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Kabob

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Posts posted by Kabob

  1. On 10/30/2016 at 2:31 PM, MrsStick said:

    So I had my first kombucha explosion on Thursday night. Thankfully no one was in the room...it was around 10 at night and hubby and I heard a pop then glass tinkling. That took 45 minutes of cleaning before we could go to bed. :(

    What bottles do you guys use for your second ferment? I'm in the market (especially if they can be bought online...).

    Hi MrsStick, I second ferment with  any size bottles like this: https://www.amazon.com/Chefs-Star-Easy-Bottles-Amber/dp/B013H0257K

    Or I use 64 oz growlers like this: https://www.amazon.com/True-Fabrications-Gallon-Clear-Growler/dp/B00PR8232S/ref=sr_1_14?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1479315119&sr=1-14&keywords=growler although this particular example seems spendy. 

    Sorry you had an explosion. If I'm not going to be able to burp my 2F daily I will put them in a cooler to contain any explosive situation. Knock on wood, I've never had an explosion.

    Good luck :)

  2. I picked up some oven dried apricots the other day and chopped up a few pieces and put them in 32 oz of KT to second ferment.  I was so excited about the possibilities that I had to try it on day 2........so delicious.  Day 2 tasted better than day 4, so I still have some tweaking to do to figure out how best to brew it.

     

    Has anyone else tried dried fruit?

     

    Day 20 today, plugging along.

  3. Hi all,

     

    I mostly use dried fruit and flowers, but mostly flowers - it's easy peasy.  1F is a ratio of 3/4 black to 1/4 green tea (6 blk, 2 grn and 1 cup of sugar per gallon of sweet tea).  2F - currently I pour my perfectly fermented 1F buch into 1/2 gallon growlers and add one tablespoon of hibiscus or lavender to each, let them sit on counter (burping daily; being very careful when burping the hibiscus - it gets VERY fuzzy) for 2 to 4 days then once I need product to drink or the buch is crazy fizzy I decant through a mesh strainer into ez cap bottles, usually mixing the the lavender and the hibiscus 50/50.  At this point I will leave these bottles on the counter as I drink them, but will usually put a bottle in the fridge if I'm not going to drink it right away.

     

    Last year a friend gave us a bag of dried raspberries, they made the most delicate delicious buch, so yummy.

     

    I'm not sure it's possible to duplicate the commercial buch flavors when you're doing small batches.  I suppose if you had a lot of time on your hands and gallons and gallons of buch you might be able to get close.  I just try something different every once in awhile.  So pleased with the lavender experiment, it is very nice.

     

    That said, once you get adept at making your own you won't have to buy it anymore and the memories of those flavors will fade.  Similarly as we get some distance between us and commercial soda pop the effervescent quality of the buch can satisfy our desire for bubbles.  And if bubbles are what I'm after I drink la croix.  

     

    For when we're not doing a Whole30 (which I am on day 10 of my 4th one) I found this organic ginger syrup (if memory serves it is ginger infused honey) that makes a really delicious drink.

  4. I certainly would NOT use honey in my first ferment, but would definitely be willing to experiment with the second.  " If you aren't adding much fruit but still want more carbonation you can add a bit of sugar or honey. The culture will feed off of the sugar in the sugar, honey, or fruit, and produce the gas necessary to create carbonation."  http://www.nourishingdays.com/2013/03/making-fizzy-fruity-kombucha-the-second-fermentation/

     

    2) If I were to CB and remove some kombucha to bottle for a 2nd fermentation once a week what percentage of the brew should I remove each time? If I don't use enough of it each week will there be an issue or do I just need to replace what I took?

     

    In order to keep things simple I let my continuous brew "finish", decant the bulk of it and replace the same or similar amount with sweet tea. When I say the bulk of it, I make sure and leave about two cups of the fermented buch per gallon for what I call my starter fluid.  I've read where brewers draw off their daily dose and replace the same amount with sweet tea, but the Healthy Home Economist is very emphatic about not letting the sweet tea sit around AT ALL.  So to me that would be too much tea making and cooling, so I do it about once a week.

     

    So say you're decanting a gallon, but you only drink 3 quarts before it's time to decant again.  I do believe kombucha keeps well in the refrigerator for drinking at a later date or to share with friends.

  5. MrsStick, you are in for the ride of your life.  Okay, that may be an exaggeration  :P .  I was anxious when I first started last summer, but not anymore.

     

    1/2 gallon mason jars should be fine and they take less room on the counter.

     

    There is tons of information on the interwebs about second fermenting.

     

    The easiest way I've found, with the most dramatic  B)  results is adding one tablespoon of hibiscus tea (I find it here in bulk at the coop, maybe your friend knows where you can get some) to 32 oz which is a quart, so I would add two tablespoons to 1/2 gallon which is 64 oz.  It gives the buch a beautiful dark rosy red hue, lots of tiny bubbles (be careful to "burp" your bottles daily during the second ferment process) that will make a mess if you're not careful and a really nice flavor.  Also, I would imagine that one reaps the benefits of the high vitamin C content of the hibiscus.

     

    I also flavor with fresh ginger, which I love, it's just not a fizzy as the hibiscus.  I could probably add sugar for fizz, but haven't worked that out yet.  I add about 1 or 2 tablespoons of minced ginger to 64 oz, it's going to blow your mind how delicious it is!

     

    Happy brewing!

  6. I am very interested to see how it goes.  I've read it's both okay and not okay to refrigerate your Scoby.  Please keep us posted.

