Kombucha Journal

April 16 2018

Preparation

My goal is to create a dry, moderately acidic, and complex kombucha.

 

Tomorrow I’ll be bottling 3 half gallon mason jars, brewing 3 new half gallon mason jars, and starting a SCOBY hotel. I’ll be bottling into flip top bottles. Bottles are sold as 0.5 liters (16.9oz). I’ll fill leaving a very small, a few milliliters, to minimize O2 exposure. For sugar calculations I’ll use 0.5 liters. I’ll use dextrose for bottle carbonation as it doesn’t not increase acetic acid content of the brew, unlike sucrose. It also has a more subtle sweetness, should the secondary ferment leave behind some sugar. The goal again, is to brew to as dry as possible without overdoing the acidity. I’ll use 4-5.5g of dextrose per bottle, which should yield a moderately bubbly ‘buch. I’m leaning toward the lower end of that spectrum as I don’t want the carbonation, carbonic acid/CO2, to contribute to overpowering the flavor of the tea.

 

For the new batch of four half gallon jars, the 50/50 dextrose/sucrose was very acidic. I prefered the 60/40 dextrose sucrose, this will be the ratio I’ll use for all three half gallon batches. I’ll be doing one or two oolongs, loose leaf from co-op, and I’d like to try the rest prepared from the 100g pressed cakes that Encore sells. I’ll continue to do the long brew time, 30-45 minutes, which I perceive as likely excessive but I’m assuming will maximize extraction of compounds from tea leaves. I’ll need to purchase a thermometer which measures the 180-210°F range accurately.

 

I usually use 8g of tea, but I may up it to ~10g, or more, as the flavor of the tea rarely comes through, in my experience so far. Maybe one 10g, two 13g, and one 15g of tea? Though, I sampled a mini (~3g) compressed pu’er today and it brewed an incredibly strong tea, so on second thought, I think I’ll stick with the 18g per half gallon batch because I’m using the compressed tea. I may add star anise to one or two jars as well.

 

Aside from the cultures described above, I’ll be bottling two half gallon jars of kombucha and endling their lineages as their pellicles never became vigorous and the solutions smells yeasty. These culture were sourced from OlyCultures and purchased at the Olympia westside co-op. The cultures described above are sourced from my friend Vlad. They have proven very prolific so far and produce a high acidity, which can be managed through dextrose:sucrose ratios, seemingly with great effectiveness.

 

Things I need to buy:

• Rubber bands
• Thermometer

 

Procedure for tomorrow’s brew

1. Prepare new tea batches in clean and empty half gallon jars
   1. Bring ~5 cups of artesian well water to ~200°F
   2. Fill linen drawstring tea bag with 18g of chosen tea (One of the two bricks from Encore)
   3. Pour hot water into clean half gallon jar and add tea bag
   4. Brew ~30 minutes
   5. Remove tea bag
   6. Add 68g dextrose and 44g sucrose
   7. Label
   8. Cover with metal lid and band
   9. Let cool to room temperature (~4 hours)
   10. Open and add SCOBY liquid and pellicle
       1. Save some liquid from each of the cultures from vlad to donate to make a scoby hotel
   11. Put excess pellicles in scoby hotel