First Kombucha Venture and the Lessons Learned

The impetus of my kombucha venture was being gifted a how to book from my mother. It was a heavy and comprehensive text that was, to be honest, a bit intimidating. It contained all the information I needed from the subtle taste differences produced by the tea selected for brewing, how to choose the sugar for flavoring, dangers of choosing various water sources, temperature range information, and trouble-shooting problems. I purchased a continuous brewing vessel, a new SCOBY, and starter liquid and got to brewing!

I choose oolong tea for the base of my kombucha being a sensible middle ground between a black and green tea. I brewed the tea on my stove and added the sugar to make a sweet tea. Then came the first mishap of my adventure. I was not being observant and thought I purchased a five gallon kombucha crock when, in actuality, I only bought a five liter (or 1.3 gallon) crock. I realized this when I eyed up the pot in which I brewed the tea and put my kombucha crock next to it. I grabbed a large jar and decided to try one continuous brew and one batch brew because adaptability is an important life skill. Lesson number one, make sure you know exactly what supplies you have available!

I split the SCOBY in half and added one-half to the continuous brew vessel and one-half to the batch brew. A fun experiment to figure out my kombucha brewing preferences! I topped off each vessel with the sweet tea and then it was time to wait. I envisioned myself sipping my fermented delicacy in six weeks, which much to my merriment, just happened to be Mother’s Day!

Lesson two came when that six week timeframe had elapsed. I started filling my bottles from the continuous brew crock and pulled off the cloth covering. To my horror, my SCOBY had mold on the top! Lesson two: When brewing kombucha, it is imperative to sanitize everything and sanitize often! I can only guess how the mold formed but since it was in one container and not the other, I have to assume it was due to a sanitation oversight on my part in the initial phase.

With a heavy heart, I tossed my moldy SCOBY as well as all the kombucha brewed from the tainted SCOBY. I cleaned out the continuous brew container thoroughly and transferred the untainted kombucha from the batch brew jar to the continuous brew jar. Another lesson I learned during this process was how much easier it is to fill the bottles from a continuous brew set up than from the batch brew. It was decided, I will continue on with the continuous brewing method.

I finished filling my bottles and went to my kitchen to pick out the flavoring: dried cranberries in one bottle and frozen raspberries in another. The more surface area the fruit that is being added the better so I chopped up the cranberries and raspberries into tiny morsels and dumped them in their respective jars.

I put the jars in my fridge with the fruit and left them for a week for the liquid to let the flavoring agents imbue the kombucha with their sweet essence. After a week, I tasted the resulting drink. It was delicious! However, it turns out there are two types of kombucha drinkers in this world: ones that like the fizz and us more weak willed individuals. Final lesson of the endeavor, to make the kombucha for people that prefer a strong fermentation, a second fermentation after the bottling should take place. But for me the first fermentation was perfect!