#first fermentation

This time I'm going with hibiscus. Its probably one of the most popular non-tea choices for the primary fermentation, but this is the first time I'm trying it.

DTM: Kombucha (1st fermentation)

Hello hello! I wanted to try to be hippie dippie & make my own kombucha. Shout out to my neighbor for giving away SCOBY. Peep the instagram story version.

Ingredients

SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) you can buy this or try to find some from a pal

8 tea bags of black tea, green tea, or a mix of both (I did 6 black 2 green)

1 cup of sugar

2 cups of starter tea (I used GTS original)

a large container (brewing vessel)

Instructions

Boil 15 cups of water (3 3/4 quarts). Add your 8 tea bags. Let this steep for 15 minutes. Let your tea cool down to room temp.

I also just read a different one that said to boil 4 cups of water then add 8 cups of cool water to bring it to room temp sooo you can do that too,.

Once at room temp, transfer the tea into your brewing vessel Add 2 cups of the starter tea and your SCOBY with CLEAN hands.

Cover your jar with a tightly woven cloth (ex. bandana), coffee filters, or paper towels. I used a coffee filter and 3 paper towels. Secure it with a rubber band. I used a big rubber band used for portfolios.

Ferment in a dark area at room temp for 7-10 days. I did a taste test on day 5 by dipping a straw and plugging my finger on the other side to pick up some of the liquid. FYI it will look gross. You can taste if it is too sweet or not.

When ready remove & transfer the SCOBY with CLEAN hands. Add 2 cups of the tea so you can have a starter tea for next time.

Check out my post DTM: Flavor & Bottle Kombucha (2nd fermentation).

Very light colour and it smells amazing, almost sweet. (Probably a bit nuts to be using such a fancy tea for kombucha but I fell down a white tea rabbit hole and decided I absolutely had to try it)

I steeped it for 12min and that's as dark as it got. The flavour is delicate but not weak.

I added the sugar (which made it much darker) then waited for it to cool

Today the pellicle dropped to the bottom almost as soon as I added it back in - nothing to get too worried about, it'll probably float back up in a day or two - but I was still disappointed that it didn't immediately float.

Probably doesn't help that the pellicle is still super thin. Moving the jar to a more stable location did help, but not as much as I was hoping. I also haven't been getting as much fizz at the F1 stage as I used to... A few months ago I added in some new starter liquid from a different source - I thought it might make the culture healthier - but now I'm wondering if maybe the two cultures didn't mix well... The kombucha still tastes great, and people say the pellicle isn't necessary for brewing kombucha - but I still feel like a nice well formed cellulose mat indicates a happy healthy culture.

So I'm going to give it a few more batches to see if things improve - and if it doesn't, I'll go back to the company I got my original kit from, and get some more of their starter liquid.

Bottled my main brew

Should be ready in 2-5 days

Butterfly pea F1 side brew was ready to be flavoured.

Butterfly pea tea is often made with lemon & honey - so I decided to go heavy on the citrus and sweet tropical fruits.

Pineapple & Lime

200g + 20ml in 2L

Passionfruit, Lemon & Lime

130g + 40ml + 40ml in 2L

And! I cracked out the Strawberry Hibiscus & Ginger as an afternoon treat - and it is gooooood 😋

The pellicle has been really unhappy ever since I moved my brew from the top of the fridge, to a wee cupboard in the kitchen. It's a nice dark spot, with plenty of airflow - it should've been perfect. But the set up was a little precarious - in a wee bamboo cupboard, perched on top of some rickety shelves...

...so everytime anyone walked by, the brew got jostled about, and that's what was interfering with the pellicle growth.

I spent the last few days trying to think of a better spot for it, but really the only option I have is out in the open - which means I need some kind of light shield.

First I tried tea towels...

...which wasn't so great.

Then inspiration stuck - a kids t-shirt would make a perfect jar cover

So I bought my kombucha matching unicorn tees!

It didn't have a big fizz up when I gave it a stir - but there was definitely signs of carbonation.

And the pellicle is wafer thin again - but it is a little thicker than the last batch, so hopefully that's a good sign too.

I've decided it's good enough to go ahead with the F2 - and used it to start a new F1, this time using green tea as a base.

Maybe adding in starter from a different source was a bad idea. Hopefully the cellulose will start forming a littler thicker as the new brew settles.

Recipe for 8 L Jar / 7 L Brew

1 L Starter liquid from previous batch

1.5 L Sweet tea

380 g raw sugar

5 tbsp loose leaf green tea

1.5 L boiled water

It's tasted too watery from the start. Not enough sweetness in the early stages, the tea flavour is weak, & the pellicle that formed is very thin.

I'm not sure if I messed up the ingredients, maybe I didn't add enough sugar / tea / starter. Maybe I didn't let it steep long enough. Maybe the tea was still too hot when I added the starter. Or maybe I shouldn't have added in that starter from a different culture...

I'm really not sure what went wrong but I think I'm going to have to ditch this batch and start again from scratch. I kept this culture going for over a year. I even brought it back after letting it go dormant for a few months. Such a shame to have scrap it, but I'm worried the balance of yeast and bacterial has been irreparably altered 🥺