My kombucha jar wears a doily to hide the SCOBY for my husband’s sensibilities.
Kombucha has been appreciated by humankind for a very long
time and has become a continuous treat at our home. Its origins are lost, but kombucha probably
originated in China over 2000 years ago.
Kombucha is a fermented tea which means that its production involves the
breakdown of sugars by bacteria and yeast.
This fermentation process is similar to brewing wine and beer and making
sourdough bread.
Probiotics Function
Fermentation enhances the preservation of foods. Eating fermented foods can also boost the number of beneficial bacteria, or probiotics, found in your gut. These bacteria line your digestive tract and support your immune system, as they absorb nutrients and fight infection and illness. Since 80 percent of your immune system is located in your gut, and the digestive system is the second largest part of your neurological system, it’s no surprise that the gut is considered the “second brain.” The bacteria that live inside our intestines break down our food. But they also modulate things like our blood sugar and even our immune system.
Probiotics have been associated with a variety of health benefits, including improved digestion, better immunity and even increased weight loss. Although more research is needed, animal and test-tube studies have found that kombucha could help protect the liver, decrease blood sugar and reduce levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. Two thousand years of human consumption would indicate kombucha’s merit and enjoyment.
I find the process of making fermented food fascinating. My first foray into wine-making opened up the invisible world or wild yeast which I explored in an earlier blog post Hunting Wild Yeast & Other Game. That exploration led me to hunting the kombucha SCOBY.
What is a SCOBY?
SCOBY is the acronym for {Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast). A scoby is the living home for the bacteria and yeast that transform sweet tea into tangy, fizzy kombucha, It looks like a thick, rubbery and cloudy mass that aids the fermentation process of kombucha. Kombucha is made by adding a SCOBY to green or black tea with sugar added for the SCOBY to feed on. The mixture is then allowed to ferment for 5-7 days. In the fermentation process the tea becomes effervescent as the SCOBY consumes most of the sugar during the fermentation process. There is very little sugar left in the recipe after fermentation. Kombucha has a minimal alcoholic content of about .5%. Pregnant women should consult with a health professional about consumption of this probiotic drink.
Requirements for Success
Tea, sugar, water & a SCOBY create kombucha
I use a continuous brew kombucha method to ensure that I always have a supply for daily consumption and to reduce the time spent replenishing our family supply. The only equipment needed is a 2-2 ½ gallon glass container with a tap for dispensing the kombucha. I found a glass dispenser at Walmart for $14.99. Avoid ceramic containers as they will release lead into the kombucha due to its acidic nature.
Besides the container the only other necessities are a
SCOBY, black or green tea, sugar and distilled or filtered water. Tap water contains chlorine and other
additives that will kill the SCOBY, so it is essential to use filtered or
distilled water when brewing kombucha.
If you don’t have a friend who is brewing kombucha who will supply a
SCOBY, they are available on Amazon for about $9.99 which is how I acquired
mine. You can create a SCOBY from
scratch, but in the interest of time I ordered mine on-line.
When brewing kombucha, cleanliness is essential. As in canning, cleaning and sterilizing both equipment,
your hands and workspace is necessary to keep harmful bacteria from invading
the tea. My dishwasher and antibacterial
soap for my hands and counters have supplied the necessary cleaning procedure. If your SCOBY develops mold, dispose of it
and start over. Contaminated kombucha
can develop salmonella!
Recipe and Process
Ingredients:
6-8 green or black tea bags (or 2 Tablespoons loose tea)
1 cup organic raw sugar or honey (I have used raw honey effectively, but sugar is more cost effective.)
1 kombucha SCOBY
(I repeat the tea process three or four times the
first time I fill my continuous brew container.
Only one SCOBY is required for the entire dispenser.)
Directions:
Place tea bags in 8 cup jar and add the boiling water;
Allow the tea to steep until cool.
Take out tea bags.
Dissolve sugar in tea.
Add 4 cups cold water.
