Friday, March 4, 2011

kombucha time


Kombucha = my recent science experiment and it's as fascinating and fun as this gif! I'm currently in my third brewing and it's not quite right (yet). does anyone have tips or the perfect proportions?

9 comments:

Lisa Jeannin said...

Hello! 1- 1 1/2 deciliter sugar per 1 liter cold tea. Don´t forget to rinse the kombucha when he get´s new tea.Good luck!

Liz Woodbury said...

every batch is a new experiment - my advice is to just keep playing around with proportions, etc, until you hit on the right ones. i found that i needed to use more sugar than i at first guessed i'd need. one good tip i got was to periodically use green tea instead of black, because it seems to "freshen up" the mother (and of course you're constantly growing new ones, but even the babies seem to get kind of tired after a while). the thing i found the very hardest was to get enough carbonation - it always seemed just a bit flat. i'm going to start up again this summer. good luck with your kombuchaing!

Anonymous said...

Hey Kindra! I've been making 2 huge jars a week, and it's turning out really well. My method is to steep 6 tablespoons of green or black tea, 1 cup sugar for about 5-10 minutes. Make sure the sugar is disolved, and then fill the rest of the jar up with cold water. Then add the scoby. I keep my jars near the heater, and cover them with a flour sack + rubber band.

I try to taste it periodically, and when the sweet/sour is right I transfer it to clean beer bottles (each with an additional tsp of sugar. Let this sit in a warm, dark spot for another week, and it should be fizzy and delicious!

Right now, I'm experimenting with some new flavors: Tangy Orange Apricot and Black Currant (both are black tea). So far, these two are awesome.

Sam

kindra said...

Lisa, Liz and Samuel—
thanks for stopping by and leaving your Kombucha tips (seriously). I'm hoping for better batches and major fizz. it seems like every website has different ratios—so this will be helpful. Perhaps, my biggest problem is that i get antsy and bottle too soon?

Anonymous said...

I've heard that the type of bottle cap used can effect the amount of fizz. What type of bottles are you using? If you use glass beer bottles and use a standard capper, it is supposed to keep the seal tighter than a twist style cap. I've also heard that the grolsch stype cap with the rubber stopper is really good too. Oh, but never use plastic for the initial fermenting or bottling--I've heard it can make you sick.
Check out the labels for my last batch!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samuelsherman/5503667945/

Unknown said...

I would love to take a mother off your hands whenever you need to get rid of one! <3

Andres Guzman said...

I wanna try some

Anonymous said...

make sure you don't forget about it... these are about 8-9in in diameter.

http://samuelsherman.tumblr.com/#6131822252

kindra said...

Sam! that is one crazy hunk of scoby. outrageous!