Lizzard77

Thanks Meg "I just burped my 2 bottles. One geysered already! Should I move to the refrigerator now? How do you know when your second ferment is "done done"?" If you are geysering KB, I would say it's safe to refrigerate. Once it's settled a bit from the fridge you can open one and taste, if it's not flavored strong enough to your liking, keep it out for a few more days.

Fancypants booch for Saturday night. Ginger Chamomile Black Pepper.

"Question: how big can you make the first ferment batch? I've got my original SCOBY and my baby in a 3-gallon jar but still keep putting in 8 cups sweet tea. I could fit nearly double that in there. any reason why I shouldn't? Would it just take longer?" LadyM, I would think you could get away with a gallon but I haven't seen the thickness of your SCOBY. It may take a touch longer depending on the the thickness of the two. Perhaps wait until your have one more baby, but I wouldn't hesitate then to double your batch. Kumquat sounds super interesting! Would love to hear how that turns out!

I have heard of people having boozy booch but have not tried it myself. I found this recipe: The Tomfoolery 1 1/2 oz Scofflaw Old Tom Gin 3/4 oz lemon juice 1/2 oz raspberry syrup 1/2 oz ginger liqueur 1/4 oz Gran Classico Bitter Lemon peel, for garnish Combine ingredients, then shake over ice and strain into a collins glass with three ice cubes. Top with ginger kombucha and garnish with a lemon peel. Which sounds deeeelicious! I may have to try it after it my reintroduction! (love my gin)

"Lizzard, which spices did you put in beet/orange? What's a rickey, pardon my ignorance." I added clove, cardamom, allspice (prolly redundant) and licorice root, alond with 1 v sm chopped beet and orange juice and zest. When I was a teen, Snapple made a drink called cherry lime Rickey based off an old school cocktail. I love it so of course they discontinued it. I just love the way cherry and lime and fizz go together, add some gin when not W30ing and it's a great summer cocktail! *****The Rickey is a category of mixed drinks closely resembling a highball made from a base spirit, half of a lime squeezed and dropped in the glass, and carbonated water. Little or no sugar is added to the Rickey. Originally created with bourbon whiskey in Washington, D.C. at Shoomaker's bar by bartender George A. Williamson in the 1880s, purportedly in collaboration with Democratic lobbyist Colonel Joe Rickey, it became a worldwide sensation when mixed with gin a decade later.***** -Wikipedia

I want them now! Not a week from now...... Oh yeah, trying to snap a pic but I've got a Booch Pooch! She knows the sound of the swingtop opening and comes running. She even knocked a mostly empty bottle off the ottoman the other night when I stepped out of the room. My fault for giving her some but secretly I love it!

Thanks to everyone's inspiration I just bottled: Rosemary Fig, Orange Beet Spice, Lavender Peach, Pineapple Cilantro, Chai Chocolate Puerh, Mulberry Basil, Tamarind Black Pepper, Cherry Lime Rickey, Hibiscus Mint Mate, and my old standby, Ginger. Thanks all for the great ideas and help getting the booches flowing, was in a bit of a flavor rut. Loving this warm weather, booch is ready so much more quickly!

When I first started brewing I had no faith that the thing floating on top of the tea would actually become something! After a few cycles, more and more babies will be produced and the SCOBY will appear thicker, creamier, and more like what you see in pictures. It took a good many cycles for me to feel like Hazel was at any sort of good place. Have faith though, they are hardy little buggers. I grew mine spontaneously by combining a bottle of plain GT's and 2 cups of sweet tea and a dash of raw ACV. Let is sit for weeks in a 1/2 gallon mason jar until the SCOBY grew across the entire surface. I then transferred her to a new batch of sweet tea and let her sit for another few weeks. Others may have a quicker method but this worked for me and I am super pleased with my robust little family of yeasties and bacteria

Lolz!!!! My hubinator came home with a pack of Grolsch tonight and said "See honey, I support your Whole30, I am sacrificing and drinking this so you can have more swingtop bottles" Yeah, Uh-huh, just like you sacrificed back when I could drink and partook in 3 of my 4 Grolsch (expensive stuff, it is)! Good luck Meg with bottling, did you decide on flavors?

Exactly KB, but they all drink that and it's bad for them. I vigilantly try to convert them, I got my bestie to drink a GT's Mango so am going to try her with one of my sweeter homemade ones......we'll see. Creating Kombucha lovers one person at a time!

Most people don't like to be that close to their food sadly. They don't want to understand where it came from of the process of how it came to be. I think that is one reason why, in America, we have such an obesity epidemic, if folks understood what went into the crap they ate, they *hopefully* would not eat it. That is a great, people friendly way to describe kombucha Mo! Too bad once any of my friends smell it they don't want anything to do with it. Too bad, their loss!

