, she dresses up like me

and goes out and does like

meet and greets and stuff.

It's freaking weird.

No, I'm just kidding.

She's a sweetheart.

So, because we're going to ferment this,

you don't have to go chop it up into small pieces.

For personal consumption,

I would like it a few degrees colder,

but for fermentation is actually perfect

because if it's too cold,

all its gonna do is take a little longer to get there.

But yeah, this one is seedless.

You can even get a seeded one.

Sometimes, I think they're a little sweeter.

That might be in my head

or just like luck of the pick,

but because this is gonna get fermented and strained out,

the remaining solids can get discarded

or compost or fed to the chickens.

So seeded, seedless,

I don't think it doesn't have much of a difference

I don't think.

When was the last time you had slice of watermelon, right?

Great. On the rind.

But with all the black seeds?

Never anymore!

Remember you used to spit them?

You used to spit them at each other

and they stick to your skin?

No one does it is that anymore.

So you can ferment this.

In just about anything, right?

But we're going to do it in a bag.

You can do it in a big jar,

in a big crock.

The reason I really like to use this bag

keeps the oxygen off it.

Keeps anything out of it.

Yeast from getting in there,

all flavors from really dominating the ferment.

Now, if you were doing this in a jar,

I like to crush it up and muddle it.

Break it down and let it get juicy.

It will do it on itself

but breaking it up a little bit,

just really kind of helps get that whole party going.

[techno beat]

So we're only gonna use half the tomato

because this was a big boy

and it's all we really need.

I called it a tomato?

[Man] Yeah.

[sad piano music]

Yeah, I struggle sometimes.

Remember, I called the fricking mango an avocado

and I did it today again.

[Brad] Mangoes, yes.

That's an avocado, Brad.

That's what I meant.

[everyone laughs]

Mango!

I had a stroke.

So, check it out.

We've got our big chunks of watermelon,

looking good.

And what we're going to do is just sprinkle

just a little bit of salt in there.

For this application, I mean,

we're only coating the top there.

And then we got a little bit of mint,

tarragon and a little pinch of basil in there too.

[bag rustling]

Shove a few little herbs in there

and a little habanero.

Beautiful. I just halved it.

Throw it right in the bag.

And there we go.

Now we're gonna hit it in the vac bag.

Oh, this thing's filled pretty good here.

[machine buzzing]

So here it is.

[Man] Hold on.

Here's your thumbnail, bro.

[Man] One, two, three.

[upbeat piano music]

I just like to give it a little crush, all right?

This'll help redistribute some of that salt

and just get a nice little brine going, right?

Look at that. Beautiful.

Get those herbs going in the liquid.

Oh, this already looks good.

If you are doing it in a jar or in a crock,

maybe get a little weight

to keep it underneath its own liquid.

Maybe even sprinkle the salt on top of the brine

instead of on top of everything.

Just to have a little bit of a salty solution on top.

Kind of help knock down any mold.

If you do get mold or some yeast going,

you could probably just scoop it right off.

Another reason why I kind of liked the vac bag,

it stops that open air market

where it just kind of anything can party on the surface.

The good microbes that we have in here,

aren't combating with new yeasts and microbes

that are coming in through the air,

if there was cheese cloth

or an open vessel container for fermentation.

It's like the best thing I've ever said on the show.

And there we have it.

So that sits at room temp,

depending where you are, obviously.

And if you are in a bag,

one of the downsides,

especially in something like this,

it is very eager to ferment.

I'll probably have to open this in a day or two,

just a little bit and let the gas out

because I'm anticipating this to be very active.

The natural organisms that are in

and all over the watermelon and all over the world here,

yeasts and bacterias are going to consume the sugars

and other proteins and stuff.

You were to look under that in a microscope,

it'd be like a whole universe of life.

And that's fermentation.

It's basically a controlled rot

that we can use to manipulate and create new flavors

and umami, basically.

I have a swap, which is great,

and we're going to make a little cocktail.

[relaxing piano music]

So we have our watermelon that's been fermenting

for about four or five days now.

I once, two days ago, had to open it

because it was about to blow up and de-gas it.

If you're doing it in a jar

or an open top container,

you don't have this problem.

