Kombucha anyone?

[snyder66]

Has anyone ever tried making this with any success?

[Russ]

One of my friends here keeps a starter going. He's offered to give me some, but I have enough growing in my kitchen between the homebrew, yogurt, and sourdough. Just like most open-air fermentation, keep it fed and it won't get infected. That's about all there is to it.

[Russ]

sidenote: I saw some of this stuff at the grocery store for like $15/gallon?? Holy smokes, I would definitely be making my own if I wanted to drink it.

[mrsggrowsveg]

We make our own and are very successful.  Our friend gave us a starter and we use loose tea we buy in bulk.  We always do a second fermentation with some kind of fruit juice to make it really tasty.  It is really easy to do, but can be hard to keep up will all the SCOBYs.  We always give extra SCOBYs to friends or our pigs.  It has saved us a few times when we accidentally killed our SCOBY and needed to start over.

[ketchup]

I've made a bunch; it's pretty fun and easy.  And yeah, it's definitely the only way to go if you want to drink it.  It's stupid-expensive at the store.  Cheapest I've ever seen it was $2.99 for one bottle.  Works out to maybe a quarter at most per serving when you DIY.  My favorite flavor I've made is orange made with the fancy unpasturized freshly-squeezed orange juice from Whole Foods.

[horsepoor]

It's really easy to keep a SCOBY going.  However, I haven't been very happy with my results in making a nice, fizzy beverage.  That requires adding some priming sugar after the initial fermentation, and then sealing in bottles.  Tried reusing the Synergy kombucha bottles which have a screw-on cap, but that didn't seem to retain the carbonation adequately.  I have let it go to vinegar and use it in salad dressings.  In fact, there's a new SCOBY growing in the bottle that I need to remove before it gets too large.

I liked my results with green tea better than black tea.  As far as fermentation process, I just brew a little under 2 quarts of tea, mix in 1/2 cup of sugar in a 1/2 gallon mason jar, then add the SCOBY when cool, and cover the top with a coffee filter secured with a rubber band, and leave it on the counter for a few days.