HotLanta Fire Cider Brigade
The Fire Cider Brigade is a team of volunteers who make and distribute gallons of Fire Cider each year, providing wellness support to the community. The very first Brigade (the HotLanta Fire Cider Brigade) was started by Herbalista back in 2020, to support our community through both through pandemic and protest.
What is Fire cider? Fire Cider is a spicy, warming vinegar remedy made with kitchen herbs and spices. It’s easy to make and a fantastic all-around healing remedy. By making this medicine together as a community, there is extra healing energy in every batch.
Starting this year (2026), our Fire Cider Brigade is growing as we partner with the awesome folks at Fleur & Forage Free Clinic. With Herbalista providing gear, funding, and herbs from the Learning Garden, Fleur & Forage will now lead the community medicine-making workshops and local distribution. This collaboration also allows the Brigade work to expand into the Athens area, where Fleur & Forage also offer free herbal services. Looking to get spicy with us?
- Please visit the Fire Cider Brigade Link for upcoming workshops.
- Follow the Brigade on Instagram @fireciderbrigade or check out their Linktr.ee/fireciderbrigade.
About Fire Cider
Fire Cider is a vinegar-based wellness shot that is easy to make with a spicy-sour kick to make your tastebuds soar. Herbalista Lorna first learned to make Fire Cider from the teachings of Rosemary Gladstar, who popularized it through her many books and classes. Here’s what Rosemary says about this wonderful elixir:
“Fire Cider is a popular traditional herbal remedy freely shared, made, produced and sold by hundreds of herbalists across the world. The remedy has taken on many different amendments over time, somewhat like chicken soup. Many people have their favorite version, but the base consists of fresh garlic, onions, ginger, horseradish and chili peppers that sit in vinegar for the desired amount of time, are strained, and then a bit of something sweet is usually added at the end. The remedy is used to help warm up the body, and generally acts a stimulant and antimicrobial used during cold and flu season.”
Learn more about the story of Fire Cider and its role in the fight to protect herbal medicine and herbal knowledge, keeping it in the hands of the people. https://scienceandartofherbalism.com/whats-all-the-fuss-about-fire-cider/
Safe, effective, easy to make and use, Fire Cider is kitchen medicine at its finest. On this page we offer the tools for you to begin to make spicy batches of your own!
Brigade Workshops
Join us!
The Brigade usually offers around 6 workshops a year, as we make, press, and bottle gallons of Fire Cider to share with the Atlanta (and now Athens) community. Each year we make over 15 gallons of this healing remedy, supporting the health of folks in need.
We hope you can join us at an upcoming Brigade Workshop, where we gather as a community to make beautiful, spicy, sweet medicine together. These workshops are FREE! Please visit the event page for all the details about our upcoming workshops and registration links.
Making Fire Cider
Fire Cider Making Video
Fire Cider is an easy to make kitchen remedy. Spicy herbs, such as garlic and ginger, are steeped in Apple Cider Vinegar for a few weeks and presto, you have a deliciously healing, alcohol-free remedy that the whole family can enjoy.
In this video, Lorna demonstrates making a batch of the Elderberry Fire Cider. Please use the recipe worksheet below to follow along.
Then give our Heart Tonic version of Fire Cider a try, made with delicious pomegranate, hibiscus, and hawthorne berries. This is the version we serve in the summertime. It’s still got a kick but also protects the heart, so important in that Atlanta heat.
Elderberry Fire Cider Recipe
ELDERBERRY FIRE CIDER WORKSHEETElderberry Fire Cider Recipe
Elderberry Fire Cider WorksheetHeart Tonic Fire Cider Recipe
Heart Tonic Fire Cider WorksheetThe versions of Fire Cider that are out there are endless! What’s your version like?
Start Your Brigade
Looking to start a Brigade of your own? Fire Cider is such a wonderful way to come together as a community, utilizing simple kitchen medicine to share you love for your community. Having an active Brigade in your town also means that when challenging times arrive (as they always do), we are ready to meet them.
History of HotLanta Fire Cider Brigade
Though Herbalistsa had been offering Fire Cider Making Workshops for many years, it was under the duress of the pandemic when the Hotlanta Fire Cider Brigade officially came together. We were looking for ways to provide some extra support for those living on the streets and began producing hundreds of HerbCare Packs for distribution. That meant we needed A LOT more fire cider than we could produce on our own.
At the start, Herbalista crew was joined by community members who had previously attended our Solidarity Medicine Making Workshops and knew how to make batches of Fire Cider. They would prepare the fire cider in their homes, using our solidarity medicine making worksheet and then drop their batches off to us at HQ. After they had steeped, we could send them out to other crew members who would press, bottle and label them for distribution around Atlanta. You can see our Brigade Manual for examples of how we did all of that.
But finally, in 2022, when we felt comfortable gathering together in larger groups, we were able to once again work together as a community to make the Fire Cider. And this is the best way to make and bottle the medicine – together.
Tools to Get Started
We can’t wait to hear the story of your Brigade. Here are some tools to get you started, including recipes, a Fire Cider Making Workshop Outline, and the original 2020 Brigade Manual.
Partners-in-Spice
Fleur & Forage Free Clinic
Our Fire Cider Brigade is growing this year as we partner with the awesome folks at Fleur & Forage Free Clinic. With Herbalista providing the gear, funding, and ongoing support, Fleur & Forage will now lead the community medicine-making workshops and local distribution. This new collaboration also allows the Brigade to expand into the Athens area, where Fleur & Forage also offer free herbal services. To learn more about the wonderful work of Fleur & Forage Free Clinic, please visit their website.
Herbalista Learning Garden
The Learning Garden, located in the Summerhill neighborhood of Atlanta, has focusing on growing herbs for the Fire Cider Brigade. They will be growing several of the ingredients used in our Fire Cider, including herbs like ginger, cayenne, hibiscus, and garlic. For more information on herbal growing so you can help support their efforts, please visit the Grow a Row Project Page.
Fire Cider Gallery
