No SCOBY

Where is that baby mushroom? If you've been brewing kombucha/have been trying to and haven't been getting any new kombucha mothers, here are some tips:

• If your SCOBY was previously stored in the fridge: kombucha mushrooms go dormant in the fridge and may need a few cycles to get fully back into gear. Wait a few cycles to see if new SCOBYs begin forming in the next few cycles.
• Is your kombucha mother sitting on the surface of the kombucha as it brews, and is it getting thicker? If it is, then there's a good chance that the new mushroom is forming right on the top of the old one, with the two mushrooms indistinguishable from one another.
• Avoid antibacterial soap, because SCOBYs contain bacteria. Use distilled white vinegar to clean your kombucha equipment and brewing vessel instead.
• Don't add SCOBYs to hot or warm tea, because hot temperatures can kill your SCOBY. You want to add SCOBYs to tea that is room temperature.
• Avoid any foreign additions to your kombucha (such as herbs, spices, certain types of tea, etc.) unless you know that they are safe. Add flavors and foreign additions during the secondary fermentation (the bottling process), or experiment with foreign additions with your extra kombucha mushrooms. You also want to avoid herbal teas with too many volatile oils, which can harm the SCOBY over time. More about teas for kombucha brewing here.
• Keep your fermentation vessel in an undisturbed spot, and avoid environments where there is smoke, kitchen smoke, pollen, disturbing fumes such as from paints or solvents, etc.
• Use only plain kombucha as starter tea.
• Make sure your sweetener contains some form of sugar either in a dry/crystalline form (ex. evaporated cane juice or sucanat) or liquid form (ex. honey). Stevia and artificial sweeteners don't provide the necessary food for the yeasts.
• The ability for SCOBYs to ferment the tea and to produce new babies decreases as they age. Older SCOBYs are darker brown in color while younger SCOBYs typically have a creamy, white color.
• Are you using a stainless steel pot? When I accidentally brewed with an aluminum pot for a few weeks, I did not get any new mushrooms then.
• The SCOBY might be unhappy with the water. Water can vary widely, such as in the types of minerals present and their concentrations. SCOBYs don't like chlorine. Consider experimenting with filtered water, upgrading your water filter, and the length of boiling time.
• Sometimes the kombucha is ready to drink before a well-formed kombucha mushroom fully develops. If you are trying to grow a thick kombucha mother, read this post.

Source:
1. http://users.bestweb.net/~om/kombucha_balance/#No%20SCOBY

Upcoming Kombucha Demonstration and Potluck

Join Kombucha Fuel, Slow Food BU, Boston Localvores, and The Urban Homesteaders' League for a potluck and demo on how to brew the fermented tea kombucha!

What: Kombucha Demonstration and Potluck
When: Wednesday, March 24, 7-8:30 pmWhere: Sargent College, BU, Room 300 (635 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215)Cost: Free
Open to the public

This workshop will include a potluck, so bring a dish if you can, and remember to bring your own plate and utensils so we can reduce our waste.
 Traced back to Chinese origins to around 220 B.C., numerous health promoting and detoxifying effects have been attributed to kombucha, also referred to as the "elixir of life." While kombucha often costs $3+ a bottle, it is very inexpensive and easy to brew your own!

I will demonstrate and explain the basics of brewing and bottling kombucha. Topics to be covered include required materials, the traditional and continuous brewing methods, how to grow your own kombucha mushroom, and more.

Samples of home brewed kombucha tea will be available to taste (look forward to raspberry jasmine kombucha tea, ginger darjeeling kombucha tea, and more). SCOBYs will also be available for individuals to take home. For those interested in adopting a kombucha mushroom, bringing a clean, glass pint jar would help to facilitate distribution.

For those of you who already brew kombucha, consider bringing any extra kombucha mothers you have to spare, or bringing your own kombucha so we can do a taste comparison!

Q&A: What to do with extra kombucha mushrooms?

I've touched on this topic before, but thought it was a subject worth revisiting. What do you do with all of your extra kombucha mushrooms?

If you are brewing using the continuous method, extra SCOBYs may not be a concern. But if you are brewing traditionally, you may have more kombucha mothers than you know what to do with!

