Kombucha

[iamfaithful]

OK ~ IBKKF-898, lets see if anyone can help me find something about JUN!

I actually have a culture & starter coming but literally nothing is known about this "magical elixir" except:

Is posed to be only 1000 yrs old
Posed to come from the area around Tibet
Made similar to KT
Made with Hunny (Pooh style)
Made with green tea
Ferments @ cooler temps like kefir
Believed to be bacterial because of colder ferment temp
Is sold mainly on the West Coast
Will produce a SCOBY-like shrom
No one really has a recipe
It is not widly fermented in homes
Does NOT make people sick but has claims greater than KT
Will lend itself to being brewed with herbal teas.

If any of you internet wizzards can find any real information on this- please start a thread. If you are interested (& I know a few of you that will) if I can produce a safe ferment with baby shrooms I will be happy to "gift".

BTW- my stair case is finally finished & the sauna moved into place. Part 1 complete! Yeah!!!

[Pata5359]

Thanks for posting the question, I would like to make my own as well. I have a recipe in the book Nourishing Traditions that I recently purchased. It does have black tea as well as sugar in it and you need to get the mushroom to put in it to do its thing. Perhaps someone can help us with sources for that too. Look forward to hearing some of the other posters comments.

[pepperette]

[QUOTE=iamfaithful;15157920]OK ~ IBKKF-898, lets see if anyone can help me find something about JUN!

What the heck is it? Tried looking it up a couple ways and I got "JUN AUTO" in Japan!

[iamfaithful]

[quote=pepperette;15162965]

Originally Posted by iamfaithful

OK ~ IBKKF-898, lets see if anyone can help me find something about JUN!

What the heck is it? Tried looking it up a couple ways and I got "JUN AUTO" in Japan!

Hi, Pepperette! Haven't seen you here since the old part of the thread! Way happy you jumped in! Are you still brewing!

I have a Jun culture coming. It is made similar to KT but brews with honey & green tea. It is supposed to be "only" 1000 (rs old and give increased benefits - taste different from KT- I donno Chris, the guy sending it to me said it is as easy as KT, tastes completely different, maybe has a higher alcohol possibility & has helped his health tremendously as does the kombucha he brews as well.

Lots of "mystery" around it mainly from the guy in OR that cultures it for sale on the west coast. I think he is trying to "protect" his investment because I have found someone who successfully grew a culture from a bottle of Jun (some time back before it quit being sold online) much the way one could with the OLD GT- his has been reproducing for a long time & he has been throwing the extras away!

After I get it going I will start a Jun thread & post the tilte of it here so please stay with us! I am sure Metqa will be glad to see you here as well!

[iamfaithful]

Originally Posted by Pata5359

Thanks for posting the question, I would like to make my own as well. I have a recipe in the book Nourishing Traditions that I recently purchased. It does have black tea as well as sugar in it and you need to get the mushroom to put in it to do its thing. Perhaps someone can help us with sources for that too. Look forward to hearing some of the other posters comments.

Some of us are happy to gift cultures in exchange for postage. We are always willing to hekp someone get started. I see you recently joined us & may not have access to private messaging yet to be able to send mailing info. If you will find me on FB maybe I can help you with a culture. faithful to Jesus message me to let me know you are from LCF & I will send you my address.

Happy Brewing!

[porcupine73]

The JUN sounds very interesting! How did the WKG and MKG in KT experiment turn out?

My last experiment was cloning some SCOBY's. I believe I used sucanat in that (before I knew how bitter it made it taste). The scoby's were paper thin even after a week or so. So I added some green tea with regular sugar and they got nice and thick like expected.

[iamfaithful]

I put WKG & MKG respectively in separate jars 10oz each of sweet tea- the same ratio as for KT. I let the jars set undisturbed.

In just a few days white speckles formed on top of the MKG (they had ben rinsed in distilled water) & a SCOBY-like film formed. The WKG DID NOTHING and as of today I dumped that experiment.

However the MKG continue to form a SCOBY -like culture on the top. I have not disturbed it as it is thin & appears to be thickening. Fruit flies have found the jar so something positive is happening.

If I get a thick SCOBY-like culture I will put it in a quart of sweet tea with the starter in the jar & see what happens!

Just an update! Will let you know next month if I could try to make kombucha.

BTW- Hannah baby is taking it's time developing but getting there. My room is now around 70° & this is why it is so slow. Even my batch brews finally went to Ph 3.0 so I flavored today but the SCOBY was very thin-good KT was produced.

I did 4 batches
#1 cranberry, spple, orange, cinnamon & clove
#2 puree pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, brown sugar
#3 raspberry/pineapple = quantities of each
#4 blueberry cinnamon/cloves
Batch brew will wait to be bottles next weekend.

[pepperette]

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[metqa]

I've always LOVED that gif!!!

[iamfaithful]

Terrific to have Pepperette back with us... Isn't it, Metqa?
I am so happy!!!!

[metqa]

It might keep me on track, seeing that think bouncing around. Makes me less likely to ignore my own. it might just crawl out of the brewer and smother me for not feeding it enough lately......

[pepperette]

You two are FUNNY!!

[metqa]

Y'know how when you get something on your hand and you can't stop yourself from sniffing your hand, even subconciously. whenever I get into the kombucha,the odor soaks into my skin and lingers and makes me wanna smell my hand. People look at me like I'm nuts, sniffing my hand and smiling ... and sometimes drooling....

[pepperette]

Oh, Yeah-- like when you rub behind your ear, or between your toes, even in your belly button??

BT-DT

[iamfaithful]

Pepperette I have missed you!
BACK!
Now it feels more like the old thread!


To your sense of humor.

SCOBY going out in mail tomorrow. Should arrive Saturday!

