Kombucha

 needing a place to save the info I find. Pertinent links https://www.liveeatlearn.com/the-simple-guide-to-kickass-kombucha/  

Kombucha

These instructions outline how to make homemade kombucha. For more in-depth instructions and tips, see the article above this recipe card.

Course Beverages (Non-Alcoholic)

Cuisine American

Keyword homemade kombucha, how to make a scoby, how to make kombucha, kombucha

Diet Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Raw, Vegan, Vegetarian

Time 60 minutes or more

Ingredients

Making a SCOBY

• 7 cups clean water 1.6 L
• ½ cup white sugar 100 g
• 4 bags black tea or 1 Tbsp loose tea
• 1 cup unpasteurized, unflavored store-bought kombucha 235 mL

First Fermentation

• 14 cups clean water 3.5 quarts, 3.3 L
• 1 cup white sugar 200 g
• 8 bags black or green tea or 2 Tbsp loose leaf
• 2 cups unflavored kombucha (from previous batch or store-bought kombucha) 470 mL
• 1 or 2 SCOBYs 1 per container

Second Fermentation

• Homemade kombucha from the first fermentation
• Sweetener

Instructions

Making a SCOBY

• Make Tea: Bring water to a boil in a clean pot. Remove from heat and dissolve sugar into it. Add the tea and allow to steep while water cools to room temperature. Only when water is at room temperature (test by drawing out some water with a straw), is it ready to work with!
• Add Starter: Pour the sweetened tea into your jar(s), then pour store-bought kombucha in (if you’re using two jars, pour ½ of the store bought kombucha into each).
• Ferment: Cover with a few layers of the tightly woven cloth and secure with a rubber band. Set somewhere dark and room temperature (70-75 degrees F, 21-24 C) for 1 to 4 weeks, until a ¼ inch (½ cm) SCOBY has formed.

First Fermentation

• Make Tea: Bring water to a boil in a clean pot. Remove from heat and dissolve sugar into it. Add the tea and allow to steep while water cools to room temperature. 
• Add Starter: With really clean hands, gently remove your SCOBY from the tea and place on a clean plate. Rinse out jar(s). Pour the sweetened tea into your jar(s), then pour in starter kombucha.
• Ferment: Gently place SCOBY into jar then cover with a few layers of the tightly woven cloth and secure with a rubber band. Set the jar(s) somewhere dark and room temperature (70-75 degrees F, 21-24 C) for anywhere from 6 to 10 days. Begin tasting the tea at about 6 days by gently drawing out some of the tea with a straw.  The longer the tea ferments, the more sugar molecules will be eaten up, the less sweet it will be.
• And Repeat: Reserve 2 cups from this batch to use as starter kombucha for your next batch (just leave it in the jar with the SCOBY(s)). The rest can move into the second fermentation.

Second Fermentation

• Flavor: Strain kombucha and funnel into bottles, leaving about 1 1/2 inches at the top (3.8 cm). Add your chosen sweetener and seal tightly with lid.
• ***** add raspberry or strawberry plus ginger (1-3t/16oz) + 1/4t - 1t/16oz depending on sweetness of fruit. Or add 10% fruit juice. For 16oz bottle this is .2 cup so a short 1/4c.
• Ferment: Let ferment somewhere dark and room temperature for 3 to 10 days.
• Serve: If desired, strain out fruit before serving. Place in fridge to slow the carbonation process.

I really like this infograph located at https://brewbuch.com/how-to-make-kombucha/

Ginger Ale

I need to make and firm up the instructions.
I have been wanting to make ginger ale again.  While looking for a recipe, I found one that doesn't use yeast.

I am copying from this site https://homebrewsupply.com/learn/all-natural-homebrewed-ginger-ale-with-a-ginger-bug.html

Make ginger bug
3T grated organic ginger.  Looks like it should be organic to keep the skin on.
3T sugar
2c water

Combine into fermenting vessel (I think I am going to use a quart size Chinese take out container). Cover loosely.

Add 1T of grated ginger and sugar every day for 5 days. Ready when bubbly.

If stored in the frig, feed every 3-4 weeks with 1T of grated ginger and sugar.

Prepare ginger bug for use
Let ginger bug warm up to room temp and add 1T grated ginger and sugar, and 1/4c water.

Make ginger tea
1-2 lemons (if available, try 1can of lemon aid concentrate)
2-4t grated ginger
1c sugar
1/2c ginger bug

Bring mixture to a boil and cook for 15min.
Remove from heat
Add 8c of ice water to the mixture and cool to 80F.
Strain mixture.
Add stirred ginger bug through a strainer.
Bottle

Continuous Brew Kombucha

I found this on http://www.picklemetoo.com/2012/03/02/kombucha-continuous-brewing-system/

I must admit I tried fermenting kombucha before.  I grew my scoby from a bottle of store bought kombucha.  Then I started fermenting my kombucha and it became a science project on top of my frig until all the fluid was evaporated out.