     

    I recently used canned homemade (steam extracted) concord grape juice to second ferment and it came out gently carbonated.  Very grapey though, not sure how I feel about that.  Have been thinking about using some of the grape juice and adding another flavor to overpower it, but haven't come up with anything yet.  I'm open to suggestions, maybe tumeric :wacko:

  7. If you google "kombucha second ferment" you will have all the resources you need for flavoring and second fermenting.  ;)

     

    My absolute favorite and the easiest ways (I love easy) I've figured out to flavor buch is with dried hibiscus flowers, chopped up ginger and dried raspberries (a friend of ours gave us some and we didn't like eating them so I threw some into a couple of bottles of buch, chaching!).  Oh, and not necessarily in the same bottle.  One of these days I'm going to try juices, but probably not until I retire in about 7 years, ha.

  8. My second batch got mold, not sure how that happened.  I was weary after that, but haven't had any problems with mold since.  Make sure you rinse your hands with vinegar before handling the SCOBY.

     

    I wish I had more time to experiment, but I love my ginger booch so much I figure there will be plenty of time to do that when I retire.  Not getting the fizz I'd fantisized about, but I'm okay without it now.

     

    Currently brewing one large continuous - 2 plus gallons and one small - 1 gallonish, which I decant 1 gallon and 1/2 gallon each about every seven days.  Also to supplement these I have a one gallon batch brew which takes approx 2 weeks to brew.

     

    Good luck!

  9. My continuous brew is smoother than my batch brew.  What I usually do is decant about a gallon, it's about a 2 1/2 gallon container, and replace that with a gallon of the sweet tea (made with 5 black and 3 green tea bags and a cup of sugar).  Once this process is over I begin tasting my product on day 3.  I decant again around day 5 and 7 to get the smooth product that we love.

     

    I usually run out before it's time to decant one batch or the other, but am working toward having extra to share.  I may get another continuous batch going just for that reason.

  10. jent103 - If memory serves the gingerade has lemon in it.  Memory doesn't serve the right stuff pretty often, but maybe it's getting better, I am on day 28 of my Whole 30!  So far my favorite flavor is ginger.  I think I will do a taste test between just ginger and the ginger/lemon.

     

    I do wish mine was more bubbly, but, like yours, totally drinkable and fabulously deliscious!

    • Like 1
  11. Well, y'all, I got SO excited last night - the bottle of my second batch that I shook a bit fizzed up so nicely! So I put that batch in the fridge, thinking it's ready to go. But the one I've strained and brought to work with me to drink later seems really flat - no bubbling when I opened it to strain it, and very few bubbles when I poured it. So strange. Do you think I should take the rest of the bottles out to ferment longer? They've had 3+ days, which I thought was enough but maybe not. The weather has turned chilly here, so maybe that's part of it!

    Hmmmm, personally I avoid shaking my booch :rolleyes:   In my mind you are releasing some of the much desired carbonation by doing so. 

     

    If I recall you flavored this batch with ginger and hibiscus.  My hibiscus brew has really tiny bubbles.  When I opened my first bottle it barely phssst'd, but then it started gently bubbling over which really surprised me.  Maybe a longer time outside the fridge.  I'm going to start experimenting with how much space I leave at the top to see how/if that affects my final product.

     

    Let us know how it's going.

    • Like 1
  12. Get ready for it..............elderberry flavor!

     

    With flu season upon us this may be something you might want to try.  I put one teaspoon dried berries into a 16 oz bottle to second ferment and it was slightly fizzy, beautifully hued and pretty darn delish.   :wub:    I didn't let it go very many days (2 days) before I cracked it open so there my be potential there for more carbonation action.  I'll be making more of this next time I decant.

     

    Oh, I got the dried elderberry in the herb/spice bulk section of my coop.

     

    Happy brewing!

    • Like 3
  13. http://homeguides.sfgate.com/natural-cleaner-removing-sticker-goop-79395.html

     

    I haven't tried any of these, but thinking they may be as affective as the chemical stuff.  I tryed the hot water method this weekend after I bought a ginger, hibiscus and lemon GT so I could get an idea of what flavor I'm looking for since I got some hibiscus in the bulk section of my co-op on Sunday.

     

    I bottled it yesterday and thought after seeing kb's fizzy wonderfulness I better burp it this morning - nada.  :o  I added 2 T of lemon juice, 1ish T of ginger and about 1 T of hibiscus to a 32 oz flip top bottle.  I wonder if I filled it too full.  I think I've read both fill to the tippy top and leave some room.  What do you all do?  Any measurements?

     

    My partner drinks it plain, she is not interested in fizzy, but one of these days I may find a flavor she likes.

  14. So, I made my first batch with green tea and it is SO FABULOUS!!   I live and grew up in the American South where black tea drinking is sort of the religion.  I love black tea so that is what I've always used.  But wow, the green tea is much milder and more delicious to me as Kombucha. 

     

    Also, my Scoby doubles every week.  I am amazed.  I am going to Trader Joes to look at different green teas to try this week!

    So did you not use ANY black tea.  I've been using both, but was afraid to use JUST green tea because of some reason.  Information overload I guess. 

     

    Helen, do you use the continuous or batch brew method?

  15. jent103 - I may have to get some of those, sounds like your booch tastes pretty good, just not as fizzy as you'd like.  I struggle with that too, kombucha making is such a personal process, my research has lead me to believe that it takes a LOT of trying different things.  I keep notes on each batch so that I can remember what works and what doesn't.  B)   Keep on boochin'!

    • Like 1
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