I want to try Kombucha.

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Vance71975

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I want to try making Kombucha, can someone here who is experienced at it, give me a Simple step by step process? Is the culture different or is it the same as a vinegar culture? If its different where would i order a culture? Can any type of tea be used or does it have to be a certain kind? Can herbal or Floral teas be used? Any and all information,tips,tricks,advice etc would be greatly appreciated!
 
You can make one by simply getting some plain commercial kombucha,making up a black/green tea with sugar preboiled- then cool.Enough for like a quart or smaller. And just dumping it in together, cover with a coffee filter. Keep it around 80 deg.Above 70 and below 90. Could take a month to grow or so, but from then on you can use bigger vessels.
I ordered one from Etsy.com.Gennerally use black and green tea stay away from teas with oils. You can use a few herbal teas but still using black or green tea with.
I like the combo of dried blueberry and ginger to second ferment in the bottle to get carbontion,just takes like a tablespoon. Let it sit tightly capped for about a week then refrigerate.Depending on temps mine is 75-80 so it carbs up in 7 days best for me.
 
The kombucha SCOBY is not the same as a vinegar culture, which is only Acetobater bacteria. Kombucha is a mixed culture of yeast (including Brett and Sacch) and bacteria (always w Acetobater, but usually w others, including Lactobacillus).

It's really simple to culture it from commercial bottles of kombucha; Mad Fermentationist has pretty straightforward instructions.

As JonMohno said, stay away from teas w essential oils. From what I've read, you can get away with having a portion (25%) of the tea be herbal, but I've avoided it and stuck with green and black tea.

The strength of the tea and the amount of sugar is pretty variable depending on who you talk to or what recipe you read, so it's more of a to-taste and experimentation kinda thing. I personally have been doing 1 cup of sugar to a gallon and full-strength tea, and have enjoyed the speed of ferment and strength of the final brew.
 
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