Koffeebucha, Part 2

Unfortunately, my first attempt at brewing koffeebucha was not a success. After waiting 14 days (recommended in the directions that I was following), my SCOBY looked like this:

Mutant Mushrooms!

Though the SCOBY did appear to produce a baby, I was not sure whether the mother or baby were still alive, and so I decided not to risk tasting it. It may be necessary to brew a few batches of coffee-tea mixture in order to acclimate the SCOBY to the high acidity of coffee. Once I grow another baby SCOBY, I will try this.

Kombucha's Going Mainstream

So I will start off with some good news that I feel that I really should have mentioned long ago- Whole Foods Brighton is now carrying Katalyst Kombucha! Typically I only find GT's brand at Whole Foods stores, so I am very excited about this new (and local) addition!

However, this is not the only recent addition to Whole Foods stores. I had heard the rumors, but was nevertheless still surprised when I found Honest Tea's Honest Kombucha at Whole Foods at the Charles River Plaza.

Yes, Honest Tea has joined the kombucha craze, and is selling three varieties of kombucha at Whole Foods stores: peach mango, berry hibiscus, and lemon ginger.













Don't worry, these bottles are glass, and not plastic.

Even though I brew my own kombucha, of course I had to try a bottle, which cost $3.49 each. I went for the lemon ginger, because I can never miss an opportunity to add more ginger to my life. My opinion: it was too sweet, lacked the vinegar-like taste of traditional kombucha, and was not very fizzy. An 8 oz. serving of Honest Kombucha has 7 g of sugar, compared to GT's 2-4 g sugar or Katalyst's 6 g of sugar per 8 oz. serving. The absent vinegar taste may be missed by some homebrewers, but this could also be a quality to convert that tentative friend. Fizziness is a matter of personal preference, and may be related to the fact that the bottle was not filled up to the top?.

While it's great that Honest Tea's introduction of Honest Kombucha will increase awareness about this drink, I still love the freshness of Katalyst Kombucha and how the taste is reminiscent of a homebrew. And as a local foodie, I am all for my local, independently owned companies. Ideally, though, homebrewing is the way to go for me. It's easy, inexpensive, and fun, gives you a much fresher and sometimes more healthful product, and allows you to tweak your kombucha to however you like it!

Honest Tea is 40% owned by Coca-Cola, and Coca-Cola is expected to buy the other 60% by the end of 2010.

However, Coca-Cola isn't the only large company that has joined the kombucha market.

• Kombucha Wonder Drink is owned by Tazo (launched in 2003)
• Carpe Diem Kombucha was launched in 2007 by Red Bull
• Celestial Seasonings acquired infinitea kombucha this past year

What makes Honest Tea's launch bigger than some of the others is its introduction into Whole Foods, which has a large consumer base and more than 270 stores in North America and the U.K. Typically, I only see GT's at Whole Foods stores, and find other kombucha brands in small health-food stores, co-ops, and the like. Nevertheless, there is yet another fun kombucha addition possibly coming to a Whole Foods store near you: it's said that Townshend Tea's Brew Dr. Kombucha will be available on tap at select Whole Foods stores!

And speaking of kombucha on tap, thanks to the Boston Localvores for informing us that kombucha is also sold on tap at the Concord Food Coop in New Hampshire. Concord Food Coop, here I come!

Enjoy the holidays everyone!

Sources of information (and recommended articles):
Forbes: Kombucha: Can This 'Cure-All' Help Boost Beverage Sales?
World Tea News: Kombucha Not Just for Hippies, but Is It for You?

End of Part 2 of Experiment 2! "Cutting the Kombucha Mother"

The cut kombucha mother again pulled through! After 9 days of fermentation at around 73.4 - 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit, this odd-looking fellow had developed.

So what I have failed to mention before is that sometimes, the new kombucha mushroom that forms is inseparable from the mother.

