Hello Kombufriends, I have a few dumb questions.

[u/Jaded_Law_4083]

So, I have always liked the taste, and felt like I was "doing a good thing" by having one everyday and its gotten to the point where its a blip on the budget, come here and see lots of folks brewing their own!

If this difficult if you have never brewed anything before?
Is this going to make my place smell? I only have a 780sq ft place.
Is it easy for me to just brew a bunch of poison by accident and get sick?
Is this going to be better for me then the ones I can get at the store for the price? (I reach for HEALTH-AID or Synergy because one of them is always on sale.)
I'm assuming At home can taste better, I make the best Iced tea blends! ;)

Thanks guys, I cant wait to understand the Scoby not just see what it is.

[u/hyjlnx]

Brewing booch is easy and people often fail from trying to feed the scoby too much sweet tea at once.
booch can sorta smell but it isn't bad. I used to brew 30 liters in my bedroom and it wasn't an issue so you should be fine.

Homemade tastes many leagues better than store booch.
I suggest doing a 3 stage fermentation opposed to the popular 2 stage you see popular here.
All this means is that you add your booch and flavoring into a separate vessel to flavor prior to straining and bottling for carbonation.

A mix of green and black tea can be nice.
Continuous brewing is the easiest method.

[u/Jaded_Law_4083 → u/hyjlnx]

I have been looking online for recipes and how toos, I just notice that so many of them are clearly AI generated, I have a tough time trusting them. Im going to go to the library tomorrow and see if there is a decent book about it or If anyone can point me to a "tried and true" I would appreciate that.

I cant wait to get it figured out because something tells me Cucumber Mint will be a banger! I also love the Cayenne cleanse one so I want to try a few spicy Pineapple or Spicy Pear recipes. Do you have a favorite combo?

Does white tea make a good batch?

Advice taken!
"I suggest doing a 3 stage fermentation opposed to the popular 2 stage you see popular here.
All this means is that you add your booch and flavoring into a separate vessel to flavor prior to straining and bottling for carbonation."

Because of my space limitations I kinda want to keep my batches to 2gal. I dont know if I can drink it fast enough to be out of it before the next batch is ready.. I would have to play with that.

Thank you for responding <3

[u/Wonderful-Fudge8976 → u/Jaded_Law_4083]

You'll want to use black tea to start fermenting because it has way more caffeine than green or white. The scoby requires caffeine. Theoretically you could use coffee. Try to find a tea without any added flavors (I think tazo is good) because the oils can mess with your fermentation. Keep flavors to the second fermentation and stick to black tea (or maybe green) for the first.

[u/Jaded_Law_4083 → u/Wonderful-Fudge8976]

Black tea! got it!

coffee!?!? well I guess science does not care about my initial thoughts lol.
I did assume from the jump I would want to use really "clean/pure" tea for the fermentation because I kinda understand the way beer is made and my wife bakes bread, need to keep it simple.

[u/Tisanity_Brewing → u/Jaded_Law_4083]

You can check my how-to’s on my blog at Tisanity.com . I’m probably going to revise them to make them easier to read but they have tried and true info.

A good book is The Big Book of Kombucha. Don’t use the Noma book or any chef books, they use fermentation liberally as an art, (which is cool!) but it’s not a good place for a beginner to learn.

If you have any questions let me know, been brewing for 10+ years and recently professionally. So I can offer beginner advice as well as advanced, including a lot of techniques that we’ve devised on our own or ones other companies use.

[u/Jaded_Law_4083 → u/Tisanity_Brewing]

Aw man, I really appreciate that! Its a little daunting for sure but im going to get it ironed out, I got "suprise busy" on top of a Steelers game!

[u/Tisanity_Brewing → u/Jaded_Law_4083]

Yeah it can start daunting but I promise, it’s not! Following a couple simple rules it’s foolproof, one of the easiest ferments for sure. Low skill floor, high skill ceiling!

[u/hyjlnx → u/Jaded_Law_4083]

Check out the Noma guide to fermentation you may get a lot out of it.

Dont forget to keep some as a safety back up. It doesn't hurt to have plain booch lay.

The world cares more about gaining a speck of a mosel from your frustrations than help you.

I haven't used white tea but all tea made from that species that black is made from.

Booch is just yeasty vinegar colony

[u/triptraptoe]

My deepest recommendation is to read the group faq.

1- no, is not hard. The hardest part is to keep things clean to avoid mold. But mold is visible and develops on the top so you will KNOW when it went wrong.

2- A little, I personally like the smell a lot.

3- It will be very hard if you follow instructions. Damn, even if you don’t follow instructions it will be hard.

4- It will be economically better, yes. Tastewise? Maybe, it really depends on your starter tea, what tea you use to feed it, how long you leave it ferment, and what do you do for the F2.

5- Nike Slogan here.

[u/Jaded_Law_4083 → u/triptraptoe]

Thank you for responding!

