RE: Better Brewing Skills?

[Guest guest]

yeah didnt think so but since rezz mentioned it thought id ask thanks

________________________________

To: original_kombucha

Sent: Tue, February 15, 2011 4:34:25 PM

Subject: Re: Better Brewing Skills?

NO

>

> does stevia work for brewing kombucha??

>

>

>

> Patti

>

>

>

>

> ________________________________

>

> To: original_kombucha

> Sent: Tue, February 15, 2011 4:26:30 PM

> Subject: Re: Better Brewing Skills?

>

>

> There are concerns about Agave............

>

> Kathe

>

>

> Sender: original_kombucha

> Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:56:10

>

> barter with other people for blackstrap molasses, brown rice syrup, maple

>syrup,

>

>

>

> agave nectar, stevia in powder or liquid form, yacon nectar, lucuma syrup and

>

>

[Guest guest]

I have been following this post and i can definately say i use ordinary white

sugar and tea bags to make my kt and it has always come out fine and to my

liking tastewise. Im not well off so using expensive organic ingridients is an

option for me! I think your remarks are well out of order and i hope not to see

this kind of posting again. We are all on a learning curve and people should use

whatever they can afford and not be made to feel guilty about it which i feel

your post has done. Enjoy kt however you make it. End of rant! linda (uk)

-original message-

Subject: Re: Better Brewing Skills?

Date: 15/02/2011 9:41 pm

This thread is looking rather divisive. Here's my life - I work exclusively on

call. And I don't get any guaranteed salary - if I don't get called in, I don't

get any money. I work at a birth center - babies come when they want to,

whether or not it's my day on call, whether or not I've made enough money that

month. As such, there are months when I'm eating out of the food bank. So yes,

I use plain white sugar (the stuff you get in the bulk bins at WinCo) and I use

tea bags because THAT IS ALL THAT I I CAN AFFORD. I would love to use all the

crazy fancy organic stuff you use, but it is NOT AN OPTION for me - I'm over 4

months behind on my student loans, I only pay my power every other month, things

are bad. So it may be a " McBrew " , but you know what? A " McBrew " every day is

STILL better than no kombucha at all. So making those of us who can't afford to

do it " perfectly " feel horrible about our brewing ability is not going to be

particularly useful. Those are my thoughts and opinions on this topic.

Subject: Better Brewing Skills?

To: original_kombucha

Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 1:22 PM

greetings to all again,

if the foregoing recipe was " tried and true " , then people will never experience

a molded scoby, over-acidic brew, a scoby with a clear hole going right through

it or other peculiar anomalies. i have said so and will state without

hesitation in laying an affirmation to anyone | everyone within this forum to

demonstrate beyond debate any usage of isolated sugar(s) from any sourced

derived to be integral and indispensable for brewing now

any person knowledgeable & genuine about tea leaves knows to always use loose

leaf tea | herbs | flowers, etc. rather than tea bags which are usually

bleached, flushed with hexane and other chemical diabolics unspoken of

previously. are we here to brew quality or some McBrew (as in

Mc's) kind of KE | KT? i am asking the group about their uncensored

feelings and thoughts on this. the best ingredients & environment...

evolutionary brew,

-Rezz

________________________________

To: original_kombucha

Sent: Tue, February 15, 2011 3:37:10 PM

Subject: Re: Is it KT or has it become something else?

To keep this from happening to you...

Stick with the basic tried and true recipe.

Per Gallon:

4 (max 6) bags of tea or equivilent of loose tea

1 to 1 1/2 cups sugars

13 oz very sour starter tea (10% of 128 oz/gal)oon top of scoby

I got crazy and was adding more tea bags and way more starter and *boom* almost

instant vinegar. Tea supplies nitrogen which is food for the beasties. I guess

when they get too much food they go a bit crazy!

As a side note, I was able to bottle and drink a lot of it.

I watered it down and put it away for months in large gallon bottles with some

ginger and *voila* drinkable KT.

