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Kombucha Makers Unite; Where to ask and be answered


kb0426

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OOh, just cracked open a bottle of ginger-cardamom-apricot. So pretty! So delicious!

 

These both were from my second second ferment attempt. Grating the ginger made a big difference in flavor (I'd just thrown in a hunk of fresh ginger in the first second ferments, and that did little to flavor them.)

 

I need to bottle my third batch today but I'm out of bottles! Will it work for me to use wider mouthed jars, or will that kill all the fizz? Any experience with this?

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'I need to bottle my third batch today but I'm out of bottles! Will it work for me to use wider mouthed jars, or will that kill all the fizz? Any experience with this?"

 

I have bottled with wide mouth quart mason jars in the past and did not have any issue with the fizz.  I did fill them way up to the top with only a little head room, perhaps 1/2 in.  I was a bit nervous about exploding mason jars though so burped them every other day.  Dunno why they would be any different than my swingtops, it just freaked me out some.  But again, fizz was not a problem :)

 

Yay Meg!!!!!!!!!

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Here is the Patrick family.

 

Black tea, green tea, white tea and of course Frank, who it all started with.

 

IMG_20130630_200246_zps3bde3cd5.jpg

 

Bottled some white tonight: one white cherry, one blackberry and one blueberry.  Rest of the booch from that brew got used as starter for another white batch and the batch of green.  I keep reading green tea is good for bubbles.  I doubt we'll keep all three types going.  We'll just figure out what we like best and then go to two batches a week - one for mid week bottling and one for the weekend.

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Good Sunday morning Booch brewers!

 

Last night I had my watermelon/lime/mint:

 

post-6147-0-20962500-1372599450_thumb.jp

 

How do I describe this one?  It tasted nothing like any of the ingredients, but it was very good.  I have to say - this one really tasted like an alcoholic beverage of sorts!

 

I bottled some more yesterday; I am still keeping it pretty simple.

 

dried cherries/vanilla

Black cherry (another concentrate)/vanilla

Apricot/ginger (I should have added cardamom darn it!)

and more gingerberry and trilogy.

 

Seriously loving walking passed the booch in the store!

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You can still add it!

Yesterday I bought a small booch bottle as I really needed it. Not a GT. My first reaction was - ewww, homebrew is so much better! I used to love this brand.

So many new brands appearing, crazy. All of them have spoons and spoons of sugar added, blergh.

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You can still add it!

Yesterday I bought a small booch bottle as I really needed it. Not a GT. My first reaction was - ewww, homebrew is so much better! I used to love this brand.

So many new brands appearing, crazy. All of them have spoons and spoons of sugar added, blergh.

--------

Well, that just made too much sense Nadia!

It has been added now :).

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KB - where are you getting the concentrates?

 

Blackberry basil didn't work.  I think we let it go too long and it turned to vinegar.  I'll have to try it again.  I think with the heat we have now, 5 days for the 2nd ferment is too long.  My son liked it plain before we added the flavor and let it sit. 

 

I have raspberry mint going right now.  I think I'll try it after three days (Wed) and see. 

 

I have mine in a a cupboard.  My husband didn't like looking at it on the counter.  It freked him out. LOL

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I am interested in trying Kombucha! I should probably buy some from the store and taste it to make sure I like it, lol, but it sounds really fun! I was wondering, do you have to use black tea, or would green tea work? Or white tea? I have a box of 100 ceylon white tea bags just waiting to be used.

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I didn't get to try kombucha during my first W30, but happened across some in a health food shop here a few weeks ago and loved it.  I can't afford the £5 train fare into town, let alone the cost of the kombucha, so I'm going to have to start brewing my own.

 

I can't wait to try out everyone's exciting recipes. Any tips for someone new to kombucha brewing?

 

My husband seems to think that all of the Grolsch bottles are his, but he'll just have to share :) Or go back to the pub and get another two crates of them.  (We brew our own beer and cider) So that's bottling taken care of.

 

Off to go check the UK threads to see where to buy my scoby from.  And then, I suppose it's just a brewing container that I need (the 23 litre buckets are probably too big ^_^ ). 

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Hi Vian!  I made a pure white tea batch and it seems to have worked out ok.  I've bottled it and am waiting another day or so for it to carbonate so I'll report back when we try the finished product.

 

The concern is that there isn't enough caffeine in white tea.  You could always add a couple of green or black tea bags to the mix to boost it.

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annabel, I got a small continuous brew kit from www.happykombucha.co.uk

 

I was just looking at that one last night.  Not that there are many options here.

What else do I need besides the kit?  Obviously tea and sugar, but anything else?

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I was just looking at that one last night.  Not that there are many options here.

What else do I need besides the kit?  Obviously tea and sugar, but anything else?

 

Bottles to put it in when brewed and a decent sized (2L) measuring jug.

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Welcome to the fold of neurotic, crazy booch brewers Annabel!

 

I'm fairly new to it myself, but I have discovered that it really is a lesson in patience.  It's not hard to do, there's just a lot of waiting (especially when you're waiting for that first brew to HURRY UP).

 

If you can get a SCOBY it will speed up the process.  The other option is to grow your own one from a bottle of store bought booch.

 

As for my brewing container, I found a 6 litre jar at a store at my local shopping centre.  So I batch brew.  The continuous brew option looks pretty nifty though, less fiddly too.

 

Good luck :)  It's HEAPS of fun.

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Percypat, I'm not good at the patience thing, so I suppose this will be good for me

 

I've bought a scoby along with the continuous brewing set up. (Both together were about two-thirds of what a bottle of kombucha would have cost me)  And they're coming on Thursday :D I feel like I'm waiting for Christmas.

 

Thanks for the link Nadia, that's totally the sort of stuff I was looking for.

 

We have a few dozen Grolsch bottles already as we brew our own beer and cider. (Our pub throws out the empty bottles...)

 

I'll let you all know how I get on.

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Yay Annabel!  Welcome to booch brewing, it's fab :)   I mean really, it makes people really happy and booch is so good for you!  Nuff with the cheese now but feel free to ask any question you may have, you've got a good group of teachers here!

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Hi all! I just bottled my first batch. Six pretty brews having a second ferment. It's hot here in Texas so I tested at five days and it wasn't ready. I waited and tried again at seven and it tasted like vinegar. Minor panic. But after reading up I decided to go forward with the second part. I poured a glass and that did not taste like vinegar, I could taste some sweet. So I think it's all going to be okay. I don't have a finished bottle yet but this is much easier to do than it sounds. Thanks for all the good information and the flavor ideas!

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SaraG, don't ever be shy when it comes to sharing photos of your booch.  Some of us (ie me) are nosey parkers and love pictures  ;)

 

I bottled tonight too!  Getting braver and filled the bottles right up this time.  

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20 days in and Scooby is still not full grown.  He's making progress, but very slowly.  I will post a picture tonight or tomorrow, then I need to decide if I start another one just in case.  I thought about adding some more GT booch and tea, but it already has 2 bottles in it and not much room for more tea. 

 

He's growing about as quickly as I lose weight.  :)

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ok so how much alcohol is in a glass of kombucha?  I drink at least 12-16oz a day (one bottle) at work in the afternoon.  i swear I feel a little tipsy as I sip it.  I feel like a minor! lol.  I have been drinking it at the same time every day as well, if that matters.

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