Kombucha Mini Course Day 4

Today we will explore a basic kombucha recipe BUT we will kick it up with my personal tips and advanced techniques.

Though this information is to help get you started in the brewing process, uou will quickly discover that it is simply an outline to use as needed. Just as every great baker uses flour, eggs, and milk - but at the same time adjusts accordingly to their taste.



>>BASIC BREWING RECIPE<<

Make your SWEET TEA solution:

This is the liquid that feeds the culture and is turned into the finished Kombucha tea

[ME - We spoke about this in Class One].

To make the nutrient, take approx. 1 liter of water.

The water should either be filtered/distilled/spring or should already have been boiled for at least 5 minutes.

[Depending where you live, tap water can be fine if you boil for 5 to 10 minutes, boiling will remove some chlorine and other additives that could potentially "kill" the HEALTHY bacteria that your kombucha tea will yield, I wrote an article dedicated to choosing your best water source and will be posting that article in the future].

Bring the water to the boil in a kettle, stainless steel or heat-resistant glass household cooking pot.

[Ceramic and Porcelain Pots are Great, however make sure that they do not contain any lead as the lead could leak into the kombucha, not a good thing. Stainless Steel pots are the standard and work excellent, however make sure that your pot is stainless steel AND NOT ALUMINIUM!]

After boiling, add ONE CUP of sugar.

[regular sugar from your local grocery store is fine, and in fact might actually be better than other sugar sources such as Organic Sugar, Cane Sugar, Sugar in the Raw, and Brown Sugar. After brewing a few batches feel free to experiment (please see the EXPERIMENT SECTION AT THE END OF THIS SECTION). However, under no circumstance should you use a sugar substitute. I will repeat that because I know many of you have heard some great feedback from people incorporating drinking kombucha tea to aid in weight management so you might be thinking great I'll just use Splenda or Equal to cut down on the sugar. DO NOT USE ARTIFICIAL SWEETENER TO SUBSTITUTE FOR SUGAR!!. The sugar used in the tea is not for you to consume, it is for the SCOBY to consume. The SCOBY "eats" the sugar and converts it into the many healthy organic acids. To reduce sugar intake you do have some options. Use a little less sugar to brew your tea (3/4 of a cup instead of 1 cup). OR let your tea ferment a little longer. The longer you ferment, the more the SCOBY will convert the sugar, and the less sugar will be remaining. Just know that the initial cup of sugar will result into about a teaspoon of actual sugar you will be consuming. WAY, WAY LESS THAN A SODA OR SOME ORANGE JUICE.]



Add 5 to 6 tea bags or a pre-measured tea bag.

[An alternative is to use pre-measured tea. GetKombucha.com provides pre-measured tea blends in its own custom tea filter. Our proprietary tea blend uses a combination of select Green Sencha from Japan, carefully blended with Black Ceylon and Assam from India. I also wrote an article going into depth of the best type of tea to use with kombucha (yeah in case you haven't noticed I'm kind of a kombucha tea geek!), but today's class is pretty long already. So for now know this: There are benefits for using BOTH teas. When I mean benefit, I mean both have different health properties to them, as well as helping with brewing time, and general taste of your kombucha tea. We recommend begin brewing with a combination, and eventually change the recipe as desired to personal taste.]

Stir Your Sugar and Tea.

[Using a clean wooden or plastic spoon. Wooden is better as plastic could melt at such high temperatures. DO NOT use aluminum.]

Boil for an Additional 15 minutes.

Pour 3 liters of water, into your brewing container.

[As discussed, your brewing container is the container that your Sweet Tea, SCOBY, and Starter Tea all go into the brew K-Tea. The container should be either glass, lead free ceramic (lead free Porcelain is even better) or an FDA approved Food Grade 1 or 2 Plastic. This recipe uses the "quick cooling" technique to cut time on cooling down your boiled tea. Therefore, the 3 liters you are adding into your container NEEDS to be COOL and Filtered (ie, Spring/Distilled). Otherwise, simply boil all 4 liters at once in your pot (if your pot is big enough), and wait until your water cools (could take up to 8 hours!).]

After 15 minutes, remove the tea bags; then add the sweet tea to the rest of the water in the brewing container.

[Let cool to room temperature before going any further, otherwise you can kill your SCOBY when placing it in!!]

>>ADDING YOUR SCOBY<<

Once at the right temperature, place the culture in the liquid. It may float or sink, it doesn't matter which, it will work just the same. Then add at least ONE to TWO cups of STARTER TEA.

>>READY FOR BREWING<<

Cover the top of the container with your muslin or kitchen towel and use an elastic band to hold it in place.

[Remember the SCOBY is a living organism that needs to breathe, so we do not put a non breathable cover over it (not until we achieve a desired K-Tea), however the sweet vinegar concoction will attract fruit flies so by placing a muslin cloth over the container it will ensure to keep things that we don't want out (bugs, dust, etc).]

>>FINDING A HOME FOR YOUR BREWER<<

Move the container to a suitable location. Somewhere that it can be left undisturbed for about a week. It should be away from tobacco smoke, strong smells and not in the kitchen if there is a lot of grease in the air from frying food.

[If you do put your brew into a cupboard please bear in mind a couple of things: It needs to be left undisturbed the whole time so, don't put it on top of your stack of towels or bed linen. Also, the culture needs air, so leave the door open.]

>>TASTING SOONER THAN LATER (...who says patience is a virtue?)<<



After 5 days, it is time to taste!

If you take a good deep sniff in your brewing container it will probably smell a little like vinegar (that's a good thing!)

Press down lightly on the newly formed culture with the back of a plastic spoon so that you can get a sample of the tea. Or slide a plastic straw carefully down the side of the new culture and sample a little.

>>HOW DO I KNOW IT'S READY?<<

You are looking for a slightly sharp (acidic), not sweet taste. If it is not quite there yet then put the cover back on and leave it for another day or so before tasting again.

The length of brewing time can vary quite a lot but, it is normally between 5 days to 2 weeks though, it can take longer under certain circumstances.

[How strong your starter tea was, what type of tea was used, time of season, temperature controls, location, how much air, if the tea was or was not left undisturbed, how many SCOBYs were places in the container (more SCOBYS = faster brewing time), etc, are just some of the many circumstances that affect brewing time and taste]

I know it is difficult to tell what the right taste is when you first begin but you will get the hang of it quickly.

Once you have the right taste, it is time to bottle your lovely, healthy Kombucha tea.

>>>Speaking of Bottling (how great is that segue, huh?), we will discuss bottling your K-Tea in all its glory in the next class. I know there is a lot of info, but you will soon discover IT IS EASY! Save this class and use it as a quick reference for the future.

CLASS DISMISSED!

Happy Brewin' Dave :)

Breakthrough: Lose 90 lbs in 45 days!