Cheers,

>

>

> Hi all!

> To all KT nerds! [:-B] !! I am having a new experience and am looking

> for answers if they are to be had

> All of my KT brewed a bit too long and got acidic to the point of a sip

> giving me heartburn.

> I went ahead and started new batches with 1/4 of the mix being the acid

> stuff and scobys and 3/4 sweet tea. Even after mixing in the sweet tea

> the mixture registered below 2 on the pH scale! I have read that KT is

> to be around 2.5 pH. Now I know that starter KT should be sour. I am

> only wondering if it ever gets to a point that it isn't KT anymore,

> where it doesn't have the DNA (to quote Margaret!), that makes KT KT

> and not vinegar.

> (It is still forming the infamous scoby...)

> Thanks to anyone that has maybe done this before or has knowledge of

> this!

>

> Cheers!

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

I have been following this post and i can definately say i use ordinary white

sugar and tea bags to make my kt and it has always come out fine and to my

liking tastewise. Im not well off so using expensive organic ingridients is an

option for me! I think your remarks are well out of order and i hope not to see

this kind of posting again. We are all on a learning curve and people should use

whatever they can afford and not be made to feel guilty about it which i feel

your post has done. Enjoy kt however you make it. End of rant! linda (uk)

-original message-

Subject: Re: Better Brewing Skills?

Date: 15/02/2011 9:41 pm

This thread is looking rather divisive. Here's my life - I work exclusively on

call. And I don't get any guaranteed salary - if I don't get called in, I don't

get any money. I work at a birth center - babies come when they want to,

whether or not it's my day on call, whether or not I've made enough money that

month. As such, there are months when I'm eating out of the food bank. So yes,

I use plain white sugar (the stuff you get in the bulk bins at WinCo) and I use

tea bags because THAT IS ALL THAT I I CAN AFFORD. I would love to use all the

crazy fancy organic stuff you use, but it is NOT AN OPTION for me - I'm over 4

months behind on my student loans, I only pay my power every other month, things

are bad. So it may be a " McBrew " , but you know what? A " McBrew " every day is

STILL better than no kombucha at all. So making those of us who can't afford to

do it " perfectly " feel horrible about our brewing ability is not going to be

particularly useful. Those are my thoughts and opinions on this topic.

Subject: Better Brewing Skills?

To: original_kombucha

Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 1:22 PM

greetings to all again,

if the foregoing recipe was " tried and true " , then people will never experience

a molded scoby, over-acidic brew, a scoby with a clear hole going right through

it or other peculiar anomalies. i have said so and will state without

hesitation in laying an affirmation to anyone | everyone within this forum to

demonstrate beyond debate any usage of isolated sugar(s) from any sourced

derived to be integral and indispensable for brewing now

any person knowledgeable & genuine about tea leaves knows to always use loose

leaf tea | herbs | flowers, etc. rather than tea bags which are usually

bleached, flushed with hexane and other chemical diabolics unspoken of

previously. are we here to brew quality or some McBrew (as in

Mc's) kind of KE | KT? i am asking the group about their uncensored

feelings and thoughts on this. the best ingredients & environment...

evolutionary brew,

-Rezz

________________________________

To: original_kombucha

Sent: Tue, February 15, 2011 3:37:10 PM

Subject: Re: Is it KT or has it become something else?

To keep this from happening to you...

Stick with the basic tried and true recipe.

Per Gallon:

4 (max 6) bags of tea or equivilent of loose tea

1 to 1 1/2 cups sugars

13 oz very sour starter tea (10% of 128 oz/gal)oon top of scoby

I got crazy and was adding more tea bags and way more starter and *boom* almost

instant vinegar. Tea supplies nitrogen which is food for the beasties. I guess

when they get too much food they go a bit crazy!

As a side note, I was able to bottle and drink a lot of it.

I watered it down and put it away for months in large gallon bottles with some

ginger and *voila* drinkable KT.

