I Shall Retire the Green

I’ve been popping open more and more bottles of my home brew ginger “soda” and again and again, Ramirez is awesome. He’s bubbly, tasty, and delicious. Diggler, on the other hand, just doesn’t seem to work. Even though he had ginger in him, he grew a mother that plopped out into my glass. And again, he had no fizz. I really don’t know what’s wrong with it, but I think I’m going to retire the green tea experiments. I’m not a big fan of them and would rather have more room for the black tea. My only other option is to try a different type of green tea. Right now, I have Diggler brewing in a lemongrass green, but I suspect that won’t be any more of a success since Santos never really bubbled, either. (I’m thinking that’s because of the fruit in the tea.) I presented N. with Pedro, begat from Diggler, in green tea. We’ll see what type of success he has there.

UPDATE: I just cracked open my last bottle of Diggler with ginger and it did, indeed, get some fizz. Perhaps it was the seal on the bottle? I can’t say, but the end result is I still don’t love the flavor as much as Ramirez, and therefore, may retire the flavor anyway.

Reboot!

I decided to reboot Santos. His jar was a bit too sediment-filled for my liking. I noticed that he had several very thin layers, almost invisible, growing on his surface. I’ve discovered that in order to get the nice, thick mothers that I’ve seen in photos, I need to implement a new method of brewing. It seems that each time I move the jar, a new scoby growth begins. Therefore, I dumped out all of Santos’ goodness into a half gallon jar, added 2 cups back to his normal jar, filled him up, and am leaving him for at least 7 days with no movement whatsoever. The less I move that jar the better and this way I can enjoy my Santos brew cold from the fridge. I’m sipping some now, actually, and it’s quite tart and refreshing and a lovely pink color. I’d seen other people using this method, particularly C., and so I’m finally going to give it a go. Maybe Ramirez will end up looking a bit nicer and smoother. I suppose, ultimately, it doesn’t matter what he looks like, as long as he’s healthy and producing a delicious kombucha. I rebooted him, as well, and washed out his jar. There will be no touching of either of them until I’m ready to fill more bottles with their tasty goodness. Come to think of it, this stuff I’m making here is getting so tasty, I’m in dangerous territory because I’m likely to end up drinking far too much of the stuff. It’s almost like a nice tart kool-aid when I imbibe some Santos, and Ramirez’s ginger soda is really like, well, ginger soda. Compared to the stuff I’ve tasted from the store, I think my kombucha would get far higher marks in a taste-off. 

Sickness Reigns Supreme

And so I got sick. Not really sick, but I feel a tickle in the throat. I’ve been drinking an f-ton of kombucha lately from my experiments, so frankly I’m not so sure now about the immune boosting properties. I mean, i’ve heard of people not getting sick for years at a time on this stuff. But why not me? Granted, I’ve gotten sick more times this winter season than I have in the last 5 years combined simply because I took a job working in a tiny room with numerous germ-ridden children. But still, why not me? I’m doing the usual gargling with my horrid concoction of ACV, honey, cayenne, and water. And I’m taking elderberry extract like it’s going out of style. Perhaps I’d be much worse off if not for the kombucha? Am I not fermenting it long enough? My research suggests that it takes 7 days at least to get the immune boosting properties, but if you’re constantly brewing (using more than 2 cups of the original liquid at a time, should it matter? Some of it has been in there for at least 7 days if not more at any given time I drink it. Maybe I’m drinking too little. Or maybe I’m drinking too much and my body is now populated with kombuchae from another universe. I did notice that my tongue was white yesterday. I panicked a little but realized it was just the yogurt I’d recently consumed. All is well in the world of tongue.

Fizz Issues

C. came over today and tried Santos. She agreed that he was just tart enough but didn’t

need any more marination. We popped open the bottle of Diggler and sadly, he had no fizz. However, we popped open Ramirez ginger and he was great! He didn’t fizz over like my first bottle but he did have a bit of CO2 smoke coming out. He had just the right amount of bubbles and was really delicious with a bite of ginger. C. and I drank most of the 16 oz bottle and she suggested I market the stuff. 

I still can’t figure out why none of my other mothers are producing as well as Ramirez. They are all offshoots of him but Diggler didn’t fizz up, Santos didn’t fizz up in the bottles. I wonder if perhaps Ramirez had more of a sugar content in him when I put him in the 2nd ferment stage whereas Diggler was a bit more dry. I’ve read that the sugar content affects the amount of carbonation that occurs. I will have to make notes on the amount of sweetness of the liquid that goes into the bottles for 2nd fermentation based on a scale of 1 to 10. This should give me a better insight as to why Diggler didn’t bubble up the way Ramirez did. Perhaps Ramirez is just magic...

The Experiment

I was cooking but a moment ago when I noticed that there was some suspicious yeast in the experimental kombucha starter. I climbed up onto the top of the sink to peer into the glass and behold: A mother has started to grow! I’m not sure how healthy it’s going to be, but there is definitely something there. And it came in quite fast. In fact, I just checked it 2 days ago with a close inspection and saw nothing. And now there is a visible mat forming right up on the top of the brew. To recap, I’ve done nothing to it since day one. I haven’t even removed its towel top. It has stayed up there, barely touched, since January 3rd, almost 3 weeks ago. I haven’t changed the brew at all, and to refresh your memory, it’s made from 4 cups sweetened green tea (same recipe as Diggler) plus 8 ounces of GT Citrus kombucha. I had thought initially that the citrus flavoring (lemon) in the commercial brand would squelch any possibile growth but I see now that something is occurring. I had also thought that the bubbles I’d seen plus the incomplete formation of a growth on the top was, what my research lead me to believe, a wild yeast overgrowth. I’m not saying that this thing is fabulous just yet, but it’s definite progress and at this rate I should see some measurable results in a day or two.

