Kombucha people?

[samanthaoverton]

So is there anyone here that makes kombucha? I do. I'd love to see pics and recipes! What do you put in your booch. Let's talk booch

 

[Sally PB]

Kombucha!!! I love it! Gonna brew a new batch of booch on Friday.

I use black tea, green tea, lemon-ginger tea, and ginger root tea. When I bottle, I add about 1/4 cup sour cherry juice, and let it sit for 4-5 days for a secondary ferment before it goes into the fridge. I drink a bottle a day; that's why I had to start making my own. It's about $3.50 a bottle to buy it.

My scobies don't look nice and neat like yours, but they get the job done!

 

[samanthaoverton]

Sour cherry sounds yummy. I dont think I've had that juice before. Mine were actually on a break..they've been sitting two months.lol. I made tea today. Those will be going in my compost. I periodically reset and start over with just starter and no scoby. Those are the size of a dinner plate and 3 or 4 inches thick. And scobies are like people..they're all different looking

 

[samanthaoverton]

Ever had a bottle go off? I had two go off at once in the middle of the night..I almost had a heart attack.

 

[Sally PB]

I periodically reset and start over with just starter and no scoby

Oh! Never heard of doing that. If I get more scoby than I need, I shred it up and feed it to the chickens.

I've never had a bottle explode. Knock on wood! I sold some to a coworker and she forgot to take it home for about a week. I looked on her shelf, and the caps were really convex. We emptied them in the sink, and yeah, they were very fizzy!

 

[vall]

I had one bottle break in the fridge a few years ago. I think it froze, though - it was right by the air vent.

I also do 1/4 C of juice per 750ml bottle unless it's something strong like lemon. Pineapple is probably my favorite flavor, but I'll use whatever's ripe in the garden - passion fruit, pindo palm, pomegranate, kumquat, blackberry are some of my recent ones. Lemon jalapeno is a good combination and ginger goes with almost anything.

 

[samanthaoverton]

Oh! Never heard of doing that. If I get more scoby than I need, I shred it up and feed it to the chickens.

I've never had a bottle explode. Knock on wood! I sold some to a coworker and she forgot to take it home for about a week. I looked on her shelf, and the caps were really convex. We emptied them in the sink, and yeah, they were very fizzy!

I ordered grolsch swingtop bottles. I think the glass must have been cheap. I lost 3 out of four bottles. I've been using recycled Kevita kombucha bottles. And I have smaller pint size drinking type bottles I found on a kombucha making site. I love using celestial seasoning for flavoring in my second ferment. Lemon zinger reminds me of some high end cocktail

 

[samanthaoverton]

Ooh

I had one bottle break in the fridge a few years ago. I think it froze, though - it was right by the air vent.

I also do 1/4 C of juice per 750ml bottle unless it's something strong like lemon. Pineapple is probably my favorite flavor, but I'll use whatever's ripe in the garden - passion fruit, pindo palm, pomegranate, kumquat, blackberry are some of my recent ones. Lemon jalapeno is a good combination and ginger goes with almost anything.

Ooh I'm with you on pineapple. It's yummy in booch. I also make tepache myself. It's a fermented pineapple drink with roots from mexico. It is amazing.

 

[Sally PB]

I've been using recycled Kevita kombucha bottles.

I have a small fortune in GT Dave's bottles, like 30-40 of them. Kicking myself for all the ones that I put in the recycle bin!

I'm going to have to try pineapple sometime. It sounds really good.

I do cherry juice because I can get it relatively cheap at Costco. We have 2 Montmorency cherry trees that are 2 years old, and I can't wait until they start bearing. DH and I love sour cherries, just to eat, or put in pancakes, or whatever. They're plenty sweet if you "reset" your taste buds to expect that level of sweetness, and not the black cherry level.

 

[samanthaoverton]

We have cherry trees..however, I always forget to get bird netting and the wild birds feast before I have a chance