Cheers,

>

>

> Hi all!

> To all KT nerds! [:-B] !! I am having a new experience and am looking

> for answers if they are to be had

> All of my KT brewed a bit too long and got acidic to the point of a sip

> giving me heartburn.

> I went ahead and started new batches with 1/4 of the mix being the acid

> stuff and scobys and 3/4 sweet tea. Even after mixing in the sweet tea

> the mixture registered below 2 on the pH scale! I have read that KT is

> to be around 2.5 pH. Now I know that starter KT should be sour. I am

> only wondering if it ever gets to a point that it isn't KT anymore,

> where it doesn't have the DNA (to quote Margaret!), that makes KT KT

> and not vinegar.

> (It is still forming the infamous scoby...)

> Thanks to anyone that has maybe done this before or has knowledge of

> this!

>

> Cheers!

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Oops!!! I meant to say that using expensive ingredients is NOT an option for me.

(uk)

-original message-

Subject: RE: Better Brewing Skills?

Date: 15/02/2011 10:45 pm

I have been following this post and i can definately say i use ordinary white

sugar and tea bags to make my kt and it has always come out fine and to my

liking tastewise. Im not well off so using expensive organic ingridients is an

option for me! I think your remarks are well out of order and i hope not to see

this kind of posting again. We are all on a learning curve and people should use

whatever they can afford and not be made to feel guilty about it which i feel

your post has done. Enjoy kt however you make it. End of rant! linda (uk)

-original message-

Subject: Re: Better Brewing Skills?

Date: 15/02/2011 9:41 pm

This thread is looking rather divisive. Here's my life - I work exclusively on

call. And I don't get any guaranteed salary - if I don't get called in, I don't

get any money. I work at a birth center - babies come when they want to,

whether or not it's my day on call, whether or not I've made enough money that

month. As such, there are months when I'm eating out of the food bank. So yes,

I use plain white sugar (the stuff you get in the bulk bins at WinCo) and I use

tea bags because THAT IS ALL THAT I I CAN AFFORD. I would love to use all the

crazy fancy organic stuff you use, but it is NOT AN OPTION for me - I'm over 4

months behind on my student loans, I only pay my power every other month, things

are bad. So it may be a " McBrew " , but you know what? A " McBrew " every day is

STILL better than no kombucha at all. So making those of us who can't afford to

do it " perfectly " feel horrible about our brewing ability is not going to be

particularly useful. Those are my thoughts and opinions on this topic.

Subject: Better Brewing Skills?

To: original_kombucha

Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 1:22 PM

greetings to all again,

if the foregoing recipe was " tried and true " , then people will never experience

a molded scoby, over-acidic brew, a scoby with a clear hole going right through

it or other peculiar anomalies. i have said so and will state without

hesitation in laying an affirmation to anyone | everyone within this forum to

demonstrate beyond debate any usage of isolated sugar(s) from any sourced

derived to be integral and indispensable for brewing now

any person knowledgeable & genuine about tea leaves knows to always use loose

leaf tea | herbs | flowers, etc. rather than tea bags which are usually

bleached, flushed with hexane and other chemical diabolics unspoken of

previously. are we here to brew quality or some McBrew (as in

Mc's) kind of KE | KT? i am asking the group about their uncensored

feelings and thoughts on this. the best ingredients & environment...

evolutionary brew,

-Rezz

________________________________

To: original_kombucha

Sent: Tue, February 15, 2011 3:37:10 PM

Subject: Re: Is it KT or has it become something else?

To keep this from happening to you...

Stick with the basic tried and true recipe.

Per Gallon:

4 (max 6) bags of tea or equivilent of loose tea

1 to 1 1/2 cups sugars

13 oz very sour starter tea (10% of 128 oz/gal)oon top of scoby

I got crazy and was adding more tea bags and way more starter and *boom* almost

instant vinegar. Tea supplies nitrogen which is food for the beasties. I guess

when they get too much food they go a bit crazy!