Get your brewer ready, have you still got your bottles?

[metqa]

Originally Posted by pepperette

Oh, Yeah-- like when you rub behind your ear, or between your toes, even in your belly button??

BT-DT

Okay, TMI, but if I accidentally touch my earlobe without thinking, then I find myself sniffing my finger and wondering why...

[pepperette]

Bottles were the one thing I knew I had-- they've been packed in a box, and, well-- all boxes move, so they came along! LOL! Will clean out the brewer (dusty, etc.), and have some material scraps never used- all I need to do is go over with a hot iron, and we are set. Thank you so much!

I'm not so funny- I just have a warped sense of the ridiculous, and looks like so do others ( metqa). 'swat happens when you get old.

[metqa]

Bwahahahaha!! I need to reset my brewer. It's getting more cracks but I don't wanna retire it, it's so good. But I found another brewer for only $20, Ouch, it's a lot but not as much as the online ones. I got it at TJMaxx when the summer season was ending, and they had this huge columnar glass jar with a pitiful spigot. But it is thick glass with bubbles so it's kinda pretty, but straight edges so it's normal. Much smaller than 2 Gallons but I don't go through that much anymore anyway.

Need to clean up and reorganize for the winter and set up my new brewer and get rid of my old one before it splits in half!

Oh, but I have a Half Gallon of Kefir in my fridge. I just put the grains directly into the plastic jug, shook it up and let it go. Incredible and So easy I could kick myself. I just strain it out of the jug to collect the grains then pour the milk kefir back in. But the plastic is too thin to do second ferments....I should saying this in the Kefir thread!

[iamfaithful]

I did that with chocolate milk! Doesn't matter where we post- I think out of the box-
Haven't seen Porcupine in a while. He must be busy @work & winterizing his home.
Pepperette let us know when your package arrives! Sent you a big SCOBY off the top of CB & some Metqa strips I cut off the one she sent me & a few extra pieces. So brew some extra tea & get a hotel ready cause you will have enoug to start one!

[pepperette]

I used to have a hotel the first time I was brewing. I was doing batch brewing and things really grew! Do you know how many pickles you have to eat to get 2 jars?! JK. Gonna distill some water Friday so I'll have it ready for the tea. DS has even asked if I thought I could make one flavored similar to his Mtn. Dew! I'm thinking orange and lime-- maybe with a smidgen of ginger for kick?

My old hotel~

[porcupine73]

That sounds great!

My CB's are doing OK now that I got them back to just 'evaporated cane juice' rather than the sucanat. I get four 20oz bottles per day from each brewer and even then it is not sweet, so I am reducing the amount in the brewers from 2.5 gal to maybe just under 2 gal.

The milk kefir is going very well. It seems to hit its best at around 4-5 days of second ferment at room temp. On day 5 it gets very sour, almost like lemonade, but also very delicious.

I did have a number of repairs and maintenance to do to my 15 year old cars but that is just about finished up and ready for winter.

[iamfaithful]

On Oct 30th I put about 1 tsp MKG into sweet tea to see if it would form a SCOBY.

Today I looked at the jar & there is a 1/4" SCOBY-like disk on top of the tea.

I am not going to bother it for another month (Mod December at that time I will taste the liquid. If it resembles KT I will then take the SCOBY-like disk & place it in sweet tea with the liquid it currently is in.

I will report back.

Reason for experiment....Porcupine said he thought he read where Kombucha originally came from kefir, if my memory serves right. The WKG did NOT produce anything at all. MKG & WKG must contain different properties but what I don't hhave a clue.

[pepperette]

I'm brewin', I'm brewin' Gotta wait till next Sat. for 1st taste test. I can't wait!

[metqa]

Hooray!!!!

I need to reboot my brewer too!

[iamfaithful]

Pepperette you made my day!

[pepperette]

I caved and tasted the kt today. Verdict? Nice... for apple juice! Gonna have to let it brew a few more days. DS tasted it and didn't even make a .

[metqa]

must be pretty cool at your place, temperature wise?

[iamfaithful]

I just opened a bottle of 90+ day 2F of PLAIN KT! WOW! This is awesome!

why I keep flavoring it!

Just swallowed a little fella! No it doesn't Just a little more goodies for the tunny!

DS is drinking my brew in his fresh juice every day so I will quickly run out if I don't get more brewers going tonight & turn up the heat in my bedroom where I brew!

He is not getting this case!
I like my long 2F!

Will get him some batch brews going of his fav flavor so he can have all he wants & I can drink my Plain KT.

I got so wrapped up in flavors I FORGOT how great PLAIN is especially on a 90+ day ferment!

Kombucha Rules!

[metqa]

haha, Did I mention I found a bottle of Kombucha I put in the back of the fridge maybe a year ago... Just drank it last week and it was awesome!

Those longer ferments are the best. My addiction started from getting an old case of GT's that sat around all summer in a broken cooler. they were so different from the fresh ones, more potent, great flavor, tonic like, I could feel the difference, made digestion easier, Wonderful.

I just put some tea and 2 cups of starter in my new glass container and I'm gonna add some tea to my old container with the scobys in it to have two containers going at once. I'll keep using the old one till the crack gets below the water line and makes it no longer tight. Since the bottom crack is still holding I'm guessing it is not all the way through the glass, so I'm keeping it going!

What a way to end the year, starting up the Kombucha brews again! Gotta go find my swing top bottles.

[porcupine73]

That sounds great!

I restarted two brewers. For some reason after a couple weeks of brewing, my KT starts turning very acrid and almost undrinkable. I think it might be overactive yeast from a combination of it being too warm (around 80F) and using too strong of a brew of tea. So I'm moving the brewers to where I hope it will be more around mid 70's, and using a bit less tea.