A couple of kombucha questions from a new guy

[Immocles]

Hey folks, I have a grand total of 2 gallons of kombucha under my belt, and I am starting to have a couple of questions.

My first batch was with a starter kit that my wife was gifted, came with tea and sugar and all that. The second one I just used what we had around the house. It tastes similar, but definitely a lot less flavorful. When using tea bags ( we have thousands upon thousands of tea bags in this house..) is there a good rule of thumb for ratio? I recall coming across 6 black/3 green for a gallon, which is what I did. If I add more black will some of that flavor poke through?

I've seen a constant that steel and metal do not jive well with kombucha. I'm struggling to find a decent straining method to go from secondary mason jars into flip top bottles. We do have a nice sieve, but its stainless steel, which I'm assuming is inappropriate to use. Is that accurate? I've found that holding a plastic slotted spoon over a funnel to catch the fruit and other undesirables to be extremely annoying and messy. Any suggestions? Cheesecloth in funnel? Coffee filters?

Third, and last (at this moment in time anyway), what the hell do I do with the child scobys? If each batch makes a new one, I'm going to be overrun. By my guess, we will go through about a gallon every 3-4 weeks. I tossed the mother and first child in with my last batch, not realizing that I would end up with an additional one again. I've seen pictures of hotels and what not, but I don't have the fridge space to be keeping dozens of these sketchy looking beasts around. Is it a common procedure to just keep reusing a mother and child, while keeping a spare or two on hand and simply tossing out the rest?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions ( if you happen to have any, otherwise, just thanks for reading!)

 

[Yooper]

Welcome to the obsession! As far as a SCOBY hotel, you keep it at room temperature. You do get too many if you don't share them with friends, but at least keep a few so if something happens to the current ones, like a contamination, you have new ones to keep making kombucha.

Don't use green tea for your kombucha until your SCOBY and starter tea are very strong and robust. I use 8 regular size tea bags per gallon, usually, of good black tea. Once it's fermented out, I add my flavoring agents like ginger and lemon zest, or pureed blackberries.

I don't strain mine- but I do take out the SCOBY before bottling and pour only clear kombucha into the bottles. You'll get the hang of it. Let it sit until it's pretty clear and most of the sediment is on the bottom, and that will help quite a bit.

 

[Immocles]

Welcome to the obsession! As far as a SCOBY hotel, you keep it at room temperature. You do get too many if you don't share them with friends, but at least keep a few so if something happens to the current ones, like a contamination, you have new ones to keep making kombucha.

Don't use green tea for your kombucha until your SCOBY and starter tea are very strong and robust. I use 8 regular size tea bags per gallon, usually, of good black tea. Once it's fermented out, I add my flavoring agents like ginger and lemon zest, or pureed blackberries.

I don't strain mine- but I do take out the SCOBY before bottling and pour only clear kombucha into the bottles. You'll get the hang of it. Let it sit until it's pretty clear and most of the sediment is on the bottom, and that will help quite a bit.

Thanks!

I’ll may have go back to using only black tea for awhile then. I’d been brewing a gallon, bottling a couple plain, as my wife likes it unflavored, and then racking 2-3 mason jars with different flavors. Cherries, blueberries, lemonade/limeade for this last batch. Maybe I’m just going for too quick of a turnaround, or perhaps I need to toss the jars in the fridge for a day before funneling into a flip top.

 

[Seamonkey84]

I’m still in my first batch, but from what I’ve seen in videos and other instructions, there’s No need to use a racking cane. I’ve seen everyone just pours them into jars and pitchers. If you’re using your brewing equipment, make absolutely sure to sterilize everything to not cross contaminate.
Also, I’ve read to give it a stir before bottling so you get a good blend of the probiotics. Having a few Scobys on hand is a good idea, but the most important part is to have a good amount of healthy starter tea.

 

[Immocles]

Yeah, I’ve been just slowly pouring or using a large spoon. I guess I just typed ‘racking’ out of habit of meaning transferring from one vessel to another.

 

[DIYer]

I've never used actual fruit for flavoring, just fruit juice. Do you get much fruit flavor from using whole fruit?

 

[Immocles]

I've never used actual fruit for flavoring, just fruit juice. Do you get much fruit flavor from using whole fruit?

I'm just sort of trying different things at this point. Also done juices, peach being my favorite. My wife seemed to really like the one mixed with a bit of lemonade. As far as fruit, I've tried frozen cherries, fresh strawberries, and fresh blueberries. I love the colors on them. I think a bottle with cherry will be a mainstay, I thought the strawberry was good, but my wife said it seemed really tart to her. Haven't tried the blueberry yet. I'm bummed I ate all my fresh cucumbers, because I wanted to try a few slices with a splash of limeade. Next time. I just put a small amount into a mason jar and fill it with unflavored kombucha for a couple days at room temperature, then funnel it into a flip top bottle for the fridge.

 

[hottpeper13]

I use a ceramic fermenter with a spigot, no worries, ease of bottling makes it worth every penny.