[franklinnewhart]

I didn't know quite where to put this topic so I chose yeast and fermentation for it.  It's the Odd Ball of Brewing because we try to keep everything out of our brew except the yeast.  With Kombucha we want that slimy piece of stuff growing there on top of our brew.  I understand from what I have read about it, is that it is some form of bacteria that is full of enzymes that are good for you and it instills the brew with them.  For some reason the stuff is made with tea.  I am wondering if anybody has brewed this stuff and we can get an extensive forum going on it.  There doesn't seem to be anything about here anyplace.

[erockrph]

A few of us have dabbled. Here's the most recent thread I can remember about it:

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=20039.0

[pete b]

I brewed it for awhile. It was pretty easy and you can do endless variations in flavor. Eventually I stopped drinking it regularly enough to keep going and got sick of all the fruit flies it was attracting.

[brewinhard]

and got sick of all the fruit flies it was attracting.

 

[erockrph]

I brewed it for awhile. It was pretty easy and you can do endless variations in flavor. Eventually I stopped drinking it regularly enough to keep going and got sick of all the fruit flies it was attracting.

I brewed a few batches myself, but I'm not a fan of vinegar at all, and that's really where the acidity is coming from in Kombucha. I have some water kefir grains lying around (similar beverage to kombucha, but less vinegar from what I understand), but I haven't brewed with it yet.

I've decided that as much as I like the idea of alternative fermented beverages, what I'm really looking for is an adult soda-like beverage. I think I'm just going to make my own soda and leave it on one of my taps in my kegerator. I see myself enjoying that a lot more in the long-term.

[pete b]

I brewed it for awhile. It was pretty easy and you can do endless variations in flavor. Eventually I stopped drinking it regularly enough to keep going and got sick of all the fruit flies it was attracting.

I brewed a few batches myself, but I'm not a fan of vinegar at all, and that's really where the acidity is coming from in Kombucha. I have some water kefir grains lying around (similar beverage to kombucha, but less vinegar from what I understand), but I haven't brewed with it yet.

I've decided that as much as I like the idea of alternative fermented beverages, what I'm really looking for is an adult soda-like beverage. I think I'm just going to make my own soda and leave it on one of my taps in my kegerator. I see myself enjoying that a lot more in the long-term.

I pick up a kombucha every now and then as an interesting daytime drink. When I made it myself I sometimes cut it with seltzer. Another nice "adult soda" is carbonated maple sap which I see around quite a bit and make myself in season. I also like coffee flavored "Maple Manna" which is carbonated cold brewed coffee sweetened with maple syrup. Ginger beer is great when in the mood but I usually wish it had black rum and lime in it.

[el_capitan]

I brewed it for awhile. It was pretty easy and you can do endless variations in flavor. Eventually I stopped drinking it regularly enough to keep going and got sick of all the fruit flies it was attracting.

I brewed a few batches myself, but I'm not a fan of vinegar at all, and that's really where the acidity is coming from in Kombucha. I have some water kefir grains lying around (similar beverage to kombucha, but less vinegar from what I understand), but I haven't brewed with it yet.

I've decided that as much as I like the idea of alternative fermented beverages, what I'm really looking for is an adult soda-like beverage. I think I'm just going to make my own soda and leave it on one of my taps in my kegerator. I see myself enjoying that a lot more in the long-term.

A few years ago, we bought a case of coconuts.  We drained the coconut water and used it to make kefir with some of the dry kefir grains sold in packets.  It came out really nice and fizzy and tart.  I don't like coconut water plain, but this stuff was awesome.  We scraped out the meat and I think we kind of fermented that into yogurt as well.  Yumm. 

I've had mixed success with kombucha, but it certainly is a fun experiment.  The maple sap idea sounds pretty awesome too.  This year for New Year's Eve, I defrosted a jug of apple cider from this year's pressing and force carbed it for my wife and kids.  That was also pretty killer.  I've been wanting to mix up a keg of mojito for a couple years now - maybe this summer I'll give that a shot.