Making Kombucha - Part Two

Just quickly, if you haven’t already, read part one of my kombucha making journey so this post makes sense…
 
Talk about a roller-coaster of a first batch of kombucha! I tasted my kombucha on day seven and liked the flavor, however I was away for the next few days (bad planning on my part – sorry kombucha) so I couldn’t stop the first fermenting process at that time.
 
Fast forward to day twelve and I tried it again. I did like the flavor, but this time my kombucha was a lot more bitter… actually, it tasted more vinegary than bitter (not bad, just not ideal for my taste buds). This week being a bit of a shamble for me I was only able to stop the first fermenting process and start flavouring on day fourteen – my flavours of choice were ginger for one bottle and mint and lime for the other.

Did I mention my kombucha grew a baby SCOBY?! Proud mother moment over here. Check out my babies in the photo below (if you’ve never seen a SCOBY don’t freak out, I swear they’re meant to look like slimy little alien mushrooms). In the second photo: The dark one on the right is the mother that I bought from someone off Gumtree and the round one is the baby that grew to the size of my brewing jar.

Baby SCOBY on top or baby SCOBY at the bottom, it doesn't matter where it grows!

Now, now. Don't judge a SCOBY by it's looks, these little babies make magic

So anyway, I still have full faith this batch will be delicious and I’ve jumped straight into making my second batch having learned a few things from round one. Here’s a few adjustments I’ve made to my recipe:
 
8 tea bags (usually all black but sometimes I will substitute some of the black tea for green)
14 - 16 cups of water
1 cup of sugar
1.5 cup starter tea
 
The reason for these adjustments are basically due to the amount of kombucha I ended up with (after tasting it a few times by bottles weren’t very full). Through no-one’s fault but my own, I must have miscalculated the conversions between American units of measurements to Australian – literally every recipe I found was in gallons and quarts…. What even is a quart?! Anyway, I think I should have enough now for my two glass bottles… but we’ll see how I go.

My new, second batch of kombucha

My plan now is to stop the first fermenting process at day seven or eight and flavor, then ferment for a day or two and then stop the fermenting process all together.
 
Hopefully this time isn’t such a roller-coaster, more of a leisurely stroll in the park on a nice day.

Ps. Thank you for following me on my kombucha making journey! I'd love to hear any tips or ideas you have about kombucha or anything really so feel free to leave me a comment.
 
Georgia x