Re: More Kombucha answers

[Guest guest]

you are partially right, in that if you want a beautiful thick scoby, you might

have to let your brew get a little more to the acidic side than you would like

to drink straight, but this super-brew is ideal for starter, and still drinkable

when secondary fermented with some fruit juice. i added a lot of concentrated

grape juice to my early puckery brews - lol. (it's ok to add some water too, as

this will bring the ph up so it wont be so acidic). your first brew is probably

just more acidic than you want, and in later brews you can experiment with the

timing, temperature, amount of tea and sugar, etc until you get just what suits

you. i cover mine with unbleached coffee filters and write all the pertinent

info on the filter so i can recreate the ones i like. (i think there is some

advice to not use coffee filters, but i dont remember what the reasoning for

this is - if anyone knows please enlighten us)

no, your scoby doesnt really tell you when the brew is done. you can have a

thick scoby and your brew still need a little more fermenting, or your brew can

be done before it ever forms a scoby, but these are extremes, and most brews

have a thin scoby when they are ready. dont fret though if it happens outside

the " norm " . my winter brews are not forming scobys at all, but still taste

marvelous. if my scobys dont return with warmer weather, i will ask for someone

to send me a more productive one.

here is my formula for as close as you can get to GT brewing:  use all or mostly

all loose leaf white tea (my variety is the lower end of the quality/price range

but is organic) and do a short steep (5-10 minutes) in water just off the boil

(200 degrees or less- i bring to a boil, then let it cool for a few minutes).

add 1 cup sugar (i use organic evaporated cane juice) for aout 3 quarts tea.  i

use about 2 cups starter from my scoby hotel. ferment at fairly low temps

(closer to 70 than 80) for up to 3 weeks (i go by when you can no longer taste

the tea), then bottle and let secondary ferment for a few days (following safety

procedures to prevent explosions) then refrigerate for a few days (this seems to

mellow it). if you want fizz or flavor, add fruit or juice when you bottle, but

the unflavored tastes and looks remarkably like plain GTs. the all-white is so

mild, that u may end up adding a little black tea to up the flavor a notch. you

can

also brew the fresh tea longer (i've even left it over night) this gives a more

bitter taste to the fresh tea, and it takes longer to ferment the tea taste

away, but the KT is more flavorful (which you may or may not want). i use white

tea and a short brew to minimize caffeine, which may not be important to you,

but the light taste may be more to your liking than black tea.

one small piece of advice - you will learn to like the variety of your brew, and

appreciate all the variations more if you quit drinking GTs for awhile.   i was

a little disappointed in my brews at first because i was used to GTs. i had to

resist the urge to buy a GTs and compare it to mine, and now prefer mine to GTs

(GTs is like a wine cooler, where homebrew is like a more complex and

flavorful wine; or if you are a beer drinker, compare a bud light (bland) to a

more complex microbrew).

dont be too disappointed in your first brew, and dont feel like you have to

drink it if it doesnt suit your fancy. save it for the next few batches of

starter, make salad dressing, use it to rinse your hair, or clean your house -

KT is NEVER wasted at my house! (and interestingly, no two people agree on what

batch is the very best, so what makes a batch good or bad has as much to do with

the taster as the tea).

also realize that small variations can have a small but noticeable impact on

taste. for example, when you add the organic unprocessed sugar to the hot water

without the tea, it has a very distinct odor, while processed sugar has almost

none. you may prefer one over the other, so try a batch with each as well as

other varieties of sugar and see which you like best. try different teas. brew a

batch at temps in the high 70s for a week and another in the low 70s for two

weeks or more. if you are like me, by the time you experiment around a few

times, you will realize you like all of it!

happy fermenting!

dl

________________________________

From: Cleoppa <remobec@...>

kombucha tea

Sent: Monday, December 15, 2008 2:25:15 PM

Subject: More Kombucha questions

Hello,

I have a few more questions about making Kombucha.

So, it would seem like the goals of making good-tasting Kombucha and

creating a healthy baby SCOBY are not always compatible. Is this

right? Meaning, you might have to leave the Kombucha for a while

longer to get a Kombucha, where the kombucha might not be at the ideal

taste.

Also, that there's no way to tell from the scoby if they Kombucha is

done brewing?

Another thing. I mentioned in my last e-mail that my internet was down

with the first (and so far, only) batch I made, so I sort of had to

wing it. I've grown to love the taste of GT's Kombucha. But my stuff

tastes a little yicky. It's kind of hard without someone to taste

it... but is this normal? I drink it. Don't think it's poisoned or

anything but... how do I get good tasting stuff? I know it's a bit

hard to answer but I was very disappointed in this kombucha I made.

OK, that's all for now. Thanks again.

Becky