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Kombucha

A Story by Phillip David Stearns

Kombucha is a fermented, lightly effervescent, sweetened black or green tea drink commonly consumed for its supposed health benefits. Sometimes the beverage is called kombucha tea to distinguish it from the culture of bacteria and yeast. Juice, spices, fruit or other flavorings are often added to enhance the taste of the beverage. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombucha

So Alejandro gets into the groove with the Kimchi making. He's got 2x gallon jars going and it's lit. I brought my then 7 year old bread starter, Cassandra, so we've both been on this trend of turning Pirates into the House of Ferment. Maybe at this point, I think Christian had also shown up with his ginger bug, too. Whatever the case, Alejandro makes the crucial next purchase: a kombucha brewing kit.

I'm dying with curiosity. We've had good luck with our projects so far, but my own past experience with someone else's kombucha brewing exploits made me skeptical. Could Alejandro pull it off? My biggest fear was mold. Turns out it's actually easy to avoid, but you gotta be detailed oriented. Alejandro was that.

Sometime during the first or second batch, Alice got this anxiety that Brahman would end and we'd all disperse, never to reunite and all would be left to the wind and dust. To allay her fears, Alejandro christened the scoby Alice Deux (sp?).

When Alejandro left, Arkadiy took over caring for the kombucha. Just before I left, I decided to rotate out a batch, pinch some scoby and start my own kombucha experiments in Denver, CO. It was something that I figured my mom would be into so once we got Alice Duex started, we split her into two more scobys. Alice DuexDuex and Alice Duex B Duex.

Anyways, the instructions provided with the kit were pretty straight forward and easy enough to memorize the gist and, since the process turns out to be pretty forgiving, rift on them a bit.

What's Goin On?

Kombucha is rotten sweet tea. Simple as that. You brew a batch of concentrated tea (over steep, yeah), load it full of sugar, and drop in the scoby once it's cooled. After a week and a half, the kombucha can be bottled and fermented a 2nd time, or refrigerated and enjoyed while the next batch brews.

As far as I can gather from the intarwubs, the bacteria and yeast work together something like this: yeast convert sugars into alcohols and the bacteria convert the alcohols into vinegar. Yeast provide that bready goodness along with carbonation, and the bacteria make the brew tart. The bacteria need oxygen to convert the alcohols, so if there's too much carbonation and no room for it to go, the alcohols build. The 2F can be carried out with the addition of high alcohol tolerant yeasts like beer, wine, or champaign yeasts in a proper 2F vessel to make a boozy 'bucha. I've not tried this, but it's on my to-dos

In the first fermentation (1F), the mixture has good exposure. During the second fermentation (2F), which can be done in bottle (bottle conditioned), the yeast will produce enough carbon dioxide to give the kombucha a nice fizz and carbonation, while also slowing the bacteria from converting alcohols into vinegar. If you don't want such a boozy 'bucha, bottle and refrigerate after a two days.

If you want it boozier but don't want to go through the trouble of treating your batch like a proper brew (don't got the equipment or time). Leave the bottles out up to a week, but remember to burp them!

Enough rambling. Let's get to it.

Equipment

  • 1 Gallon, wide-mouth glass jar
  • Measuring cups
  • 2QT pot
  • Plastic (or wood) utensils for stirring, scooping, ladling.
  • Glass Bottles or Jars with air tight lids for conditioning
  • PH test strips
  • Brewer's sanitizer
  • Breathable cloth, like t-shirt material.
  • Big rubber band
  • Funnel

Ingredients

  • SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast)
    • Can be purchased online, gifted, started from unpasteurized store-bought 'bucha (not covered here)
  • Organic black and/or green tea 5-6 bags
  • 1C sugar for the brew
  • 1/4C distilled white vinegar (IMPORTANT: DO NOT USE VINEGAR WITH CULTURES!!!)
  • 1/4C sugar for the bottle conditioning
  • Flavorings for bottle conditioning/infusing
    • Fresh Fruit
    • Spices
    • Juice

Process (starting from zero)

Assuming you're starting out with a kit or a gifted scoby, you should have about 1C of starter liquid, the juice your scoby came swimming in. Have it out at room temp while you work.

The Brew

  1. Clean the 1 gallon glass jar with non-detergent based soap, like castille soap (Doc Bronners)
  2. Rinse and dry thoroughly and bake in the over @ 200 degrees to kill off all the baddies (20 mins is good).
  3. Go ahead and bake the cloth with the jar.
  4. While the jar and cloth are baking, fill a 2QT pot with about 4 cups of filtered water and bring it to a boil, hold for minimum 3 mins.
  5. Cut heat and steep your tea. Start with black tea when you're just starting out, then gradually shift to other types of tea. The longer the better. I press my tea bags when done.
  6. Dissolve 1C sugar fully into the tea concentrate.
  7. The jar should be done baking at this point. Pull it out and let it cool.
  8. When your jar has cooled, transfer the concentrate into it, then fill with filtered water, leaving about 1" from the point where the jar starts curving from the sides to the mouth. Cover with the cloth and let cool.
  9. When the tea cools to below 85 degrees fahrenheit, add your scoby and the starter fluid.
  10. Add 1/4C distilled white vinegar.
  11. Cover with the cloth and secure with rubber band.
  12. Place in an area of relatively stable temp (72-80) and out of sunlight.

First Fermentation (1F)

  1. Check on it every couple of days to see how things are going. 2-3 days in, you'll start seeing a film form where the scoby doesn't meet the sides of the jar.
    • You can check the PH too. With a clean ladl, gently push the scoby down on one side to extract the 'bucha.
    • It should be around 3.
  2. Around 10, taste your brew to see how it's going.
    • Too sweet? Needs a bit more time.
    • Too tart? That can be fixed in bottling by adding a little simple syrup.
    • Just right? Bottle it!

Bottle It

  1. Repeat the process of sterilization that you took for the big jar.
  2. Boil the lids for 5 mins.
  3. Boil 1C water and dissolve 1/4C sugar into it to make your simple syrup.
  4. Get your flavorings ready.
    • Slice some ginger (thin and big, like along the grain) and lemon for a basic flovoring
    • Try sliced strawberries, ginger and blueberries for a nice variation
    • GTs Piña Paradise uses pineapple juice, pressed turmeric juice, habanero, cinnamon, and ginger
    • Mango peach is tasty.
    • Hibiscus, white mulberry is refreshing.
    • Get bold and adventurous!
  5. When everything has cooled, drop your flavorings into the jars.
  6. Spoon in some simple syrup based on your taste.
  7. Remove your scoby, place it in a flat bowl and give the brew a stir.
  8. Ladle out 1C of starter fluid onto your scoby.
  9. Cover the scoby bowl with a plate.
  10. Pour the kombucha into the bottles and screw the lids snugly.

Bottle Conditioning or "Second Fermentation" (2F)

Store your bottles in a temp stable place out of sunlight.

  1. If your brew is already lively enough for you, go ahead and refrigerate.
  2. If you want more carbonation, leave out for 2-3 days.
  3. If you want more alcohol, burp after 2-3 days, let sit 2-3 more, burping to prevent explosion, then refrigerate.