Inspired by GT’s Organic Raw Kombucha, a fermented sweetened tea drink, I started researching how to make Kombuch a few weeks ago. I got a culture, made some sweet tea, and set it to rest for a couple of weeks. Then there were two cultures (as the “mother” creates a “baby” during the fermenting process). Then, two weeks later, there were four.
There’s one of the newest additions to the family – and just a week old! I’ll be giving the cultures away to interested locals, and soon the whole town of Morris will be kombucha-brewing fanatics. It’s a delightful carbonated drink, in my opinion, though many may think it’s too reminiscent of vinegar. It gets better after bottling with time (and we’ve collected enough GT’s Kombucha bottles). Now I’m in search of more gallon-sized jars. They come with pickles for $5 at the grocery store but… how could we possibly use that many pickles?
Ironically I had the same gallon jar problem when I had many betta fish. Gallon jars a nice spacious homes for them. I ended up trying the pickle thing, but only got about three jars that way. I gave up around the time I went to Morris. My mom actually sent my last jar of pickles with me!
Help! I tried making kombucha last week, and I think I may have killed my culture. It looks nothing like yours. I have been searching around the net for advice, and found your blog.
My culture turned kinda brown, and there isn’t any babies. It’s just slimy brown. :( I followed the instructions, so I don’t know what happened. The tea is still sweet too.
It takes up to 20 days for the kombucha to “brew” – so it may just not be ready yet. The brown stuff is probably just spent yeast – the reason the tea is still sweet is probably because it’s not done fermenting.
Give it another week and see what happens!
Just an idea … my daughter and all her little friends LOVE pickles so if you have children or know some do snack plates of pickles cheese and crackers or throw a couple of pickles on the side of each lunch. You’ll go through jars in no time! :)