UPDATE: The results look dubious. It looks like a strange skin with a bubble in the center, sort of like a dusty film that appears in a toilet that hasn’t been flushed in ages. I don’t believe I will be drinking/using anything from this brew, but I can’t seem to bring myself to toss it away until I see it to its conclusion, although I’m not sure where that is presently.

Bottles, Bottles Galore and Kombucha in my Hair!

Today’s kombucha adventures included Ch. getting kicked out of the liquor section at Dominick’s at 9 am while he was looking for bottles to bring me because he forgot the ones I left at his house. We went to Whole Foods and picked up some beer a bit later in the day and then to Binny’s for some cheaper stuff. I was able to get my neighbor/friend A. to drink the beer and now I’m sanitizing the bottles in the dishwasher (although I found out today an amazing recipe for beer pizza crust and now I’m going to have to buy more). Apparently those Grolsch bottles will chip if the caps aren’t pulled off quite carefully without putting pressure on the glass itself, so it seems like this bottle gathering process may be an ongoing event. 

In order to empty out another bottle, I used the 2nd half of a bottle of Ramirez that had gotten too vinegary on my hair in the shower. I dumped it all in, let it sit for a moment, and then rinsed it all out with warmish water. Behold! My hair, which is usually very fine and soft, got a little bit coarser and fluffed up quite nicely. I didn’t have to do anything to it (no extra products, minimal blowdrying) and it really had some good body today. I was very pleased with it. I’m not sure, though, that putting it in every day is a good idea because the acidity may strip the oils from it, but I’m wondering if it’s a good idea as a sort of weekly clarifying treatment in the winter and perhaps more frequently in the summer. I will continue experimenting with this.

Diggler Gets a Cleaning

Today I decided to clean out Diggler. I put him on a plate and became somewhat intimate with his inner bits. It turns out, he has 3 layers, which will be perfect to split him up when I give some away. He has a lot of sediment at the bottom of his jar, which was spilling into what I was drinking. I saved 2 cups of his liquid and then threw out the bottom part that contained the most sedimentary materials. I boiled some water, swished it into his jar to clean it, and then put the liquid back in, followed by Diggler. I also brewed up some new food for him and put that in when it was cool enough. He looks clean and healthy and tastes quite lovely. He has a ginger brew going on that I’m waiting for the second ferment on. I have great hopes for it! 

I think Santos will need the same treatment, soon. He’s quite large at this point and in several layers with a lot of sediment on the bottom. All his layers are so lovely and perfect though that I had to touch them. Perhaps I’ll use one or two as an experiment in Kombucha Leather. 

Ramirez, as always, looks horrid but tastes great. 

Kombucha as a Pick me up?

Today I was feeling a bit sleepy. I tried to take a 20 minute nap but was unsuccessful. I had to go into work in a few minutes so I drank about 5 ounces of kombucha from Diggler. By the time I got to work, I had quite a bit of energy. My first student told me that I looked so pretty today and I had a glow about me. When I got home, I ran an extra mile and a half (I’d already run in the morning) and got my best run time ever. 

Coincidence or kombucha-related? Hmm...

Kombucha and Its Many Uses

Well, now that I’m practically swimming in kombucha, I’m wondering what I can do with it. I’ve been earning a little bit of money writing some articles about it (not with this blog), which is nice, but still doesn’t relieve me of the gallons of it I have in my kitchen. Occasionally, I will admit to spilling some of it out. Sometimes it gets too tart, though I feel bad for doing so. Therefore, I bottled some of it from Ramirez recently and decided to use it as a hair rinse. Apparently, my great grandmother rinsed her hair in vinegar every week for her whole life and had black hair until the day she died. Now, I never met her and I’m pretty sure that’s not how hair is pigmented, but it couldn’t hurt, right? So I rinsed my hair with a bunch of Ramirez. It didn’t smell too bad, but just to be sure I put on some lavender hair goop that hid the smell for sure. My hair was a bit stiff afterwards, and the next day I kept smelling something that might have been my hair or might not have. It seemed shiny, but my hair is always fairly shiny so I can’ t be sure if it was successful or not. I’ll have to try again. 

So what else can I do with this stuff? Well, I’ve heard of people doing a juice fast with it (not something I plan to try). I turned down the opportunity of writing an article about using it as a suppository for hemorrhoids. There wasn’t even one part of me that wanted to do the research for that one. You can also reportedly pour it into your bath water to soften your skin. Rub it on your face with a cotton ball as a toner. Pour it into some water with baking soda as a foot soak and cure for athlete’s foot. Apple it to rashes and stings. Gargle with it to soothe sore throats. Use it as an antibacterial spray for your hands. A lot of these seem to make sense since it seems to be used in ways similar to Apple Cider Vinegar (another liquid that’s often given a miracle status for its myriad of uses). It’s likely to kill germs since it doesn’t really harbor any itself. Gargling it will help kill anything taking up residence in your throat, etc. 

And as for the extra Scobies? People have also cooked up and eaten the extra Scobies (again, I’ll leave that for others.)  They’ve also been used as a poultice on the skin for psoriasis. You can cut off a piece of the Scoby and apply it to the affected area, then bind it with a bandage. I’m not sure I want to try this, but if I do, I’ll definitely write about it. I’m perfectly fine using honey instead on my wounds and since I don’t have psoriasis, I cannot test this theory on my own and I doubt I can get anyone else to seeing as I have so much trouble even getting people to look at my jars. You can toss the old pieces into your compost pile or put it directly into the dirt to feed your plants. I’ve heard tell of one of my friends tossing hers to some chickens, who apparently love the stuff. 