Pour tea into drink dispenser.
Add SCOBY to cooled tea with a cup of starter kombucha tea. High temperatures will kill the yeast in the SCOBY, so temperatures less than 105 degrees are needed for a SCOBY culture to live.
Cover the mouth of the dispenser with a dishtowel, coffee filter or muslin. I use an over-sized hair tie to secure a coffee filter over my drink dispenser. Do not use cheesecloth as fruit flies love kombucha and will find their way into the kombucha for a party. Do not use a lid as kombucha requires oxygen for fermentation.
Set the drink dispenser in a warm place where it will not be
disturbed and let it ferment for 5-7 days.
Little bubbles will form showing that fermentation is taking place.
Begin tasting the kombucha after 5-7 days until the flavor suits your taste. The longer it brews, the more acidic it becomes. I like mine on the sweeter side and bottle it sooner rather than later. I use recycled wine bottles for bottling the kombucha before putting it in the refrigerator to stop fermentation and to extend its shelf life.
Health Benefits
If you already eat a whole foods-based diet, drinking
kombucha regularly is a great addition that can help you maintain peak immune
health, which trickles down into an impressive number of benefits for your overall
health. Kombucha usually contains a bit
of caffeine (since it’s made with tea), but the amount is small when compared
to coffee, tea, soda and other popular caffeinated beverages. Typically, about
one-third of the tea’s caffeine remains after it’s been fermented, which is
about 10 to 25 milligrams per serving for black tea.
You can also add fresh fruit to flavor kombucha. Flavors are limited only by one’s imagination. If you add flavoring, consider that when storing the it. For example, fresh fruits will go bad in the kombucha long before the drink. I use fruit concentrates from Piping Rock to flavor my brew and increase health benefits of the drink. Just a small amount of concentrate in the bottle flavors and enhances the kombucha.
Blueberry juice concentrate has many health benefits. Blueberries get their blue color from anthocyanins that are a type of white blood cell that fights inflammation. Research suggests the anthocyanins in blueberries can be as effective as medicine at lowering blood pressure in healthy adults. So, we’re seeing that blueberries not only fight the root cause of diabetes (inflammation), but also boost our gut’s “good bugs” and combat insulin resistance. Kombucha made from green tea is likely to be even more beneficial, as green tea itself has been shown to reduce blood sugar levels.
Elderberry syrup may benefit respiratory health; they have been used to support healthy lungs in folk wellness practices. Elderberries support the cardiovascular system as well, and are believed to influence blood lipid levels and arterial flexibility. Blueberry and elderberry concentrate make healthy additions.
SCOBY Growth & Reproduction
To keep your continuous brew kombucha going, add more sweetened
tea as you drink it down. The SCOBY will
continue to feed on the fresh sweetened tea and transform into a refreshing
probiotic drink. The mother SCOBY will
add layers to its culture with each addition of fresh tea infusion. The mother’s life will deteriorate after
about a month. At this point it is simple
to remove the SCOBY (remember—clean hands and utensils) and peel the older SCOBY
from the newly minted SCOBY. It is very
easy to peel the layers apart but very tough to cut. I found that out through experience. Cutting does not hurt the SCOBY, but it is
tough to slice vertically,
As the SCOBY grows each month, it is a simple procedure to save baby scobies peeled from the mother in a SCOBY hotel. Store the baby SCOBY in a bit of already-made kombucha in a glass jar while not using it so you have it on hand to start a new batch when you want it, or give it as a gift for friends wanting to start kombucha production. It will be “active” for several weeks when it’s stored in some kombucha at room temperature on a counter top or in a pantry. I have also added old scobies to my compost pile to activate composting. Other enthusiasts have fed old scobies to the chickens.
Mint was one of Spring’s harbingers together with the asparagus. I grow mint in the cinder blocks fencing the asparagus bed. This year I ventured into herbal wine-making.
