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!)
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!)