Now I want to try a continuous brewing system because it will eliminate the problems I had with remembering when the batch ended and getting it poured off into bottle for a second fermentation.

Here is what I found on the above referenced website.

Equipment needed:

• Glass beverage dispenser, the kind with a plastic spigot at the bottom.  You don’t want any metal in contact with the tea as it can damage the SCOBY.  It should hold 1-5 gallons.  Mine holds 1.5 gallons.
• Tea ball (if using loose leaf tea).
• 1 gallon jug to store sweetened tea.

Ingredients for 1 gallon of tea:

• 1 cup of sugar (1/4 cup per quart of water)
• 8 tea bags* (2 bags per quart of water)
• 4 quarts filtered water divided (or amount needed)
• 2 cups Kombucha starter tea (1/2 cup per quart of water)
• Kombucha mother

This makes enough tea for a 1 gallon container.  Adjust the amount as needed to fill your container.

Add 1 quart of water, sugar and tea to a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil.  Remove from heat and let steep for about 15 min.  Remove tea bags. Add remaining 3 quarts of cold filtered water.

Once tea is cooled to room temperature, pour into your system and add starter tea and kombucha mother.  Cover with a cloth, secured with a rubber band.  Let set in a warm place for about a week.  Taste test at this time. If it’s too sweet, let set a little longer.  You might need to find a warmer place.  I keep mine near my crock pot which is always running making bone broth.  Kombucha can culture for up to 6 weeks.

*Black tea is best for the health of the SCOBY.  Green tea works well too.  If you want to use white tea, red tea or an herbal tea, use it in combination with black tea.  My favorite is a 50/50 blend of English Breakfast tea with green tea.  Avoid flavored teas (like Earl Grey) since they can damage the SCOBY.  Add flavor during the second ferment.

Harvesting Kombucha

Once Kombucha is to your liking, drain off as much as you would like to drink for a few days and replace with more sweetened tea, prepared with the above ratios.  When adding new tea, you don’t need to add more kombucha starter since it’s already in the container. Just make sure to always leave about 20% of the tea in the container.

I remove and replace about a quart at a time.  Doing a small switch like this makes the kombucha culture faster.  Culturing a ratio of 1 part sweet tea to 4-5 parts kombucha tea, as opposed to 1 gallon to 2 cups, goes faster and is usually done in a matter of just a couple days.

**Time saving tip:  I keep a gallon jug of sweetened tea in my fridge so I don’t have to make it every time I drain off kombucha**

Tea Concentrate

This will be used in a 1 tea concentrate to 3 water ration.

• Boil 1qt of water, 8 tea bags, & 1 c sugar.
• Allow to steep for 10-15 minutes.
• Remove tea bags
• Tranfer to container and store in frig.

When more sugar tea is need for the fermentor keep it at a 1:3 ratio.  ie. 1 cup tea concentrate to 3 cups of water.  This will make a quart.  Scale up or down as needed.

You can drink the tea as is or do a second fermentation with juice, fruit and/or spices to add some fizz and yumminess.  See my recipe suggestion page: http://www.picklemetoo.com/kombucha.html

That’s all there is to it!  Just gently add sweetened tea as you drain off your kombucha.  Your SCOBY will grow, covering the entire top of your brewing system.  If it gets too large, you can always gently remove it and with plastic utensils, cut off portions to share with friends.

2nd Fermentation

from http://www.mygutsy.com/flavored-kombucha-2nd-ferment/

Bottle Size	Juice Amt	FrozenConcAmt
8oz	2T	1t
16oz	1/4c	3/4T
24oz	1/3c	1T
32oz	1/2c	1.5T

Flavor options:

I like to fresh squeeze my juices (when I can) and then strain out the pulp & seeds with a nut milk bag, muslin, or cheesecloth. I then use the pulp to make pulp crackers in my dehydrator or add it to smoothies or baked goods. Get creative!

-Cherry vanilla (Cherry juice and a few tsp of vanilla extract)

-Orange Grapefruit (Orange juice and Grapefruit juice. Fresh squeezed is always best!)

-Pineapple pomegranate (My favorite!)

-Apple berry (Apple juice and mixed berries)

-Peach

-Mango strawberry

-Kiwi (a favorite)

-Watermelon lime (Ha! this one is easy. Watermelon has so much juice to share ).