For starters:

• I usually have two kombucha mushrooms going per brew container, and the number of kombucha mushrooms you can have fermenting per container can vary depending on personal preference, the size of your brew, and the size and thickness of your kombucha mushrooms. You don't want the mushrooms to get too crowded, so experiment with what works according to your SCOBYs and brewing vessel.
• To keep or not to keep- I've found that the younger mushrooms (which are the lighter, more cream-colored ones that form at the surface of your brew) and the mushrooms with a more uniform thickness tend to perform better. So keep your preferred mushrooms for brewing, and for extra mushrooms that you need to find another use for, read some of my suggestions below.

Some options for extra SCOBYs:

• It's the perfect time to experiment with your extra kombucha mushrooms! Try different sweeteners, such as honey or maple syrup, or try herbal, flavored, or exotic teas. How about coffee kombucha? (Coffee kombucha links here and here).
• Give extra kombucha mothers to your friends and spread the kombucha love!
• Offer extra kombucha mushrooms to others through Kombucha Fuel on Facebook, The Worldwide Kombucha Exchange, Etsy.com, Craigslist, or Freecycle mailing lists
• Store extra mushrooms in the fridge in a "kombucha hotel" for backups or to distribute later.
• Ever tried eating a SCOBY?
  -Eating a kombucha mushroom by itself is not something I would probably do again. However, you may try cutting it up and sprinkling it on your food, or use it as a garnish. Alternatively, my friend suggests blending up kombucha mushrooms into smoothies.
• Feeding SCOBYs to dogs and pets is common
• Happy Herbalist lists many creative ideas and recipes for what to do with extra mushrooms, including making "drum heads and leather craft[s]!"
• Compost extra kombucha mushrooms

What do you do with your extra kombucha mothers?

Broken Glass

As I was washing the dishes one day, I heard a slight crack. I looked around the kitchen but didn't notice anything...but soon the smell of kombucha filled the room. Uh-oh.







It turns out, a bottle of my kombucha had exploded- as a kind reminder not to leave your kombucha bottles out for too long for a second fermentation.






I have been fortunate to have never had a bottle of kombucha explode on me before this day, and after brewing kombucha for over a year, I guess it was about time.

Luckily, the explosion was a lot less dramatic than it could have been. When I first began bottling kombucha, I had been nervous about shards of glass ending up on on my wall.

Tips to avoid kombucha bottle explosions:

-As mentioned in my previous post, Kombucha + Fizz:

• Beer bottles with their narrow necks and tight caps are ideal for creating fizz, and the longer you leave your bottles out for a secondary fermentation, the more fizz will build up. HOWEVER, if you leave your bottles out for too long, and especially with such tight seals, you run the risk of them exploding. Some people recommend 1-2 days for a secondary fermentation, others 3-4 days, and some recommend even longer. It all depends on various factors, such as temperature (higher temperatures = faster fermentation).
  
• My advice: If you're fermenting a batch, try a bottle after 1 or 2 days (more or less days depending on previous experiences, etc.). Then decide whether your other bottles are ready to refrigerate, or if they could use some more time fermenting.
  
• If you can hear your kombucha bottles at room temperature fizzing, refrigerate it!!
  

**Please note that this graph is not to scale whatsoever, and was merely created in order to illustrate a concept.**

***The longer you leave your kombucha bottles out for a second fermentation, the more fizzy your kombucha, but the more risk you will have of your bottles exploding. Experimentation and practice are key!***

-Read this discussion thread on bottling technique from some fellow kombucha fermenters.

• According to this thread, flip-top beer bottles can be a good option, because the rubber seal releases some of the pressure that may cause your bottle to explode.

Adding to my list of broken kombucha bottles includes one instance when my refrigerator somehow got to freezing temperatures, causing the kombucha to freeze and expand (when water freezes into ice, the volume expands as the molecules form a crystal lattice), causing another kombucha bottle to break.





At the time I decided to take an artistic approach to the situation, resulting in this photo:

Kombuch-sicle, anyone?

Home-brewing (and in fact, brewing in general) is never perfect. Accidents happen, but they are all part of learning how to brew and how to perfect your technique, and make your home-brewed kombucha that much more worthwhile. What interesting kombucha experiences have you had?

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! :)