Kombucha

[Darkfire]

Hey Metqa get outta mah kitchen hehe. My Dh drank a case of Grolsch for me to have those green bottles, poooooooor baby yah right. I make gingerale and the idea was to made mead eventually but we aren't there yet. Next year. Well starting this December after the summer harvest of honey. The blue ones came from mead, yum yum. They last forever the trick to these babies is a GOOD bottle brush. We paid $20 bucks for ours. Also rinsing as SOON as you are finished with it AND never closing the lid once it's empty. One more tip, tilt them to dry. I'll post a pic of my realllly messy canning, herbalist, mad chemist, (as my BIL dubbed me last night when we came over and I was making soap...he also called me Tyler all night from Fight Club haha) shelf too, not sure if you can see how the bottles are tilted. Easy to roll em to the sediment moves and such....AND they dry better.

My over priced Shelf.....hehe cost us about $60 but it's custom fit to my specs and space and stained my color etc. He is awesome with the building.


My Bottles

[JoSkids]

Originally Posted by BikerAng

it's pretty hard to mess it up I've found.

So true!

[metqa]

Originally Posted by JoSkids

Those are some beautiful bottles! Why do ez cap bottles make you less afraid of explosion than a regular screw cap? They are both pretty air tight, right? Does the ez cap pop before the bottle explodes?

I had heard that the gasket, while it seals tightly can allow the bottle to burp if the pressure builds too high. That might just be hype and sales man talk, but I heard it somewhere before.

Originally Posted by Darkfire

Hey Metqa get outta mah kitchen hehe. My Dh drank a case of Grolsch for me to have those green bottles, poooooooor baby yah right. I make gingerale and the idea was to made mead eventually but we aren't there yet. Next year. Well starting this December after the summer harvest of honey. The blue ones came from mead, yum yum. They last forever the trick to these babies is a GOOD bottle brush. We paid $20 bucks for ours. Also rinsing as SOON as you are finished with it AND never closing the lid once it's empty. One more tip, tilt them to dry. I'll post a pic of my realllly messy canning, herbalist, mad chemist, (as my BIL dubbed me last night when we came over and I was making soap...he also called me Tyler all night from Fight Club haha) shelf too, not sure if you can see how the bottles are tilted. Easy to roll em to the sediment moves and such....AND they dry better.

My over priced Shelf.....hehe cost us about $60 but it's custom fit to my specs and space and stained my color etc. He is awesome with the building.


My Bottles

Ha! Tyler's NOT here! Tyler went AWAY! Tyler GONE!

Wow!!! Thanks for all the wonderful tips. Poor Hubby, having to drink all that Grosch! I love your shelf that is awesome. I need to get that awesome bottle brush but didn't want to spend for it till I was sure it was good. Plus the one I've got doesn't even fit in the bottle. I'll have to take my bottles with me for a test fit! I didn't know about not capping them once they were clean and dry. I do cause something crawled into one of my empty bottles once and died. It took a week to soak the bugger out the bottom cause I didn't have that awesome bottle brush!

I love your work stash bench and storage. so totally awesome!!!

[Kamalam]

When we went to buy our new, shiny bottles, we also got a brush and a sanitzer (it's a no rinse kind, but I rinse anyway). Our brush is made to fit and scrub the bottles in my picture perfectly... and only cost $2.95!

As far as I can tell, it does a bang up job - it's not skimpy on bristles, pliable, and scrubs well. Maybe you can post a picture of that $20 brush just for comparison? I'd like to know the difference!

[Darkfire]

Originally Posted by Kamalam

When we went to buy our new, shiny bottles, we also got a brush and a sanitzer (it's a no rinse kind, but I rinse anyway). Our brush is made to fit and scrub the bottles in my picture perfectly... and only cost $2.95!

As far as I can tell, it does a bang up job - it's not skimpy on bristles, pliable, and scrubs well. Maybe you can post a picture of that $20 brush just for comparison? I'd like to know the difference!

Later, I am at work right now hehe.

[JoSkids]

Originally Posted by Darkfire

Later, I am at work right now hehe.

Work?! By the looks of this thread, it looks like our work IS Kombucha. Wouldn't that be nice, but yeah, here I sit at work . But then I guess if we were home with our KT, it would be like that watched pot deal and it would never "boil"/brew... Fortunately, scobys are very self sufficient from a very young age

[Darkfire]

Originally Posted by JoSkids

Work?! By the looks of this thread, it looks like our work IS Kombucha. Wouldn't that be nice, but yeah, here I sit at work . But then I guess if we were home with our KT, it would be like that watched pot deal and it would never "boil"/brew... Fortunately, scobys are very self sufficient from a very young age

haha methinks the fizzy bubbles have gotten to your brain hahah.

[JoSkids]

Originally Posted by Darkfire

haha methinks the fizzy bubbles have gotten to your brain hahah.

or lack of bubbles, for me these days... that's why I'm starting over from scratch...

