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Author Topic: Kambucha anyone?  (Read 6344 times)

Offline pinnah

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Re: Kambucha anyone?
« Reply #15 on: December 13, 2013, 05:39:18 pm »
 ;D. rolf.   I have not heard the word barf in quite a while...need to spend more time with some middle schoolers. ;)

I might try the plastic bottles in the future. 
But the grolsch certainly are not "carbing" very fast.  I think I need to make more so I can wait to get some carbed before I drink it. Sound familiar?  Like a beer brewing newbie.


Offline el_capitan

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Re: Kambucha anyone?
« Reply #16 on: December 14, 2013, 07:00:41 pm »
I've really enjoyed some of these alternate fermentations, because my wife doesn't touch beer, but she's into fermented food.  She wants me to build her a temp-controlled ferm chamber like the one I built for brewing.  There are a lot of health benefits from fermented foods, and it's cool to have another area to experiment with.  Like you said, it's a whole new world to learn about.  Fun stuff. 

Another funny word that never gets old is "turd."  Hah!  Turd.  Ahhh, yeah.  One thing about teaching middle school is that it keeps you immature.  Brew on.  Cheers, amigo.

Offline pinnah

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Re: Kambucha anyone?
« Reply #17 on: January 08, 2014, 09:42:07 pm »
Well I had to use coconut sugar. 
Looked pretty brown. Like a mix of hulls, tree bark and unrefined sweet stuff. Organic  ::)
I don't live in a house with plain white sugar.

Brewed green tea as well.
Hope my scoby does not freak out.

The cranberry secondary fermentation in the amber grolsch bottles was excellent.
My house is too cold to produce bottle bombs.

I separated a fat and layered scoby tonight.  Odd.

Offline el_capitan

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Re: Kambucha anyone?
« Reply #18 on: January 10, 2014, 07:49:28 pm »
My SCOBY always grew lots of fat layers too.  I kind of went back and forth with the refined sugar issue - it pretty much kept my wife away from sampling the finished product.  I seem to remember reading that the fermentation kind of takes care of the concern - still, that stuff is pretty much poison.   :o

I was thinking of experimenting with a hopped and honey-sweetened green tea.  Not fermented, just a beverage.  Trying to figure out if simply dry-hopping some tea would work.  Lord knows I have enough homegrown hops around!  Might have to give it a shot this weekend and see how it goes.  I wonder how hops would play in the kombucha?  Do you think they'd mess up your SCOBY?  The acidity/sourness might make it hard to find a good complementary hop, but then again the C-hops might be pretty good. 

Offline euge

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Re: Kambucha anyone?
« Reply #19 on: January 10, 2014, 09:45:11 pm »
American SCOBY. Getting fat.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. -Richard P. Feynman

Laws are spider-webs, which catch the little flies, but cannot hold the big ones. -Anacharsis

Offline erockrph

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Re: Kambucha anyone?
« Reply #20 on: January 10, 2014, 11:42:17 pm »
My SCOBY always grew lots of fat layers too.  I kind of went back and forth with the refined sugar issue - it pretty much kept my wife away from sampling the finished product.  I seem to remember reading that the fermentation kind of takes care of the concern - still, that stuff is pretty much poison.   :o

I was thinking of experimenting with a hopped and honey-sweetened green tea.  Not fermented, just a beverage.  Trying to figure out if simply dry-hopping some tea would work.  Lord knows I have enough homegrown hops around!  Might have to give it a shot this weekend and see how it goes.  I wonder how hops would play in the kombucha?  Do you think they'd mess up your SCOBY?  The acidity/sourness might make it hard to find a good complementary hop, but then again the C-hops might be pretty good.

Nelson Sauvin is my go-to hop for non-traditional dry-hopping. The vinous character really seems to mesh well where other hops might be questionable. Worked quite well in a dry-hopped cider for me. I'm guessing you probably don't have any homegrown Nelsons, though...
Eric B.

Finally got around to starting a homebrewing blog: The Hop Whisperer

Offline pinnah

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Re: Kambucha anyone?
« Reply #21 on: January 12, 2014, 09:13:42 am »
American SCOBY. Getting fat.

and sassy.   :D

Offline pinnah

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Re: Kambucha anyone?
« Reply #22 on: January 12, 2014, 09:17:13 am »
  I wonder how hops would play in the kombucha?  Do you think they'd mess up your SCOBY?  The acidity/sourness might make it hard to find a good complementary hop, but then again the C-hops might be pretty good.

Interesting thought.  Perhaps not during fermentation but after as an additive flavor agent?  Crystal?  I have a pile of those... :)

Offline pinnah

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Re: Kambucha anyone?
« Reply #23 on: January 25, 2014, 07:51:10 am »
Well the green tea/coconut mixture worked, but not my favorite.
Thought I got a little sulphur on the nose from it.
Plus, it made my pretty white SCOBY all brown and sorry looking. :o

I am trying brown sugar with black tea this week. 

I added a little elderberry extract to the stuff I containerized...pretty easy flavoring.

Have yet to try the hops...but I did mix in a little SNCA into my glass one day...not impressive. :-[


Offline pete b

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Re: Kambucha anyone?
« Reply #24 on: February 24, 2014, 06:56:21 pm »
I used to brew kombucha but gave it up due to time and fruit flies. I recommend using lapsang suchong tea, the smoky flavor is nice. The hops idea makes me want to do it again.
Don't let the bastards cheer you up.