Getting ready for class this morning

Above is my anaerobic fermentation creation.   buahahaha.
Here is my green tea Kombucha and mint infused green tea Kombucha.
Below is the filtering process of the Lavender, ginger, Vanilla infused black tea Kombucha

pop and fizz, part II

Here is the other bottle being opened. With both bottles, I filtered through a coffee filter and cheesecloth to remove most of the sediment. Both a sweet but have nice flavors. Some would say the flavors may be aggressive.

Let's here that pop and fizz

I was hoping for some more bubble action. There was a lot more in the scary bottled Kombucha with that floating island. I've put a picture of that in another post. In that bottle, there were tiny bubbles that came to the top from the bottom along with all the sediment that collected down there.

Houston, I think we have a problem

So I can say that I am honestly concerned about my Flavoring and Fermenting step. In one of my bottles I found this:

 It happens to be the coconut water and pineapple juice Kombucha. I don't know what could have caused this. I also notice that my other two  look cloudy. I am wondering if the use of the Agave sweetener did something.

So I'm wondering what my final product will be. My larger green tea Kombucha is still brewing. I was hoping for a clearer product.

Flavor and Fermentation

 So I've decided to go another step in my Kombucha which is optional. This step is to flavor and/or ferment the Kombucha. I have taken my three Kombuchas (one made of green tea and the two black teas and flavored them. In the middle mason jar, I have taken all the mother SCOBYs and started a new batch of Kombucha with black tea, turbinado sugar and some reserve liquid from my Kombucha.

To my left is a black tea Kombucha that has been sweetened with some Agave syrup, mint, pomegranite juice and orange peel. The sweetener is merely to help with the anaerobic fermentation because the bottles are "grolsch" bottles that you can plug on top.
To my right is the green tea Kombucha with coconut water and fresh pineapple juice. I also added a little Agave sweetener to it.

 Finally, my third flavor choice is Lavendar flowers with a vanilla bean pod and fresh ginger. Again a little Agave sweetener was used.  All three were placed next to my large batch of green tea Kombucha that is still bubbling away. I am hoping that it will be ready for class as with my flavored ones. I am eager to see how this turns out.



As for my last picture, well I have some SCOBYs just drying out to see how they will look under a microscope. I hope you have enjoyed this adventure. Enjoy.

first week of making kombucha, post starter period

So everyone loves pictures and I am continuously fascinated by this fermentation process. My green tea kombucha's SCOBY fell after me disturbing it to take pictures. So I decided to put it in a larger vessel, so I went through the process of making tea again. I also last Monday was able to transfer my other green tea starter to the next step of making kombucha. The pure turbinado cane sugar that I am using is has given my green teas a darker color. And in the future, I think I will not ever use a Keurig K-cup to begin my kombucha because I'm not really excited about the black teas clarity. For me it looks to murky.

I also was experimenting placement of my kombuchas while they ferment: dark closet vs kitchen. I found that the two I placed in the closet were thriving better than the two in the kitchen partly because of the difference in temperature in both locations. So now all four are in the closet. As promised pictures below.

To the right are the two from the kitchen where the SCOBYs aren't quite as thick as the ones placed in the closet. And the green tea kombucha "A" had is new SCOBY sink due to being attached to the mother one and just being too heavy.






I love this picture because you can see the small circular cultures forming on the top until they form one big SCOBY. You also see this continuation "mesh" going down the side of the jar and in actuality it connects with fine threads to the mother SCOBY that sits at the bottom of the jar.

 Some more pictures of the gallon sized green tea kombucha.

 Here is one of my black tea kombuchas with a beautiful SCOBY on top. Can't wait to bottle it.

TED talk of Suzanne Lee for your curiosity

experiments within experiments

So I started the second part of my Kombucha project last Thurday. I took two of my new batches and placed them in a darker, warmer area of my house. I kept the other two in the kitchen (one of which was the fourth starter one that hasn't quite made it to part two yet). I'm glad to say that the fourth one is ready for part two :).  I also noticed that the two batches that I placed in my warmer (and darker) than my kitchen have begun growing new SCOBYs faster than the one in the kitchen. Unfortunately, my constant looking at them, photographing them, and moving them around caused one of the SCOBYs to sink to the bottom. Like everything in science: Let's see what happens.

still waiting for the fourth.....

I have a few pictures of the last mother scoby that hasn't quite gotten thick enough to begin the next stage. Hope you enjoy the photos.

stage 2, part II

I had to save this copy on Youtube. So now it's out there in the real world.

So we are at the stage two of this process of creating my kombucha, part I

I created a few videos to explain the next step. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

part I

helpful website

I found this site very help and entertaining while researching kombucha and educating myself. I recommend Dave to help you too if you are interested in making your own kombucha.

http://www.getkombucha.com/

and enjoy :)

Looking for ph strips

So before I begin making my larger batch of kombucha from my starter I want to test the pH just to make sure that my batch is acidic enough to prevent harm. but in the meantime, I ran into an article online where clothes are make from a kombucha scoby.  I have put a few pictures and a link to the website. Its called Bio Couture: clothes made from kombucha culture. The person who does this Suzanne Lee and she actually has a TED talk about making clothes from the culture.

http://yeahsnos.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/bio-couture-clothes-made-from-kombucha-culture/

Happy one week!!!!!!

 This one didn't look so pretty a few days ago. I'm not sure if the scoby is discolored from the tea but it is getting thicker. It seems that both this one and the one just below were made with turbinado cane sugar.

 This is my green tea scoby attempt with all green tea and a kombucha culture that came out of a KIS kombucha jasmint jar because the GT brand didn't really have what looked like one in it just all the sediment on the bottom. If you look back at some of my previous posts you will actually notice that this one is getting clearer and not as cloudy as it was a few days ago. there is a white biofilm finally forming on the top instead of the scary green.

 This one is my slowest starter working. The starter culture to the left just doesn't seem like it wants to do anything. There does look like a thin film is starting to form. I'm not sure if temperature has anything to do with it. Will continue to monitor it.

 B was also made from the KIS kombucha bottles like the one above and both have plain white sugar in them. It would be interesting if the sugar plays a role in this slow scoby starting? It actually looks like it is beginning to get to the white traditional biofilm on top. This is definitely a fun project and am eagerly waiting to begin stage two of my kombucha project with making this fermented tea. Below I have put a link to Food Research International from 1999 that will shed some like into what chemical reactions are occurring in the bottle between the sugars, bacteria, yeast and acidic liquid to make this fermented tea.


http://www2.hcmuaf.edu.vn/data/lhquang/file/Tea1/Tea,%20Kombucha,%20and%20health.pdf

day  three picture.

mmmm