Kombucha Brewers

[Misschief]

@amd
I need help! I've been reading through recipes and they all require 2 cups starter tea or store bought kombucha, can I use the liquid I grew the scoby in instead of having to buy another bottle?
If you have to use starter tea, whats the point of using scoby? Isn't it supposed to get the culture growing in the tea?

Yes, you can use the liquid you grew the scoby in. I did. Basically, the starter tea is used to kick start the process. You can use just starter tea, tbh, and a scoby will eventually grow. When you have a finished batch, just save some of that tea to start your next batch.

 

[Obsidian]

awesome, thank you! I'm mixing up my first batch tomorrow, wish me luck.

 

[Misschief]

awesome, thank you! I'm mixing up my first batch tomorrow, wish me luck.

No luck needed, Obsidian. It does all the work itself. I would recommend tasting it after about a week. If it's too sweet for you, let it go for another day or two.. or more.. until it tastes good to you.

 

[CaraBou]

Ok, I admit I haven’t gained taste yet for kambucha, but this sure caught my eye:

Back story: I make a maple bacon onion jam type thing that my kids love on french toast.

I bought something once that fits this description, but I’d love to try making my own. Is this a recipe you’d share, amd?

 

[homesteaders]

Back story: I make a maple bacon onion jam type thing that my kids love on french toast. On Saturday night I was bottling booch, and I thought "I wonder how this would taste in booch" so I threw some in with some pineapple. It wasn't the worst booch I've ever tried, but it wasn't for casual drinking. So I made the best dang bread with it. I usually make this recipe with beer (whatever my hubs has on tap), but it worked with booch too!

3 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup sugar
12 ounces beer/kombucha (and now the kids want me to try Dr. Pepper...)

Mix everything together. Place in greased pan (ha, I almost said "mold"). Bake at 375 degs F for 40 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes, allow to cool on wire rack before slicing.

I wish I would have thought of this when I was trying to drink the banana pb booch I made last week...

I'm going to give that a go! Sounds delicious. I've never used self-rising flour before, but sounds good for a quick bread.

 

[Sally_L]

The longer you leave it to ferment, the more sour it becomes.



That's a good price. I'm in Canada, though, and on Amazon.ca, they're a LOT more expensive. I do have the temperature strips already.

I bought one of those heating mats for germinating trays of seedlings from Home Hardware for $20. I find the temp consistent enough during winter to brew a gallon from start to finish in 7 days. I just unplug it during summer.

 

[Sally_L]

Christmas lights I have. I may just dig them out today.

I have a question for those of you who make it... what's your favourite flavour? I'm always looking for new ideas.

Also, what's the size of your batch? I make 1/2 gallon at a time because I (and my granddaughter, occasionally) am the only one who drinks it.

I brew 2 gallons at a time. My jugs sit on top of a gardening heated mat, I do not wrap it around my jugs. I use organic cane sugar. The types of teas I use are black, green and rooibos. I think that the different green teas taste better than black. Most frequently, I blend green with black tea to make sure my SCOBYs have enough tannins. When I flavour by teas, I just add a few berries or cherries to the bottles. I also use sliced ginger and turmeric. The ginger is lovely.

 

[amd]

@amd
I need help! I've been reading through recipes and they all require 2 cups starter tea or store bought kombucha, can I use the liquid I grew the scoby in instead of having to buy another bottle?
If you have to use starter tea, whats the point of using scoby? Isn't it supposed to get the culture growing in the tea?

Yes, use the liquid you grew the SCOBY in. Your first batch may be a bit slower to get through fermentation, but it will be fine. This was how I started my brews in the new house, because I had managed to kill my hotel (extra SCOBY storage) during the move. My batches after the first went much better. Just don't add vinegar if your starter tea is shorter than the 2 cups recommended. Vinegar invites contamination. If you're short on the starter, it's ok to use what you have, just make a slightly smaller batch - say 12-14 cups water total instead of 16 (for a 1 gallon example). The next batch you'll be able to increase the water.

There's several "camps" on the purpose of the SCOBY, and neither is wrong. Some people don't use the SCOBY at all and only use the starter. Their reasoning is that the starter will contain both yeast and bacteria needed, which is absolutely true. I'm in the "use the SCOBY" camp. There is some research (I don't have the links handy, but if I remember tonight I'll link them up) that indicates their are different strains of bacteria contained within the SCOBY itself that you can't get from just starter. My SCOBY also (almost) always floats on the top until the new one is formed, providing protection from "bad stuff" that may want to settle in before the tea can get to the pH level that prevents contamination. Either way, you're going to get kombucha!

 

[amd]

I bought one of those heating mats for germinating trays of seedlings from Home Hardware for $20. I find the temp consistent enough during winter to brew a gallon from start to finish in 7 days. I just unplug it during summer.

You do want to be careful using a mat, as your heat source is then at the bottom of your brew, which will lead to over-yeasting. Heat sources should be able to heat the brew thoroughly without creating hot spots, such as a mat would do to the bottom, leaving the top colder.

 

[amd]

I bought something once that fits this description, but I’d love to try making my own. Is this a recipe you’d share, amd?

http://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/maple-onion-jam
It's based on this recipe, but I leave out the spices, except pepper and salt, and make it in smaller quantites in a saucepan on the stove.