I’ve also heard suggestions to rub it on acne, apply them to burns, roll them up and allow them to dry, then give them to your dog as a rawhide-like chew (Dixie is not down), and rub them on chapped skin. And, I recently came across a craig’s list ad giving away giant kombucha mushrooms for use as vegan leather. I’m sure at some point I will have enough of them to give that one a try, but I haven’t the slightest idea what I could use it for (really hip shoes?). Experiment time!! (As soon as I choose which of my friends will have to give his life for the cause...)

Yogurt, Part Deux

I attempted yogurt again. This time, I brought the milk up to 180F and left it there for about a minute, stirring furiously to avoid over-heating. I put it in the fridge to cool to 110F. I fished off the skin that formed on top (and then I ate is, as I was always want to do as a child) and added 2 tablespoons of Fage plain 0% yogurt. This time, however, I put the yogurt in a bowl and slowly added the warm milk until it was soupy, then added it to the larger batch of milk. It took 8 hours, but I finally got yogurt! I strained it a bit, but gave up when I realized there wasn’t going to be much left of it if I squeezed too hard. In addition, it seemed to be losing find yogurt particles, as well as whey, through the cheese cloth. Sadly, this yogurt has no tang. It just tastes like milk. I am not satisfied and will consider it a greater success than the last but, nonetheless, a failure. I will try again  upon further research and reconsideration of my milk type and yogurt starter culture type.

Santos is Back at the Top!

I decided to taste my guys today to see if I could bottle some more Ramirez with ginger. He’s still a bit sweet, though. Actually, he’s a bit sweet and a bit strong. I left in quite a bit of the last brew when I added the new tea mixture and now he’s coming up with a very bold flavor. I’m not sure if it’s one I’ll fancy in the long run and will have to consider it after the addition of ginger. 

I noticed that Santos was still floating on his side. I also saw more of that mysterious yeasty stuff. It floated to the top, as it did when Santos was first moved into his current position as the largest jar (although Ramirez still holds seniority. Or would that be Senority in this case...) I went to fish it out with a spoon and ended up shifting the newly formed mother as I moved the jar. I tried to fix with but ended up crushing it. With a sad heart, I scooped the now deformed Scoby out into a paper towel and disposed of him in the trash. And behold! Santos has returned to the top where he will continue growing into a great size! 

The experimental jar is coming up a failure, I’m afraid. It hasn’t formed a complete Scoby, which my research leads me to believe may be a case of wild yeast. It’s very foamy, but the sides of the jar look a bit scumy. I will not be drinking that brew, for certain. I’m waiting a few more days and then calling it a fail. I will need to thoroughly sanitize the jar prior to using it again, perhaps even sterilize it, in this case. 

Diggler has somehow flipped himself over and is now growing ass over head. I can’t imagine why he’d do that, but he seems to still be forming nicely, so I’ll let it go. Ramirez, as always, is growing a rather rough surface, similar to what one might see on a grade school globe near the mountain ranges. Perhaps I can fix him, but I don’t think so. I think he may forever be scarred. It’s alright, though. Although he is not as flamboyantly colored, nor as smooth and thick and Santos, I love him equally amongst my children and my heart still contains a special fondness for him as he was my very first Scoby child. 

Great Success with Ginger!

I popped open Ramirez 2 with ginger and it popped up like a champagne cork! I saw a bit of smokey air coming out and then it fizzed up and over into the sink. The brew was a success and tasted amazing. I will definitely sanitize some bottles in the dishwasher (though I'm looking for other methods. I don't keep bleach in the house) and try some Ramirez ginger brew again as soon as he’s ready for it! It was done with the plain black tea in Ramirez (if I never mentioned, it's actually Irish Breakfast loose tea) plus 3 slices of ginger root added to the bottle, then fermented on the shelf in an EZ cap bottle for 5 days, then put into the fridge for a few days. I hope I can recreate it!

Today I tasted Santos. He was a bit on the vinegary side so I decided I needed to expel some of his liquid and feed him a new batch. I also noticed that he was growing a bit lop-sided. Santos the original wasn’t quite the size of the jar so the mother that grew on top of him was quite a bit larger. Santos has always been a lovely consistency, a bit pink from the blueberry in the brew, but very nice and flat, unlike Ramirez who keeps growing with really odd textures and holes in him. I decided it was time to get him out of the jar, remove the original mother, and let Santos grow unhindered. Now, the jar I used didn’t really have a wide mouth, so I’ve been avoided this unavoidable task up until now. I really don’t like touching my “mushrooms” but, in this case, it seemed unavoidable. I washed a large plate with soap and hot water and dried it with a paper towel. I then washed my hands thoroughly with dish soap and shut off the faucets with my elbows so as not to touch anything. I got out some clean spoons and lifted Santos from his brew. I pulled him as far as I could to the top of the jar and then I grabbed him gently with my fingers, bent him a bit, and pulled him out. Success! He made it out of the jar in one piece. I flipped him over and found the original Santos, looking more like Ramirez than I’d like him to look. So, using the spoons, I pulled him off the top Santos, rinsed Santos under some clean tap water for just a moment (about room temp), removed any yeast that seemed apparent (the dark stuff on the bottom) and I was left with a nice clean Scoby. I didn’t stop to take a photo because I didn’t want to contaminate anything. I slipped him back into his jar and turned away for a moment. When I looked back, Santos has sunk to the bottom! (See photo) I’ve heard of this happening but haven’t ever seen it since all my scobies always float at the top. A few minutes later, and he's floating sideways. I’m hoping he’ll come back up, since I like to see him up there, but if he doesn’t, this may make removing the new mother a bit easier since I won’t have to separate them. We’ll see if he floats up. 