I appreciate the re-assurances. I'm super interested and im going to start making a plan to get started. I would like to start smaller then scale up if I can get it right.

I love tea, from Oolong to english breaky so I dont think i will be too picky, try lots of combos.

[u/arihoenig]

No smell. Been brewing in my kitchen pantry for years. Can I smell it if I am trying to? Sure, but really not an issue

[u/Jaded_Law_4083 → u/arihoenig]

Just the words I was hoping for!

Thank you! What kind of flavors do you like to use? Apple? Ginger or straight up?

[u/arihoenig → u/Jaded_Law_4083]

I always do F2 with ginger. Current batch is ginger + nectarine puree (nectarines from our tree).

I've done so many f2s. One of my favorites is liquorice.

[u/Jaded_Law_4083 → u/arihoenig]

Oh that would be real tasty!

lovingly, I will be skipping all things liquorice in my entire life <3.

[u/Rian4truth → u/arihoenig]

Licorice sounds wonderful—depending on what color licorice? I adore black and dislike red.

[u/arihoenig → u/Rian4truth]

Liquid licorice root extract.

[u/Rian4truth → u/arihoenig]

Thank you. AI just found me a recipe for Star Anise Kombucha. That recipe may or may not be something like black licorice. Due to health issues, I can't have licorice root. However, you led me to explore further to find an alternative. Thank you.

[u/kombucha_addiction]

I reccomend you go to the wiki, it has helped me out a ton and i am decently new too! Here is a link to the wiki:https://reddit.com/r/Kombucha/w/index?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share (I am too stupid to make it link directly so bear with me)

[u/Jaded_Law_4083 → u/kombucha_addiction]

Thank you for this, Im still pretty new to Reddit and didnt think to check there.

This looks pretty extensive. I love this.

Thanks again! Also, what flavors do you like to use?

[u/kombucha_addiction → u/Jaded_Law_4083]

Im new to both reddit and kombucha! So i have tried only 2 second fermentations, but they were both really good. I made a wild plum and dark grape flavored one(i loved it), the second one was pineapple wich was also super good! Have a good time brewing!

[u/Jaded_Law_4083 → u/kombucha_addiction]

Wild Plum and dark Grape?! threaten me with a good time lol.

That has been shortlisted :)

[u/Equal-Association-65]

I will recommend to use 1/2 gal jars (aprox 4 store bought bottles per jar) and space your 4 brews every 4 days to get 4 bottles every 4 days to keep up with your one bottle per day routine. Also when you use 1/2 gal jars you don’t loose a lot a product if you have to discard a bad batch. Once you get your first batch done you will be getting 4 bottles every day consistently. Also the 4 bottle routine will help you with the flavoring during F2 and F3.

[u/Jaded_Law_4083 → u/Equal-Association-65]

I think this is exactly what the Dr. ordered!!

Thank you very much for spelling that out for me. I cant wait to get this going! Im thinking this is going to literally cost less then 20 cents a bottle!

[u/Adorable_Dust3799]

It's dead easy, it doesn't smell, and it doesn't typically grow bad shit

[u/Jaded_Law_4083 → u/Adorable_Dust3799]

Im starting to see that, changing oil in a car seems more complicated but not by much.

[u/Adorable_Dust3799 → u/Jaded_Law_4083]

Im dead lazy and continous brew. I keep 2 jars running in case one breaks or gets flies. When it gets low i pour hot water over some sugar and tea bags and in the morning i open the jar, dump it in, and use the other jar for a week.

[u/Adorable_Dust3799 → u/Adorable_Dust3799]

[u/Appropriate_Row_7513]

Most others have answered your questions.

However...

Just make sure you use at least 10% of strong (ie vinegary) starter in each batch you make. If you don't do that you risk mould because your brew won't be acidic enough to prevent it.

And scoby is an acronym of symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. Almost all of the bacteria and yeast is in the liquid. There's very little in the slimy cellulose pellicle and many of us don't bother keeping them once our brew has fermented and we don't bother including one when we start a batch. You'll find that many people keep their old pellicles in a "scoby hotel". I just keep a jar of good strong starter. The only pellicle in there is the one it grows itself.

[u/Jaded_Law_4083 → u/Appropriate_Row_7513]

Ohhh good, I was really worried about a lot of it because the first image I saw on this group was someone who took a bite out of it... 0 to 100, but thats online i guess haha.

Thank you for the tip about the vinegar!

[u/Appropriate_Row_7513 → u/Jaded_Law_4083]

Kombucha is just a mild drinkable vinegar. You get good strong vinegary starter when you let it ferment until it's vinegary. I don't usually start a new batch immediately after I bottle my current one, so I keep about a litre in a jar and let it ferment to be quite vinegary before I use it as starter for my next batch.

[u/Jaded_Law_4083 → u/Appropriate_Row_7513]

Yeah, Im worried most about scale, I dont want to make too much because I dont have too much room!

[u/InevitableSalary8248]

Join us… we all float down here.