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Kombucha

effingcustie

effingcustie

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 29, 2008
Messages
1,182
I recently started brewing kombucha and wondered if anyone on BL does it too. I've only gone through a few batches, started using a recipe from "Nourishing Traditions," but now am beginning to experiment a little to get it how I like it.


Any other brewers? Drinkers? Tips for brewing? Experience with the health benefits?
 
I made a small batch a year ago, which tasted great. I then made a larger batch (by around 15x), but fucked up on the recipe calculation and it was undrinkably sweet. But in the hopes of salvaging it I kept the mother lying around, as well as the bottles.

About 4 months later I looked in at the container containing the mother, and it just looked scary. I didn't even open it, just chucked it. One of these days I should just throw out the 40 or so bottles that I still have sitting in my parents' basement, since they're probably toxic to drink by now. Meh.

I might give it another try, but to be honest it had a lot more sugar than I'd like, even in the batch that I made properly.
 
I'm not sure but I think a lot of the sugar is consumed by the culture and doesn't end up in the final product.. though I'm sure theres definitely still some.
 
I drink a few kombucha's a week mainly for it's alkalizing effects. After i drink one i feel a greater sense of well-being and am able to channel higher energies into my cells more efficiently.

I'm a huge fan of mushrooms as they tune up my body in ways that allow me to connect to my higher self more easily.

eat yo mushrooms =D
 
Custie-- nah, I added WAY too much in the bad batch. It was fully brewed, nice and tart, but still sickly, syrupy sweet. Definitely fucked it up; even as I was making it I thought that I was adding way too much sugar.

I happened to be at my parents' tonight, and checked in on my bottles. Still there, and none have burst! I'm guessing that any of the culture that is in there is long dead. Thank buddha for strong bottles!
 
The mother looks gross if you abandon it, but you can actually wash it out. You can put it in a bottle with a more concentrated form of sugar and taste it a bit a few days after to see if it is still "alive". My friends used to make fun of me for the "laboratory-like" shelves at home, but they got pretty interested after they realized those were living things there. I've dried the "mother" and tried to use it as a membrane.

Kombucha is not really a mushroom but a collection of bacteria. The health effects are still debated upon but I've never had any problems and it gives me loads of energy. I've ignored my "colonies" for a bit because of traveling, but I'll see what I can salvage tomorrow..
 
I'm sure that in the hands of someone experienced it could have been revived, but I know that some bacteria make some nasty stuff when they are forced into anaerobic metabolism. Figured that I'd just play it safe, you know?
 
wow intriguing ; I had never heard of this stuff before but am now fascinated. Gotta love bluelight =D
 
my roommate and i make our own komucha. we lovingly call it "the booch". we've been letting it ferment A LOT lately, and now when i drink it i feel vaugely drunk.

i enjoy it.
 
I love kombucha. I've actually been nagging a few of my friends to remember to give me a mother so I can get started making some again.

Last summer I discovered a pretty old mason jar of the stuff in a kitchen cabinet: it tasted extremely acidic so I got to substituting that for vinegar while cooking. Yum!

I've also heard of people making it with drinks beside sweetened black tea, namely Mountain Dew and coffee, the latter of which I've tried and it was pretty tasty, I must say. I know some folks who tried making it with green tea or yerba mate to no avail, which is just too bad because they sound delicious.

Mostly I drink the stuff with meals as a digestive tonic, but I haven't noticed any kombucha-specific health benefits since I consume lots of other fermented goodies as well.
 
Apparently it will make ethanol if you leave it long enough, or if it goes anaerobic for a short period (like in a bottle). So you may have been getting a bit of a legit buzz there Kenickie.

ikkyu-- Eww, Mountain Dew? Seriously? Blargh.
 
i buy one of the commercial brands they have flooding natural foods store shelves. usually drink about one a week. i eat a lot of yogurt otherwise, but i have a "komboucha" day just to experiment. not sure if its doing anything for me, but at the same time i work out on the brink of extremeties every day so a "tiny nudge" would be impossible to notice. if it helps me metabolise and break down heavier foods then thats great, but i def dont notice any real kind of extra "chi" in the morning from one.

could also be because i only drink one 20oz bottle a week.
 
Commercial kombucha can't hold a candle to homebrewed. I've tried them both, and the batch that I made properly blew the bottled stuff out of the water. Cost an order of magnitude less to make too-- would have been even less if I hadn't fucked up the larger batch.
 
Kenickie said:
my roommate and i make our own komucha. we lovingly call it "the booch". we've been letting it ferment A LOT lately, and now when i drink it i feel vaugely drunk.

i enjoy it.
Click to expand...

stuff is delicous and true true, it does give you a slight buzzed feeling if you have a decent amount but you realy shouldnt have more than a cup a day and on top of that bombarding your system on the regualr with all that acid isnt to healthy.

so always in moderation. but yeah, you can start your own with the botteled stuff, there's a video of it online some where, just be care full because there is a lot of mis information about kombucha out there not to mention the misleading. and be warned there have been reported ill effects from drinking kombucha not fermented properly. a woman reportedly died from drinking a batch every day for a month straight but the FDA stated they fuond no link between the two but aparently didnt look at her scoby(bacterial membrane) or do any of the research them selves, they instead relied on studies that didn't even rely on data they did them selves. so do the research your self and let's get a better idea of what we are growing.

one fascination i have with this is trying to figure out a more acurate equation of fermentation time. but it's got so many variables i just dont know where to start, sugar content, temperature(can i use average temp?), innitial culture size, innitial acidity and O2/CO2 levels. Yay! deriving the equation of a five+ variable equation! i got a set of 50 ph strips, any one got any ideas?

what works for me is a 2 quart mason jar with one and a half cups of sugar or so(average temp 68 F at the top of the shelf to provide best I find my favorite flavors have come from the celestial seasoning brand perferably the peach flavors. the zinger's often work out nice to but are verry strong but forget the roobios for me, not to tasty in my opinion. Hibiscus flowers also work well and just about any thing fruity. you want it to end up tasting kindof like you fermented actual fruit here.

also if you changed the type of sugar you put in could you possibly change the type of alcohol that is produced, and if so what would a more desireable alcohol/sugar?
 