I will now feed him and hope for the best! 

Santos 3 (With Ginger!)

I cracked open another bottle this morning. This time I tried S3, or Santos 3, with Ginger. I let it sit in a 2nd ferment for 6 days. Sadly, it wasn’t again nowhere near as bubbly as my birthday ‘bucha. However, the 3 slices of ginger that I put into it gave it a really lovely bite. It was very sassy, although still a bit too sweet for my taste. I shall give it more time in the jar before bottling next time. It did produce a small scoby on the top of the jar, which is let slop into the sink. I’m really hoping that it was a scoby and not some awful, embryonic substance chock full of alien invaders that are now switching on homing beacons leading right towards my stomach and intestinal tract. As always, I drank only a small amount to see how I will react to this bottled product. 

I keep thinking that the safest way to enjoy kombucha is straight from the jar, a.k.a. “jarbucha.” In that case, I’d have to try adding ginger juice and putting the bottles straight in the fridge. Perhaps the bad press has gotten to me, but I feel safer drinking the commercial stuff. And yet, should I? I commercial kombucha really that much safer if I take every precaution possible not to infect my brews? I took Diggler down today for a visual inspection and noticed some brown spots on top of his mother. Nothing serious, just two brown spots. They don’t look like mold. They’re not green or fuzzy. They’re about half the size of a dime or less each. And now, my fear of mold has returned. I shall watch Diggler to make sure, although I know that there is really not reason to have mold. He’s not near any plants. I keep him triple covered. No one has stuck their hands in. I try to even avoid breathing over the stuff. 

I will experiment again with ginger in my blueberry Santos brew. I think it has great potential as a flavor combination. I have spilled out the remaining bottles of S1 and R1. I have considered them failures. 

Can I See Your Insurance Card, Please?

Last night I had a friend make an appointment to come over and try my ‘bucha. It was a bit surprising to me since he had never tried kombucha until about 2 weeks ago and then only the store bought kind. Just before he arrived, I reminded him to bring his insurance card “just in case.” I was kidding, of course, but I wondered if maybe I made him a little nervous. I tried all the samples before I’d allow him to have any and they all seemed fine to me. Santos is really rocking it out as a perfect specimen. Ramirez, as always, looks a little odd but tastes fine and seems to ferment quite fast. Diggler is almost developing nicely. I tasted a bit of him, although I knew he wouldn’t be entirely ready after only 4 days. He was a bit sweet, but the flavor of the organic green was coming out nicely and I think it will be very pleasant after a few more days. 

My friend sampled Ramirez, Ramirez from the fridge, Santos, and Diggler and was most pleased (I think) with Santos. He had an extra helping of that one. It does seem that, in terms of most pleasant, soda-like flavor, Santos is still the winner.

I still find it odd that I’m harboring a small, living mass that creates a sort of waste product that I’m drinking. I certainly have no use for my cat litter box after the fact and yet, in a sense, this is kind of the same thing. I can’t help but make the joke that I’m drinking “Scoby Doo.” 

If you’re wondering about my other friend N., he’s totally fine. He wasn’t sick at all and said he felt great. My friend from last night, M., started sweating after he drank the kombucha and had to take a pause before his second flavor test. He said the same thing happened after he tried to the store bought kind. Nervousness? Maybe. Mystical kombucha properties? Who can say?

My First Attempt at Yogurt (And some stuff about kombucha)

My kombucha brewing made me somewhat brave and I decided to try making my own yogurt. I had been gifted a yogurt maker roughly 6 years ago and kept telling myself I was going to do it. But before I had learned about kombucha, I didn’t really understand why I would need to buy yogurt to make more yogurt. Kombucha, however, has schooled me somewhat in the art of fermented foods. I now understand that, similar to kombucha, the milk in yogurt is used to feed the bacteria we put in there. The bacteria eat the lactase sugars in the milk, rendering the milk mostly safe for those who are lactose intolerant (me) and allowing us to eat the healthy probiotics. Sound like kombucha, right? 

Well, kombucha is a little more fool proof. The milk for the yogurt needs to be heated. My thermometer lied to me and told me it was still under 212 but it started boiling. So I took it off the heat and went for it. I cooled it off to 110F and put it in my little yogurt maker with the starter I added from some Fage Greek Yogurt (one of my favs!) After about 4 hours, the yogurt looked ok. It was a bit runny and I wanted something more dense, so I left it a bit longer. I woke up around 330 in the morning and unplugged my maker. I went to put it in the fridge and it smelled delicious. However, in my groggy state and squinting in the light of the refrigerator, I noticed that there was quite a bit of whey in the jug. In fact, the 1 quart container now held 3 cups of whey and about 1 cup of yogurt. I tried to salvage it by straining it through cheesecloth but that didn’t help. I now have a sort of cheese-like substance reminiscent of ricotta. Perhaps I can use it in some blintzes or stuff some pasta with it but it is definitely not yogurt. I’m going to try again and hopefully not boil the milk this time.

In any case, kombucha has been teaching me a good deal about food preparation, fermented foods, and friendly vs foe-like bacteria and yeasts. Ahh, kombucha. 

