Kombucha Workshops + the Continuous Brewing Method (Part I)

Sorry for the late recap, but last week final exams hit. Thankfully, all my finals are over and I'm very excited for summer!!!

I would first like to thank everyone who attended my workshop at the 2009 Boston Skillshare on April 19th! I was very impressed with the turnout, and you were a great audience! Although Keith Person was not able to hold his workshop, I was happy to be able to give out some mushrooms for him! Thanks, Keith!

I would also like to touch on the Continuous Brewing Method that I mentioned at the workshop.

The Continuous Brewing Method is an extremely easy way to ferment kombucha tea!

It involves drinking/drawing off 10-20% of your KT brew daily, and then replacing the amount that you drank with sweet tea (every day, every other day, or every three days) (1).

-Every time you add the sweet tea:

• You want to stir the brew to mix the old ferment with the new sweet tea, so the bacteria/yeast are distributed throughout.
• Stirring will bring in more oxygen that the bacteria need to do their job.
• Because you are disturbing the tea every time by stirring, no new babies will form. This is not a problem at all, unless you were looking to have extra SCOBYs on hand or if you wanted to give some SCOBYs away. If this is the case, you may want to use the traditional brewing method.

As an example, one recipe of Sweet Tea would be:

• 1 quart (aka 4 cups) water
• 2-3 tea bags (or around 1 tsp. or 3-5 g of loose leaf tea)
• 1/4 cup sugar (around 70 g)

Reminder: the key is to do everything proportionally. You can make more/less sweet tea, and store extra sweet tea in the fridge for a few days so that you won't need to brew it everyday.

Also, please remember that your sweet tea and your brew/mushroom need to be at the SAME TEMPERATURE! Otherwise, you will be increasing the risk of your SCOBY getting a mold infection.

For the continuous brewing method, you will need:

• A beverage dispenser- Happy Herbalist suggests that the amount of KT you drink daily should be 10-20% the size of your container. One way to obtain a beverage dispensor for continuous brewing is from online, such as from Happy Herbalist and getkombucha.com.

Sample Directions

1. Boil the water- not for too long, because the bacteria need the oxygen that's in the water.
2. Add the tea- steep for ~15 minutes or follow the tea's specific brewing instructions.
3. Remove the tea bags/tea leaves.
4. Add the sugar and mix until it is all dissolved.
5. Let the sweet tea cool down to room temperature (such as by leaving it overnight).
6. Draw off 10-20% of the fermented kombucha tea from your brewing container, and then add the sweet tea (which should be around the same amount of tea that you drew off).
7. Stir the fermented tea and the sweet tea.
8. Continue repeating these directions each day! :)

What's great is that the continuous brewing method is really simple and easy! Because you are starting with ~80-90% kombucha tea and ~10-20% sweet tea (vs. the other way around), your ferment is ready within ~24 hours (vs. being ready within 6-14 days). And you don't need to be exact, either- you can skip/overdo some days!

In order not to make this an overwhelming post, I will talk about some advantages and disadvantages of the continuous brewing method tomorrow!

Thanks for visiting my blog, and please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions!

Sources:
-http://www.happyherbalist.com/continuous_brewing.htm
-http://getkombucha.com/
-Photo: http://www.happyherbalist.com/continuous_brewing.htm

And it Lives! Kombucha Baby + Kombucha Workshops

The tentative schedule for the 2009 Boston Skillshare is now up! My workshop "Home-Brewing Kombucha" will be on Sunday, April 19th from 3:45 - 5:15 pm. Keith Person's workshop "Kombucha and More" is scheduled for Saturday, April 18th from 3:45 - 5:15 pm. And Olivia Caffrey and Evan Rooney will discuss brewing beer in their workshop "Home-Brew-it-Yourself" on Saturday, April 18th from 2:05 - 3:35 pm.

There are many other great workshops scheduled as well, as listed here. There is a $3-$10 sliding scale donation, but this includes attending an unlimited number of workshops for the whole weekend, and a free vegan breakfast and lunch for skillshare attendees! The 2009 Boston Skillshare will be located at the MIT Strata Center (32 Vassar St., Cambridge, MA) April 18th & 19th, from 10 am - 7 pm.

I forgot to post this the other week, but the SCOBY that I grew made her first baby! What a cutie! A little on the thin side (she's on the right), but still healthy and cream colored! (Yes, I can become very attached to my mushrooms. :) )

Kombucha Mushrooms Come in All Shapes, Sizes, and Colors!