If this is the case, you can just continue brewing with the kombucha mother and baby mushroom together.

day 9

Although the new mushroom that formed this time does not have an even thickness and is not perfectly shaped because it is still attached to the cut kombucha mother, it still came out cream colored and fermented the 6 cups of kombucha very well!

day 7

day 5

The kombucha from the cut SCOBY had a pH of around 2.5-3.5, and it was very tasty and very comparable to the kombucha that was brewing alongside it with a whole SCOBY!




Overall Conclusions from Experiment 2:

• Cut kombucha mushrooms can ferment various ranges of kombucha tea. (Here, a cut kombucha mother with an area of ~28 cm^2 was able to brew 1.5 and 6 cups of kombucha effectively).
  
• Cut kombucha mothers (1) are able to grow whole mushrooms and (2) can grow into whole kombucha mushrooms, according to the size of the surface area of the brewing vessel (if the old and new SCOBY are inseparable)

A reminder as to why you would want to cut your kombucha mushroom:

1. To increase your brewing capacity by brewing in more containers
   
2. According to this thread, cutting SCOBY's instead of peeling them is better, because each SCOBY layer contains different organisms
   
3. The most important reason of all: to share the joy of kombucha brewing with your fellow fermenters! :)

Koffeebucha, Part 1

Having been a barista for several years, coffee has gone from being a beverage that I enjoy on occasion after a good meal (or a long night), to a necessity. While I understand the potential health drawbacks of my daily habit, I have come to accept the fact that coffee will always be part of my morning routine. I’ve tried to make up for my habit in other ways: getting enough sleep (when possible), fitting exercise into my daily schedule (I commute either by bike or walking on a regular basis), and drinking kombucha.

I’ve been drinking and brewing kombucha for about as long as I have been drinking coffee, so when I recently learned that it is possible to brew kombucha with coffee I had to give it a try!

Following a recipe suggested by a thread on www.kombuchatea.tribe.net, I brewed a full pot (my coffee pot makes 10 cups) of the Organic Coffee Co. Zen Blend coffee. I used 1 tblsp of coffee per 2 cups of water. While the coffee was brewing I poured 1 ½ cups of organic turbinado sugar into my brewing vessel, after sanitizing the vessel with warm water and vinegar. Once the coffee was ready I poured it into the vessel and added two extra cups of warm water, stiring to dissolve the sugar into coffee. After all of the sugar appeared to be dissolved I let the mixture cool overnight to room temperature before adding my scoby. Cooling overnight also allowed my scoby to warm up to room temperature (I normally store my scoby in the fridge when I’m not brewing), so that it did not got into shock when I added it to the brew. In the morning I added my scoby to the koffeebucha mixture, and covered the brewing vessel with an extra coffee filter that I had lying around (consequently, this is also what is recommended by Kombucha Fuel).

The directions I was following suggested that koffeebucha takes longer to ferment than the usual 8 to 10 days, so I plan on leaving my brew fermenting for about 14 days before sampling. I am curious to see what it tastes like!

Day 3, Part 2 of Experiment 2: Cutting the Kombucha Mother

This is what my kombucha looked like after 3 days of brewing 6 cups of kombucha tea with a cut kombucha mother. The tea is brewing comfortably at around 73.4 - 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit.

Day 3

I have to admit that when I first saw the funny looking conglomeration forming at the surface, I was a little concerned that contamination may have occurred. But, these should just be the culture strands gathering to form a new mushroom at the surface, and the other fermentation vessel (below) that I brewed at the same time looks completely normal, so I don't think that the brew should have gotten contaminated.

To be continued!

Day 3 of brewing with a Whole SCOBY

Workshop, Potluck, and Tasting: Featuring Kombucha, Beer, and Wine!

Thanks to everyone who came to my last workshop in October, we had a great turnout! And a big thank you to Abram, who brought several kombucha mushrooms that I was able to distribute!

My next workshop will be with The Urban Homesteaders' League.

