[foodhackingbase] Help needed!

[Slawomir Jabs]

Hey Frantisek!
Thanks for all the info. The brew is alive. Actually it's my first homepet i
ever had:D



From: Frantisek Apfelbeck <algoldor at yahoo.com>
Reply-To: Frantisek Apfelbeck <algoldor at yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2013 23:47:55 -0800 (PST)
To: "foodhackingbase at lists.hackerspaces.org"
<foodhackingbase at lists.hackerspaces.org>
Cc: Slawomir Jabs <slawek.jabs at proidea.org.pl>
Subject: Re: Help needed!

Hi Slowomir and all!
Because you are on the food hacking base list, I posting there too now,
answers in the text.
 

Hey!
It's good the hear you made it back to Korea.

Actually I need your help. I have started brewing Komboocha yet I am at the
verge of not knowing what to do now.
So looking back at the history:

1.At the beginning of January i made a setup for brewing the mother from
what you gave me at the ccc. Around  2-2,5 L of tea + sugar in a jar to
prepare the base for further processes.

2. That stayed for somewhere around 25 days and has grew a nice 7mm thick
mother. I hope it's not a problem it stood longer then two weeks (which you
told me to do)?can you clarify?
>> 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.
 
>>>by the way, i don't quite get how much of the mother should i take afterwards
(from the 10l jar). I mean how much of the mother and the liquid for further
brewing?

3. Yestarday i took a huge put with 10l of tea+ 1kg sugar and moved the
mother and half of the liquid to it and covered with a cloth.
>> 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.
 
>>>Ok, I have added one more liter of boiled water so it should be fine. Of
course cooled first. I used normal white suger, yet I will see afterwards couse
maybe the brown is better as you said.

What to do next, i assume that it should take around 2 weeks for the first
part of the fermentation and then I should bottle the liquid, right? How
much longer should i keep it bottled before drinking?
>> 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
 
https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Kombucha_Brewing_Manual
 
>> 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.
 
>>>Will do that!

Are there any parts of the process, which can make it dangerous? (i don't
know much about fermentation, I wouldn't want to make metanol or whatever;))
Are there any  problems that might occur? I read somewhere about checking
the PH of the brewed process.
>> 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.
 
>>>What about the alcohol fermentation, I don't know much about the processes
and I am a bit afraid not to create the environment for creating metanol? What
should be avoided not to do that?

Thanks!
Your sincerely
Fermentation Apprentice Slawomir.
>> I hope I helped you should have fun with your new pet, I'm now enjoying with
water kefir grains! :-)
 
>>>One more question, can we find somewhere what are the exact helth benefits
from drinking this kind of drink?

--
Sławomir Jabs
PROIDEA Foundation
Conference Organizing Team

  


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