Kombucha Fail
Kombucha Fail
A Lesson on Listening to Too Many Advice Blogs at Once
Hello Higher-Minded Humans,
If you’ve ever tried to brew your own buch, you know that there are a lot of differing opinions about the process online. Some say brew the tea for 5 minutes, some say 20. Some say no metal ever, and others say ball jars are fine for storage. Usually, I consult #planttok or #herbtok about brewing plants in any way, but the only thing I really found out on that platform was that a lot of people deal with exploding bottles.
For some reason, I didn’t think that could happen to me, so I didn’t really pay attention to those warnings. I had brewed about 6 batches up to this point, and none of them were heavily carbonated. But then I began using flip-top bottles from Ikea…and, well, I’ll let this TikTok explain the rest. *1
Since the incident (that left my high vaulted ceilings permanently splattered with blueberry blobs), I’ve had a lot of delicious brews, but I’ve also tossed a good bit.
What I’ve learned so far:
Procrastination and buch do not mix
Never use Earl Grey, even though it’s a black tea (wound up with a moldy batch)
Invest in PH test strips
Always taste before proceeding to second fermentation
You can drink too much buch in a day (and not sleep)
Having a Scoby hotel is only cool when you know people who want Scoby babies
Over-fermented brews can be repurposed as a facial toner, household cleaner, marinade, salad dressing, and more
Old pickle jars don’t work well for storage
There are so many ways to flavor it, but my favorite is currently watermelon (JR’s fave is a blend of rosemary, sage, and mint)
Scoby maintenance is actually quite fun
I began doing small batch in one vessel and continuous brewing in another but have now moved over to two continuous brewing vessels. Which means I’m making new batches every few days and have more buch than I can drink. So, I may be giving some bottles away at our next event!
Do you brew your own? Let me know if you have any tips in the comments!
You can see the blueberry chunks on my face that blend in with my freckles