What: UHL Holiday Potluck + Kombucha and Winemaking Workshop + Local Brew Tasting
When: Saturday, December 12, 6-9 pm
Where: Allston/Brighton/Brookline-ish area, location will be e-mailed to those who RSVP
Cost: $10 (to cover the costs of supplies and drinks)
RSVP: at the UHL's website
(note: you need to join the UHL to RSVP, but you can always leave the group after the event if you want to)

Learn how to make fruit wine and how to brew kombucha tea, taste several local beers, and share delicious food, all amongst good company and just in time for the holidays!

I will cover the basics of brewing and bottling kombucha, the traditional and continuous brewing methods, how to grow your own kombucha mushroom, and more. Samples of home-brewed kombucha tea will be provided, and SCOBYs will also be available for individuals to take home. RSVP information and the full event description can be found here. It's going to be fun!! Please join us and hope to see you there!

Experiment 2, Continued: Cutting the Kombucha Mother

I am happy to say that I was successful in growing a full SCOBY from a cut kombucha mother! However, this is only the beginning.

The cut kombucha mother (on the right) and newborn SCOBY (on the left) after 9 days of fermentation and around 1.5 cups of kombucha brew.

Day 9

The kombucha segment was a quarter of a SCOBY that had a radius of around 6 cm. So, the area of the cut kombucha mother was around 28 cm^2. Meanwhile, the new SCOBY that it grew had a radius of around 4 cm, with an area of around 50 cm^2 (the area of a circle = pi*radius*radius). The thicknesses of the cut kombucha mother and the new kombucha mushroom were both around 1/8-1/4 in (.32 - .64 cm), and the final brew had a pH of around 2.5-3.5.

Day 8

In his book, I found that Gunther Frank advises to cut kombucha mothers into pieces of around 6 cm in diameter (p. 86). And one experiment performed by the two Russian scientists Sakaryan and Danielova (1948) in Frank's book touches on the subject of the quantity of kombucha culture in relation to the volume of kombucha brew (p. 89-90):

• Five glass containers of the same size were filled with 100, 250, 500, 750, and 1000 mL of nutrient solution, and equal pieces of kombucha culture were put in each of the containers
• On the 5th, 8th, and 18th day, all of the containers had equal pH values
  
• On the 8th day, the container with 100 mL of nutrient solution had the most activity against disease bacteria, while the other samples with varying amounts of kombucha brew were equally effective against disease bacteria
• Conclusions from the study: the activity against disease bacteria is almost independent to the volume of kombucha brew. While different strengths of antimicrobial activity may be more apparent during the first couple of days of fermentation among kombucha brews of varying volumes, these differences in antimicrobial activity may be evened out over longer periods of time of 8-18 days.
• Frank's conclusions: Because there doesn't seem to be an advantage in putting large amounts of kombucha culture in one container, it is advised to part with older cultures over time, "always to use one of the youngest," and there's no advantage to being excessive.

What do I do?

• I typically brew with 1-3 mushrooms in a container, depending on the size of the container, the volume of brew, and the thickness of my mushrooms. I have found that my kombucha mushrooms don't appreciate being very crowded, and you will learn to make your own adjustments with experience!
  

Day 5

Nevertheless, I realized that the kombucha baby that I grew wasn't that much bigger than it's kombucha mother. In addition, the cut kombucha mother was only fermenting a small volume of brew, around 1.5 cups. So, I decided to take on Part 2 of Cutting the Kombucha Mother! This week, I will be brewing 6 cups of kombucha tea with the same kombucha fragment that I used last week (area: 28 cm^2), and in a bigger container with a diameter of 12.5 cm. (So, the new kombucha mushroom that grows should have an area of around 122.7 cm^2). Stay tuned!











Source:
Frank, Gunther W. Kombucha - Healthy beverage and natural remedy from the Far East. 4th ed. Austria: Wilhelm Ennsthaler, 1994.