Kombucha Results

A few days ago, I bottled my kombucha. I used two glass brewing containers. One was an iced tea jar with a spout. The spout worked great for bottling because all I had to do was flip the lever and pour into my mason jars. My second brewing container I actually liked better. It was an old wine jug I stole from a friend (She drank the wine; I took the container). Obviously, it was easy to pour into the mason jars too, but I really liked the way my kombucha turned out in this one. It fermented much quicker than I expected, and the mushroom/SCOBY was huge. The kombucha was even carbonated when I was pouring it into the mason jar!  The taste was a bit strong, especially if you’re not used to drinking kombucha.  I bought some lemon echinacea juice to mix it with because I’ve been wanting to test some different flavors out. Any kombucha experts out there have some suggestions??

Check out that SCOBY!

I left the kombucha to ferment for about three weeks, and that was probably the reason it tastes so strong. I started two more batches after I bottled these, and I will test them after a week or two instead of three or four weeks. The new batches are also a test of new teas! Both gallons this last time were black tea, but this time I’m trying out white and green tea! Fingers crossed it works out! I have no idea if there are differences between brewing green, black and white tea. Again, any kombucha experts out there have any advice??

Two gallons of tea yielded one bakers dozen of kombucha!. Yum!

Summer Kombucha Batch

I first tried kombucha in the fall, and I was instantly addicted. Since kombucha is so expensive in at the store, I started brewing it. My first batch had some issues, but I’m hoping for fewer problems this time!

For those of you who don’t know, kombucha is basically a fermented tea. It’s supposed to be really good for you and give you lots of energy! I bought my starter from Oregon Kombucha, but most people get their kombucha from someone they know.

My method:

• Bring 16 cups of water to a near boil.
• Brew 12 black tea bags for 4 minutes. Make sure there is no oil in the ingredients of the tea.
• Remove tea and stir in one cup of sugar.
• Let the tea cool to room temperature and place into clean glass bowl or jar. This time I used a glass ice tea jar and a gallon glass wine jug. In general, the wider the jar, the quicker the brewing.
• Cover the container with cheesecloth or a clean t-shirt.
• Wait one week until checking it.

More instructions to come as the brew progresses!