I 39;m Alive Kombucha

[Regino Meriweather]

WishI had more ideas for living probiotics for the trail. Is miso powder active again, once rehydrated? (Paste miso shouldn't be exposed to boiling water, as it's alive.) Various alcohol brews would be stable enough for packing. Oh, and "old" Alaskans are called "sourdoughs" for a reason.

I don't really know what kombucha is, but you can get kefir starter at some stores (not the grains, but maybe the grains would also work, they just require more care than the starter). Kefir works at room temperature, so if you are willing to cart around liquid milk, you could make kefir in your backpack. I'm not sure what kind of container would be water-tight enough, but if you can keep it upright and inside a couple layers of ziploc bag, you could possibly do it.

Still reading? You really want more? I'll tell you about my first kombucha experience - I hated it. Several years ago on a hot summer day I stopped at the general store to get a cold beverage. I had never heard of kombucha, but it said mango, and I'll eat mango anything, plus at $5+ for 12 ounces it had to be good, right? I opened it in the parking lot and it exploded all over me, sticky and sickly, I don't remember, maybe I did shake it. That's ok, I thought, it's still a good day! I took a sip and it was DISGUSTING. The closest I could compare it to was one time when I was a kid and accidentally took a swig of nail polish remover thinking it was mouthwash. I brought it inside to the cashier and told her, "I think it's spoiled." She said somewhat condescendingly, "Have you ever tried kombucha before?" No. "Well that's the way it's supposed to taste." (Then no one should drink kombucha ever, I think to myself, and I never will ever again. It was that bad). I was sticky, hot, poorer, still thirsty, and now with a bad taste in my mouth. I just wanted some paper towels if they had any, and she refunded my money without even asking. I refused to drink kombucha for a few years after that, even refusing to know anything about it. Did not know about the probiotics or health benefits, did not care. I would not go near kombucha for years.

Fast forward, and my friend Jesse Miller was staying at my house for about a month before moving to Brazil. He was learning to make kombucha and put a beautiful jar on my kitchen countertop with this slimy weird thing in it (the SCOBY), with sweetened tea. I was curious about Jesse adding white sugar when he is so health conscious. He explained that the scoby eats tea and sugar, so kombucha ends up with very little sugar remaining. The yeasts consume sugar and ferment it into ethanol, then the bacteria consumes the ethanol to make gluconic and acetic acids, as well as other nutrients and B vitamins. Some people are wary of alcohol content, it's usually 0.5% or less, far less than non-alcoholic beer or even fruit juice that is a little old. I tend to tell people that it is the same amount of alcohol that you would consume in an over-ripe banana. The buzz that some people report after drinking kombucha is sometimes explained as release of toxins that bind to kombucha, so they are temporarily back in your bloodstream before you excrete them with the kombucha. For me, I feel that after having drunk alcohol the day before, or if I haven't had kombucha in several days, so I believe it. It's a clean and clear uplift though, not the fuzzy or exhausting high like from alcohol. It may also be the effect of B vitamins, or probiotics influencing the gut-brain effect. Kombucha has all the benefits of antioxidants and polyphenols that are in tea, in addition to the probiotics, nutrient acids, and B vitamins produced by the scoby. Caffeine from tea is reduced but may be present, anyone sensitive to alcohol or caffeine should consume with care or avoid. One study cited in The Art of Fermentation by Sandro Katz found that caffeine was reduced to around 25% the amount of caffeine that is in tea.

Back to Jesse's scoby, my kids and I watched it grow, with tentacles reaching down and a film over the surface. It looked disgusting at the time, though now I find it beautiful, so alive! When it was ready, he offered me a taste. No way I said, I tried kombucha years ago and it was awful. He flavored it with crystallized ginger and gently urged me to try it again. I trusted his bright eyes, good heart, and the man who loves good tasting food as much as I do, so ok, one sip.

Mostly, one finds kombucha in places like San Francisco, where you can likely find a DJ swilling it on any street corner, a cigarette in his other hand.

It tastes kind of like light beer, and kind of like vinegar, and often comes flavored with ginger, pomegranate juice, or blue-green algae. The upscale & health-focused markets tend to carry it.

I LOVE store-bought kombucha...except for the price! It's outrageously expensive. I would love to learn to make it, but I'm afraid my husband would turn me out of the house for running a distillery out of our kitchen! :) He hates the smell of vinegar or anything else fermented. Is water keifer signficantly friendlier on the nose?

