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Posted

Since you've raised the subject, I will exploit the opportunity to proselytise...

 

Use the Dilmah Rose and French Vanilla. It is  :drool5:  :drool5:  :drool5:  :drool5:  :drool5:  :drool5:  :drool5:  :drool5:

Posted

You have to get a Scoopy from someone. Once you have that you can make it. We did it for a while but then I found out I shouldn't be drinking it, so we stopped. We made it with rappadera (whole sugar) and I think water. There was a certain way you had to do it. After it brewed we put it in reusable sealable bottles and let it sit for about a week. Then it came out carbonated. It was good, though mildly (very mild) alcoholic. DH now drinks a cup a day of kombuncha. We could probably start making it again but it really is much easier to buy it for how much we use of it. 

  • Like 1
Posted

Here's how I do it per batch, I make a double batch at a time

 

3-4 quarts water

Warm to melt 1 cup sugar

Steep with 4-6 tsp black tea for a couple hours

Add scoby and I cup kombucha

 

Let sit in a glass container covered with towel for 1 week

 

After a week, remove scoby add about 1/2 cup grapefruit juice or grape juice (or just add a raspberry or two directly to each bottle), bottle in flip top (think grolsch) bottles

 

Wait about 2-3 days and taste. It should be slightly fizzy and not overly sweet.

 

Be careful, it sometimes gets really fizzy and can explode when you open it. It's not that fun to clean bucha off cabinets and ceilings!

  • Like 2
Posted

I have a friend who makes wonderful kombucha at home. I have tried to follow her instruction on multiple occasions only to fail mightily. Depressing since hers is SOOOO much better than any I've ever had from a store.

Posted

I made it for a while, but I stopped. It's basically homemade soda. It was so sweet. And the sugar mixed with the caffeine from the tea, it made me jittery. My speech would speed up etc lol.  I drink a LOT of coffee and have never considered myself particularly sensitive to caffeine, but that stuff was just too much! 

We did try making it with decaf tea, but the scoby got thinner and smaller every time when we did that. Something about how the tea is decaffeinated wasn't good for the scoby.  It was a dramatic difference.

 

But here is our recipe, I was told you will get a much better product if you use organic sugar and organic tea. The scoby seemed sensitive, so that might be the case. We didn't when we made it and the scoby was not as thick and healthy as it was when we got it. We were going to switch, but then decided to stop.

 

First get your scoby

 

Then you need

14 cups water

1 cup sugar

8 tea bags

2 cups 'starter tea' from the last batch if you have it

1 ounce of cider when you bottle it.

 

Steep the tea for 10 mins, then allow to cool to room temperature.  When it's cool put it in a clean glass jar and add your scoby.  Let it sit a week to 10 days at room temperature. Then strain and bottle (you will need a fresh batch of tea to put your scoby in when you bottle). Add 1 ounce of cider to the batch before bottling.  Keep it in the fridge after bottling or it will continue to ferment.

 

It helps that DH is a homebrewer. We were always able to sanitize etc between every step. We had no problems with quality control.

 

 

Posted

Can someone recommend a scoby, please?

 

Every week the scoby grows a new scoby.  You use the new one and toss the old one.  Some people compost it. You can let it go for a couple weeks without separating, but you will need to toss the old scoby on a regular basis.

 

So, you just ask someone for their about to be discarded scoby. You go over with a bowl and get it, and bring it home, lol. That's about it.  It helps if you already have your tea made and cooled so you can plop it in there as soon as you get home.

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

Much like homebrewing beer, the key thing is to make sure everything is sanitized. This is especially important with kombucha, because unlike beer, we don't know exactly which cultures are essential and which ones are optional -- so if something funky sneaks in from outside and contaminates your scoby, you'd need to begin again at the beginning. Mold is a big culprit here; kombucha is produced by a Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeasts  (SCOBY) -- you don't want any other non-SCOBY guests.

 

Even though it is tea, be sure to ferment it in glass -- the tart flavors produced can leech metals out of ceramic glaze, and there have been a few cases of people making themselves sick by trying to brew kombucha in a ceramic teapot.

 

The most traditional way is using black tea. Most commercial kombucha in the U.S. is "West Coast style", meaning it uses green tea (or occasionally oolong).

 

 

Edited by Anacharsis
  • Like 2
Posted

I like it.

 

I got a scoby sent on Amazon prime for less than $10. I use a mix of green tea, black tea, and raspberry flavored tea.

 

The first time I did it, it seemed like a pain, but once I got used to it, it's no big deal. I've grown to like the taste, and I like how it makes me feel. I let mine sit for two weeks. I use the same start-up recipe as emcap, above, but I don't add anything when it's done. I discard the old scoby.  

  • Like 2
  • 5 months later...
Posted (edited)

Anyone buy a SCOBY from Etsy? There are quite a few available. Do not know anyone local to get a mama scoby from.  Was hoping to avoid amazon :)

Edited by booch
Posted

Anyone buy a SCOBY from Etsy? There are quite a few available. Do not know anyone local to get a mama scoby from.  Was hoping to avoid amazon :)

 

If worst comes to worst, you can grow one from a bottle of unpasteurized kombucha.

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