Kombucha and fermented joy.

[Nate@Scarab]

Any kombucha brewers/drinkers afoot? Started a small brewery in Salt Lake with my girlfriend back in January and it's pretty much been consuming my being ever since I returned from South America.

Just curious about what y'all look for in your brew. We've been doing a lot of experimentation and turn out a pretty mild drink - not overly carbonated, not excessively sweet, but not hippie roommate hooch vinegar. Also been experimenting with setting the culture on other stuff than green tea...it's been a super interesting experience.

[-HvA-]

I used to get this black cherry kombucha drink, it f'ing rocked.

[boxerboxer]

I used GT's original raw as a starter and then just did basic green and black teas. I would add a little sugar and ginger or fruit juice when I bottled to get it to carb up a little. I used mason jars so if the pressure got too excessive it would just vent on its own (They're really meant to maintain low pressure inside rather than the other way around. It was pretty tasty, although I did not notice any health benefits from regular use over most of a year, and believe that part to be mostly trumped up BS (but am willing to let scientific study show otherwise). I'm not sure if I have anything super useful to say technique-wise.

What have you tried besides green tea?

[Nate@Scarab]

I used GT's original raw as a starter and then just did basic green and black teas. I would add a little sugar and ginger or fruit juice when I bottled to get it to carb up a little. I used mason jars so if the pressure got too excessive it would just vent on its own (They're really meant to maintain low pressure inside rather than the other way around. It was pretty tasty, although I did not notice any health benefits from regular use over most of a year, and believe that part to be mostly trumped up BS (but am willing to let scientific study show otherwise). I'm not sure if I have anything super useful to say technique-wise.

What have you tried besides green tea?

We've experimented with both raw cacao and coffee. Both require a bit of tweaking on the standard process to get right, and we're working on dialing them in from a flavor perspective.

We don't make any ludicrous health claims and generally make fun of ourselves/the hippy image kombucha has at any turn...including our marketing copy. It's pretty amusing to see the reactions of the general populace we're trying to "convert".

I really want to start making kombucha pickles on the side...tempted to do pickled blueberry lemon slices.

[maunahaole]

Kombucha or Bocadillo. Choose one.

[Octave]

Funny this came up - I'm actually waiting for my pot of water to boil right now so I can start another round of Kombucha. My SO and I play with any different teas we can get our hands on and try to share our SCOBY whenever possible - though, not many people are as excited about a fungal disk as I am..

Looking for any advice or insight in particular? We've been at it for about a year, make a batch every week to have a steady rotation.

[Eddie]

Nate I've got about several hundred questions. I'll start with a few.

I've been reading up about kombucha mother / SCOBY. Is this something that's commercially available for a production scale? Do you somehow maintain your own culture? I had some leftover sweet tea with lemon and mint from the weekend and thought about pitching some brewing yeast in there to see what would happen. Probably wouldn't be very good.

I imagine there are some interesting regulatory issues to address, both federal and Utah. Do you have to certify somehow that you're at .5% abv or less? Is it a certified lab that does the analysis, or maybe you have a certified spectrometer?

Also, I follow Mamachari and I didn't realize you were partners in this - thought it was more her thing and you just showed up sometimes in the photos. Very cool.

[Jake Rosenfeld]

So far our rocking blend per batch is 5 black tea bags, 3 green tea bags and one peach teabag.

I'm thinking we are pretty low tech, we have two scoobies in rotation and keep the jar of done stuff on the counter. I mix mine about 50-50 with fizzy water when I'm ready to drink it.

Nate, your crack about "hippie roommate hooch vinegar" was pretty funny. I've had a version of this in the past where the flavor starts like piss and finishes a bit like urine ......

[Nate@Scarab]

Funny this came up - I'm actually waiting for my pot of water to boil right now so I can start another round of Kombucha. My SO and I play with any different teas we can get our hands on and try to share our SCOBY whenever possible - though, not many people are as excited about a fungal disk as I am..

It's not fungus! Bacteria. Ha. Big fan of the Rooibos blend we do...we're actually moving into a new brewery that we'll share with a local tea blending company, really excited about what could come out of it.

Nate I've got about several hundred questions. I'll start with a few.

I've been reading up about kombucha mother / SCOBY. Is this something that's commercially available for a production scale? Do you somehow maintain your own culture? I had some leftover sweet tea with lemon and mint from the weekend and thought about pitching some brewing yeast in there to see what would happen. Probably wouldn't be very good.

