Owly055
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The other day I looked at the 2 gallon jar I use for secondary fermentation and it had formed a scoby, a surprisingly thick one since it had only been in secondary for 5 days. The scoby was a lovely shade of purple, and mounded upward in the center until it almost touched the cloth cover. It was quite dramatic, with about 4" lift in the center.
A note about the process. I took my primary brew, and split it between the original jar and the secondary jar, leaving a gallon in each jar. I removed the scoby and hung it out to dry, as I've been fishing the scobies out and saving them for my mother to use in paper making....... a hobby of hers. The scoby is NOT needed to make kombucha as so many people seem to think, but is merely a pellicle produced by the acetobacter, and indicates that we are getting the correct type of fermentation. I brewed a batch of sweet tea, enough to fill the original brew, and leave the secondary brew short of full, and split it that way between them. I took a Costco container of blackberries, and boiled them with some water and sugar, and poured it into the secondary, still leaving it far enough below full that the liquid level was well below the neck....... about a quart short of being full, intending to top it up with water. Pulp and all went in, and the berries floated to the surface. A scoby formed over the top of the floating mass of while and mashed blackberries, and the gasses from fermentation inflated it nicely.
The other day, I fished the scoby out and hung it out to dry, an amazingly thick scoby for 5 days....... clearly the kombucha liked what I was feeding it. The flavor is wonderful by the way, but still too sweet for my taste. I may secondary ferment for close to another week.
Note that I am "kegging" my kombucha in Tap-a-Draft bottles converted to allow me to carbonate them from paint ball tanks.
H.W.
A note about the process. I took my primary brew, and split it between the original jar and the secondary jar, leaving a gallon in each jar. I removed the scoby and hung it out to dry, as I've been fishing the scobies out and saving them for my mother to use in paper making....... a hobby of hers. The scoby is NOT needed to make kombucha as so many people seem to think, but is merely a pellicle produced by the acetobacter, and indicates that we are getting the correct type of fermentation. I brewed a batch of sweet tea, enough to fill the original brew, and leave the secondary brew short of full, and split it that way between them. I took a Costco container of blackberries, and boiled them with some water and sugar, and poured it into the secondary, still leaving it far enough below full that the liquid level was well below the neck....... about a quart short of being full, intending to top it up with water. Pulp and all went in, and the berries floated to the surface. A scoby formed over the top of the floating mass of while and mashed blackberries, and the gasses from fermentation inflated it nicely.
The other day, I fished the scoby out and hung it out to dry, an amazingly thick scoby for 5 days....... clearly the kombucha liked what I was feeding it. The flavor is wonderful by the way, but still too sweet for my taste. I may secondary ferment for close to another week.
Note that I am "kegging" my kombucha in Tap-a-Draft bottles converted to allow me to carbonate them from paint ball tanks.
H.W.