Mom, You Have Grandchildren

So I’m still pondering why my second ferment in the bottles didn’t work. I think perhaps I left too much airspace. In the initial second ferment I did for birthday kombucha, I left very little air space. In this one, i left about 2 inches of air at the top. Today’s research suggests that I might need an airlock, which is available at a brewing shop. I’ve seen them in action but don’t have one for myself. I did go into the fridge and open the bottles today to show my mom and they hissed at me like they had a lot of pressure in them, and yet I still didn’t get the bubbles I so desired. Plus I’m a little afraid of whatever clear gloppy thing came out of it. 

On that note, I was afraid of telling my mom about the kombucha. She’s a nurse and is weirded out by these things. As predicted she said “you know I’m a nurse and I’m wary of these things.” She also proclaimed that she never should have sent me to live in Madison. Apparently I’ve become too much of a hippy for dear mom to handle well. 

Anyway, I’ll follow up with those other bottles I brewed up. I’ll check out the airspace and see if any of them turned out fizzier than the first. I’ll also try the jar method again and see if that works out. I’m thinking thus far that the best way to drink kombucha is straight off the mother and down the gullet.

Uh oh...

Today I cracked open two bottles of my second ferments. Santos tasted great, but I was really disappointed in his effervescence. It actually seemed greater out of his jar than it did after the second ferment. My friend N. was with me and he gave them a go after I thoroughly explained all the risks involved and my process of brewing the goo-loved liquid. He later admitted to me that he drinks kombucha regularly from the store but was nervous because it was a home brew. I don’t blame him. We cracked open the bottle of Ramirez and again I was very disappointed with the bubblage. There was hardly any. Were the bottles not sealed correctly? I think they were. I put them into the fridge only a few hours before opening them. Did this affect their effervescence? I can’t say. The flavor of Ramirez was a lot drier than I was expecting and a bit strong. Santos was the clear winner in flavor. 

After tasting my brews and learning about them in depth, N. has asked me to provide him with a SCOBY of his own. I shall grow him a lovely one! I also got a request from L. a few days ago for a SCOBY delivery when I next see her. I’m certainly becoming a veritable SCOBY farmer here in my kitchen. 

Sadly, N.’s tummy became a bit gurgly not 10 minutes after drinking the brews. I thought he was joking but a quick ear to his tummy proved that he was, in fact, not lying. After he got home I was told that his system had also been cleaned out thoroughly. After hearing from him, I poured another bit from the bottle into a glass and took a sip. Something gelatinous and clear touched my lip. What was it? I have no idea. I am now keeping a close eye on my tummy and hoping that my second ferment wasn’t a complete flop. 

PS The last person to try my kombucha told me it made his tummy rumbly. And yet, I’ve been totally fine. Am I a goat? Am I immune? Or is this what others were talking about when they suggested one build up a tolerance to the stuff before drinking copious amounts? Hmmm....

Happy Birthday, Diggler!

I decided to split Ramirez again today. I put moved him into a half-gallon jar and fed him with plain green tea. My first brew that I put into the bottle had something floating in it, so I scrapped it and started over. Luckly, I hadn’t yet put the mother in. I’m not sure if it was from the pot, or if a piece of the paper towel fell into it, but I was taking no chances. In any case, I have named him Diggler Scoby and put him up with the rest of the family. Welcome, Diggler. 

Relocation To Warmer Climates

I’ve decided to move all my jars to the upper part of my kitchen cabinets. Since I have 10 foot ceilings, it is considerably warmer up there than it is down here where the Scobies and I were living initially. I believe it’s about 70 degrees up there, possibly a bit more. 

My experimental SCOBY is showing some signs of life. There is a nice foam developing around the sides of the jar, which tells me some ferment is going on ( I hope.) There is no sign of mold as of now. I have it triple covered with paper towels and was extremely cautious with it. Since he’s not a fully formed SCOBY, he doesn’t have the same type of acidic protection against invaders, or so my Internet research tells me. Therefore, I’m being extra careful with him and not moving him or jostling him in any way, save for moving him to higher, warmer ground. 

I also bottled more Santos and more Ramirez, this time with 3 slices of fresh ginger root in each jar. I’ve heard they’re good for bubbles! And flavor, of course. 

I have returned from Madison and have no EZ cap bottles. Sadly, they wanted around $30 for a 12 pack, which seemed a bit excessive to me. The good news here is that I was awarded by my originally resistant friend with a  pack of bottles. He had drunk the Grolsch! He was a trooper for the cause and for this I am pleased. What I did find in Madison, however, was a 6 pack of half-gallon canning jars. I was unable to find them at all the major stores in Chicago but Madison happened to have 2 packs of them, which G. and I split. They wanted to know what I was canning at this time of year. When I slyly whispered “home brew” they looked amused. 

What I should have realized is that my possession of these jars now means that I have new homes to fill. While in Madison, I decided that I was going to try to find some local brew to bring home with me as an experiment in growing my own SCOBY. I was going to buy the local stuff (which I had sampled at a party in December and found to be very pleasant) but they sold it only in half-gallon jars for $15 and they wanted a $3 bottle deposit. Since I only needed about 16 ounces of the liquid, I decided to go with a bottle of the GT brew. According to their website, the kombucha is brewed in purple rooms with spiritual music playing and no negativity from their employees. (I’m sorry, but I can’t attend work today. I’m feeling a little down.) I can’t say that I go through this length for my kombucha, but I can assure you that it’s brewed with love. On the way home, my GT started leaking. Why? I have no idea. I’m hoping that it’s still a viable source for my experiment. I also bought some ginger to try some ginger-flavored brew.

I bottled up 16 ounces of Santos and 16 ounces of Ramirez. I labeled them and will put them down for the second ferment for their five days. I also sanitized another half-gallon jar. I added sweetened green tea and half a bottle of the GT raw kombucha (I got the ginger one because they didn’t have regular) and I’m hoping to see some action!

