I’ve had more success with green tea. Be sure to follow the directions from cultures from health link, you want to be sure the tea and sugar is totally cool to room temp before adding the scoby or you will kill it. The temp sticker goes on the jug so you can gauge if it’s in the right zone to be happy, thencover the top with cheesecloth so it can “breath”. I wrap mine in a clean dish cloth with a pin so it stays dark, some people store the jug in a dark cabinet but either work.
Initial ferment will take about a week, just taste a splash and if it’s at all sweet then it needs more time. If it tastes extra funky (like it fermented too quickly) that can be adjusted with a touch more sugar or flavoring in the bottling. Sounds more complicated than it is!
My sister has serious IBS issues and realized after drinking kombucha daily her symptoms had reduced drastically- and honestly i think it’s part of why I never get sick (like not even a cold in probably a year) because my gut health is on point
Ok thanks for the link. I see their ratios now. Is it me or does 2 table spoons sound light for a gallon? Can I just use cheap black tea or something quality?
For fermenting temps my house will be perfect temp.
So it’s one cup sugar. I get the best carbonation on the second ferment using green tea- I just get whatever big box of cheap generic green tea and that works great. For some weird reason I just don’t get carbonation with the black tea- so if the bubbles are important to you use the black tea.
If your first batch is totally flat, no carbonation (it’s happened to me a few times for one reason or another) you can just add a splash of seltzer when you go to drink it.
I ordered my “big mama” scoby with 1.5 cups from Amazon prime last night, 15.99 (yes it is called the big mama lol)
Time to rock n roll
I have the big spigot canisters but I need more sugar and tea. I have two thick walled growlers so I think my plan is to make two batches to start rather than bottling 16oz bottles.
I watched a video and a lady made puree and put half 1/4 cup of the juice in each 16oz bottle. So a 64oz growler will take a cup. Sound right? Will I need to add sugar if I use straight juice as opposed to puree? I am thinking cherry for one batch and maybe pomegranate for the other.
Using the growlers sounds great, I have an extra large GTS bottle i use sometimes and that works well- they will probably need about a week for the second ferment though.
A cup of juice somehow sounds like a lot to me…? juice is fine, doesn’t need to be a puree, and no you don’t need any extra sugar in there. I would probably add some ginger juice to the pomegranate or maybe lemon…? personal preference though. the amount of juice can vary depending how intense you want the floor to be- if you’re using something like POM pomegranate juice that stuff is hella strong so I would do like a 1/2 cup, but if it’s one of those diluted “from concentrate” things sold in a huge bottle at the grocery store than a cup is probably right.
oh! and make notes!! write down somewhere exactly how much of what you did and how long the ferment was etc, this way if you love it you can duplicate it and if it sucks you can know what not to do again
So I am sipping on a gts gingerade now and it is great! The target label I posted earlier is wrong. Check out the real sugar… (maybe they changed the recipe)
They’ll all have caffeine in them, due to the black tea, but it needn’t be listed as an ingredient if pure caffeine isn’t added - like chocolate, tea, coffee, or maté.
That’s about right. Oooh, and yeah always “decant” your homemade brooch, it’s a good sign when they have a baby scoby in there means it’s happy and making the right kind of fermentation but not so fun to drink one…!
If you want to duplicate the gingerade I do that making a juice in my juicer with 6-8 lemons, and about 4oz of fresh ginger peeled and Thru the juicer with it. If you don’t have a juicer use a micro plane that makes a superfine purée. Then per 16oz bottle I do about 1 TB of that mix and 1 tsp sugar, ferment about a week. It’s side by side super close to the GTS version which is my most favorite flavor ever. Really refreshing and great punch of flavor.
So I just whipped it up and it is fermenting now as we speak. I’m excited. Thanks again for the help.
When you say decant you mean the secondary fermentation?
It is weird. When I put the scoby into the cool water with the starter tea it sank to the bottom. Once I added the sugar and tea water in it literally jumped up to the surface. That was pretty cool.
The scoby is a monster! It is like 7" wide. It is in the warmest room of my house, a spare bedroom.
So far
16.00 for the scoby and starter tea
1.00 for 100 teabags at dollar store
1.00 for a 3 funnel set since mine end up in the garage
1.00 for a giant bag of rubber bands
2.25 for 4 pounds of sugar
Thanks Eli. I was reading about his store the other day. He seems really passionate about his venture and product.
So I tried 3 gts flavors…gingerade, trilogy and gingerberry. The issue with these is most have a scoby or 2 inside. I’ve been straining them into a glass. Trilogy is my favorite flavor so far.
Nice! From your photo be sure sure to wrap the jug in a kitchen towel or something so it stays dark, also helps keep it warm. The scoby will grow with subsequent batches- totally funky and kinda gross looking but mine covers the entire surface of the jar and is like an inch thick- only because i have peeled off excess to keep it under control!
and yes when you’re drinking a bottle of your own kombucha first always open over the sink or away form you outside, never know if it’s especially extra bubbly and just watch for baby scoby. if you’re bottling in two big bottles then each will probably (hopefully) develop only one baby scoby
That’s cool to have a local NJ kombucha shop! Living up to the stereotype there are a few places near my parents in CA that make and sell their own and there’s a stand with a local brand at the farmers market there
From what I read, normally 7 to 12 days but some go past 20.
My issue I that I did 2 full cups of sugar as I read that was a good recipe. Then I see others calling for 3/4 cup. So my batch has a lot of sugar for the scoby to eat. I will taste at 7 days and see what is up. I want it on the vinegary side so it could take longer, and I dont want it super sweet . So I will probably let the sugar get eaten for a while.
I am definitely doing cherry but I might add vanilla too. The second growler I’m leaning toward straight pomegranate.
The mama scoby sunk about an inch under the surface. She was on top earlier floating. This is like a science experiment to me. Even if I screw this up, it is still fun stuff: )
So big mama “swam” down to the bottom and has been there the last few days. I think I see some growth on the bottom but it is hard to tell. I will test it out in a day or two and see how it is coming along.
On a side note, I tried a new brand, simply balanced. I like this ginger version better than gts. 13g of sugar and 60 calories. Try one if you like ginger. This isn’t too sweet or over the top with ginger flavor.
