Kombucha - The Healthy Elixir - Bottling

So, its been around 16-20 days; time to start bottling our kombucha.  As you well know, kombucha is some expensive stuff in the super markets / heath food stores.  So I have taken the liberty of saving these aforementioned G.T kombucha bottles.  Why?  Well, for one thing its recycling in a whole new way.  Why dump these bottles off in a landfill when we can reuse them, plus they clean so darn easily.  Before we can start experimenting with different flavorings we will need to sanitize these bottles.  Why yes, we will be using Straight A again, good guess!  Take a quarter of a teaspoon of Straight A and poor it into the bottles, give them a shake with hot water and rinse.  Also, don't forget to wash the caps too.  Once we have completely sanitized we can now bottle said kombucha...   

What I have done here is simply poor my 'buch into a clean and sanitized cup for easier pouring.  If you have a funnel use it, you'll be glad you did.  Next, I added a quarter of a cup of blueberry juice to another cup.  I added the kombucha and the blueberry juice to the bottle and repeated 7 times.  I also grated fresh ginger into a paper towel and squeezed that into the bottles as well.  Can you tell I like the "gingerberry" flavor of G.T's! 

Above is a collection of bottles I have been saving and storing away.  The picture to the right is my finished product.  Now I will let some additional fermentation happen, so I will have some nice bubbles.  For those of you new to kombucha, you must understand there is no Alcohol in kombucha.  Kombucha does not ferment in a bad way - the fermenting is literally giving us more good bacteria and healthy acids our bodies love. :)

This is my SCOBY that was formed off the one I got with the kit.  Its a very healthy looking SCOBY and no mold!  For those of you who have gotten mold in the past, give Straight A or a similar sanitizer a try.  On to the next batch, I'm going to need some more gallon jars!  Carry on Kombucha lovers...

Brewing Kombucha Update

So finally I gathered some time to start me some Kombucha.  Ok, first things needed is a good sterilization medium; I use straight A.  Straight A can be purchased from any brewing shop, so be sure to check your local brewing stores.  Straight A uses sodium bicarbonate and oxygen to clean.  Make sure to have clean hands and a clean surface to place your sterilized jar etc.

Next step is to start brewing / steeping our tea.  Also making sure our stock pot is sterilized as well.  So we want to bring 1/4 gallon to a boil. Here I have a blend of organic teas: white, black and green.  In some of the reading I have done, I have been told to not use any teas with any oils or flavorings -- obviously I am following a kit but for next time I will use standard black/green tea - non organic probably.  Basically some flavors kill the good bacteria in the brew and we don't want that.  Its not necessary to deviate since we will be flavoring our brew into different flavors of Kombucha much later!  So after our water as come to a boil, we want to kill the boil and drop in our tea bags.  Let them sit for about 20min.  add 1/2 gallon of cold water to the now done tea.  Now we will dump our cold tea into the gallon jar with our SCOBY.

 So, you are wondering as was I.  What in the world is a "SCOBY"?  A SCOBY stands for: symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast.  Just think of it as a big giant yeast patty, well maybe not.  Think of it as a necessary part of our Kombucha making experience.  Besides we are talking good bacteria here.  Many don't understand that the intestines need good bacteria to digest properly.  Also when we do take antibiotics for illnesses not only does that kill the bad bacteria but it kills the good also.  This is why I like the natural way, let your body fight the bad bacteria and give your body the good :).  So how does one find a "SCOBY" you might be asking yourself?  Well, if you have a kit it may come with a SCOBY that will ship to you.  However, if you don't have a kit you will have to go searching your health store around town - and asking around.  You can also make your own with an original bottle of G.T's Kombucha (Thanks for sharing that again Lissa).  The good thing is, once you have a SCOBY you will have one for life.  The mother SCOBY keeps on giving you baby SCOBIES I have read. 

So here we got our wonderful Kombucha percolating.  The brew has started, the sugar has been added and now the fermentation can take place.  Our SCOBY will be giving us the wonderful benefits.  This unit came with a temperature strip.  You want the brew to sit in a dark place at around 70 degrees.  Nothing above 90 degrees please.  Also please be sure to cover your brew with a breathable cloth. 14-21 days its should be finished.  

 You can tell how the SCOBY has started to form a daughter SCOBY below.  Another update coming your way in about a week and a half.