I am also now keeping a notebook of my experiments. It contains names, dates, lineage, and recipes, as well as brewing conditions. I feel that it’s important to keep track of my successes and failures. My goal is to find one or two good brews and stick with them. 

Birthday 'Bucha

And so my birthday has come. And in celebration, I have opened my “birthday kombucha.” This was the second ferment that I placed into a small jar five days ago from Ramirez. My friend M. who was staying with me for New Year’s, was willing to give it go. I cracked open the jar and was pleased by the sound of air escaping. I poured the amber liquid into some glasses and was excited to see it foam up almost like beer! We gave it a taste and it was delicious! And foamy! And just lovely. And so I have hopes that  my second ferment process will work nicely. I am taking the jar to Madison this weekend to share my kombucha success and to see if I can find some more kombucha supplies. My foray into the world of kombucha has gone a bit farther than I had ever predicted.

Homes Wanted

And so it was time to taste Santos. I thought back to the odd slimy stuff I’d noticed on his first day, but since he’s been growing and bubbling and looking quite healthy, I thought I’d give it a go. My friend was over, who initially told me he was going to flush Ramirez down the toilet, and he agreed to try Santos as well. I poured a small bit into a glass and tossed him down the hatch. And he was delicious!! He was a bit sweet, with a wonderful blueberry flavor much like a natural soda. His effervescence was nice and I was pleased to call him a success. 

Looking around, I noticed that I was going to need somewhere to start putting all this brewed kombucha. I really like my kombucha to be fizzy so I have begun experimenting with second fermentation. This is where you remove the kombucha from the mother to stop the acidification, but the kombucha is placed into airtight bottles to continue the fizz making. I placed some of Ramirez into a small jar with plans to open him in five days. 

I also went on a quest to try to find some EZ cap bottles. These are purchased at brew stores or can be obtained by drinking Grolsch beer. As I know no one that drinks this, I will have to find someone to volunteer. Since I couldn’t tell you the difference between good beer or urine in a bottle, I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to be asking of someone. That, however, was of secondary concern, whereas my first is to find homes for all this kombucha that I am brewing! 

Santos Lives!

You may note that I’m insistent on putting all these guys into glass. The acidity of kombucha makes it unsafe to put into plastic because it could leach the chemicals into the liquid. In addition, it reacts poorly to metal. Not long ago I did a second ferment (more on that later) and whatever touched the metal lid of the jar turned black as it spilled to the counter. Therefore, I would recommend only using glass. I have found a few recommendations that certain types of food-grade plastics are OK, as are metals, but my other research as well as my experience tells me that sticking to glass is really the safest option. 

Since I wasn’t expecting the birth of Gonzalez so soon, I decided to keep him in the small jar as an experiment in keeping a culture in a sort of stasis. I fed him a bit and wanted to see if he would perk up. I noticed that he was growing a new culture on the top and it was, in fact, quite a bit whiter than Gonzalez. I was told by another brewer that you want your mother’s to be nice and white and that it’s a sign of health. I don’t know that Gonzalez will ever be used for a full brew, but he’s still going strong in the jar. 

After a few days, I noticed that Santos was getting a small film on his upper surface. Initially, I was keeping him near my indoor lettuce crop, but read that they should be kept nowhere near plants for fear of infecting them with any types of pollens/molds. Since I only keep them covered with paper towels, I don’t expect that they’re protected from everything airborn. I do double and sometimes triple the towels for extra protection, but I haven’t quite stepped up to getting any sort of micron filters for them just yet. Perhaps that will be a future precaution. In any case, I moved Santos to a new spot near the heater in my front room and left him on the shelf. I noticed something odd growing in there after the first day but wasn’t sure what it was. It wasn’t quite green and it didn’t look like mold but it really looked strange. My research told me that it might be excess yeast. I was afraid I was going to have to scrap the whole thing. I went back to Madison and for a few days and when I returned home, Santos had a fully formed SCOBY on the top. It had expanded to the sides of the jar and was quite large and perfectly white and smooth, with no holes. (Ramirez had developed a few holes where the carbon dioxide needed to escape.) I had shown the photo to another brewer in Madison who said that it was likely yeast and I could ignore it. For a second opinion, I showed it to the brewer that I know who is insistent upon cleanliness and he also declared that “kombucha ocassionally does strange things and that it’s likely yeast.” He said that next time, I can scoop it out of there. I wish I had, because now it’s still visible on the underside of my perfectly white Santos Scoby and it bugs me a little. Since Santos has no holes in him, I occasionally have to move him around to release the bubbles that are forming on his underside and pushing him up to the top, floating him off of the tea brew. I’m not sure yet if this is good or bad, but I’ll assume bad if he’s up in the air and out of his brew. He’s bubbling away, though, which is a good sign of fermentation success. Congratulations, Santos, on your growth thus far!

Two Newborns

I attended a Christmas party and found out that my friend C. was a long-time kombucha brewer. I had no idea! And yet I should have suspected... She introduced me to another friend of hers who is an experienced kombucha brewer, as well. We discussed at length brewing procedures, sanitation, and ideas for flavors. I questioned him about how to kee p the ‘bucha clean and he suggested putting a paper towel over the top with a rubber band, versus leaving the metal lid of the jar slightly askew, as I had been doing. Kombucha needs air in order to flourish so capping the jar completely would be a bad idea and would suffocate it. The paper towel allows you to keep unwanted intruders, such as fruit flies and larger contaminants, at bay. He also told me to handle my SCOBY with gloves and sanitize all instruments. It seemed as though I was going to have to take my brewing to a whole new level. 