The process was simple and the equipment and supplies readily available. I purchased two gallon jugs at a local flea market for $4.98 each, Gallon brewing bottles are also available on line. Additional supplies needed include an air lock and champagne yeast from Amazon. The ingredients list included mint leaves, sugar, orange juice, filtered water and the wine yeast.
The recipe called for sterile utensils and containers as you would need for any canning or fermentation process. I sterilized the gallon container in which I would mix the ingredients, filtered a gallon of tap water and put it on to boil. Earlier I had picked 4 cups of mint leaves which I washed and stripped from their stems.
Proof one package wine yeast (2 tsp.) by adding it to a cup of warm (100 degree) orange juice. The yeast will begin to foam (proof) that it is alive and active as it feeds on the sugars in the juice. If the orange juice is too hot, it will kill the yeast. Make sure it is barely warmer than body temperature to activate.
Put 4 cups sugar in the sterilized gallon jar and add two cups of the boiling filtered water to the jug and swirl to dissolve the sugar.
Stuff mint leaves through the neck of the gallon jar and then pour the boiling water through a funnel into the jar leaving enough room to add the proofed yeast after the mixture has cooled to 90 –100 degrees.
Stopper the bottle with a sterilized air lock and watch for the wine mixture to begin to bubble up through the lock in about an hour. If the mixture fails to bubble within a few hours, the yeast was probably killed. If this happens, just proof another packet of yeast in orange juice and add to the fledgling wine.
After the wine stops bubbling up into the stopper, rack the wine. This process siphons the fermented product into a clean container in order to separate the new wine from the dregs. I found that a racking cane which keeps the lees from being sucked into the new container makes this process simple.
When most of the new wine has been transferred to a clean container, tilt the bottle to access more of the wine while avoiding the lees. Discard the dregs or compost them and sanitize the used bottle and racking equipment before using them on the next batch of wine.
This process may be repeated at intervals before bottling until the wine clears although cloudy wine, like imperfect fruit, is still perfectly fine to consume.
When the wine clears, bottle it in sterilized bottles. Bottles are available new, or use recycled wine bottles that have been thoroughly sterilized.
There are several beekeepers in my locale who sell unprocessed honey at the local Farmer’s Market. I always stock up when I go. When I came across a recipe for making mead (one of my favorite drinks), I catapulted myself into the world of wine and mead brewing in my kitchen. The process is simple and takes few supplies to instigate.
What is Mead?
Mead is an ancient drink. Wikipedia notes this Roman recipe from 60 AD which apparently relied on the wild yeast in the atmosphere for fermentation just as sourdough bread uses wild yeast to activate flour and water to make the bread rise. Take rainwater kept for several years, and mix a sextarius of this water with a [Roman] pound of honey. For a weaker mead, mix a sextarius of water with nine ounces of honey. The whole is exposed to the sun for 40 days, and then left on a shelf near the fire. If you have no rain water, then boil spring water
Necessary Equipment
The modern recipe I used is an improvement over this centuries’ old recipe. Brewing requires two gallon jugs, wine bottles, champagne yeast, a racking cane with four feet of plastic tubing, a funnel, and a heavy-duty balloon as well as honey, raisins, champagne yeast, and distilled or filtered water. I gathered supplies from flea markets and Amazon.
I found the gallon containers for $4.49 at a flea market. You need at least two containers for transferring your mixture when you rack (siphon off the brew from the fruit and dregs) the mead.
The hardest item to find was the balloon. I finally found heavy duty balloons at my local grocery store in the floral department for 20 cents apiece and bought two.
The champagne yeast and racking cane with tubing came from Amazon, I recycled my empty wine bottles for bottling the mead. One note of importance in making mead or wine is that all the utensils and containers are clean and sterilized before use to ensure success.
The recipe I used required the following
Ingredients:
1 gallon filtered water (Chlorine will kill the yeast needed for fermentation.)
1 quart (4 cups) honey
1 cup any fruit juice or 1-2 Tablespoons any jelly dissolved in 1 cup of non-chlorinated water. (I used my homemade apple jelly.)
