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McGee3

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Does anybody know some classic kombucha recipes. ?
Iv never made it, so some instructions would be helpful... ?
 
There are dozens of variations on the basic recipe - Water, tea, and sugar combined into sweet tea, cooled, and fermented with a kombucha mother.

Here is a base I work from:

Per Gallon:

8 tea bags
3 cups of Sugar
1 cup (min) Kombucha with mother

Boil water, add sugar and tea, steep for 45 minutes.
Cool to room temperature (I use my wort chiller), add Kombucha and mother.
Ferment for one week. (Have let a batch go as long as two weeks - was very tart)
Bottle.
Let sit 3-5 days to carbonate.
Refrigerate.
Drink.
 
My only input is that I don't steep nearly that long. I think the tea gets too bitter-tasting. I use that number of tea bags, but steep it until it has a nice flavor for drinking.
 
That's probably been my main issue is my tea going bitter. It seems using too much of certain types of tea or too high a water temperature brings out bitterness. I was reading some teas really don't like a brewing temp above 170F or maybe 190F max. If I keep the initial water temperature down a little bit (rather than dunking the tea right into the boiling water), I've found that even leaving the tea in the water until it cools to near room temperature still tastes good and not bitter. Some teas like white tea seem really sensitive to the temperature being too high. Some types of green tea I've noticed will make it bitter if too much is used in the tea mix.

My tea mix in descending order of amounts is chinese black; pu-erh; white; rooibos; green. Normally using the Numi teas.
 
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