I invited C. to come see Ramirez a few days later and she commented that he was quite large. Too large, in fact. Apparently, if you let the mother reproduce too many times, the SCOBY will become too thick and the center of it will begin to die off, which isn’t optimal. She asked if she could “poke” him to see what he felt like to see if he felt health. Admittedly, I hadn’t yet touched Ramirez. She proceeded to wash her hands in the sink and then stuck her hand into the jar and pulled Ramirez into several pieces. I felt like my little friend had just exposed his inner soft parts to someone he didn’t know. Was he ashamed? Probably not. Was I once again paranoid about mold? You betcha! C. pronounced Ramirez healthy and withdrew her hand from his home. He now looked like he was floating in 2 separate pieces. C. said that he was going to need to be separated.  So I put him back on his shelf and after pronouncing him mold-free after a few more days, I acquired an old one-gallon pickle jar and cleaned it out with boiling water. That morning, I had gone to the store and chosen a box of organic green tea and another box of blueberry tea bags. I’ve heard some bad things about adding tea leaves with fruit oils making kombucha grow mold, so I made sure these were oil free. They were made with just the leaves and stems, plus some flavors from other berries.  I thoroughly washed my hands and pulled out a plate. Everything else was rinsed clean and I boiled up a pot of water. I used 8 cups of water and added 4 green tea bags and 2 blueberry plus 1 cup of sugar. I let is cool and poured it in the jar. I then added a cup of Ramirez’s brew and then carefully pulled Ramirez out of his jar with two spoons. He was quite a bit thicker than I’d expected, and rather heavy. I tugged a bit with the spoons and found that Ramirez was a bit harder to separate from his/her daughter than I’d expected. It was a bit like tearing skin from raw chicken (although I haven’t handled raw chicken in 10 years). I pulled off the first layer and placed it into the jar with my blueberry green mixture and named him Santos.

I was also surprised to find that Ramirez had a second daughter. This one, however, was a bit brown and not the nice white colors of the outer layers. I could see what C. meant about not allowing it to get too thick. I wasn’t sure what to do with this one, so I got out a glass spaghetti jar and made that his home. Unfortunately, the jar was smaller than the half-gallon jar Ramirez had been living in, so this new Scoby wasn’t going to fit. Therefore, I got out a steak knife and began sawing away. I cut up a few chunks and fit him to the spaghetti jar. I tossed him in and named him Gonzalez. Welcome to the world, Gonzalez and Santos. Your sagas are yet to unfold!

Benefits and Scary Stuff

If nothing else, Ramirez certainly turned out to be quite the conversation piece. No fewer than 3 people have walked into my kitchen and, in mid-sentence, stopped and said “what’s that?” to the floating goop-like colony I was so lovingly feeding. I also had someone come in and tell me that he was going to let himself in while I was away and throw Ramirez down the toilet. That lead to a mild argument that ended in me being pronounced a hippie and him being labeled “closed-minded.” In any case, Ramirez has been a source of great amusement for me thus far. 

And so, to show my appreciation, I decided to be brave and take a small sip. He seemed alright. It was a little sweeter than my first kombucha taste, but I did recall that G. told me that she’d brewed hers longer than normal, which resulted in a stronger, more acidic flavor. I decided to follow what my research suggested was best: drink a small amount at first and work up to drinking more. I drank about 4 ounces and noticed in a few hours that it had a considerable cleansing effect on the body. I shall expound no more on that topic. But consider that much of the bacteria in the drink is the same or similar to the bacteria found in yogurt, which promotes healthy digestion. I’ve also read that kombucha can aid in weight loss (noted with mice), promote a healthy immune system (rather than actually curing cancer, it supposedly helps the body fight off any invaders), and even changes grey hair to black (I’m afraid that I’m unable to test this theory on myself as, at the ripe old age of 30, my hair is still quite dark.) The scarier side of kombucha includes claims that it has increased the size of the livers and kidneys of mice, although it also increased the expected life spans of those very same mice by 5% each. Since we can’t really ask the mice how the swollen livers made them feel, I can’t say for sure if that extra 5% was spent happily or instead, sadly suffering through lower back pain. I discussed this with another friend of mine who, although he hasn’t actively been drinking kombucha, suggested that none of these tests or reports of illness mentioned how much was administered to the mice or people, how strong it was, how long it was brewed, or with what kind of tea. We also don’t know if it was brewed in sanitary conditions or haphazardly with people’s hands in the jar. It seems like the same several cases are being mentioned over and over and, with the hundreds of years of history kombucha has behind it, there are surprisingly few failures that MIGHT be linked to the drink, especially when compared to the thousands of people that have drunk over that time period. 

Ramirez Eats

A few days went by and Ramirez continued to thicken. He was, in fact, growing quite a bit faster than I’d expected. My house is generally cold and Chicago in winter is even colder. The temperature in my apartment is roughly 60 to 65 degrees and my researched suggests that they brew fastest in the warmer months, with a preferred temperature of about 80 degrees. This didn’t seem to stop Ramirez from going to town, however, because he was building up a few layers. Since I’d been eyeing him each day, I didn’t notice his increasing size. I also will admit at this point that I was not drinking him. I mentioned mold in a previous post and I was fearful that somehow, Ramirez was going to grow mold. So I just kept staring at him. I thought if I put him under the UV lights of my aerogarden, anything in him would be killed. (Silly thinking, I realize now.) I only left him up there for one day before tucking him back into his dark spot. After the first 7 days, I figured it was time to feed him again. I didn’t see any signs of mold but I was still too nervous and so, I shamefully admit, I poured his hard-worked brew down the drain. I made up a new batch of Scoby food and left it on the stove to cool. Pouring in hot tea can, in fact, kill your Scoby. Unfortunately, I left it on the stove too long and when I returned, some dog hair had floated into my brew. So I poured it out and began anew. Eventually, Ramirez got his food and again, I set him in his corner to brew. 

