Anyone brew their own Kombucha?
I’m about to start my making my own scoby! Just wondering if anyone else brews there own.
What kind of tea do you like to use and how long do you brew your batch for?
I was given a scoby and it sits in my cabinet, waiting for me to get up the gumption to make some kombucha. I have been making kefir, but it is easier than kombucha – at least that is my impression. Would love to hear how it goes!
I do! It’s so super easy. I’ve moved up to the continuous brewing method, I’ve got a big jar with a spout sitting on my counter and every day I take some out for a second ferment. I then add back what I’ve taken out in sweet black tea. I’ve been using up all of my leftover black tea samples, but then I’m going to shift to Davids English Breakfast because it’s cheap but still quality.
What does it mean to take it out for a second ferment? Is the scoby in the jar on the counter? It sounds like you have it down to an easy method.
A second ferment is where the booch gets its fizziness and flavor, if you want to flavor it. Today I’ve got guava kombucha. Three days ago, I filled a bottle with 1/5 guava juice and 4/5 booch. The sugar from the juice feeds the yeast and creates the “carbonation”. I let it sit for three days and then moved it to the fridge this morning. When I was ready to drink it, I just strained it (because it managed to grow a baby SCOBY) and drank. You can use fresh fruit (peach is a favorite around here), fruit juice, or even teas. But if you use tea, be sure to add sugar if you want that fizziness. With the continuous brew, my SCOBY never moves, it stays in the jar on the counter.
These sites really helped me when I was just getting into it (which was only a month or two ago)
www.kombuchakamp.com/
http://www.sarahramsden.com/growing-a-kombucha-scoby/
http://www.mygutsy.com/flavored-kombucha-2nd-ferment/
I will say that some people find citrus a touch too acidic. I know I tried grapefruit and it was not tasty.
Cool! I hope my scoby is still good. The lady who gave it to me had it for a while before giving it to me. She had never used it.
I love making my own Kombucha, I do continious brew too and lots of little experimental small batches(raw honey kombucha is the best!)
I also really like using Kombucha Vinegar for salad dressing, marinating foods, cleaning and other drinks.
I’ve been wanting to make my own Kombucha for awhile, but it always sounded like more work than I have time for. Then Brenden at WP mentioned continuous brewing.
I just ordered the no frills continuous brew setup from Kombucha Kamp. Yes, I know, I could have gone to target & bought a jug with a spigot there cheaper, etc, per Brenden’s suggestions on the Whispering Pines website, but this way I can be guaranteed a good solid start! Plus every ice tea jug I ever got at Target had a leaking spigot, no matter what I did.
I’m pretty excited, cuz i drink booch pretty regularly (GT’s ginger mainly), & have been saving my GT bottles for 2ndary brews too. BTW, Kombucha Kamp carries a package of lids (12 per order) to use with the GT bottles. I got some of those too.
I’ll probably start with the tea blend that comes with my order, simply because it’s there, & then move on to teas I have an abundance of. I’m looking forward to this Divine Experiment! :)
I started making kombucha years ago when my family still lived on Maui and I had an abundant source of Mothers to choose from! (For some reason kombucha was a pretty big deal for a while on Maui) I typically fed the Mother for more than two weeks. I cannot recall exactly how long. I really loved using a some type of blueberry infused black tea when making it. I always wanted to try it with a lychee tea though. That would be fantastic!
OMG, lychee sounds awesome! Now I’m thinking that I’ll want to do a 2ndary infusion with fresh lychee, that sounds heavenly!
I used to brew it quite a bit, using a mixture of raw and ripe pu erh. You can pretty much use any tea and it will come out good.
Wow, I killed my scoby the first time out. It grew mold. I got discouraged and returned to GTs (I like bilberry, lavender and hibiscus best). I’d love to try again, but maybe my house is too warm?
SO…my continuous brew kit arrived about 10 days ago, & by last thurs I was starting to sip. The homemade Kombucha is amazingly awesomely potent, way more potent than any of the GT varieties I ever purchased! I can only drink small sips of it right now, because it’s bringing on Herxheimer reactions, much like my homemade kraut & other culture experiments did when I first started making them. I know this will pass fairly quickly though.
Meanwhile, over the weekend I started my first secondary ferments, adding 1 T of dried elderberries to each of 4 bottles. I was gonna do ginger, but realized I was out. I just sampled the elderberry brew & all I can say is, “Yum”
Yay! I’m glad it’s working well! Mine is on day 8 now and already growing a baby scoby. It’s still too sweet for my liking but I can’t wait to try out different flavor combos. I plan on doing ginger and tart cherry for my first batch.
Okay, I have pulled out my large glass dispenser and have tea cooling on the counter! I will know in a week if this little scoby had enough life in it to start making tea again. I hope so, as my daughter has become a brooch addict!
Kombucha report: It’s been about a year since I started my continuous brew kombucha, and we’re still going strong. Once a week I make a gallon of refill tea (it holds 2.5 Gal), drain out roughly a gallon of tea into GT bottles, some of which becomes the flavor of the week (ginger, elderberry, etc. This week I’m gonna do some with sour cherry & some with lemon verbena). I usually leave a bottle or 2 plain as well. I’ve used a variety of black teas, lately I’ve been using Zhu Rong, because I have plenty of it, and it makes a awesome tasting booch!
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