But here with the bag,

you'd have to let it off

and then just reseal it again.

So now I'm just going to strain it.

A little pour spout.

[Watermelon splashing into jug]

[Man] Oh God, Brad.

Smells a little garbage-y.

It was just rotting in a bag for a few days.

How would you smell, you know?

Once you let that kind of breathe a little bit

and some of those sweetness starts to come out again.

Yup, yup.

Smells pretty- smells better.

It's starting to smell a little bit like watermelon,

but the color is just incredible.

I'm gonna add just a little bit of honey

or if you had sugar or something or whatever you're into,

this has been out in the sun, so it's pretty warm.

I think it's going to dissolve quite nicely.

Just to bring out the little bit of the sugars in there too,

because when you ferment it,

the sugars are being consumed as well.

And I'm just gonna squeeze juice of one lime in there too.

[lime juice splashing into jug]

Give a little swirl. Get that honey.

Just get that honey moving a little.

And that's gonna be the fermented watermelon base

for the cocktail.

Oh, delightful.

I think it's like a pineapple or lemon mint or something.

We'll put that in there.

A little sprig of tarragon.

I'll throw that in there.

And just another different type of mint.

This one is,

I don't know which type it is.

Almost like a spearmint or peppermint.

One of the two, but it's just like right there, man.

It's amazing.

And then we'll add some ice.

[ice rattling]

Bunch of juice.

Couple ounces of mezcal here.

It's a pretty authentic Mexican mezcal, man.

A little shake.

[ice rattling]

Just get that ripping cold.

Ripping cold!

Ah, that's what I'm talking about.

Throw a little more ice in it.

[ice rattling]

If you don't like mezcal,

I'm sure vodka,

I'm sure that would work great too.

Or a good or nice rum.

How do they do this?

Oh, come on, Brad.

Jesus, Brad.

Spilled half it on the cutting board.

[ice rattling]

Oh, look at that, huh?

Flowering thyme and the mint in there.

I don't mind if I do.

[magical synth music]

Oh.

Oh, that's great!

I'm gonna try one,

just with a little bit of seltzer as well.

It's gonna dial it back just a little bit.

Give it a little spritz-ier, you know?

Bruising the mint.

See if we can do a better job here.

I was terrible at that.

Okay.

Just gonna stir it real quick.

Get some of those bubbles up-

There we go.

All right, let's try it.

Let's try the ones with the bubbles first.

[upbeat techno music]

Oh yeah, buddy.

Right there on the beach, all right.

A little breeze.

Ooh, the breeze is even going.

No seagulls.

Nice.

Low tide, not a lot of swell out there.

Real calm day.

Kids are digging a hole.

Dad's drinking a fermented watermelon mezcal cocktail.

Ooh, I kind of disappeared there for a minute.

That's delicious. You know what?

This one? Oh no, this one.

[calm jazz music]

Oh yeah, that's the sipper.

Oh, that's delightful!

Because it's not just like,

oh, it's sweet sour

and mezcal or tequila or something, right?

It's like, there's also that like

salty, weird, funky fermentation umami notes

that come through.

And you're just like,

I'm not sure if I love this yet.

And then you're like,

but I can't stop drinking it.

And then you fall in love and then it's real love.

And it's deep.

Oh, I feel like I shouldn't be drinking this by myself.

It's that good.

Who am I fooling?

I can make a whole show about drinking by myself

at my house.

Pretty good at it.

Oh! And it gets a bad rap too, drinking alone.

You know, as long as you do it responsibly.

I'm not going nowhere.

I'm not arguing with no one.

Not fighting with no one.

Except myself, maybe.

[sad piano music]

You know, and that's, that's on you.

You gotta deal with that.

Oh, this is so good.

And it's pleasant, but you do get this like candied,

squashy undertone which is kind of nice.

Wow.

Fermented watermelon with a little mezcal.

And again, you can do that without it.

Recipe in the book.

All right, presale now.

You can get it or you can go ahead and order that.

It'll show up right up at your house.

November 9th is when it's, you know, out-out.

And recipes in there if you weren't paying attention.

Thanks for hanging out guys.

Summer Friday, as they used to say.

Maybe I should drink alone.