So is it safe? I don’t know. I’m assuming that thus far, since I haven’t gotten ill from Ramirez, or the other I sampled, that I’m ok. But will it manifest later? Will my liver swell? I’m going to hope not. I do want to point out that if you drink excessive amounts of beer, your liver will likely malfunction at some point. But, I still think that each person should weigh the facts and then decide if they’re going to partake or not. 

My New Friend

After two and a half hours of being sloshed around in the car, Scoby made it home. His unoriginal name comes from SCOBY, or Symbiotic Colony of Yeast and Bacteria. My research suggests to me that normally, the yeasts and bacteria that are present in a SCOBY don’t live together. However, they do in this case for reasons that haven’t been entirely identified. Unfortunately, my research also tells me that other things can inhabit a SCOBY that you don’t want. Molds are one of them (we’ll get to that a bit later). Since G. reached into the jar and pulled Scoby from his mother with bare hands, I was a little paranoid about sanitation. Did she wash her hands? Yes, of course. But I figured that somehow, I had screwed something up in the process that would permit something malicious to infect my brew and, consequently, me. So I set Scoby up in a dark spot next to my microwave and let him sit. I mixed up a batch of Scoby food (on a side note, if a Scoby eats the food, is all that stuff on the bottom of the bowl called “Scoby doo?” Booo, I know.) and poured it into the jar. What’s in Scoby food, you ask? Well, I shall tell you. 

First, I boiled 4 cups of water. I then added 1.5 teaspoons of loose black tea (I used Irish Breakfast for this. It was the only plain black tea I had on hand since I generally buy all sorts of mixed flavors.) and I let it brew quite strongly. It sat in the water for about 15 minutes. I then added 1/2 cup of white sugar, which I had to take from my grandmother upstairs since I never buy the stuff. If, like me, you’re concerned that the white sugar you put into it will all be eventually ingested by you, the drinker, you can rest somewhat easy. My research tells me that the sugar is actually eaten by the yeasts in the SCOBY and converted into alcohol. It’s true that kombucha does have some alcohol in it, around .5 to 1.5 %, which is really quite low since beer has on average between 4 and 6% with a few that are out of that range. In any case, I added the sugar, stirred till it was dissolved, and let it sit until it cooled to room temperature. I then added it to Scoby’s jar and watched him grow.  I decided that if I was going to have a pet, he was going to need a name. It was at this point that I named him Ramirez. I was now officially stuck with, in addition to my multiple cats, dog, and fish, an entirely new pet that I was semi-afraid of. Welcome, Ramirez, to my household. 

My Kombucha Beginnings

I was invited up to Madison, my old college town, for Thanksgiving. I decided to go. Besides being one of the best Thanksgivings I've ever experienced, complete with multi-cultural festivities and African drumming, it was also my first introduction to Kombucha. My friend G. wasn't feeling terribly well and said she as going to get herself some kombucha to ward off any impending viral doom. "What's kombucha?" I innocently queried. "It's a fermented tea that I make in my pantry," she told me. She went into the cupboard and pulled from its dark depths a half-gallon mason jar, and as she did so she said to me "I'll warn you now, it looks pretty gross." I was expecting a sort of powdered additive, something like Ovaltine, that she was stirring into her tea. I certainly never expected to see the gelatinous goober that was floating at the top of a jar of tea. Rather than running from it I was fascinated immediately. I asked a lot of questions and stared into the jar, noting the jellyfish-like strings that were dangling from the top of the slimy mass. G. poured herself a glass and offered me some. Trusting in my friend of several years, I decided to give it a go. She wouldn't give me something that would kill me, would she? Certainly not. So I accepted a glass of about 5 ounces of the liquid formerly known as tea. I took an exploratory sip and was surprised by the flavor. "This is a bit stronger than I normally brew it," G. told me. I took that into consideration as I pondered the tart, beer-like flavor. Let me say upfront that I don't drink beer. I've never liked it and I don't like it now. And although this reminded me of the flavor of beer, it wasn't quite the same.

It took me a good hour to finish the glass, as I scanned my body for any signs of malfunction after each sip. I also sat down and, at G.'s urging, looked it up on the Internet. "May cause liver failure." "Woman dies in 1995 of acidosis possibly related to kombucha." Needless to say, my preliminary searches did not corroborate the amazing wonder drink claims that G. said were part of the drink's history. As I later discovered, much of kombucha's goodness is anecdotal. G.'s friend has been drinking it for 7 years and hasn't gotten sick in that period. GT, the found of the commercial GT Kombucha drink, claims that his mother was cured of breast cancer due to the drink. Kombucha is often attributed to hippies and naturalists who rely on the anecdotal evidence and all-natural properties of the drink (I can say this without rancor since I'm a hippie at heart) but if you look at their pictures on the website, GT and his mother certainly look quite the opposite. So does this mean that kombucha's wonder properties are actually really amazing to the point where they transcend class and culture? Or are the commercial 'bucha brewers doing it for the money?

It's hard to say, but I was fascinated to the point where I accepted G.'s gift of a kombucha mother of my own. I called him Scoby (not terribly original since that's generally what they're called), and I carried him all the way from Madison to Chicago in his new half-gallon jar home. Scoby had found a new home and I a new friend.