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.