Kombucha
 

Upgrading my dirty-hippy credentials...

What is that? Is it a brewery and you brewing beer?

Kombucha is a fermented tea beverage that the dirty-feet hippies drink.

Fuckin hippies, man.:headshake

I drank a blood-orange-tea kombucha just the other day that was awesome (which is saying something, because unlike most dirty hippies, I hate the majority of kombucha flavors/brands/recipes.)

Blueberry is really good!

I have a bottled blackberry sitting on the counter, every now and then the berries start moving around, floating to the top and sinking to the bottom. Maybe I should quit my job so I can watch the dance all day.

Hey Griff

I was inspired by you. I made a big batch, two gallons, gingerade. ABSOLUTELY delicious. Just had another bottle for lunch. I've done a secondary fermentation in the bottle because I like the bubbles.

IT'S SO CARBONATED.

I had one explode in the pantry. Whoops. The rest have been ticking on the back porch, just in case...

Today's was so carbonated that the cap was deformed, domed upward. I opened that one outside. There are pics, but really it just looks like lemonade, but with a head like a pilsner.

Get yourself some proper fermentation jars. They let the extra gas out without letting the (fermentation-killing) oxygen in. Once it's fermented to your liking, you can transfer it to properly-lidded bottles and put it in the fridge to stop the growth.

Hm.

I have airlocks like that which I use on the primary fermentation where I *don't* want the pressure to accumulate.

But to make a bubbly drink, I find it easiest to use stout bottles and a secondary fermentation in the bottle, sometimes described as "bottle conditioning".

I'm not sure how I would be able to use those fermentation jars and still get bubbles in my drink, unless I went to CO2... Injection or something.

Am I missing your point?

Probably my mistake--it sounds like kombucha is supposed to brew differently than other fermented stuff? I just know exploding bottles are a bad thing. :)

heh...

I found another big shard of the kombucha bomb that went off in the pantry. Explosion was weeks ago, this piece was on the floor under the bottom shelf at the back. I found it when I was looking for a new box of garbage bags. I put the old shard in the new bag.

Here's what I mean by HIGHLY CARBONATED.

Here are a couple pics of the bottle I spoke of.

Before opening:
Attachment 65690


During opening Bombucha:



After opening:
Attachment 65689


(after)Drinking!!! There was more kombucha and more "head" but I had to drink it quickly after the first pour to keep from making a huge mess on the table.
Attachment 65688

Yikes. I'm minimizing alcohol so I'm not bottling much yeast. Mine is very lightly carbonated. It's more with pineapple but I've been doing ginger lately.

Just opened the last gallon jug of this batch.

My God, it's delicious. There was a baby "mother" starting again at the neck of the bottle, I discarded it. It's hot here today and I'm working in yard and I'm hot and thirsty. There's no way that gallon will last until dinner time

This is done.

Goddamn, that is delicious. I'll definitely make this again.

The idea of adding pineapple sounds good too. Also, we have a nice crop of apples in the backyard. I wonder what apple cider kombucha is like....

Another quick Kombucha update, not mine, just a favorite YouTuber of mine, Internet Shaquille.

Enjoy!