KOMBUCHA

It all started with a walk.

The Farmer and The Farmer's Friend Mike walk the community centre track.

Its a new initiative so far, three times per week.

They do one hour walks so there are many conversations to be had.

Kombucha was one of them.

 The Farmer's Friend Mike's Daughter Kara got him making it.

The Farmer traded a jar of his kimchi for a SCOBY.

You will meet SCOBY later.

First The Farmers gallon jar.

It was sourced from Kitchen Stuff Plus for $11.99

All the ingredients ready to go.

Distilled water, sugar, tea and SCOBY in 2 cups kombucha.

A bowl and wooden spoon.

The bowl pictured was way to big.

The Farmer swapped it out for a much smaller version.

8 cups of distilled water goes into the jar at room temperature.

3/4 cup of sugar is added to 4 cups of hot water.

Notice smaller bowl mentioned earlier.

No need to boil the water as long as the sugar can dissolve.

4 minutes in the microwave did the trick.

Now while the sugar water is still hot, add the tea.

The Farmer has chosen Red Rose.

This is because Red Rose is fair trade and organic.

You must use real tea.

It has ingredients required to feed the organic reaction.

Kombuchakamp.com has a great article on this topic.

The Farmer used 5 bags for this batch.

No The Farmer's kitchen light is not floating in the tea.

Once steeped for 10 minutes or more, the sweet tea concentrate is poured into the jar.

Now we meet SCOBY or Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast.

With this and 2 cups of Kombucha you start the process.

Make sure the new mixture is at room temperature so you don't kill SCOBY.

Now add it all to the jar.

The SCOBY, The Farmer's Friend Mike supplied, is to large to float on top.

The Farmer's research tells him this doesn't matter.

Day 1 shows no change.

Day 2 shows lots of new growth in the mix.
The Farmer is expecting a new SCOBY to form on top.
 As of this day, nothing.

Day 3 shows a bit of gel forming on top.

Day 4 there is a skin covering the liquid now.
The Farmers research tells him that the dark matter is yeast.
It is perfectly normal.

Day 5 the dark mass under the surface is bigger today.
It's covered in gel and has no fir growing so mold is not forming.
Still it looks nasty considering it will be a drink.

Day 6 as ugly as ever.
The Farmer read that you can eat SCOBY.
He doesn't think he'll go that rout.

Day 7 there was quite a change this morning.
The purple in the upper left is a reflection not mold.

Day 8 SCOBY is looking healthy.
The Farmers Wife was thinking,
 dehydrated SCOBY powder might be good on popcorn.
Hm.....

Day 9 The Farmer is amazed at how fast a SCOBY  forms.

A small sample was drawn off to taste.
It was still sweet and tea like.
The Farmer and The Farmers Wife are looking for a bit more bite.
Bubbles are starting to come up around the edges.
They hope this is a sign that things are working toward a more sharp feel on the pallet.

Day 10 There is a slight change in coverage today.

The tea is smelling wonderful and looks appealing.

Day 11 Smooth

The top view isn't changing much so here is the edge of the SCOBY.
We'll see how it grows.

Day 12

The aroma today is a bit less tea like.

Day 13

Nice aroma today and more bubbles visible.
Tomorrow we taste again.

Day 14

 The taste today was slightly bubbly and less tea like
Quite nice but we'll leave it a bit longer.

Day 15

A little thicker every day.
The Farmer and The Farmers Wife were talking.
Yes after 35 years of marriage they still talk.
Most of the time they listen as well.
The Farmers wife is pleased with the flavour at this stage.
Therefore day 16 will be harvest day.

 Day 16
The Farmer is going at this a bit differently this time.
8 cups of room temperature water.
1/2 cup sugar
4 tea bags

The Farmer suggests you listen to Stir it up while you Stir it up.

This will cold steep for most of the day.

The Farmer squeezed the tea bags twice during the day.
The cold steeping process took 5 hrs and looks wonderful.
No carbon footprint required.

The liquid poured out of the fermenting container cleanly.
The yeast strands and original SCOBY didn't interfere with the drain spout.  

The new tea mix didn't sink the SCOBY when poured in.
This is referred to as continuous fermentation.
Eventually the SCOBY will have to be divided.
The Farmer hopes to get a few more batches before having to dump it all.  

The product is nice at room temperature.
Tomorrow will be the cold test.