According to Happy Herbalist, a cream colored, 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick baby is normal and healthy. Thin cultures may be attributed to cold brewing temperatures (2) and other factors (3). (One would ideally brew between 75-85°F at a constant temperature). During the winter, it may help to add more starter tea (~15-20%, vs. the usual 10%) to help kick start the fermentation process (2).

Remember- don't discriminate! Even incompletely formed mushrooms can be perfectly good to use! In the past, I've had kombucha mushrooms with huge holes in them still ferment the tea well and create very healthy babies.

Mushrooms on the thin side may not be as strong as thick ones. In this case, you might want to team up a thin mushroom with another SCOBY, or hopefully your thin SCOBY can grow a thicker baby so you'll be all set.

When brewing at home, it is common for SCOBYs of uneven thickness or varying shades to form, due to low or varying temperatures, and sometimes due to inconsistent environments and brewing cycles. So if this happens to you, don't worry! It's perfectly normal!

The size of your kombucha mushroom will depend on the size and shape of your brewing container. Your SCOBY does not have to lie perfectly near the surface as it ferments- I've placed larger mushrooms inside smaller brewing containers, and they fermented the tea without a problem!

Additionally, although Kombucha mushrooms start out cream colored, they darken over time (4), which could happen due to staining by the tea (5).

And eventually, SCOBYs age, stop creating babies, and lose their ability to ferment the tea, and you will need to continue brewing with another mushroom. While some say that SCOBYs last for 8 batches, others say that they last for 3-4 months (5).

Thus, the life of a kombucha mushroom will differ on a case-by-case basis and probably depends on many factors. But because a new SCOBY forms with each batch, this usually is not a concern anyways! Once you obtain a mushroom and start brewing, you're usually worried about having too many mushrooms, than not enough of them. When you're at that point, it's time to start recruiting some fellow brewers! :)

*Note- all of the mushrooms in the photos within this post are healthy and good to brew with!

Kombucha Heaven + Kombucha Workshops

As I've already described in a previous post, I love the Harvest Co-Op in Cambridge for their good prices and overwhelming variety of kombucha tea! If you have never had kombucha, you should come here to try it! Chances are if you don't like one flavor/brand, you'll like another! (And I apologize for the glare in the photo :P).

Also, look for me at the 2009 Boston Skillshare! My workshop Home-Brewing Kombucha will include a power point presentation on KT, a brewing demonstration, a small tasting, and a few SCOBY donations. The exact time and date are still TBD, however.

The Boston Skillshare, to take place on April 18th and 19th at MIT, is an annual FREE weekend event for people to share and learn practical skills! Although the dates are drawing near, they may still be looking for workshop facilitators, so look at their site and contact them ASAP if you think you have a skill you'd like to share! And if you can't make it to my KT workshop, Keith Person will be leading a workshop, Kombucha and More, as well! (Date and time, also still TBD).

Meanwhile, check out Tea Quest for some other adventures on tea and kombucha tea!

Happy Friday!

The Final Days of Growing Your Own Kombucha Mother, Exp. 1

My first DIY SCOBY experiment has now come to an endend! Although from the side it looked like two cultures had actually grown, it was just one. Because the top layer was younger than the bottom layer, the top layer had a lighter, cream color, compared to the darker brown color of the bottom layer. The edges (but not the center) of the SCOBY separated a bit. However, the two layers were pretty cemented together, and they seemed all cozy and comfortable right next to each other, so I guess together as one they were meant to be.

The kombucha tea itself was definitely way over-fermented! It tasted like kombucha tea all right, but it was so acidic that you would not want to drink more than sip (taste-wise and health-wise!) The pH of the tea was around 1-2. I used some as strong starter tea, and I also mixed some regular kombucha tea with the over-fermented KT (so the pH wasn't as low), so I could store some extra SCOBYs that I want to give away in the fridge.

This experiment was much more successful than I expected, and it was wonderful to see the kombucha culture develop day by day! 

FIN - Days 13-20 - Grow Your Own Kombucha Mother (Exp. 1)

SCOBY formation is finally complete!!! Unfortunately, New England weather (and also the consistency of the heating in my apartment) is extremely variable, so temperatures during this process actually ranged from as low as ~20°C (68°F) to ~24.5°C (76.1°F). Ideally, the temperature would have been constant throughout. Look for my post tomorrow for some overall comments on this endeavor! :)

Day 20







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Day 19







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Day 18








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Day 17






It's looking like two SCOBYs to me!





Day 16








Are there TWO mothers forming?







Day 15






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Day 14

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Day 13

Days 11 & 12 - Grow Your Own Kombucha Mother (Exp. 1)

Day 12

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Day 11