Growing Scoby from GT Daves kombucha.

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Emerald

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I wanted to try kombucha and bought some from the local health food store- I liked it and felt pretty good after drinking it, but the cost of over $3 a bottle was a bit prohibitive so I decided to "grow" my own scoby.
I bought a bottle of the raspberry kombucha (GT Daves) brought it home, brewed one cup of tea with two green tea bags and 3 tablespoons of sugar, let it cool put it in a quart mason jar and added about 1/2 the bottle of raspberry kombucha, put a paper towel held on with the jar ring and put it in a warm cupboard. Within a few days it started growing a new scoby on the top of the liquid. About two weeks in it was quite thick and I started adding more tea/sugar mix. By the end of a month I had a full blown scoby/mother and I started brewing it by the gallon. My tea mix was 5 green teabags, and 4 black teabags and 1 cup sugar per gallon, But harvesting the tea was one of those things that is personal per person- I like mine a bit sweeter so harvested about a week in and others I know like it more sour and harvest at about 2 weeks... I also like it fizzy so I let it secondary ferment in swing top bottles with extra flavoring and a bit of sugar put in... My favorite was 4 chunks of fresh pineapple and a couple slivers of ginger in about 16 oz swing top bottle, let it sit in the cupboard for about 4 to 8 days, depending on the how warm it is in there, and then putting in the fridge for yummy fizzy kombucha! Just watch out tho- I have had them erupt like geysers! I just strained thru a plastic sieve into a tall glass and enjoyed!
 
Thanks so much This is just the kind of recipe I've been looking for! Really excited to try it! I'll get back and let you know how it turns out!
 
Great write up, many thanks!

I have a couple of questions.

1) Could you elaborate on the harvesting of the gallon batches. Do you simple pour off the finished tea leaving the mother behind, and then fill back up with a fresh gallon of new tea?

2) Could you use another form of sugar? I'm thinking honey or even DME.

Thanks in advance for any thought you might have.

Tim
 
When it was time to harvest some, I used to brew another gallon (I have several wide mouth glass jars gallon sizes) and would have another cooled gallon jar of tea(well not quite a full gallon ) ready to go and just pop the mother out and in on top of the cooled, sugared tea.
I'm not sure how it would do with another sugar- the scoby might not survive with honey, let me look at the place that helped me when I had all these questions... and I will see if it is ok for me to put up a link to that thread.
The flavor is like a light fizzy champagne with a hit of vinegar, and it really smells like vinegar. I have to say to folks who want to try it to buy either the grape, raspberry, or ginger GT Daves at a health food store first and try it, I liked it but many of my family wouldn't even try it.
There are many wild claims about how it will cure anything from cancer to impotence.:D But it has many of the same live cultures that yogurts have and it really does help with digestion.

Now this forum is for healthy eating and nutrition and Wild Iris's thread is what got me started on growing my own and drinking and harvesting and the secondary ferment that makes your kombucha fizzy.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=789879
Just let me know if you would rather I not put it up... But it has almost every question under the sun along with answers too...
Now I just got too busy to take care of mine and fed it to the chickens on year, but now I find I am craving it and might just have to buy some and start another!
The cool thing is, if you have cider and buy raw cider from the health food store, you can grow a vinegar mother also..
But kombucha that you let brew too long will have a very strong vinegar smell and taste and is wonderful mixed into vinaigrette like you would use vinegar..
My favorite flavor was the Pineapple/ginger but raspberry and grape came in close second.. lol:D
 
if you let it go too long it will indeed taste like vinegar. you can get an idea of the taste by adding a shot of apple cider vinegar to a glass of sweetened tea. once you get the hang of the ferment, you can dial in how vinegary or sweet you like it and drink it then.

on a side note, be careful not to let metals come in contact with the kombucha, as they will kill certain bacteria/yeast present in the scoby. think spoons, wedding ring, etc.
 
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