kombucha question-- making the second batch

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I just took out my first batch of kombucha. It's good! But, I followed

GEM's recipe rather than the NT recipe, which calls for signfiicantly less a

proportion of sugar, and I think I'll go with the NT recipe this time (umm, I

mean I went with it this time), as it seems a little on the sweet side, even

though it's been 9 days, I have a big jellyfish, and the tangy taste is more

than yesterday and I wouldn't want to let it go further.

Anyway, I have a question. I wasn't sure whether I should use my first

" mushroom " or the thin wide jellyfish-lookin' thing on top, but I went with

the original mushroom, and saved the latter in the fridge with a little bit

of kombucha, in case a batch messes up or someone else wants one. the GEM

instructions said it was normal for it to sink over time, which it did.

Problem is, I just put it in a new batch, and it immediately sunk and won't

float. Is this ok? I figured the first batch it ended up sinking as a new

jellyfish thing grew on top of it, pushing it under, but something remained

on _top_ of the stuff the whole time.

Is it ok that that it won't float to begin with? Or should I take it out and

try the other " mushroom " ?

Thanks,

Chris

____

" What can one say of a soul, of a heart, filled with compassion? It is a

heart which burns with love for every creature: for human beings, birds, and

animals, for serpents and for demons. The thought of them and the sight of

them make the tears of the saint flow. And this immense and intense

compassion, which flows from the heart of the saints, makes them unable to

bear the sight of the smallest, most insignificant wound in any creature.

Thus they pray ceaselessly, with tears, even for animals, for enemies of the

truth, and for those who do them wrong. "

--Saint Isaac the Syrian

[Guest guest]

Hi

Making Kombucha is an art with science involved IMO. I try to take notes on

what I've done so depending on my results I can repeat or not depending on

what happens. I have so many various cultures of this and that going these

days unless I keep notes I can't remember what I did exactly. Kombucha

afficianados always seem to be " playing with " their brews, new teas, new

mixes, additions, what will happen if I do this kind of thing. If you do

experiment always keep a straight, pure colony going as a fallback and

starting place for new experiments.

Anyway to answer your question, it doesn't matter if it floats or sinks.

From a great article by Len Porzio he says this: " SCOBY sinks: This is

normal. Some SCOBYs are denser than others depending on how much CO2 is

trapped between the layers. Often a sinker will make some of the best

brews. " Here's the link to the entire article-THE KOMBUCHA BALANCING ACT, I

think it's a must read for kombucha brewers

http://w3.trib.com/~kombu/KTBalance.shtml#THE%20SCOBY

By the way the official name for the jellyfish thing is a SCOBY, acronym for

Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast

And you can choose to use either the mother SCOBY or the baby--the new one

on the top in your successive brews, but keeping some for backup is a great

idea. Thus if disaster strikes, you can recover quickly. I keep several

around. If you start brewing this on an ongoing basis, you end up with lots

of SCOBYs, to share, make even more kombucha or find things to do with

them--some people dry them and make SCOBY leather stuff--drum skins,

ppouches and someone on the kombucha list once talked about making shoes,

don't know if it worked or not--SCOBYs can be hard to throw away. Oh also

you can use them for treating the skin topically, like a poltice, easier

than trying to keep the liquid kombucha on.

Hope this helps,

-----Original Message-----

From: ChrisMasterjohn@... [mailto:ChrisMasterjohn@...]

Sent: Saturday, September 07, 2002 2:54 PM

Subject: kombucha question-- making the second batch

Hi everyone,

I just took out my first batch of kombucha. It's good! But, I followed

GEM's recipe rather than the NT recipe, which calls for signfiicantly less a

proportion of sugar, and I think I'll go with the NT recipe this time (umm,

I

mean I went with it this time), as it seems a little on the sweet side, even

though it's been 9 days, I have a big jellyfish, and the tangy taste is more

than yesterday and I wouldn't want to let it go further.

Anyway, I have a question. I wasn't sure whether I should use my first

" mushroom " or the thin wide jellyfish-lookin' thing on top, but I went with

the original mushroom, and saved the latter in the fridge with a little bit

of kombucha, in case a batch messes up or someone else wants one. the GEM

instructions said it was normal for it to sink over time, which it did.

Problem is, I just put it in a new batch, and it immediately sunk and won't

float. Is this ok? I figured the first batch it ended up sinking as a new

jellyfish thing grew on top of it, pushing it under, but something remained

on _top_ of the stuff the whole time.

Is it ok that that it won't float to begin with? Or should I take it out

and

try the other " mushroom " ?

Thanks,

Chris

____

" What can one say of a soul, of a heart, filled with compassion? It is a

heart which burns with love for every creature: for human beings, birds, and

animals, for serpents and for demons. The thought of them and the sight of

them make the tears of the saint flow. And this immense and intense

compassion, which flows from the heart of the saints, makes them unable to

bear the sight of the smallest, most insignificant wound in any creature.

Thus they pray ceaselessly, with tears, even for animals, for enemies of the

truth, and for those who do them wrong. "

--Saint Isaac the Syrian