As a side note, I was able to bottle and drink a lot of it.

I watered it down and put it away for months in large gallon bottles with some

ginger and *voila* drinkable KT.

Cheers,

>

>

> Hi all!

> To all KT nerds! [:-B] !! I am having a new experience and am looking

> for answers if they are to be had

> All of my KT brewed a bit too long and got acidic to the point of a sip

> giving me heartburn.

> I went ahead and started new batches with 1/4 of the mix being the acid

> stuff and scobys and 3/4 sweet tea. Even after mixing in the sweet tea

> the mixture registered below 2 on the pH scale! I have read that KT is

> to be around 2.5 pH. Now I know that starter KT should be sour. I am

> only wondering if it ever gets to a point that it isn't KT anymore,

> where it doesn't have the DNA (to quote Margaret!), that makes KT KT

> and not vinegar.

> (It is still forming the infamous scoby...)

> Thanks to anyone that has maybe done this before or has knowledge of

> this!

>

> Cheers!

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

thanks margret!

Patti

________________________________

To: original_kombucha

Sent: Tue, February 15, 2011 3:40:06 PM

Subject: Re: Better Brewing Skills?

In message you wrote:

> does stevia work for brewing kombucha??

No, Patti, not for the brewing, only for sweetening the brew after.

kombuchaly,

Margret UK :-)

--

+------------------ Minstrel@... --------------------+

http://www.therpc.f9.co.uk/family/scobygrow/home.html

http://bavarianminstrel.wordpress.com

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/index.html

creation.com

God is my strong fortress. He makes my way perfect. (2 Sam 22:33)

[Guest guest]

thanks margret!

Patti

________________________________

To: original_kombucha

Sent: Tue, February 15, 2011 3:40:06 PM

Subject: Re: Better Brewing Skills?

In message you wrote:

> does stevia work for brewing kombucha??

No, Patti, not for the brewing, only for sweetening the brew after.

kombuchaly,

Margret UK :-)

--

+------------------ Minstrel@... --------------------+

http://www.therpc.f9.co.uk/family/scobygrow/home.html

http://bavarianminstrel.wordpress.com

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/index.html

creation.com

God is my strong fortress. He makes my way perfect. (2 Sam 22:33)

[Guest guest]

Newbie to the list, and to brewing, but I had a couple of comments about this

thread:

1. Joining a list and immediately telling everyone " Yer doin' it wrong. " is not

a good way to win friends and influence people. Just sayin' . . .

2. I assume that Kombucha brewing, like bread-baking or cheese making, or other

food-related process, is a learning process. Do I expect to have failures?

Yes. Do I expect to learn as I go along? Yes. Luckily I haven't had any mold

yet.

3. I like Pollan's philosophy about food the best, in that traditional

cultures generally have the best wisdom about food preparation. Therefore, I

tend to skew towards making Kombucha the traditional way. Yerba mate is not

" tea " in the traditional sense, ie, camilla sinensis (sp?). Now, everyone's

free to make their brew with whatever they damn well please, but it isn't good

form to go calling other people's ingredients " poison " if they haven't asked

you.

4. We're all here to learn from each other, and we all have different life

circumstances. People can get pretty worked up about what other people put into

their mouths, and I've seen a series of videos on YouTube by a guy trying to

convince everyone how bad Kombucha is for you because it has sugar in it. I've

also heard opinions that it's dangerous because you can't know what you might be

growing in there. A wise person once said " Opinions are like a**holes.

Everybody's got one. " My suggestion is that we all play nice and keep our

opinions to ourselves until we are asked for them.

[Guest guest]

Newbie to the list, and to brewing, but I had a couple of comments about this

thread:

1. Joining a list and immediately telling everyone " Yer doin' it wrong. " is not

a good way to win friends and influence people. Just sayin' . . .

