New to Kombucha- help me get started!

[GreenGranolaMama]

Hey Mamas! I LOVE kombucha and am super excited to start brewing my own but I'm also a little nervous. A friend who works at the local living center near us gave me a scoby (the 'mother' he had was seriously huge- it actually kinda freaked me out : P ) he's had it for a while and hasn't done much with it- the jar is clean, he had it covered, and there isn't any mold or anything like that so do you think the scoby he gave me is ok to use? He was super busy at work so we didn't have much time to talk about it- I can call him back in the am but I thought I would post here as well- sorry if these questions seem super basic, just want to make sure I'm doing everything right! 

I have it in the biggest mason jar I have but it's still a little crumpled in the bottom of the jar, should I try and get a bigger jar? 

How many tea bags to I brew into how much water? Do I let it cool before adding it? How much sugar do I add? It's already floating in some of the liquid he gave me, do I separate that out before I add the tea and sugar? After adding the tea, how long do I let it set before I try it? Am I going to create another culture by doing this- if so, which one should I keep- the new one or the one he gave me? Or both? If I want to add lemon juice or another flavor, when is a good time to do it? Is there anything else I should know that I haven't already mentioned? TIA! 

[GreenGranolaMama]

Bump : ) 

[Milkymommi]

I'm a newbie brewer too... we are on our second brew. First one was fantastic! I'm no authority on this, that's for sure, but I'll answer according to what I know.

Jar size - One of my mother scobys was a little too big for the jar but the brew turned out fine and the scoby is healthy. I'm not really too sure what the official answer to this is though. When this brew is done we're moving into a HUGE glass container ( 3 gall ) with a spigot because it's so delish we devoured what we made too quickly. LOL!

Make a dark tea. Needs to be caffinated. I brew a stockpot full and use like 6-8 teabags... enough to make it dark. I boil it for 20 min, add a cup of sugar and let it sit until cool. Totally cool. If not it will kill the scoby. Pour it into your brewing container with scoby AND any extra kombucha included with it. Cover with something breathable and secure with rubber bands, string etc. and store it somewhere where it'll be undisturbed. How long depends on your taste. I'd say roughly 8-10 days. You can use a straw to draw a tiny bit out to taste while in progress. As the scoby digests all the sugar and caffine, it will lose it's sweetness and gain it's power! Once it's to your liking, if you want it super fizzy, pour it into locking top containers without the scoby - empty GT's bottles are great- and add any flavors you want like ginger, various fruits etc. and let it ferment for another few days 2-3 seems to do the trick. Pineapple/ginger is amazing! Fresh or frozen can be used as well as pure juices. Then you can pop it in the fridge and enjoy! Make sure to reserve a little of your brewed kombucha with your scoby's to inoculate your next batch. 

You'll gain a baby from each mother. They are ALL reusable.

Don't expose your culture to metal containers or utensils. It kills the scoby.

There are a wealth of sites on the web dedicated to kombucha brewing to help with identifying molds etc.   

Happy Brewing!!! I hope this helps. I feel a bit under qualified to be answering

[goldenwillow]

Originally Posted by GreenGranolaMama 

Hey Mamas! I LOVE kombucha and am super excited to start brewing my own but I'm also a little nervous. A friend who works at the local living center near us gave me a scoby (the 'mother' he had was seriously huge- it actually kinda freaked me out : P ) he's had it for a while and hasn't done much with it- the jar is clean, he had it covered, and there isn't any mold or anything like that so do you think the scoby he gave me is ok to use? He was super busy at work so we didn't have much time to talk about it- I can call him back in the am but I thought I would post here as well- sorry if these questions seem super basic, just want to make sure I'm doing everything right! 

I have it in the biggest mason jar I have but it's still a little crumpled in the bottom of the jar, should I try and get a bigger jar? 

How many tea bags to I brew into how much water? Do I let it cool before adding it? How much sugar do I add? It's already floating in some of the liquid he gave me, do I separate that out before I add the tea and sugar? After adding the tea, how long do I let it set before I try it? Am I going to create another culture by doing this- if so, which one should I keep- the new one or the one he gave me? Or both? If I want to add lemon juice or another flavor, when is a good time to do it? Is there anything else I should know that I haven't already mentioned? TIA! 

Milkymommi knows what she is talking about!!  We do it on a bigger scale... 

I think your mother is fine but hard to say with out seeing it. 

We brew huge batches, so hope this helps you. 

We brew with loose pekoe black tea.  We use a 5 gal stock pot and put about a cup or a cup and a half (we eyeball) of loose tea in a cheese cloth.  We boil the water then add the sugar and when boiling turn the stove off and drop your tea in, be sure your sugar (we use organic raw) is dissolved.  Let it sit overnight to cool.  I don't think it matters how long you let the tea sit... not a couple days though... we do it overnight only, so I cannot answer that one completely.  We brew in gallon jars.  When your tea is cooled put the juice that came with the mother in the jar and pour your tea in.  Then goes the mother.  We then you are done there cap it with some fabric and a rubber band (that is what we do--- I have an old broomstick skirt that I have torn for this). 

It really depends on your level of taste for how long you would like to leave it be.  We brew about 3 weeks this time of year.  Depends also on temperature of your storage space and outside.  Be sure to put it in a dark place that isn't interrupted much, we don't bother it often just for good energy. 