-Blueberry lemon

-Ginger lemon (Boil a handful of fresh chopped ginger for a few hours to make a syrup. This syrup if potent so you might not need the whole amount I recommended. A few tsp-TBS of lemon juice should be good, just taste it as you go if you question yourself!)

-Raspberry grape (Careful, grape tastes like wine pretty quickly- only ferment a few hours!)

Kombucha Scoby from Store Bought Kombucha

I have been looking around the web on how to grow my own scoby.  I don't know anybody that has one available.

So I bought me some kombucha.  I read the label in the store and thought it would have live cultures and wasn't pasteurized and it even looked like it had a baby scoby developing.

 

But of course when I was reading on online today I came across a website that states that GT's Enlightened Komucha has an additional culture in it that doesn't support healthy scoby growth.  Well this was the only thing available in the store so I decided to give it a try. 

Instructions

Brew 2 cups of water with 2 tea bags and 3T of sugar in a quart jar.  Let it cool and added almost the whole bottle (14-16oz) of kombucha except for the little bit I poured off to drink.

Here are my starting picture (started 1/16/15).  I am doing this at work because the building temperture is more constant and warmer than at home.  Our house is never above 68F unless it is warmer outside and we are done running the furnace.  Our thermostat is set crazy low.

I will continue to post as time progresses.

Scoby Experiment

I found this on http://www.foodrenegade.com/kombucha-scoby-experiment/

MY KOMBUCHA SCOBY EXPERIMENT

I began by getting my starter cultures:

• Kombucha Scoby Starter Culture #1 — A bottle of store-bought kombucha.
• Kombucha Scoby Starter Culture #2 — A dehydrated scoby from a reputable online supplier.
• Kombucha Scoby Starter Culture #3 — A fresh scoby from a reputable online supplier.

Next, I got everything ready for them to flourish — organic black tea, organic sugar, filtered water, and identical brewing vessels.

Then, I got busy growing. Here are my results.

KOMBUCHA SCOBY STARTER CULTURE #1

I followed my own instructions to a tee, just like I did years ago.

After three weeks, the new culture looked like this:

Do you see what I see? A whole bunch of nothing! Absolutely nothing grew. Sure, there’s some small bubbles. But that’s how much growth I expect to see after three to five days, not three weeks.

Okay, I thought, maybe I just got an off bottle that had been on the shelf too long.

So I bought another bottle and did it again.

It also failed.

I gave it one last shot.

It failed, too.

WHY CAN’T I GROW A KOMBUCHA SCOBY FROM A STORE-BOUGHT BOTTLE ANYMORE?

You may or may not remember the great kombucha recall of 2010. Kombucha was pulled off store shelves across the U.S. because it had been feared that some brands were too alcoholic to be sold as a regular beverage.

Most major brands reformulated their kombucha, then put it back on store shelves promising that it would no longer be possible for their kombucha to contain too much alcohol.

Whatever they did, I think they made it virtually impossible to grow a kombucha scoby from a store-bought bottle of kombucha anymore.

Some companies, like Dave’s GT, have even started adding a supplement called GBI-30 to their “Enlightened” (AKA kombucha for those under 21) bottled booch. GBI-30 is a patented pro-biotic that is non-native to the Kombucha culture.

I don’t know precisely why they added this to their formula, or how it prevents the growth of alcohol, but it doesn’t make sense to include GBI-30 in your homemade kombucha scoby. It’s not part of the normal fermentation process for kombucha, so I can imagine that it is also somehow interfering with our ability to grow a fresh kombucha scoby from the bottled brew.

Fermented Ketchup

I have review many fermented Ketchup recipes and I think this is the one I want to try.  I found it on The Domestic Man at http://thedomesticman.com/2014/03/25/paleo-homemade-fermented-ketchup/


My recipe still maintains the sweet and sour taste we’ve all come to expect from ketchup, but throws a historical twist in for good measure: a bit of fish sauce.

Homemade, Fermented Ketchup

• Servings: 2 cups
• Time: 10 mins plus 2-5 days
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

1/3 cup hot water
1/3 cup honey
2 6oz cans tomato paste
2 tbsp whey (the clear liquid at top of yogurt) or sauerkraut juice
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 dash (1/8 tsp) cinnamon
1 dash (1/8 tsp) ground cloves
1 dash (1/8 tsp) garlic powder
1 dash (1/8 tsp) black pepper
1 dash (1/8 tsp) sea salt, more to taste
1. Combine the hot water and honey, stirring until dissolved, then set aside to cool.
2. Combine the honey water and the rest of the ingredients. Add salt to taste.
3. Place in a quart-sized jar, cover, and let set at room temperature until fizzy and delicious. It should take 2-5 days. After the second day, be sure to burp the lid daily to prevent gas buildup. Taste it every day after the second day to see how you like it; once it tastes perfect, throw it in the fridge. It should keep for about 1 month.