[Kamalam]

Originally Posted by JoSkids

or lack of bubbles, for me these days... that's why I'm starting over from scratch...

Jo, I noticed you said you were going to add some strawberry preserve to your KT... my question was: is this to the primary batch or did you mean your 2nd ferment bottles?

[sbarr]

Sigh - I feel like such an incompetent parent, "baby scobito" still looks like a cross between phlegm and a paper clip. Three weeks to go, hopefully. Smell is getting there, when do you all think I can start tasting to gauge progress?

[JoSkids]

Originally Posted by Kamalam

Jo, I noticed you said you were going to add some strawberry preserve to your KT... my question was: is this to the primary batch or did you mean your 2nd ferment bottles?

2nd ferment - nothing goes in my primary brew. I just happen to be moving my brew to a sun tea jar for the 2nd ferment cause I don't have enough bottles to bottle up 3 gallons of KT. That's probably where the confusion lies.

[JoSkids]

Originally Posted by sbarr

Sigh - I feel like such an incompetent parent, "baby scobito" still looks like a cross between phlegm and a paper clip. Three weeks to go, hopefully. Smell is getting there, when do you all think I can start tasting to gauge progress?

You can taste any time you want. Poke a straw down in there and put your finger over the top of the straw and then drop the liquid into a little dish to slurp from. I can get a pretty good taste when I have drawn 2 "straw-fuls"

When I started mine, it seemed like forever before my scobys developed into anything of substance, but I was still bottling - they were working hard! And now that my scobys look like pictures I have been seeing of "real" scoby, they are way to powerful and I have had to start from scratch with some smaller scobys that are showing up in my bottles.

[sbarr]

Thanks, Jo - you've given me hope.

[MissBeth]

So excited - a new scoby formed unexpectedly in a 2nd-ferment jar!
The other day I'd put 2 cubes of pineapple puree (pureed pineapple I'd frozen in ice cube trays) into a quart jar then filled it with KT and let it set out on the counter. As I poured it into separate bottles last night - surprise...a pretty little scoby had formed on top. I cleaned it up with white vinegar to remove most of the pineapple remnants and started my first little scoby hotel with plans of saving a few and hopefully making scoby cream soon.

[Zenngrl]

I have sort of an urgent question..

I have a bottle of KT that I put lemon juice in, made great fizz, but it sort of smells like a faint odor of sulfur, but it tastes good?

is it safe?

[Darkfire]

Originally Posted by Zenngrl

I have sort of an urgent question..

I have a bottle of KT that I put lemon juice in, made great fizz, but it sort of smells like a faint odor of sulfur, but it tastes good?

is it safe?

I have no idea, I wish I could help. Hopefully someone else will know. I asusme if it tastes good it's ok.

[Kamalam]

That has happened to us as well... from what I was able to research (as well as ask on this thread) it's fine. I forget the reason for it now (if you go back several pages you might be able to find the discussion we had) but we drank our bottle and nothing bad happened.

[Zenngrl]

Originally Posted by Kamalam

That has happened to us as well... from what I was able to research (as well as ask on this thread) it's fine. I forget the reason for it now (if you go back several pages you might be able to find the discussion we had) but we drank our bottle and nothing bad happened.

good cause it's tasty! I think it might be a reaction with the acids? The bottle has baby floaties, so i know its active and healthy. I will drink it with lunch!

[Kamalam]

Originally Posted by Zenngrl

good cause it's tasty! I think it might be a reaction with the acids? The bottle has baby floaties, so i know its active and healthy. I will drink it with lunch!

Ours was tasty too - I remember Googling the sulphur/ rotten egg issue and the info seemed to suggest it was caused by an overgrowth of ??? Argh, can't remember. Just to be on the safe side, as you drink it, lightly note if you feel anything weird (LOL). If so - stop! But seriously, I think you'll be fine (disclaimer: I am not a kombucha medical expert and am not offering medical advice... )

[Zenngrl]

Originally Posted by Kamalam

Ours was tasty too - I remember Googling the sulphur/ rotten egg issue and the info seemed to suggest it was caused by an overgrowth of ??? Argh, can't remember. Just to be on the safe side, as you drink it, lightly note if you feel anything weird (LOL). If so - stop! But seriously, I think you'll be fine (disclaimer: I am not a kombucha medical expert and am not offering medical advice... )

I ended up tossing it after a few sips, the smell was overwhelming my senses and all i could think of was rotten eggs...lol

[Kamalam]

Originally Posted by Zenngrl

I ended up tossing it after a few sips, the smell was overwhelming my senses and all i could think of was rotten eggs...lol

I don't blame you. I powered through our bottle - either I got used to it or blocked it out, lol. Aside from the smell, the kombucha itself was really good. It seems every bottle is different - even when I use the same brew for each bottle.