1 package champagne yeast or white wine yeast½ cup raisins (not golden)
Directions:·
Bring gallon of water to boil.
Warm honey in bowl or pan of warm water (Do not microwave,)
Pour the honey into a sterilized gallon jug.
Fill the gallon jar half way with boiled water and swirl to dissolve the honey.· Add the raisins.
Fill the gallon jar to the shoulders with the remaining boiled water leaving enough space to add the yeast mixture.
Wait till the mead mixture has cooled to 100-105 degrees F to proof the yeast. (If the sweetened liquid is too hot, the yeast will die.)
Heat the fruit juice or jelly and water to lukewarm (100-105 degrees F).
Sprinkle champagne yeast into mixture to proof –which means that it will foam and bubble showing that the yeast is active. Let it foam for five minutes or so to activate.
When the liquid in the gallon jar has cooled to lukewarm (100-105 degrees F), add the yeast mixture.
Stopper the jug and watch for bubbling that signals the beginning of fermentation. If the mixture does not bubble within a day, proof another packet of yeast and add to mead. Also check the expiration date on the champagne yeast to make sure it has not expired.
Many recipes call for a stoppered airlock to seal the gallon jar. Not satisfied with the seal of the stoppered airlock, I came across an article about someone making wine in Cuba who did not have access to a stoppered airlock. Necessity is the mother of invention and our Cuban friend used condoms to seal the fermenting bottles. I reasoned that a rubber balloon would work in the same manner and so experimented with a heavy duty 11-inch balloon. It was fun to watch the balloon expand with the ensuing fermentation process.
Store your fermenting mead in a warm, dark environment of about 70 degrees. I wrap my gallon jar with a tea towel to keep out the light and set it on my kitchen counter. When the yeast has settled in a layer on the bottom of the gallon container, rack the wine for the first time.
Ten days after making the mead, I awoke to a burst balloon. The yeast had formed a sediment on the bottom of the gallon jug. It was my cue to rack the mead for the first time and replace the balloon airlock.
Racking the mead requires that you siphon the mead into a clean, sterilized glass container leaving the residue fruit and sediment in the original jar. I do this by placing the receiving jug in my kitchen sink with a two-fold purpose. Anything that spills is contained, and the receiving gallon jar is lower than the raised mead jar in order to let gravity do its work. Then I set my full gallon of mead on an upended soup kettle to elevate it above the counter thus creating a gravity powered siphon. The racking cane I purchased from Amazon with its attendant plastic tubing works excellently for this process and would be hard to improve upon.
The replacement balloon shows that the mead is continuing to ferment and produce carbon dioxide. This is the resultant mead-in-process.
Fermentation can take from two weeks to several months. The mead may darken over the course of time. Racking allows the mead to clear by removing spent yeast each time it’s racked. While there are no hard and fast rules about how often or when to rack the mead, over-racking (more than four times) may cause the mead to break down. However, allowing the yeast to remain in the mead may cause it to have a strong yeasty taste. The racking process may take several weeks to several months before the mead is ready to be bottled.
When you’re ready to bottle the mead, sterilize the wine bottles that you have collected. I use my dishwasher with the heat cycle to accomplish this feat. The racking cane works well to fill each of the mead bottles. Cork the bottle and store at 65-70 degrees in a dark cupboard or corner for six months to a year to finish the aging process of your mead.
I found a compact wine rack that keeps my mead in a cool corner in my basement. Be sure to label and date your mead to remember when it’s time to uncork and celebrate the honey harvest.
Welcome to Country Parson's Wife, I'm Dr. Mary Ellen, author, teacher and wife of a country pastor for 50 years. My blog is dedicated to a lifestyle built on faith, family, simplicity and self-sufficiency that enhances the health, peace, beauty and industry of our homes and gardens.
My prayer is that you be encouraged and propelled into the abundant life God has prepared for you.
Recent Comments