Kombucha: Difference between revisions
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* Bottle 1: Blueberry, banana and apple puree | * Bottle 1: Blueberry, banana and apple puree | ||
* Bottles 2-4: Apple | * Bottles 2-4: Apple | ||
* Bottles 5: Mango orange | * Bottles 5: Mango and orange | ||
* Bottle 6: Mango banana | * Bottle 6: Mango and banana | ||
* Bottle 7: Half full, mango banana | * Bottle 7: Half full, mango and banana |
Revision as of 14:08, 31 January 2022
Kombucha is one of the only drinks that I enjoy. Here's a list of reasons I like it:
- It's fizzy
- It comes in a wide variety of flavours
- It feels more hydrating than soft drinks to me
A lot of the Internet push it as a health drink. I don't care about this aspect enough to investigate.
Note that the hydrating feeling is just a feeling. Usually when drinking soda or coffee I need water nearby to somehow balance a feeling I identify as dehydration. It could be that I'm responding to sugars or some other taste. Regardless I don't need that with kombucha, and that's a benefit.
Getting started
There's a lot of good guides for starting to brew kombucha online.
You'll need to buy the following:
- Starter kombucha liquid (known as the starter tea or SCOBY)
- A glass jar with cloth to cover it
- Flip-top bottles than can deal with high pressure inside
- A water filter if your tap water is bad (mine is)
Most of these can easily be found online from shops dedicated to selling kombucha.
First fermentation
Tools:
- Large jar for brewing
- Cloth to cover the jar
- Elastic bands to hold the cloth in place
- Large containers for holding water
- 1L container for starter liquid
- Metric measuring cups
- Water filter
- Wooden spoon
- Stove
- Pot for boiling
Ingredients (for a 4L batch):
- 800mL starter kombucha liquid (20% of the batch)
- 3.2L water (80% of the batch)
- 200g raw sugar (50g per litre)
- 16g black tea bags (4g per litre) (I use 8 Lipton black tea bags)
Instructions:
- Wash the brewing jar using hot water and a cloth, no detergent or vinegar
- Refrigerate and filter 2.6L (82% of the batch) filtered water
- Boil 576mL (18% of the batch) water on the stove
- Put the tea in the water
- Close the lid on the pot and let it brew for 10 minutes
- Add the sugar to the tea
- Stir tea with wooden spoon until the sugar is dissolved
- Pour chilled water in to the large jar
- Pour tea in to large jar
- Wait 5 minutes for the tea to cool
- Pour starter liquid in to the jar
- Cover the jar with cloth and elastic bands
- Write down the date on the jar with a marker
Exact measurements don't matter that much, just approximate.
This takes around 30 minutes.
Second fermentation
Tools:
- 12 750mL flip-top bottles
Ingredients:
- 4L kombucha
- Cane sugar
- Measuring cups
- Funnels
- Blender (I use a nutribullet)
- Various fruits
Instructions:
- Set aside 800mL of kombucha as starter liquid (include the gross pellicle)
- Pick an empty bottle
- Using the funnel, add two teaspoons of cane sugar to the bottle
- Using the funnel, fill a third of the bottle with kombucha
- Cut and blend up some fruit
- Using the funnel, pour the blended fruit up to the bottle's neck
- Number the bottle with a marker and write down its contents somewhere
- Repeat from step 2 until you have no kombucha left
Pouring directly in to bottles like this is probably not the best method, it might be better to make a large intermediate jar then pour that in to bottles
This takes around 1.5 hours.
Brew log
2019
I did a few brews in 2019 but didn't write them down.
Eventually I didn't have the energy to keep brewing and my brew went vile. Don't do that.
2022-01-16 to 2022-02-31
- Brewed for two weeks
- Bottle 1: Blueberry, banana and apple puree
- Bottles 2-4: Apple
- Bottles 5: Mango and orange
- Bottle 6: Mango and banana
- Bottle 7: Half full, mango and banana