Kombucha

Carnation · Kombucha

My partner is absolutely obsessed with Kombucha. He's been buying the store-bought bottles, and trying to grow his own mushroom at home for half a year. We finally got our hands on the real thing, and he plans on going into full scale production soon.

Does anyone have any experience with these critters? I used to have one back in my vegan freak days, but I wasn't really that into it.

Most of all he'd really like to be able to get the final beverage fizzy. Is there are sure-fire way to get it to bubble?

adwred

I have experience with it, but I wouldn't say my experiences always worked out perfectly. The most I ever got in terms of fizz was a slight tingle. Nothing close to what you'd call carbonated. And half the time, I just ended up with vinegar or a big bowl of yeasty mess, if the weather wasn't right.

TidalPool

I made it a few years ago, along with kefir (which was fizzylicious!!!) I remember getting a kombucha mushroom off of ebay. I used a very clean large crock pot (didn't heat it, only used the pot itself as it was large). I think I used lipton tea and regular white sugar. I think the big thing was to follow the directions exactly (i don't have the book anymore, it was Sally Fallon's book, something about eating fat, it wasn't Nourishing Traditions though I think the recipe was in there too). It was really tasty, I don't know why I stopped making it. I think it was just the fact it sat out on the counter "growing". It really freaked my husband out, too.

It was good, quite fizzy, not quite like soda.

Good luck!

Badger

Probably "Eat Fat, Lose Fat."

ReddyMcMeaty

I've made it! It's absolutely DELICIOUS. The way I made it very bubbly was... I'd brew it in HUGE glass jars, then a week after the fresh tea has been brewing I'd transfer it to glass bottles and cork it or put a cap on it. THat keeps the carbonation in. Obviously there has to be enough sugar in it initially, so that the little guys can eat it and form the bubbles.

adwred

Weird. I did that too and still didn't have much fizz. A bit, but not tons, that's for sure.

ReddyMcMeaty

Maybe it had something to do with your yeast to bacteria ratio. I remember reading something about one making things bubblier, sweeter, sourer etc. but don't remember what. You can change the ratio over a couple of brews. The yeasties are in the bottom, that sludgy stringy stuff.

Carnation

Thanks for the advice. We put the mushroom into his bath a few hours ago. It's pretty cold here, so I imagine it'll take a while to brew.

We're definitely going to bottle it (we have all the equip from his lacto-fermented root beer adventures last summer, which never fizzed either). Do you think that it would help the drink fizz if you added just a pinch of sugar to each bottle before you corked it up? That way the critters would be certain to have something to eat?

ReddyMcMeaty

The sugar is a good idea, I do remember doing that.

Carnation

We started our second batch of the kombucha tonight. I had thought the first batch would be really vinegary, as it had been sitting for two weeks. But when I had a tiny sip, it had a good balance of sweet and sour. We had enough leftover to make three bottles worth, and we put different amounts of sugar in each one, hoping one will fizz. Squeeze really wants them to fizz, as he misses soda terribly.

ReddyMcMeaty

I'm sure he's thought of this, but JUST IN CASE, I use a great mineral water as my pop substitute. It's delicious on it's own, but you can add just a splash of other tasty things and it makes it good as well. I like diet bitter lemon (bad) but you really just need a tiny splash, plain lemon or lime or whatever would work too.

Carnation

Actually, I'm not sure he's tried that. I'll suggest it.

adwred

Totally. Especially if he's just a WAPer, he can have juice, right? He could squeeze fresh orange, lemon and lime juice into fizzy water. Or cherry juice!! OMG yum.

Or, he could mix half kombucha, half fizzy water. That would probably be excellent and would have the double benefit of making your kombucha more fizzy and making it go further.

I'm an absolute club soda addict. I get the low-sodium or sodium-free kind and adore it. It's so refreshing. I used to hate plain water, actually, until just recently when I got my new water filter (thanks to Copychick). Water tastes good to me now!

