brewinginct
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- Apr 26, 2009
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I've been brewing beer for a while and decided to try my hand at making kombucha.
I used the directions from this site http://www.paprikahead.com/2009/07/how-to-brew-your-own-kombucha-from.html There is enough discussion in the comments section that I figure this method will work.
I make the starter liquid (1 cup water/2 Tbls White Sugar/1 bag of black tea) but instead of just throwing in 1/2 cup of bottled kombucha I throw in about 1.5-2 cups of kombucha total, from 2 seperate bottles. I figure this way I'll get more pieces of kombucha culture in my starter and I'll have a better chance at success.
Turns out I might have been wrong. It's about 5 days later and I barely have anything floating in my starter. There's one corner of the canning jar that has some definite film growing on it...some of it looks pretty dark but it doesn't look fuzzy so I'm hoping it's not mold. This film is just in one corner, it barely covers 1/8 of the surface.
There's also long tentacles reaching down from the film on top, which I understand is yeast and a good sign. And on the bottom of the jar is some more sediment.
Am I being impatient or should I start over? I used Irish breakfast tea for my starter which I think is straight black tea, maybe it's not and that's the problem? Did I add way too much kombucha to the starter for it to grow proper? Can I even get a good culture from a bottle of GT's, since they had to reformulate their product after the recall?
I used the directions from this site http://www.paprikahead.com/2009/07/how-to-brew-your-own-kombucha-from.html There is enough discussion in the comments section that I figure this method will work.
I make the starter liquid (1 cup water/2 Tbls White Sugar/1 bag of black tea) but instead of just throwing in 1/2 cup of bottled kombucha I throw in about 1.5-2 cups of kombucha total, from 2 seperate bottles. I figure this way I'll get more pieces of kombucha culture in my starter and I'll have a better chance at success.
Turns out I might have been wrong. It's about 5 days later and I barely have anything floating in my starter. There's one corner of the canning jar that has some definite film growing on it...some of it looks pretty dark but it doesn't look fuzzy so I'm hoping it's not mold. This film is just in one corner, it barely covers 1/8 of the surface.
There's also long tentacles reaching down from the film on top, which I understand is yeast and a good sign. And on the bottom of the jar is some more sediment.
Am I being impatient or should I start over? I used Irish breakfast tea for my starter which I think is straight black tea, maybe it's not and that's the problem? Did I add way too much kombucha to the starter for it to grow proper? Can I even get a good culture from a bottle of GT's, since they had to reformulate their product after the recall?