I imagine there are some interesting regulatory issues to address, both federal and Utah. Do you have to certify somehow that you're at .5% abv or less? Is it a certified lab that does the analysis, or maybe you have a certified spectrometer?

Also, I follow Mamachari and I didn't realize you were partners in this - thought it was more her thing and you just showed up sometimes in the photos. Very cool.

I'm not sure about commercial availability. Christy has had her SCOBYs rolling for over a year, and we have a pretty solid stash (no, we don't sell them...heh) that we maintain. Pretty much the same deal as a sourdough starter at a bakery.

Regulation isn't something we've run afoul of yet, but is something we're always concerned about. The ABV test common amongst homebrewers puts it at about the same as a loaf of good bread (.3ish). We do not bottle condition or secondary ferment in order to inhibit alcohol growth, and our bottles note a shelf life of 60 days as well as a refrigeration requirement in order to maintain that. Of course, the highest you could realistically get (if really trying) is around 2%...it'd be a tough jam to get drunk off Kombucha. However, we would like to experiment with kombucha beers in the future, and it's definitely something we're exploring.

I've pretty much been running everything from a business standpoint, and she's the brew mistress.

So far our rocking blend per batch is 5 black tea bags, 3 green tea bags and one peach teabag.

I'm thinking we are pretty low tech, we have two scoobies in rotation and keep the jar of done stuff on the counter. I mix mine about 50-50 with fizzy water when I'm ready to drink it.

Nate, your crack about "hippie roommate hooch vinegar" was pretty funny. I've had a version of this in the past where the flavor starts like piss and finishes a bit like urine ......

Sick! Brewing is a pretty basic operation, a lot like brewing or baking bread - it's all about the details, consistency, and getting the process dialed. Here's the first label I designed for hippie-mocking amusement purposes...we've since hired a branding firm and have some rad stuff coming down the pipe.


Bonus points if you can figure out the logo.

[maunahaole]

Ever consider mixing it with some kava? Figure the flavor of kava is the same as water used to clean veggies out of the garden. Yes, it tastes like dirty veggie water. It would give a different buzz than alc.

[Octave]

It's not fungus! Bacteria. Ha.

SCOBY = Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast

Bacteria = Kingdom Bacteria
Yeast = Kingdom Fungi

It's both.

[Nate@Scarab]

SCOBY = Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast

Bacteria = Kingdom Bacteria
Yeast = Kingdom Fungi

It's both.

This is the part where I feel really dumb.

[Jake Rosenfeld]

This is the part where I feel really dumb.

nope, fortunately we are here in a place here where unjudged schooling happens all the time. Now we all know. Thanks Octave!
Thanks Heisenberg!

I just hope this Kombucha thing doesn't end up being the next Colloidal silver craze and we all turn blue or something crappy like that :-)

[Chance Legstrong]

Bonus points if you can figure out the logo.

disc rotor?

[Jake Rosenfeld]

[QUOTE=Heisenberg;Bonus points if you can figure out the logo.[/QUOTE]

I don't know but you are missing two spoke holes.....

[rwsaunders]

Re-fermenting an old thread so to speak. So we were over at a friend's house last weekend and I spotted this container of red liquid with a mushroom looking creature floating on top. It's her "booch" as she called it, which was started 10-12 years ago from a strain that was given to her by her uncle in the Czech Republic. Of course, my middle kid the hot pepper grower, wants to start his own, so I'm delivering a batch to his apartment tomorrow. Does anybody actually drink this stuff on a regular basis?

[defspace]

Oh man, some warning before you post pics like that!

I dated a girl who made her own kombucha. That jar always churned my stomach. Yes, she drank it on a regular basis... for some unspecified health benefits. The irony of lecturing me on my acidic coffee consumption while drinking vinegar was lost on her. Cracked me up.

[ides1056]

Every day, enough so I am going to start making my own. It's a great beer substitute. Tart, refreshing, bubbly. I like varieties with Cayenne and Tumeric.

[drietz]

I drink some every morning, brew ~half a gallon every week.

It's a probiotic, and it tastes good. Doesn't need to be vinegar, either.

[adamcw89]

I actually got my scoby out of the fridge this weekend and started a new batch while on a fermentation kick. I started some onions, half sour pickles and peppers that are destined to become hot sauce in 8-10 weeks.

Has anyone had success with continuous brewing?