The First Kombucha

Introduction

Honestly, I’m not super into kombucha. To me it doesn’t taste amazing, more like a flavored vinegar water. I feel like I should like it. I guess it is healthier than shrubs in that the probiotics are more prolific - the sour is the result of fermentation rather than added vinegar. I really want to love it. Some people do, Husband being one of them. I’m going to give it a go because he drinks it and also I feel like I should know how and be able to offer it in class.

Anyway, you start with a mother SCOBY. The slimy snot looking thing made of yeast and bacteria that ferments the tea. At some point I’ll try growing the mother but I purchased one from a fermentation shop. It came in about 1/2 c of its own brew.

Getting Started: Ingredients, Tools, and Method

• 1L boiling water

• 4 bags PG tips black tea

• 2 oz granulated sugar

• kombucha SCOBY mother and it's brew

• 1 gal glass drink dispenser with spigot

• muslin cloth and rubber band

• 1/2 gal mason jar

I put the sugar and hot water in the mason jar and stirred to dissolve. Next, I steeped the tea for 5 minutes. After removing the tea bags I covered with the muslin and allowed to cool over night. The next morning I poured the cool tea and the mother into the drink dispenser and affixed the muslin to the top with an elastic band. I tasted it. Surprise!! It was like sweet tea. I tasted it every 4-5 days thereafter.

Observation Notes and Results

Day 15

Kombucha seems sour enough - very little sweet remaining - ready for secondary fermentation.

Secondary fermentation is when the plain booch is fermented a second time in bottles with a second whack of sugar. The sugar source can be fruit and this will flavor your drink. In sealed bottles (sealed Grolsch-style so there are no glass explosions) the waste CO2 from the fermentation process becomes trapped as bubbles and you get some carbonation.

Secondary Fermentation

NB: I held back some of the plain booch. It is needed to keep the mother alive AND for the next brew to get going.

Bottle 1

• 5 strawberries finely chopped

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• 1/2 tsp sugar

• kombucha from primary ferment to fill 16 oz flip-top bottle to shoulder

Bottle 2

• 1/4 c frozen blueberries, defrosted

• 1 tsp diced ginger

• 1/2 tsp sugar

• kombucha from primary ferment to fill 16 oz flip-top bottle to shoulder
  

Day 17 (2 days secondary)

- Burped and tasted kombucha

- Tasted blueberry one - not flavored or fizzy enough.

Day 20 (5 days secondary)

-Burped and tasted kombucha

- Strawberry very fruity, had to control fizz coming out. Going to ferment longer as pretty sweet again. Must burp again.

- Blueberry less uncontrollably fizzy but still lovely. Ginger and blueberry flavors both present.

- Once funnel and strainer arrive I will decant into bottles and strain fruit.

- Put in refrigerator

A Follow Up Note

I’ll put this here even though it was not on my horizon when I did the first kombucha batch … Kombucha likes a warmer fermentation temperature than veggies. After some slow batches and slow secondary ferments in winter I realized the kitchen was not warm enough. The booch fermented but slowly. I bought a warming wrap for the vessel and set it to “high”. Kombucha likes 70-80F ish.