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megmac

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  1. Bodlon-Funny, my husband and I were just talking about how nervous I was in the beginning. If I could tell you anything, it would be to relax and let it happen. I have found that you really don't have to obsess about the process. Sometimes I have fermented too long, sometimes too short. Some flavors I've loved, others not so much. My scoby keeps having babies and doubles in size every few months. I peel it off and throw it down the garbage disposal. It's all pretty forgiving. Once I had to throw out an entire batch (22 bottles!) because it tasted like vinegar. And I lived to tell the story. My scoby is so big that I ferment in about 8 days, with a 5 day second ferment, burping on day 3. If I have a lot of fruit in it I have to drop that to 4 days because it explodes. Once you have your scoby and the first ferment is underway, I would let it sit for a week and then taste it. (Eventually you can tell by smell.) If it's not ready try it every day or two. Make it convenient. Don't hesitate to make it a hotel for a few weeks if you are busy. Mine is a hotel every other week because I use a 2 gallon jar and it makes 18-22 bottles. I don't measure tea bags or sugar or flavoring anymore. I just wing it and it works out. Have fun and make it work for you, your schedule, and your tastes. That way it won't seem like a big deal to keep going. Good luck!
  2. My husband called me "Breaking Bad Kombucha". That's a reference to a Netflix show about a chem teacher who cooks meth, for those of you not familiar. Last booch batch was only good with tequila. Oh well, that works too.
  3. I do my second ferment for 5 days. Always. I burp on day 3 or 4, whenever I remember. I keep mine in a box as well, and have never had an explosion there. It's only when I go to open them to drink.
  4. Even when I burp mine (I always burp mine) they fizz like crazy and sometimes blow up if I use real fruit. I had a BAD blow up the other morning-front door, ceiling, floors, computer, my clothes of course... I spent about 30 minutes cleaning up and was off to work. About an hour later I got a text from my hubby who had finally gotten up, "is that kombucha on the sliding glass door or is one of the pets bleeding?" Seriously-that's a good 30 feet away. I now open every bottle either with a towel around it, or in the front yard if I'm really worried about it.
  5. Has anyone "downsized" their scoby? Mine is in a 2 gallon jar, and is ENORMOUS. He just keeps getting thicker and thicker. He brews up 2 gallons in about 5 days now. (It used to be 2 weeks.) Last week I just had to "hotel" him for a week. I couldn't fit anymore bottles in my outside refrigerator. (I'm about 50 bottles deep now.) I had a second scoby, but sent it to NY in a suitcase with my best friend so she could brew her own. He survived just fine, if anyone has been wanting to try that. He was in a zip lock in a tupperwear and she opened him up as soon as she got him out of her checked luggage. I laugh at myself for thinking this was so complicated. I have booch coming out of my ears now! Oh-and regarding the burping...I haven't had anything explode in my fridge, but if I don't burp they will hit the ceiling when I go to drink them.
  6. I made one bottle of my last batch strawberry ginger and did it in a GT bottle (I was out of Grolsch bottles). It was disgusting and had no fizz. I dumped it. I am hoping that the others are fizzy-I cut my 2nd ferment from 5 days to 4 to avoid explosions-I hope I didn't make a mistake. (And I hope the strawberry/blueberry ones are better than plain strawberry!) Has anyone ever tried to ferment again after they have refrigerated? I'm thinking of trying this if the other bottles have no fizz-I definitely won't drink them that way.
  7. I'm going to grow a new scoby for coffee today! I wish I had read that before I flushed scooby last weekend.
  8. That's so funny...I never thought of not flavoring mine. You've inspired me-I'm going to do one bottle with no flavoring. I've never even tried a plain GT! I'm also going to try to make something like gingerade. I think I'll try it in a white batch so it's light. Nothing but ginger. Maybe a drop of lemon.
  9. Okay, I'll say it...my booch is better than GT's booch.
  10. I got back from vacation on Saturday and both my batches were ready to go. I have been thinking about the continuous brew option and the comments here about the "constant project". I decided against CB, and will just deal with a few hours of bottling and brewing every few weeks. (2 weeks works great for my first brew, so it's always over the weekend.) I dumped Scooby, who never quite became strong, but my second one is flourishing. I have about 18 bottles in 2nd brew, which I will shorten and burp in 2 days so they don't explode. (Maybe 4 days to the fridge.) I had 2 bottles yesterday of my first batch and so far the blueberry/cherry/ginger is my favorite. This time I did some of those, some strawberry/blueberry/ginger. Of course I didn't label anything, so every bottle will be a surprise.
  11. My CB project is up and running and I've already got a new film across the top, in addition to the original scoby that is at the bottom. I have another gallon in my closet from Scooby. He is still a rather strange animal, and behaves very differently. I tasted one of the bottles that exploded on me and it's delicious! I am leaving on vacation tomorrow and will have a lot of bottling to do upon my return. I may drain most of my CB project to bottle since it will be 2 weeks in, and then start a real CB process after that. I'll have to see how it tastes. My hubby assures me he can drink Grolsch as fast as I can bottle my booch! Thanks for checking in Liz-it was getting a bit lonely out here!
  12. Okay, I'll try that. I live in FL and my house is a constant 78 degrees. Maybe that is a little warm for fermenting, but I think my husband will draw the line at cooling the house for my science experiment. Thanks!
  13. MAJOR BOOCH EXPLOSION! So today is day 4 of my second ferment. I had 8 Grolsch bottles to burp. 3 of them totally exploded. (The first one caught me off guard...as in blueberries in my hair and on my ceiling.) What did I do wrong? Were they too full? Did I wait too long to burp? I can deal with the mess (okay...my hubbie can), but I lost most of the booch in those bottles. :( Help!
  14. Awesome!! Nicely done! Bottled today-blueberry ginger, and working on setting up continuous brew. I'm going to come up with an easy way to do this Derval!
  15. Derval-Can I make a gallon of sweet tea and keep it in the fridge to use to refill the CB container every other day? I hadn't really thought about what a commitment the CB is. My new scoby is already thicker than my original (Scooby). I will be interested to see if he ferments faster. Scooby has been in a gallon of tea for 2 weeks and it's still not ready. I thought it would happen faster since it's summer in Florida, but it's still too sweet for me.
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