 

[Obsidian]

Yes, use the liquid you grew the SCOBY in. Your first batch may be a bit slower to get through fermentation, but it will be fine. This was how I started my brews in the new house, because I had managed to kill my hotel (extra SCOBY storage) during the move. My batches after the first went much better. Just don't add vinegar if your starter tea is shorter than the 2 cups recommended. Vinegar invites contamination. If you're short on the starter, it's ok to use what you have, just make a slightly smaller batch - say 12-14 cups water total instead of 16 (for a 1 gallon example). The next batch you'll be able to increase the water.

Thank you, I had enough scoby juice for a full one gallon batch and enough left over to mix with some fruit juice and drink.

How do you store scoby? I'm not sure I will drink this fast enough to keep a batch constantly brewing.
Also, if I want to brew in two smaller jars instead of one big one, can I cut the scoby in half or peel the layers apart?

 

[amd]

How do you store scoby? I'm not sure I will drink this fast enough to keep a batch constantly brewing.
Also, if I want to brew in two smaller jars instead of one big one, can I cut the scoby in half or peel the layers apart?

Storing: Brew some extra sweet tea, place SCOBY in jar, cover with sweet tea and cover like you would for a brew and store out of the way. Some reading on the interwebs might make it complicated by telling you to feed it and such, but I don't worry about mine. I might top the jar off as it fills with scoby to keep enough liquid to cover the top scoby, but I do that about once every six months. It will grow its own scoby, and that's ok. The brew won't be suitable for drinking, it will be more like kombucha vinegar. Just to clarify "extra sweet tea": I boil for cups of water, steep 4 tea bags for 5 minutes, and add 4 cups water and 1 cup sugar. The sugar gives the scoby food during storage.

Yes, you can cut it in half or peel the layers apart. If your scoby is fairly thick (like an inch or so), I would just take a serated knife and cut the scoby in half like you would when splitting a round cake into layers.

 

[ewenique]

I've been making kombucha for several months now and use green tea. I wonder if commercial kombuch is artificially carbonated because mine is only a little fizzy before adding flavoring and refrigerating. I like fresh ginger and pineapple.

I've made CP soap with vinegary kombucha that's sat too long, and I've added a scoby to the lye water. It shrunk down to marble size and I discarded it. I substituted kombucha for apple cider vinegar in a shampoo bar recipe. The soap is quite nice!

 

[Sally_L]

You do want to be careful using a mat, as your heat source is then at the bottom of your brew, which will lead to over-yeasting. Heat sources should be able to heat the brew thoroughly without creating hot spots, such as a mat would do to the bottom, leaving the top colder.

so if I just put the mat behind the jugs--between the jugs and the wall--so that the heat is distributed from top to bottom, albeit on one side, do you think that would be better?

 

[Obsidian]

I've only tried a couple different kombucha, a local made and kevita brand. The local stuff is barely carbonated, its also flavorless and not very good. I do prefer the commercial stuff, I like a lot of flavor. I really hope mine isn't bland and flat lol.

Ginger sounds nice, do you use the juice or chunks of root? I've not really looked into flavoring yet, suppose I need to soon.

 

[Misschief]

Kevita is something different; it's water kefir. I make that, too.

 

[Obsidian]

Kevita is something different; it's water kefir. I make that, too.

its says master brew kombucha on it, at least the one I drink does.

 

[Sally_L]

I've only tried a couple different kombucha, a local made and kevita brand. The local stuff is barely carbonated, its also flavorless and not very good. I do prefer the commercial stuff, I like a lot of flavor. I really hope mine isn't bland and flat lol.

Ginger sounds nice, do you use the juice or chunks of root? I've not really looked into flavoring yet, suppose I need to soon.

I slice it very thinly and add it to the bottles.

 

[DeeAnna]

Fermented tea, huh? I always wondered what this stuff was -- and that shows you how little I know about kombucha. My friend Dianna gave me a swig of her homemade kombucha that was soooo very sour and pungent, I wasn't sure I could swallow it. But then I sampled a commercial kombucha at a Mother Earth Fair that was nicely tangy and drinkable.

I make my own sauerkraut, lacto-fermented garlic (great way to preserve it!) and cucumber pickles, as well as wine and cider vinegar. I might have to give kombucha a try.

 

[amd]

My work friend and I have done some reading on big batch brewing - she wants to brew for distribution because the closest brewers to us are 4 hours and 6 hours away. GT's actually uses kiwi juice instead of sugar for their brewing, which also adds to the flavor. I don't think their carbonation is forced, typically when using CO2 to force carbonation you'll see a smaller more even bubble distribution versus larger bubbles in pockets. Forced carbonation will also feel sharper on your tongue.

I've done some playing with sugar the last month or two, and it does make a difference for carbonation. My brews using plain table (granulated white) sugar barely had any carbonation to them. I switched to raw sugar and my first brew had so much carbonation that when I was bottling it I had to wait for the head to go down to get the bottles properly filled. I also tried a batch using priming sugar from my husband's beer brewing stash. The big brew wasn't nearly as carbonated as the raw sugar, but the bottles did have more carbonation after sitting at room temp for 12 hours. If you're having trouble with carbonation, my advice is to play with 1) type of sugar and 2) amount of sugar.

so if I just put the mat behind the jugs--between the jugs and the wall--so that the heat is distributed from top to bottom, albeit on one side, do you think that would be better?

You'd still be applying heat to one side rather than surrounding it. If you have old style christmas lights (not LED) those would be a better option to wrap around the jug. Of course, if the mat is working for you as is, then use it! Especially if your brewing jug is more round than it is tall (one of mine is). Over time you may notice your booch flavor going off, and the reasoning is because of the imbalance of yeast. You'd have to start over with fresh starter tea from someone else.