Susan W

Msssjenna, it looks great to me. Smelling a little vinegary a little sweet is right on track for day 5. As Nadia said, it looks good too.

Thar she blows!! It even sprayed my arm.

Eureka...I just checked on my bottles and I have fizz. So much so that the ginger sitting on the bottom flew up to the top with the bubbles. The bottles starting with the .5% alcohol have the most fizz. Interesting. I dont think I need to strain it since the only thing in them besides tea is ginger and it politely sits at the bottom. Happy days.

I was thinking about letting it sit without the cap to unfizz and mix with coconut cream or avocado or banana. If no success I'll make granitas I've seen kombucha mixed with nuts into creamy drink, but you and I are on a nut'free strike. Yes, thanks to Lizzard (I wish I could refer by name)) we've learned about tea flavoring. It is so much easier to make. It's so delicious too. I took a sip of my lemongrass/cardamon/peppercorns one called Exotica. Soooo good. 2 days, really? I had my kitchen covered with sweet tea after two days as I tried to open my bottles. I'd say experiment it is. ***************************** I go 2-4 days and get a little zing on my tongue but thats it. Must be that Canadian water of yours. :0) I burp them every couple of days. That allows the carbonation at the top out so no explosions..not that an explosion would happen with mine. I am going to let a couple of my bottles sit for 6 days and see what happens.

So I drew off another bottle this morning, 36 hrs approx, after it's top up. I squashed some fresh blueberries in first and I'm leaving it in the dark cupboard for 24 hrs - is that long enough for 2nd ferment/flavouring? I am using 3 tea bags + 100g sugar (approx half cup according to conversion) for each litre (34fl oz) of top up tea for my CB. ***************************** Derval, I do 1.5 litre tea 3-4 tea bags and 100g sugar so yours sounds close enough to call it Pete (old family saying..Uncle Pete was always right ).

Nadia..I just got these ice pop molds. Derval's Lily was eating a pina colada ice pop in the garden so I had to get them for booch. I will freeze a cube of it first and check out grainyness. Grainy would not be good. I wonder if its because yours is so fizzy. I will play around with it. Hmm...pineapple booch mixed with coconut milk and then iced. Must try carrot and beet with this next batch. I got carried away with the tea flavoring and didnt do either of those.

So much to catch up on. Sophie congrats. I remember something about CB. It gets stronger as you go along. Aack..remember, I am the one who wanted to wash and fold my SCOBYs. I washed my jars. It makes so much sense not to. Oh well now I know. Derval, you can second ferment anywhere from 2-14 days. I think 2 is good start. After 2, you can stick a straw in to test for flavor and keep going if it isnt how you want it.

My plans for booch pops when the next heatwave hits.

Omg. I just figured out my SCOBY name! Nadia! With a name like that is has to be good! First baby will be Susan! ######################### Lol. Perfect.

KB thank you. I was too busy wiping my tongue with a cloth to gag.

If you open one, I am totally moving to Portland. I will be a good barmaid, promise! Beets kombucha outta control!!! Haha ***************************** Omg...perfect example of pixie dust. That is beautiful. You roasted right? Then did you puree it or chop it or just wave your wand. :0)

Susan, so you are serious about opening booch bar, I see Renée, are you sure this thread should be up all time? I wonder how many new member were scared by this crazy talk here. Booch porn, like Mo said. ***************************** Lol..Booch Bar. My daughter is convinced we should open one. I tell her this thread is my virtual booch bar.

Megmac I have to drive a bit to get unflavored too. Well..2.5 miles but still..I have 2 grocery stores in the same block as me so it still bugs me.

Back in business after QUITE the booch fiasco. I had way too many food projects going on and made twice as much tea as I needed. So, I made two batch and one big CB. I hadn't kept enough of the starter booch so I ran to WF and bought two bottles. Got everyone set and had some left in one of the bottles. I tipped it back and got a big old icky string of goo. I dont mind little yeasty bits but this thing almost required the heimlich. Bleck!! All is well in booch land now.

Lizz for CB, you put in what you take out when about 25% is gone. I have even gone as low as 70%. You could replenish every time you take one bottle out but that sounds too high maintenance. When you take only 25%, it only takes a day or two to convert to Kombucha. It took longer when I took 70% but maybe 5 days? I like it because I am not tempted to make a jacket with my SCOBYs with CB. ;0) You only touch the SCOBY when you want to peel off a baby to make a scarf or when you clean out your vessel 3-4 times a year.

Picturing Susan washing scoby, pinning to dry, ironing and folding it. Ahah ***************************** Oh I would be in heaven if I could do that.

"when I pulled my SCOBYs from my two containers, I sort of cleaned the brown stringy stuff off. I don't know if that was bad" Susan, those strings are actually yeasts that will help make your 2F fizzy. You want to keep 'em around, from the reading I have done. ######################## Oh I know they are good brown strings but I seriously couldn't help myself. I think CB is better for me because I won't be messing with my poor SCOBYs. :0)

I've got no problem drinking it, so I will overcome! Could I get a definition for pixie dust? ######################## Pixie dust is what I call Nadias method. She just kind of winged it and ended up with crazy fizzy kombucha and very prolific SCOBYs.

Sophie, folded SCOBY looks lovely!! I have to admit, when I pulled my SCOBYs from my two containers, I sort of cleaned the brown stringy stuff off. I don't know if that was bad, but being a tidy person, I could not help myself. It was all I could do to not run them under the tap to really get them shiny and white. Derval, I think maybe try leaving it doing it's second ferment thing longer. Mine so the same thing on a smaller scale. I see a little fizz when I bottle them. Then it's barely a tongue tickle (oh my) when I sit to drink them. There are lots of tricks to get fizz, but we won't discuss those yet. No need to get all complicated quite yet. Also...hmmm..you didn't flavor it with anything and some sort of sugar is needed to make the fizz, but you had so much fizz right off the bat. It's all such a fun puzzle. Megmac, I have done both. My original SCOBY and it's babies had to be thrown out because of mold. I decided to make my own SCOBY to see if that would increase the fizz factor. I now have two big SCOBYs and two babies and am going to go back to CB (the big green in my picture is what I use) and one batch. I like the idea of both, but not sure why. I think I just love the whole process now that it doesn't give me nervous butterflies in my stomach.

Since we are sharing family pictures, here's my gang waiting for tomorrow. Also, Big Green getting ready to go back to work tomorrow.

Nadia, no harm in a couple a day. I was a one but sometimes two a day until I had my unfortunate death of the SCOBY experience. Moluv, Booch Porn. Perfect. Sophie, you just get to drink more bottles. ;0) You will be able to get your flavorings in by squishing them. I do that just to get more of the flavors dispursed. Tell Frank that tacos are my favorite food so I appreciate his SCOBY art.

Meg save your kombucha bottles too. They work great if they have a screw on lid.

Oh your bottles look so pretty.

Lol..how much are you drinking? CB is cool. You take 25% out and put 25% sweet tea back in and its ready again in a day or two. Very low maintenance. You don't mess with the scoby except when you clean the container 3 times a year or you want to take babies.

Oh I need bigger containers. I am going back to continuous brew but so 1.5 gallon, but I think I need two. Or..I will do some CB and batch. So cute about your dad. Is your mom liking it? My mom wont touch it.