Funny, Wholefoods, the giant food store, recently as in last week stopped carrying all brands of kombucha becuase of it's possible alcohol content. Apparently they all have to relabel themselves to get carried again, which they most likely will do because Wholefoods is like Wal-Mart or Oprah, they make you and you listen.


I didn't realize until I couldn't buy it anymore how addicted I was, and I was going to try and find a homebrew recipe. Then I found this thread. Bluelight and kombucha, life is good. Anyways, anyone have a good recipe or instructions to share?
 
I find that after awhile, it begins to get fizzy, and later on (after the slight alcoholic stage), it becomes vinegar. A mild one you can use for salads, etc.

Dave, you can know if your culture is still good by the smell and taste. To culturer's, the smell will be slightly pleasant. And no moulds on top.

I got my original culture from GT Dave's Kombucha. Back then (a few years ago), it was really good! Their Ginger was fantastic. The last time I was in the States all their brand's stuff was pretty past its prime (sour).

To "capture" the culture, I just put a whole bottle of GT Dave's in a lot of sugar and observed if it formed that filmy mass later on.

I use muscovado sugar. I've heard that white sugar works better, but I don't believe it. In the farming sector here, many of the enzymes are made with molasses and muscovado because the product is much more robust. So, I go by that..
 
I didn't realize until I couldn't buy it anymore how addicted I was, and I was going to try and find a homebrew recipe.
Click to expand...

Here's the recipe that I used. The only difference was that I used oolong rather than black tea. Just be careful when you scale it up. Mothers (the symbiotic biofilm culture used to ferment the tea) can be bought online easily enough, but ask around at a locally owned organic/hippie food store-- there will often be someone brewing who would be happy to give you a mother. When it brews, another layer of biofilm forms which can be easily peeled off an used to start a new culture.

As an interesting side note: in Slavic cultures (Ukraine and Russia in particular), kombucha is commonly enjoyed. The Slavic name for it though is 'Kvass', meaning simply 'sour'.
 
I drink maybe a glass every two days.

I am drunk on the first sip, hahahaha.
 
Kenickie said:
I drink maybe a glass every two days.

I am drunk on the first sip, hahahaha.
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Kenickie what's the flavor of your "extra-fermented" kombucha? Does it taste like a dry cider plus a mild, but flowerey, dry white wine? I've never gotten mine to that stage. And to be honest, I'm not quite anal enough to monitor it closely enough to get the flavor I exactly want. Does it really give you an alcohol effect? I've never noticed that with Kombucha. I mean, its usually really low (ie. unnoticeable) alcohol.

My ex-, who is an ultra-anal home "everything-er", makes a kombucha that tastes like a combination between a very, very dry high-quality cider and a sauvignon blanc, but I've never noticed an overwhelming alcohol effect. It tastes incredible. But I have IBS and digestive stuff and I like kombucha for the positive healing properties.

I'm back to brewing my own and I can't quite get it to be as subtle and delicious as what my ex produces. My favorite of his involves adding a pan full of sliced ginger, slightly simmered, then added to the Kombucha. Bulbs and bulbs of ginger. It's phenomenal and delicious!

As far as the Whole Foods thing, they're covering their asses. Kids drink it. They're a massive chain and they could get smacked with a lawsuit. Whole Foods. Blech. Fuck them.
 
artaxerxes said:
Kenickie what's the flavor of your "extra-fermented" kombucha? Does it taste like a dry cider plus a mild, but flowerey, dry white wine? I've never gotten mine to that stage. And to be honest, I'm not quite anal enough to monitor it closely enough to get the flavor I exactly want. Does it really give you an alcohol effect? I've never noticed that with Kombucha. I mean, its usually really low (ie. unnoticeable) alcohol.

My ex-, who is an ultra-anal home "everything-er", makes a kombucha that tastes like a combination between a very, very dry high-quality cider and a sauvignon blanc, but I've never noticed an overwhelming alcohol effect. It tastes incredible. But I have IBS and digestive stuff and I like kombucha for the positive healing properties.

I'm back to brewing my own and I can't quite get it to be as subtle and delicious as what my ex produces. My favorite of his involves adding a pan full of sliced ginger, slightly simmered, then added to the Kombucha. Bulbs and bulbs of ginger. It's phenomenal and delicious!

As far as the Whole Foods thing, they're covering their asses. Kids drink it. They're a massive chain and they could get smacked with a lawsuit. Whole Foods. Blech. Fuck them.
Click to expand...

It's a dry cider and.. hold on, lemme get a glass...

no, it's way more of a wine taste than a cider taste.

we just split the mother last week, we now have two jars going at once. now that we've done so, the buzzed feeling is way more mild than it was before.

we use blackberry tea along with our normal black tea, and sometimes oolong so maybe that has something to do with it. :)
 
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