Monday, September 20, 2010

Try, try again. Kombucha often rocks and sometimes it just doesn't

So that first batch didn't taste too hot. It was really, really sweet and I am certain one week wasn't enough to get it kickin'.  I ended up dumping most of it and got discouraged. But I had so many scobys, I wasn't going to give it up entirely, so I brewed two batches with green tea, plopped the scobys in and left them to sit for two weeks.  That was not intentional, but time got away from me.

I finally had the time to bottle up what was there.  The big Anchor jar tasted like vinegar. YUCK! the Skinny jar was FANTASTIC. It was sealed by the scoby and developed a ton of fizz.  If I could have, I would have bottled it and sold it, but I only had enough to drink and share with a friend who was suffers withdrawals since the Kombucha ban.

My daughter's fifth grade class sells pickles every year for a fundraiser, so today I snagged three jars and have tea cooling and ready to mix.  I got tow more batches going, but screwed up the tea amount. I think I only put half the amount of green tea, so who knows what will happen with those.

My new three batches are two black tea and one green.  I have to disturb the currently brewing batch to get at the scobys, cause I stacked them. Don't think that is best, but operating on low fumes, I could not figure out where to store the extras so they wouldn't dry out.

So, I'm going to dig out three scobys and hope for the best.  I think the key last time was a long sit, but maybe not two weeks.  I'll try 10 days and see how she goes.

Stay tuned and thanks for the friends I've gathered doing this. I haven't been actively promoting this blog, but I like tracking my progress and anyone along for the ride works for me.

Happy brewing!