Carnation

Oh, you got the water filter? Fantastic! Yeah, after the tea incident, I realized that I'm really pretty happy drinking just water. The water we get is so amazing, straight out of the mountain. I used to be one of those people who thought water was water, but now the thought of our spring drying up makes me want to cry. Thankfully it's fine for now.

Carnation

Update: the bottled ones fizzed, all three. But the one that was most successful only had 1/4 tsp. of sugar added. It was really kind of exciting to see. I didn't taste one, but they smelled good, and were fizzing really well, like champagne.

Does anyone who has tried this recall if there's any sort of warning against drinking too much of this stuff. I thought it was only to be used medicinally, in small amounts daily. But squeeze doesn't think so, and is intending (I think) to drink large amounts of it. He's making a box for a production line of the stuff, with 7 compartments!

ReddyMcMeaty

I've read warnings, it's supposed to be a detox? I don't understand that at all though, since it's filled with tea chemicals.

adwred

Yes, there are issues with drinking large quantities. Chemical-wise, nutrient-wise and digestion-wise. I wouldn't suggest having more than 8 oz a day, personally.

Carnation

Oh boy, that's what I thought. I'm gonna have to find the article that states that, he's gonna want evidence. Just because it worked, and it tastes good, doesn't mean he should be drinking it in place of water.

I look on the rotten plant lady's blog, and she had some entries on kombucha from 2006, and she had been drinking it. She talked about the fermentation process eliminating the caffeine and possibly phenols, but it seems the salicylates must still be in there. I'm not going to risk it for now.

adwred

Yah and the rotten plant lady has since amended her stance on kombucha, I believe, since she can get reactive from having it at certain times a year (and from drinking too much of it, IIRC). I have the same problem. I could drink about 4 oz a day, but any more than that would start making me feel crazy, wound-up and moody. I could never drink it in time, because I could only drink such a small amount in a day. I'd be better off having about 4 oz every few days, but homemade kombucha doesn't support that kind of frequency. I'd be better off buying the pre-bottled stuff, which usually has crap added to it.

You could let him find out the hard way... Anecdotal personal evidence is sometimes the best kind.

Carnation

Yes, he tends to learn his lessons the hard way. Laugh

adwred

I should also say that kombucha contains salicylates (lots - from the tea) and
probably amines (from the fermentation), but also glucuronic acid, which helps to detoxify
some of those very compounds. So yeah, it's helping and hurting at the same time. If your partner isn't sensitive to phenols, though, he might do well with it, but certainly not in huge huge amounts.

Carnation

Kombucha update. It seems that the bottles that get a little bit of the sediment in them are the ones that are more likely to carbonate. The bottles that we've taken off the top of the fermented tea, where the liquid is clear, don't bubble up nearly as much as the ones that get a little of the crud from the bottom. I guess that makes sense. We've gotten them to bubble up just like a sparkling wine. The only problem now is that the carbonation seems to go away when we pop them in the fridge (even unopened). It's an ongoing experiment.

meatythang

I LOVE KOMBUCHA, but a friend of ours got extemely sick from it i guess it was a bad batch, not sure he was also just diagnosed with HIV, so who knows if it was due to his system being compromised anyways he's suing the company for a large sum of dough and the CDC is helping him...it kinda pisses me off though in our germ phobe society, its things like this that make it so hard for us to have raw dairy and other raw products.... Very Mad

Carnation

Sorry to hear about your friend getting sick. You can buy raw milk at the store in CA, can't you?

Squeeze drinks an obscene amount of kombucha, like 6 quarts a week, and fortunately has done well with it. I've been staying away from it because we're hoping to start a family, and I want to be extra safe.

I can't remember if I updated, but for anyone who makes it and wants it fizzy, we've had our best success by brewing it until very acidic, putting it into quart or 1/2 gal jars, and sticking them in the cool pantry for 30 days or more.

meatythang