The water kefir I've tried does taste and smell milder than kombucha. But I don't think there are culture strands in commercial water kefir, so you would have to locate another source of water kefir grains. I think you can convert dairy kefir grains to water kefir grains, but I've never tried it!

It works! I read your blog and tried it at home and it came out great, I let it grow for about a month and had a beautiful hearty mother. Now I'm just about ready to harvest my first batch!

Thank you!

Hi! So I want to do this, but I'm wondering, would it save time if I took the strands out of a few bottles of store bought kombucha and used those together? I can find a lot of guides for brewing from store bought raw kombucha, but they always take from a single bottle, so I'm not sure if there's any reason to or not to mix multiple cultures from the same type and brand. Haalp? :) This will be my first time brewing, so I'm not sure I should be my own guinea pig ;)

It worked brilliantly :D I'm shocked by how delicious my kombucha came out, and how fast the mother grew. I brewed the first batch too long so I kept that one for starter fluid (and hair conditioner!), but since then they've all been perfect.

I used the new "Enlightened" GT's, and wasn't sure whether I could make something as potent as their original from it, but it "feels" very strong, and is nice and fizzy so I think it's just fine. I've started adding slices of fruit once bottled for different flavors, and those have all come out great, too.

I also got great results using your method! I failed before using GTs so this time bought some homemade kombucha in, of course, San Francisco. ha ha. Also this time I put it in my closet so I wouldn't obsess over it all the time. I did my thing and it did it's thing and now I have a great Scoby. Thanks! Now if only I could make beet kvass taste as good.

I am mixing this up right now- do you have a general guideline for how long it takes to get 1/8 inch thick- like a week, two weeks, etc? I know this depends on a lot of things, but just a general time would be really helpful. Thanks!

Hello, all...I had started to brew my first batch of KT 11 days ago in a 2 gallon glass container. The first few days everything went quite well, but after day 2, It seems to have stopped progressing, visually speaking, though the smell had changed from a strong yeast odor to now a strong vinegar smell with only a bit of a yeasty smell, and this transition happened in just a day. No mold, just the initial bubbles with the milky substance between the "suds", which, as I'd stated already, is the initial stage, visually, but had not progressed into a scoby as yet. It is stored in a closet on a heating pad, which isn't all that hot even on its highest setting. Is it okay to still wait and see if it produces a mother?

J. Scott -- Sure, keep it going and see what happens. The mother often starts out looking rather ambiguously scummy. Sometimes you can't even see it until you poke it and realize there's a film growing over the surface.

Thanks! I followed your instructions and I'm now starting my first batch. It smells wonderful and the mother looked really healthy. I started this batch from the new and tasteless GT's kombucha, simply because I miss the old, fizzy, potent GT's so much. I hope that I can make something comparable.

On that note, does anyone know the reasons for GT's downgrade? I assumed they changed their process because of alcohol content issues. It kept disappearing and reappearing from the store just before it started tasting bland...

This method works soooo well! I first started a batch out of GT's multigreen and then thought "oh shoot, I should've used the original". So I just kept that multigreen start in my cupboard and started another one with original. Both worked! The original definitely grew faster, and I ended up chucking the multigreen because I don't really need 2 batches of kombucha going, but I was impressed at how foolproof this was. I'm so excited, thanks for your insight!

Yes, you can use evaporated sugar cane instead of plain sugar. The kombucha will be a little cloudier.

I've used both the original GT's and the new type. They both worked fine. Some places still sell the original, but they card you for it!

I have a mother that is almost ready, but there are a few dark spots. They have been there for a couple of weeks. They have not gotten larger or spread at all. How do I know if its mold or not?

Does anyone have a cut and dry way to know. Thanks for the information.

I used your instructions and all seemed to be going well until about a week ago. It hasn't changed. I know part of the issue is temp and light. I've moved it now but read somewhere that I should be tasting it? I did and it was very vinegary. I still don't have a large enough mother so I'm confused on what to do next. Any ideas?

@Nicholas Mom: Kombucha mothers can certainly be blotchy. I have a mother right now that has a lumpy, bubbly texture. Mold, though, will grow, and tends to be strange colors (black, green, blue, white), whereas the kombucha mother is beige to brown. I hope that's somewhat helpful!

@Haley: Sometimes kombucha mothers seem to stall for a few days. If it's very vinegary, the mother may have consumed all the sugar. You could add another cup or two of sugar-tea mixture and see if that jumpstarts it.

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