I simply love the word symbiotic, it sounds so zen. I also like the fact that I sound smart when I say "Symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast".

I usually test my bottles every couple of days for fizz. When they reach the super explody point I will move them to the fridge. Cooling them down will help them not geyser up when opening but will retain fizziness. I collected about 3 cups of mulberries from my tree out back so I'm going to do mulberry lime and mulberry lavender today when I bottle. I want to make jam with the mulberries but it's hard when I can't actually taste it.....W30 problems.

My pups loves booch, so much so that when she hears the pop hiss of the swingtop bottle opening, she comes running! Sorry the pops didn't work out Susan! I am sure you will get it down. My friend makes a delicious pineapple cilantro tea that I use for flavoring, perhaps that would be tasty in conjunction with Derval's popsicle recipe. If anyone is interested in some really great teas, mail order: www.butikiteas.com She does a lot of research and tasting to bring really unique flavors like potato pancake and applesauce (actually delicious) and banana walnut. She has an extensive collection!

I don't see why there would be any problem with hibiscus in 1F, as long as it is pure hibiscus with no oils added to it. Probably the worst thing that will happen is you will have a loverly pink or red SCOBY, not all bad. I think it would be delicious!

"what the heck will I do with all of this booch". You could bottle it for a rainy day, or when you are low again. I am pretty sure it keeps indefinitely, so just bottle it up and put it in a dark cabinet somewhere. Just remember to burp it every once in awhile, or refrigerate.

The hubinator calls it my "rotting tea". Festering is a much better word though, conjurs up more vivid images.

"Lizz do you let your vinegar booch go longer at first ferment? I am ending up with WAY too much booch all of a sudden." When I bottle I simply set one plain one aside for a few more weeks. Technically it's not kombucha vinegar because you need to leave it with the SCOBY and ripen quite a bit to make vinegar, so Yes, you can let it go longer at 1F. One of these days I will relinquish a baby solely for vinegar making.

My goodness folks, I go away overnight with no computer and it takes me a good 15 minutes to catch up on what I missed! I love to make salad dressing out of my booch sometimes, in place of vinegar, and with all this talk of beet booch I was thinking maybe a beet, roasted garlic, dill booch that is used for that purpose. Am I getting a little too off the wall here? Thought it might be a fun experiment. Also I have a fish recipe that marinates in lime and dill, thought that might translate well to booch.

"Do all of you experienced folks always use fresh fruit? My co-op has some great organic frozen fruits that would be easier to keep on hand. Just wondering if fresh is best?" I have had fine results with frozen. Much better for winter 'cause I can use my summer frozen fruit and not have to buy mealy tasteless stuff in the markets. I have tried bottling with cayenne peppers, whoa buddy, that was an experience. I think I would rather it with jalapeno and perhaps cilantro and lime, or even jalapeno, pineapple, and lime.

I have heard that they will sink if they are a different temperature from the tea but will normalize. I have most of my babies with their mama, probably 9-10 and then my other brew has 3-4 babies. They seem to be fusing and getting thicker. I might have to expand again soon or set up a SCOBY hotel.

Susan, it looks like you beat me to posting a response but it also seems great minds.....!

"How do you go about adding vanilla and coriander? Thoughts?" Whole spice. I would use maybe a tsp of coriander seeds and maybe half a vanilla bean as they can take over. I love the thought of vanilla bean KT, or even flavors from my favorite boozey drinks, mint mojito KT anyone? "Frank is all bumpy and brown with tannin and a bit fuzzy looking with yeast." My baby mama is like that but she's been through many births at this point. Frank is a young mother is he not? I say it's character!

"there is an easy way to remove nasty GT stickers" Awesome, I read it was a pain to do so I never tried. I am trying to move over to swing tops completely but it would be loverly to not have the labels until then "sipping on a ginger chocolate numi kt" I let my 2F go for approx a week and it infuses pretty well, not as strong as a hot cuppa definitely but still detectable "you should have seen how crazy I went when I learned the fun art of posting pics from my phone" Oh geez, everyone is in trouble if I learn how to post from my phone! Right now I am emailing it to myself from my phone then uploading it to the forum. I'll have to play around. -Liz

Have I said how much I enjoy this thread? Finally figured out how to add pics ! I have to laugh, I had an Earl Grey geyser this AM, there was a plumber here when it happened and I shrieked cause it surprised me. He came dashing out of the bathroom to a kombucha covered me. He was quite perplexed! I bottled just a few days ago and they are already ready to go, the warm weather is definitely speeding up the process. The best part of that is more booch to drink! Nadia -your lemongrass/cardamom/peppercorn sounds fab. You all have given me so many new ideas for my next bottling!