** This recipe creates a fairly thick ketchup – to thin it, simply mix in a bit of water to get your desired consistency.
** If you don’t have access to whey or sauerkraut juice, add 1 tbsp water and 1 additional tbsp of apple cider vinegar.
** The slightly fishy taste of this sauce is awesome, but if you’d like to omit the fish sauce altogether, replace it with 1 additional tbsp of apple cider vinegar.
** This ketchup can also be made without fermentation. It’ll be a bit sweeter and won’t have that awesome fizz to it. To make it, simply combine all of the ingredients and simmer on low for about 20 minutes, then cool and bottle. It will only last about 1 week in the fridge.

Sauerkraut

Found on Simple Life Mom http://simplelifemom.com/2014/03/05/homemade-sauerkraut/
Update on 2/4/15 I am making some modifications on this based on http://wholenewmom.com/recipes/easy-homemade-sauerkraut-recipe/

I have been reviewing many Sauerkraut recipes in the hopes of making this.  I think I just need to do it.

Homemade Sauerkraut is a wonderful way to receive good nutrients from lacto-fermentation.  Lacto-Fermentation is a food preservation process that has been used for thousands of years.  There are many great reasons to eat fermented foods.  The chief reason is to provide healthy bacteria for your gut.  We wipe out our good flora with antibiotics and chlorinated water.  This is one way to help replenish our system.

Homemade Sauerkraut

• cabbage
• salt (without iodine or anti-caking additives)
• caraway seeds (optional)
• bay leaves (optional)

Instructions

1. Chop or shred cabbage.
2. For every pound of cabbage mix 2t of finely ground salt.
3. Toss cabbagge and salt with hands and let rest for ~1hr. <OR> Pound with a pestle or potato masher until cabbage is softened and begins to release its juices (usually about 10 minutes).
4. Add 1t. caraway seed/lb and/or 1 bay leaf/lb
5. Pack tightly into a jar
6. Once in jar cover with cabbage leaf and weigh down.  If cabbage is not completely submerged by liquid then add 1-1/2t salt to 1c water and pour on top to submerge
7. Let ferment on your counter top (during winter) or a room around 70F for 5 days  Most recommend 4-6 week.  4 weeks is needed for a full cycle of probiotics to develop.
8. I then move my sauerkraut and liquid into jars, seal, and put in the refrigerator or basement. 

Place cabbage in a container with its juices.  Add water and/or whey (if needed) until cabbage is completely submerged.   You will need to use a lid that is smaller than the top of the container so that you can weigh it down.  You can also use a plate. It is very important that the cabbage does not touch the surface so that no yeast and bad bacteria will grow.  I used a smaller lid weighted down by a glass container filled with water.  Cover with a cloth or plastic wrap with a few holes poked in it to release fermenting gasses.  See picture below:

Let ferment on your counter top (during winter) or a room around 70F for 5 days (More if desired. Some let it ferment for 4 weeks or more).  I then move my sauerkraut and liquid into jars, seal, and put in the refrigerator or basement.  Use within 4-6 weeks.

 

Variations:  Add shredded carrots, carroway seeds, and/or shredded apple.
Troubleshooting:

• White Substance: If a white substance is found in your water, simply skim it off the top.  This is common when the cabbage touches the surface.  It is kahm yeast.
• Colorful Mold: it’s dangerous.  Throw it all out.
• Slimy: too much growing in it because of not enough salt.  Discard.
• Soft and Mushy: Often, this is caused by too much heat.

Dandelion Wine

I want to try this recipe http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/dandelio.asp



This is the traditional "Midday Dandelion Wine" of old, named because the flowers must be picked at midday when they are fully open.  This wine has less body than the first recipe produces, but every bit as much flavor (some say more!).

• 2 qts dandelion flowers
• 3 lbs granulated sugar
• 4 oranges (juice of 4 oranges ~ 1c)
• 1 gallon water
• yeast and nutrient

Set one gallon of water to boil. 

While it heats up to a boil, remove as much of the green material from the flower heads as possible (the original recipe calls for two quarts of petals only, but this will work as long as you end up with two quarts of prepared flowers).

