Decades ago, a friend mused about how cool it'd be to make a barrel of whisky when their first kid was born, and to open it when they turned 21. When I had my first kid, I wanted to start this tradition, but recognized that making a barrel of whisky and carting it around with me for 21 years was simply not realistic. Based on a story about a Korean family tradition, I settled on making a Korean spicy bean paste. To keep this post reasonably short, let's just say that at least one container of this batch was absolutely delicious. I'm still waiting for him to grow up.
Problem statement
I just had another kid. And I've been trying hard to find a ferment that will work properly over the long term. The following conditions are likely necessary, but I'm open to discussion.
- It gets better over many years. 18 to 25 years is my ideal timeframe.
- It's not too huge, yet the final product should be substantial in its quantity (like a gallon or five).
- Anything fermented this long should be really, really flavorful. Something like a rich paste or sauce would make a lot of sense.
- It should be very stable once it gets going. I'm not going to check on this every week for 18 years. And having it die at year 8 would be crushing.
What are your thoughts? No bad ideas in brainstorming.