Yes another mother will be grown and that is your next batch.  When you have your desired taste be sure to take some tea from the batch you created to add to the next.  Hope that makes sense.  We have geez... 10 or more mothers in our fridge hanging out for the next huge batch we need to do. 

We usually add flavor toward the end of the ferment.  We add sliced ginger (my fav), berries, pomegranate, anything your mind comes up with! 

I hope I answered all your questions!  DS is about to wake!!
 

Oh... be sure to remove all your metal rings when brewing as not to upset the mother and never touch her with metal.  I second the PP about utensils too.

Some folks swear by using an enameled stock pot for making their tea... we did this and have found a metal one is just fine. 

How is the house building going?  I followed your thread for awhile and have slacked on the internet these days. 

Let me know if I can help more. 

Andrea Mae

Edited by goldenwillow - 3/3/11 at 2:14pm

[Milkymommi]

Why thank you!! I'm a newbie too... we've done 2 brews and just put our 3rd in last week. This time we went BIG. There are just so many of us and the kids LOVE the stuff. We did 2- 2 gallon jars that we managed to come accross. Can't wait until it's ready!!

[herent]

My 3 year old DS loves it too, I only have been brewing a gallon at a time and it's just not enough.  My 3 year old can guzzle down a gallon in 2 days and he loves just the plain no ginger, juice or anything.  I brew it for about 10 days so it's not super sour, but nice and fizzy I leave mine by my heater vent and wrap it with a towel so it stays nice and warm.  Everyone else in my family thinks Kombucha is to vinegary oh well more for me any my 3 year old!  My next batch won't be ready for 8 more days :(

[GreenGranolaMama]

Hey Mamas : ) Thank you so much for the help! So my first batch went well- ended up being a bit too sweet so I think we could have let it go a bit longer. I'm brewing in a 1/2 gallon mason jar. I did 6 organic black tea bags and 2/3 cup organic sugar. I did 1 1/2 cups sugar for the first brew so I'm thinking I used too much. 

I have a few more questions:

Do you strain before you bottle? I poured it through some cheese cloth to get some of the floating culture bits out 

How long do you let the second fermentation go? I did three days. Do you strain it again after second fermentation? I noticed more culture growing in the bottles but once I put it in the fridge it all settled to the bottom so I wasn't worried. 

It wasn't as fizzy as I would have hoped- would letting it ferment longer make it fizzier?

My new scoby is much more attractive than my original as my first one was peeled from a massive mother : P This might be a silly question but I noticed one side of it (the underside) looks almost stringy- like there are stringy bits of culture on it, should I wash it off? 

Andrea Mae- I've been pretty slack on MDC these days as well : P The house is going well, thank you for asking! We haven't done much recently with all of the snow we've been getting but we did put the ceiling up (pine ship lap- looks awesome) and moved a few windows around. We've been shopping the clearance section at the lumber/building supplies store near us with amazing success. We've also got a new rockin floor plan- I am hoping to get a few new pictures up soon : ) ! I've also been doing research on rainwater collection systems. 

[goldenwillow]

Originally Posted by GreenGranolaMama 

Hey Mamas : ) Thank you so much for the help! So my first batch went well- ended up being a bit too sweet so I think we could have let it go a bit longer. I'm brewing in a 1/2 gallon mason jar. I did 6 organic black tea bags and 2/3 cup organic sugar. I did 1 1/2 cups sugar for the first brew so I'm thinking I used too much. 

I have a few more questions:

Do you strain before you bottle? I poured it through some cheese cloth to get some of the floating culture bits out 

How long do you let the second fermentation go? I did three days. Do you strain it again after second fermentation? I noticed more culture growing in the bottles but once I put it in the fridge it all settled to the bottom so I wasn't worried. 

It wasn't as fizzy as I would have hoped- would letting it ferment longer make it fizzier?

My new scoby is much more attractive than my original as my first one was peeled from a massive mother : P This might be a silly question but I noticed one side of it (the underside) looks almost stringy- like there are stringy bits of culture on it, should I wash it off? 

Andrea Mae- I've been pretty slack on MDC these days as well : P The house is going well, thank you for asking! We haven't done much recently with all of the snow we've been getting but we did put the ceiling up (pine ship lap- looks awesome) and moved a few windows around. We've been shopping the clearance section at the lumber/building supplies store near us with amazing success. We've also got a new rockin floor plan- I am hoping to get a few new pictures up soon : ) ! I've also been doing research on rainwater collection systems. 

We don't strain at all. 

We ferment all batches around the same length of time 2-3 weeks.  Yes.. longer ferment will aid with the fizzies as well as bottling it in say a Grolsch bottle like these...

http://www.thefind.com/food/info-grolsch-beer-bottle

Or bottling your own with say a beer bottle with a "capper" like this....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000Q6ARMY/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000E64RJU&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&

pf_rd_r=0ZXM005MN9MW7CHZRN8Z

Your newest mother will be really pretty.... like a baby is.  The massive mother is very special as we mamas tend to be! 

I will ask DH about the underside stringy stuff... I am sure you are ok w/o washing it... but will ask him and get back to ya.  He has more experience than I in this department. 

Glad to hear your home is coming along.  I am completely inspired by your families living space. 

Andrea Mae

Edited by goldenwillow - 3/4/11 at 11:18am