First ever Homemade Kombucha attempt.
Ingredients:
1) Bring 1 gallon spring water to rolling boil then cut the flame.
2) Stirr in 1 1/4 cup organic light brown raw cane sugar until dissolved.
3) Then add 3 family sized Luzianne tea bags (pure black tea - no additives).
4) Put lid back on pot and allow to cool until room temperature, I'm going to let it cool till morning.
It's just a really strong and sweet, tea in non-chemical treated spring water at this point. I want to believe the key is to keep ingredients pure and at room temperature. for a strong ferment when I add in the SCOBY.
Farmbabe said you finally getting around to making Kombucha? I said I'll try my imperfect best. She gave me a big smile and a wink. That made me laugh
I'll update this post at important stages. So it's not all over the place.
Part Two - primary fermentation.
Like with anything fermented sanitization is the key for success. I opt for the use of
star san because I know it works very well.
Here's what you need to get the ferment rolling.
1) 1 gallon of strong and very sweet black tea that has cooled to room temperature. I let the pot cool overnight with the lid on.
2) Clean and sanitized fermentation vessel. I opted for a 9 lb food grade bucket, because it was handy
3) Organic SCOBY Starter purchased on-line.
Steps:
1) With clean and sanitized (star san) hands. Remove the three tea bags and squeeze out the excess liquid.
2) Carefully dump cooled to room temperature strong and very sweet black tea mixture into the fermentation vessel.
3) Add the contents of the SCOBY package to the fermentation vessel and place the lid on the fermentation vessel. Leave the lid cracked so it can breathe but not allow insects in.
4) Now it's just a waiting game... Primary fermentation takes 14 days. So I'll post again when primary fermentation is done with the next steps.
floating SCOBY and starter culture beginning primary fermentation.
Day 2 minor update:
Something must be happening in the primary fermenter. I didn't even know I had fruit flies in here. But apparently I do, because they found the fermenting Kombucha.
I put a elastic grain seeping brew sock overtop the cracked lidded fermenter and a "wine hack" a jar with apple cider vinegar and a drop of Palmolive Original Green to trap the fruit flies. It may take a few days to trap all the fruit flies but that's OK I have a little less than two weeks to go.
I guess you could do pantyhose or a clean towel and rubber band also. IDK the brew sock was handy so that's what I used.
Day 4 with all fruit flies gone I cracked the lid and yep seen a baby SCOBY forming on top of the brew. Mother SCOBY must have sunk, maybe she's on the bottom? Wine hack worked again, all fruit flies on the bottom of the pint jar
Day 5 So many flavorings, so little kombucha.
Jesus is Lord and Christ
It came from Kansas with 
i recently was able to restock this getting two bottles because i hate being caught short. the lack of spices around here in most cooking means i often add hot sauces to things on my plate because, well, i do like spicy foods and cook that way normally if left to my own devices. the only odd ingredient in TJ's Dragon Sauce is Xanthan Gum which is not something that bothers me. the thing i do like is that it has cilantro in it with lime and garlic along with the hot peppers (Jalapeno and Habanero). it's not super hot (about the same to me as Sriracha) which is an ok level of heat.