For instance - we opened one bottle (of secondary ferment) in which we put a little sugar (1 tsp) and lemon. After waiting a week, we opened it and tons of fizz poured out - that's never happened to us before, so it told us that waiting is a real key.

On the other hand, another bottle that had the same kt and a little grape concentrate (say, 1 tbl spoon) produced NO fizz at all. Ok, so the obvious factor is the sugar. But still - that grape did have some sugar and I would have thought a whole tablespoon would have equaled the sugar in the lemon bottle? Obviously something happened there, but what I don't know!

I'm really looking forward to opening up our new airtight, ez cap bottles. I would love more consistency with our kombucha!!

[pepperette]

Originally Posted by Kamalam

I'm really looking forward to opening up our new airtight, ez cap bottles. I would love more consistency with our kombucha!!

But the inconsistency of the whole brewing experience is what's fun!

[JoSkids]

Originally Posted by pepperette

But the inconsistency of the whole brewing experience is what's fun!

Totally agreed!

[Kamalam]

Inconsistency? Argh!!! That doesn't quite jive with the Virgo mindset, but I'll try and work it into my schedule. LOL.

[pepperette]

Hey- I'm OCD-- think what this does to ME!

[Kamalam]

Originally Posted by pepperette

Hey- I'm OCD-- think what this does to ME!

Yipes! You must LOVE this stuff, lol. Maybe it's a form of therapy??

I've wondered if I have a touch of that myself... ocd-light?

[JoSkids]

And I'm Gemini so whatever...

[Darkfire]

Note to self: PUT The bottles in the FRIDGE after 2nd ferment less you spray your hubby with bubbly KT goodness....HAHAHHA....I cracked one to taste it....OMG Showered the whole kitchen. It's good.....

[cindy_cfids]

Originally Posted by Zenngrl

I have sort of an urgent question..

I have a bottle of KT that I put lemon juice in, made great fizz, but it sort of smells like a faint odor of sulfur, but it tastes good?

is it safe?

From page 25 -
I had heard that a slight "rotten egg" smell wasn't necessarily "bad," but now I can't remember what causes it... or if that advice was in regards to the primary brew, not the bottled brew.

I'm betting it's the yeasts though. I had to drain off mine, it didn't really have ANY taste and was getting choked by brown yeasties, but my search says yeast = "rotten egg smell" (yuckers) I'm betting if I hadn't drained mine off before this last batch, I'd have same complaint, hoping what i did was enough to fix it.

You did say you were working with a piece of scoby this may be the problem - still wild yeasties lol -

From Len's site "Sometimes you may encounter a skunky smell a bit like rotten orange. This often coincides with brewing at higher temperatures. Besides temperature, you might notice this effect is greater the longer it takes for the vessel to seal itself. Until the surface seals off completely (with a new SCOBY) the door is left open for a greater degree of respiration.

During a brew cycle there are two types of activities going on; one is fermentation (anaerobic) and the other respiration (aerobic). When the yeast are very active there is a higher level of respiration going on. Respiration is a complex process that produces a lot of intermediate compounds, one of these being citric acid.

Though not desirable tasting this is nothing to be alarmed about. Once the respiration abates, these compounds tend to reconfigure and dissipate. Storing without air, where respiration is impossible, often eliminates this taste after a few weeks. "

[Zenngrl]

Originally Posted by cindy_cfids

From page 25 -
I had heard that a slight "rotten egg" smell wasn't necessarily "bad," but now I can't remember what causes it... or if that advice was in regards to the primary brew, not the bottled brew.

I'm betting it's the yeasts though. I had to drain off mine, it didn't really have ANY taste and was getting choked by brown yeasties, but my search says yeast = "rotten egg smell" (yuckers) I'm betting if I hadn't drained mine off before this last batch, I'd have same complaint, hoping what i did was enough to fix it.

You did say you were working with a piece of scoby this may be the problem - still wild yeasties lol -

From Len's site "Sometimes you may encounter a skunky smell a bit like rotten orange. This often coincides with brewing at higher temperatures. Besides temperature, you might notice this effect is greater the longer it takes for the vessel to seal itself. Until the surface seals off completely (with a new SCOBY) the door is left open for a greater degree of respiration.

During a brew cycle there are two types of activities going on; one is fermentation (anaerobic) and the other respiration (aerobic). When the yeast are very active there is a higher level of respiration going on. Respiration is a complex process that produces a lot of intermediate compounds, one of these being citric acid.

Though not desirable tasting this is nothing to be alarmed about. Once the respiration abates, these compounds tend to reconfigure and dissipate. Storing without air, where respiration is impossible, often eliminates this taste after a few weeks. "

Nope, it was just one bottle from the batch that i threw some lemon juice in. The rest are tasty as always.

I'm working with a full size scoby, now two and I'm doing two brews so I can slowly work my way into continuous.