From Rejuvenation Company ’s kombucha I learned how good it can be. From a Ferment Change party a few months ago I got kombucha starter. Now I have eight jars brewing kombucha. Here’s what I’ve learned:
1. Hard to fail. It’s hard to kill the kombucha “mother”. After weeks in an airtight bottle (see Mistake 2), after I let air in it grew fine. You make kombucha at room temperature. You don’t have to check it. You simply wait until it’s sour enough.
2. Air needed. It’s aerobic fermentation, so it needs unlimited oxygen. I learned this after I used a sealed container and nothing happened.
3. Takes weeks. It has taken weeks for my kombucha to become really sour. Maybe I can reduce this to a week under better conditions (high surface to volume ratio, start with large kombucha mother).
4. Use a wide container. The more surface to volume, the better. The kombucha culture grows on top of the tea/sugar mixture because it needs contact with air. The wider the container, the more contact it can have.
5. Cover tightly with something air-permeable. I cover each jar with a paper towel secured with a rubber band. Before I started using a rubber band to hold down the paper towel I found a fly in one of them.
I use cheap black tea (in teabags) and ordinary sugar. Maybe I should get a pH meter to learn more about the process.
From Rejuvenation Company ’s kombucha I learned how good it can be. From a Ferment Change party a few months ago I got kombucha starter. Now I have eight jars brewing kombucha. Here’s what I’ve learned:
1. Hard to fail. It’s hard to kill the kombucha “mother”. After weeks in an airtight bottle (see Mistake 2), after I let air in it grew fine. You make kombucha at room temperature. You don’t have to check it. You simply wait until it’s sour enough.
2. Air needed. It’s aerobic fermentation, so it needs unlimited oxygen. I learned this after I used a sealed container and nothing happened.
3. Takes weeks. It has taken weeks for my kombucha to become really sour. Maybe I can reduce this to a week under better conditions (high surface to volume ratio, start with large kombucha mother).
4. Use a wide container. The more surface to volume, the better. The kombucha culture grows on top of the tea/sugar mixture because it needs contact with air. The wider the container, the more contact it can have.
5. Cover tightly with something air-permeable. I cover each jar with a paper towel secured with a rubber band. Before I started using a rubber band to hold down the paper towel I found a fly in one of them.
I use cheap black tea (in teabags) and ordinary sugar. Maybe I should get a pH meter to learn more about the process.