<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:bookman old style, new york, times, serif;font-size:10pt"><div><span>Hi Slowomir and all! </span></div><div><span>Because you are on the food hacking base list, I posting there too now, answers in the text.</span></div><div></div><div> </div><div>Frantisek Algoldor Apfelbeck<br><br></div><div>biotechnologist&kvasir and hacker</div><br><br><div>http://www.frantisekapfelbeck.org</div><div><br><br></div><div>"There is no way to peace, peace is the way." Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi<br><br> <div style="font-family: bookman old style, new york, times, serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006"> </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" dir="ltr" class="ms__id5006"> <font size="2" face="Arial"> <div style="margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 1px
solid rgb(204, 204, 204); height: 0px; line-height: 0; font-size: 0px;" class="hr" contentEditable="false" readonly="true"></div> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Slawomir Jabs <slawek.jabs@proidea.org.pl><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Frantisek Apfelbeck <algoldor@yahoo.com> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Monday, January 28, 2013 8:55 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Help needed!<br> </font> </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006"> <br>
Hey!<br>It's good the hear you made it back to Korea.<br><br>Actually I need your help. I have started brewing Komboocha yet I am at the<br>verge of not knowing what to do now.<br>So looking back at the history:<br><br>1.At the beginning of January i made a setup for brewing the mother from<br>what you gave me at the ccc. Around 2-2,5 L of tea + sugar in a jar to<br>prepare the base for further processes.<br><br>2. That stayed for somewhere around 25 days and has grew a nice 7mm thick<br>mother. I hope it's not a problem it stood longer then two weeks (which you<br>told me to do)?can you clarify?<br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006">>> well you let it little bit over I guess especially if the temperature was above 20 degrees but it should be fine, it is growing. It is quite handy to leave the mother grow in one batch for longer at the beginning because you get thicker
mother which is more easy to manipulate/transfer, however the liquid is too strong to drink but it can be used for vinager if aged. </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006"> </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006">3. Yestarday i took a huge put with 10l of tea+ 1kg sugar and moved the<br>mother and half of the liquid to it and covered with a cloth.<br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006">>> The mother should be big enough to take care about this volume of sugar/tea syrup (growing medium), however the concentration which is around 10% (w/v) is bit too high meaning that it will be quite strong ferment. I generally use 6% (w/v) of sugar so in your case I would dissolve 600 g in final volume of 10 l. Which sugar did you use? Light
brown sugar is more nourishing for the microbes but it gives a bit of molases flavour which not everyone enjoyes.</div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006"> </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006">What to do next, i assume that it should take around 2 weeks for the first<br>part of the fermentation and then I should bottle the liquid, right? How<br>much longer should i keep it bottled before drinking?<br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006">>> If you ferment at the temperature of around 20 degrees or higher than you should check the taste after 5 days or so, depending also on the size of your mother (bigger = faster fermentation). I would say that within 10 days you can have your brew for flavouring/bottling. You can check more details
about these steps on the link below</div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006"> </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006"><a href="https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Kombucha_Brewing_Manual">https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Kombucha_Brewing_Manual</a></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006"> </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006">>> but in a simple way strain your kombucha, preferably through some cheesecloth or muslin (or other textile to take out pieces of kombucha which not everyone likes in the drink and which helps to form kombucha mother in your bottles faster) to some bowl and after that make sure that the brew is bit sweeter than you like it and once it is so, bottle
it and make sure that the bottles are air tight. If you leave it for another one or two days at room temperature you will get a nice gassification, once happy move it to the fridge and I recommend to leave it to sit/mature for one or two weeks, it gets better but you can drink immediately. If you do not like your drink fizzy make sure that you bottle it when it is right to your taste and again let mature in the fridge. By the way it is really good to bottle the drink at least to one plastic bottle because you can see and touch feeling the pressure which builds up in the bottle, otherwise I like to use glass for my drinks whenever I can.</div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006"> </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006">Are there any parts of the process, which can make it dangerous? (i don't<br>know much about
fermentation, I wouldn't want to make metanol or whatever;))<br>Are there any problems that might occur? I read somewhere about checking<br>the PH of the brewed process.<br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006">>> If it is not too hot which means over 30 degrees of celsius for longer periods of time (many days or week etc) you should be safe. You can look if there is not some fungal contamination (like on the marmelade) but I did not have any since I started to ferment which is many years ago so you should be fine. Once the mother grows it eliminates quite everything else and you can state the health of the mother by the thickness and quality of the cellulos - when you take it into your hand it should be compact and strong, not tearing appart easily.</div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"
class="ms__id5006"> </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006">Thanks!<br>Your sincerely<br>Fermentation Apprentice Slawomir.<br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006">>> I hope I helped you should have fun with your new pet, I'm now enjoying with water kefir grains! :-)</div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006"> </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006">>> Sincerely from Jeju,</div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006"> </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006">>> FAA<var id="yui-ie-cursor"></var></div><div style="font-family:
times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006"> </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="ms__id5006">Pozdrawiam / Best Regards<br>--<br>Sławomir Jabs<br>PROIDEA Foundation<br>Conference Organizing Team<br><br>4Developers 2013: April, 12th, Warsaw, http://4developers.org.pl/<br>CONFidence 2013: May, 28-29th, Krakow, http://confidence.org.pl/<br>JDD 2013: October, 14-15th, Krakow, http://jdd.org.pl/<br><br>Mobile: +48506689591<br>E-mail: <a href="mailto:slawek.jabs@proidea.org.pl" ymailto="mailto:slawek.jabs@proidea.org.pl">slawek.jabs@proidea.org.pl</a><br>www: http://proidea.org.pl/<br><br><br><br><br> </div> </div> </div></div></body></html>