In an effort to get a wild (beer) ferment going, I may have inadvertently cultured a SCOBY.
It started with a small wort starter, that definitely had a wild yeast culture ferment it out. I stepped it up, and left it uncovered outside for months. I, in my naivete, thought it would be a good idea to introduce oxygen every once in a while by stirring, not to mention that it was outside. Eventually it began to form what I believed to be a pellicle. My girlfriend smelled it and mentioned in passing that it smelled like kombucha. This planted a seed in the back of my brain. I spent the next month-ish watching this "pellicle" grow, it began to look like snot. Finally, I tasted the wort: pure, awful malt vinegar.
At this point, something clicked. I began researching the makeup of the SCOBY, only to find that it contained a good deal of the same bugs/yeast as any old sour. Peddio, Brett, Sacc, Aceto, etc. And some types of Acetobacter create a cellulose membrane.
So I tried it. Made up the sugar tea, plopped my weird snot like membrane in it and covered that bad boy up. A few days later, I have a "daughter". A few more and I taste it, sweet, sour with a vinegar finish. My mom (the household Kombucha 'hipster', if you will, after making giant vats of it that I would stumble upon in the garage refrigerator, back before it was cool, I'm talking 15 years ago) confirmed it. "A little more vinegar-y if I rememeber correctly" she said.
Obviously, she's not some Kombucha scientist. But I figure I have a completely wild grown culture. If it tastes, looks, smells like it, it must be it, if not a close analog.
I don't understand why this isn't talked about. Thoughts? Concerns? I'm not saying this is a step by step, but I've heard it can't be done. Why not? It seems like at some point in history, someone accidentally left a cup of tea out for too long, came back, pulled the scum off the top and tasted the tea, and said, "this is good, I wonder if I can make more with this gross thing." And then went to town.
It started with a small wort starter, that definitely had a wild yeast culture ferment it out. I stepped it up, and left it uncovered outside for months. I, in my naivete, thought it would be a good idea to introduce oxygen every once in a while by stirring, not to mention that it was outside. Eventually it began to form what I believed to be a pellicle. My girlfriend smelled it and mentioned in passing that it smelled like kombucha. This planted a seed in the back of my brain. I spent the next month-ish watching this "pellicle" grow, it began to look like snot. Finally, I tasted the wort: pure, awful malt vinegar.
At this point, something clicked. I began researching the makeup of the SCOBY, only to find that it contained a good deal of the same bugs/yeast as any old sour. Peddio, Brett, Sacc, Aceto, etc. And some types of Acetobacter create a cellulose membrane.
So I tried it. Made up the sugar tea, plopped my weird snot like membrane in it and covered that bad boy up. A few days later, I have a "daughter". A few more and I taste it, sweet, sour with a vinegar finish. My mom (the household Kombucha 'hipster', if you will, after making giant vats of it that I would stumble upon in the garage refrigerator, back before it was cool, I'm talking 15 years ago) confirmed it. "A little more vinegar-y if I rememeber correctly" she said.
Obviously, she's not some Kombucha scientist. But I figure I have a completely wild grown culture. If it tastes, looks, smells like it, it must be it, if not a close analog.
I don't understand why this isn't talked about. Thoughts? Concerns? I'm not saying this is a step by step, but I've heard it can't be done. Why not? It seems like at some point in history, someone accidentally left a cup of tea out for too long, came back, pulled the scum off the top and tasted the tea, and said, "this is good, I wonder if I can make more with this gross thing." And then went to town.