My wife has been making ‘Kombucha’ (black tea Korean) for a bunch of years now, where she has pretty much perfected the brew from years of tweaking and brewing her recipes.
She also makes the Japanese version of Kombucha called ‘Jun’ (Green Tea) which uses honey to feed the fermentation instead of brown sugar like the Korean version does.
You may already know this Jason, but here are a few pointers I have learned from watching my wife who is an unofficial master Kombucha expert making it thru the years.
1. She has purchased scoby’s online and has created her own scoby’s from
manufactured retail brands like GT’s. Regardless of how she got or made her scoby, she has always poured her very first two batches of Kombucha and Jun down the sink. She has never kept them to drink. A new scoby’s being a ‘living organism’ needs a couple of batches to grow and get a bit healthier before they can make a batch fermented enough to be worthy of drinking.
2. After you poured the first couple of batches down the drain and have finished the days of fermentation on the third batch 7-10 days, you are now ready to bottle up the juice.
3. However, once the batch is poured in the individual bottles, my wife will add different kinds of juice for flavoring and she will even add chia seeds and then she puts those air tight bottles back in a warm dark cabinet for 2 more days. Trust me, the fermentation process will continue in those bottles even with out a scoby.
4. These two days, will really help the fermentation and when you finally pop open a bottle, you will hear that famous ‘pop’ sound and the kombucha will be fizzy yet smooth with that awesome bang! And bite in the mouth and on the tongue that one can only get from a properly made fermentation.
5. I noticed in your pics, your mason jar and batch of Kombucha sitting in the kitchen cupboard about the third shelf down. Other then the cheese cloth that you had on top of the lid so it can breathe, you will want to: A. Cover the entire glass mason jar with a towel or something. The clear mason jar lets in light every time you open that closet. A small towel wrapped around the jar, will keep it dark without exposing it to light.
6. Also, B. get the batch in the jar up higher on the top of the shelf if you can. The warmth of your house rises and collects closer to the ceiling that if young can get it there. This increased warmth, especially in the cooler months will really help the fermentation process. My wife likes to put her batches of Kombucha and Jun, either in the small storage cabinet above the kitchen stove as the heat from cooking everyday rises onto those cabinets. She also will keep batches in the small storage cabinets above the dryer in the laundry room. Same exact theory of using the dryer sends the warm air up into those cabinets. I’m positive both of these are probably the warmest places in our house. Perfect environment for fermentation.
My wife also makes milk Kefir, water Kefir, Kimchi, Sauerkraut, pickled okra and even pickled eggs. The more fermented foods the better. Good gut health is the foundation to overall good health and she is a firm believer in this. Fermented foods and drinks are an important staple for this.
Good luck with your future batches.
That’s similar to the sourdough ingredient that plays a common role.
Take care with the strawberry one. That fruit, in particular, produced huge reactions for me. I'd "burp" it a couple times a day and then try to open it a little at time to let out the gas, but still it foamed out a good bit of the liquid. Cherries, oranges, blueberries etc. didn't produce much of a reaction.
Tell me more about this continuous brew fermentor method?
I have a fermentor with a spigot at the bottom of it, once the fermentation is complete I bottle from the spigot.
It's definitely interesting ...I have a similar problem when I make Swedish Glugg. When I serve it, and I drink it, I can't get the raisins through the straw.
