Kombucha - Fermented Drinks Part 4

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I photographed the first changing out of the Kombucha tea some time back. I already need to do it again, probably today, as I have a nice new SCOBY baby.

Here you can see the jar as I took it out of the cabinet. The 'mother' is floating halfway up and at an angle. It doesn't matter where you see the mother at, so if yours is in a different place, no need to worry.





The new baby is floating at the top where it should be, as it forms there. The top is a bit rumply. Again, no cause for concern. They grow unevenly.





Underneath you see strings of dead yeast cells. Many people drink these right down. I prefer to strain them off. If you have concerns about yeast overgrowth, please keep in mind that these are DEAD yeast cells, not living. The 34 probiotics take completely over and you are feeding your GI tract with wonderful bacteria.





Cut a piece of cheesecloth to strain the tea.





I've taken out the baby SCOBY and you are looking at the top of it. It feels a bit like lightweight, wet rubber.





Flipping it over to look at the bottom, you can see the strings of dead yeast cells. Just wipe or rinse those off if you don't like them. This is a nice, healthy looking SCOBY, grown exactly to the shape of the top of the tea line in the half-gallon canning jar I used.





I've affixed the cheesecloth to a quart pitcher with a rubber band to strain the tea. This is not a necessary step, but I like my tea clear.





Here is what is left at the bottom of the fermenting jar. I just rinsed it for reuse in the next batch.





What was strained out.





The tea.





And you can see that it is fizzy. There is a negligible amount of alcohol in Kombucha tea. I do not like the taste of alcohol, and I can't taste it at all. You'd have to drink a couple of gallons very quickly to get any sort of a buzz, so don't worry about the small amount in there.





I've made up a new batch of very sweet and very strong tea, and let it cool to room temperature, as I described in a previous post.





I'm making about a 1/3 of a gallon this time, so I've added about a cup of the fermented Kombucha that I just strained out back into the jar to use as a PH balancer and starter for the new batch.





Fill the rest of the way with the freshly brewed and cooled tea.





And drop your little SCOBY baby in, to become this batches 'mother'.





Beginning it's lovely work.





And back into a dark place, to lie undisturbed for a couple of weeks.





I threw the original mother out, as she was not in the best shape. And I now have a new baby to take out from this batch you just saw.

That's all there is to it!

~Faith

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