 

Pour the boiling water over the flowers, cover with cloth, and leave to steep for two days. Do not exceed two days. (will probably use a glass gallon pickle jar)

 

Pour the mixture back into a pot and bring to a boil. Add the peelings from the four oranges (again, no white pith) and boil for ten minutes. (I don't want to use orange peelings, I just want to boil for 10min and then dump the sugar and orange juice)

Strain through a muslin cloth or bag onto a crock or plastic pail containing the sugar, stirring to dissolve. (so if I do this how I want I would skip stirring in the sugar)

When cool, add the juice of the oranges, the yeast and yeast nutrient.  (I will add juice after the boil to help cool)

Pour into secondary fermentation vessel with airlock, and allow to ferment completely. 

Rack till wine clears and no more lees form (~60 days) then bottle. 

Allow it to age six months in the bottle before tasting, but a year will improve it vastly.

Fermented Pickles

Also known as Sour Pickles.

I found this on http://www.wildfermentation.com/making-sour-pickles-2/  It is an excerpt from Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz.

As it turns out, brine pickles are easy. You just need to give them regular attention in the summer heat, when cucumbers are most abundant.

One quality prized in a good pickle is crunchiness. Fresh tannin-rich grape leaves placed in the crock are effective at keeping pickles crunchy. I recommend using them if you have access to grape vines. I’ve also seen references in various brine pickle recipes to using sour cherry leaves, oak leaves, and horseradish leaves to keep pickles crunchy.

The biggest variables in pickle-making are brine strength, temperature, and cucumber size. I prefer pickles from small and medium cucumbers; pickles from really big ones can be tough and sometimes hollow in the middle. I don’t worry about uniformity of size; I just eat the smaller ones first, figuring the larger ones will take longer to ferment.

The strength of brine varies widely in different traditions and recipe books. Brine strength is most often expressed as weight of salt as a percentage of weight of solution, though sometimes as weight of salt as a percentage of volume of solution. Since in most home kitchens we are generally dealing with volumes rather than weights, the following guideline can help readers gauge brine strength: Added to 1 quart of water, each tablespoon of sea salt (weighing about .6 ounce) adds 1.8% brine. So 2 tablespoons of salt in 1 quart of water yields a 3.6% brine, 3 tablespoons yields 5.4%, and so on. In the metric system, each 15 milliliters of salt (weighing 17 grams) added to 1 liter of water yields 1.8% brine.

Some old-time recipes call for brines with enough salt to float an egg. This translates to about a 10% salt solution. This is enough salt to preserve pickles for quite some time, but they are too salty to consume without a long desalinating soak in fresh water first. Low-salt pickles, around 3.5% brine, are “half-sours” in delicatessen lingo. This recipe is for sour, fairly salty pickles, using around 5.4% brine. Experiment with brine strength. A general rule of thumb to consider in salting your ferments: more salt to slow microorganism action in summer heat; less salt in winter when microbial action slows.

Timeframe: 1-4 weeks

Special Equipment:

• Ceramic crock or food-grade plastic bucket
• Plate that fits inside crock or bucket
• 1-gallon jug filled with water, or other weight
• Cloth cover

Ingredients (for 1 gallon/4 liters):

• 3 to 4 lbs unwaxed cucumbers (small to medium size)
• 6 T sea salt
• 3 to 4 heads fresh flowering dill, or 3-4 T of any form of dill (fresh or dried leaf or seeds)
• 2 to 3 heads garlic, peeled
• 1 handful fresh grape, cherry, oak, and/or horseradish leaves (if available)
• 1 pinch black peppercorns

Process:

1. Rinse cucumbers, taking care to not bruise them, and making sure their blossoms are removed. Scrape off any remains at the blossom end. If you’re using cucumbers that aren’t fresh off the vine that day, soak them for a couple of hours in very cold water to freshen them.
2. Dissolve sea salt in ½gallon of water to create brine solution. Stir until salt is thoroughly dissolved.
3. Clean the crock, then place at the bottom of it dill, garlic, fresh grape leaves, and a pinch of black peppercorns.
4. Place cucumbers in the crock.
5. Pour brine over the cucumbers,place the (clean) plate over them, then weigh it down with a jug filled with water or a boiled rock. If the brine doesn’t cover the weighed-down plate, add more brine mixed at the same ratio of just under 1 tablespoon of salt to each cup of water.
6. Cover the crock with a cloth to keep out dust and flies and store it in a cool place.
7. Check the crock every day. Skim any mold from the surface, but don’t worry if you can’t get it all. If there’s mold, be sure to rinse the plate and weight. Taste the pickles after a few days.
8. Enjoy the pickles as they continue to ferment. Continue to check the crock every day.
9. Eventually, after one to four weeks (depending on the temperature), the pickles will be fully sour. Continue to enjoy them, moving them to the fridge to slow down fermentation.