2. I assume that Kombucha brewing, like bread-baking or cheese making, or other

food-related process, is a learning process. Do I expect to have failures?

Yes. Do I expect to learn as I go along? Yes. Luckily I haven't had any mold

yet.

3. I like Pollan's philosophy about food the best, in that traditional

cultures generally have the best wisdom about food preparation. Therefore, I

tend to skew towards making Kombucha the traditional way. Yerba mate is not

" tea " in the traditional sense, ie, camilla sinensis (sp?). Now, everyone's

free to make their brew with whatever they damn well please, but it isn't good

form to go calling other people's ingredients " poison " if they haven't asked

you.

4. We're all here to learn from each other, and we all have different life

circumstances. People can get pretty worked up about what other people put into

their mouths, and I've seen a series of videos on YouTube by a guy trying to

convince everyone how bad Kombucha is for you because it has sugar in it. I've

also heard opinions that it's dangerous because you can't know what you might be

growing in there. A wise person once said " Opinions are like a**holes.

Everybody's got one. " My suggestion is that we all play nice and keep our

opinions to ourselves until we are asked for them.

[Guest guest]

Newbie to the list, and to brewing, but I had a couple of comments about this

thread:

1. Joining a list and immediately telling everyone " Yer doin' it wrong. " is not

a good way to win friends and influence people. Just sayin' . . .

2. I assume that Kombucha brewing, like bread-baking or cheese making, or other

food-related process, is a learning process. Do I expect to have failures?

Yes. Do I expect to learn as I go along? Yes. Luckily I haven't had any mold

yet.

3. I like Pollan's philosophy about food the best, in that traditional

cultures generally have the best wisdom about food preparation. Therefore, I

tend to skew towards making Kombucha the traditional way. Yerba mate is not

" tea " in the traditional sense, ie, camilla sinensis (sp?). Now, everyone's

free to make their brew with whatever they damn well please, but it isn't good

form to go calling other people's ingredients " poison " if they haven't asked

you.

4. We're all here to learn from each other, and we all have different life

circumstances. People can get pretty worked up about what other people put into

their mouths, and I've seen a series of videos on YouTube by a guy trying to

convince everyone how bad Kombucha is for you because it has sugar in it. I've

also heard opinions that it's dangerous because you can't know what you might be

growing in there. A wise person once said " Opinions are like a**holes.

Everybody's got one. " My suggestion is that we all play nice and keep our

opinions to ourselves until we are asked for them.

[Guest guest]

Good 'rant' ! :-)

In message you wrote:

> I have been following this post and i can definately say i use ordinary white

sugar and tea bags to make my kt and it has always come out fine and to my

liking tastewise. Im not well off so using expensive organic ingridients is an

option for me! I think your remarks are well out of order and i hope not to see

this kind of posting again. We are all on a learning curve and people should use

whatever they can afford and not be made to feel guilty about it which i feel

your post has done. Enjoy kt however you make it. End of rant! linda (uk)

--

+------------------ Minstrel@... --------------------+

http://www.therpc.f9.co.uk/family/scobygrow/home.html

http://bavarianminstrel.wordpress.com

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/index.html

creation.com

The name of Yahweh is a strong tower; the righteous run to him

and are safe. (Proverbs 18:1)

[Guest guest]

Good 'rant' ! :-)

In message you wrote:

> I have been following this post and i can definately say i use ordinary white

sugar and tea bags to make my kt and it has always come out fine and to my

liking tastewise. Im not well off so using expensive organic ingridients is an

option for me! I think your remarks are well out of order and i hope not to see

this kind of posting again. We are all on a learning curve and people should use

whatever they can afford and not be made to feel guilty about it which i feel

your post has done. Enjoy kt however you make it. End of rant! linda (uk)

--

+------------------ Minstrel@... --------------------+

http://www.therpc.f9.co.uk/family/scobygrow/home.html

http://bavarianminstrel.wordpress.com

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/index.html

creation.com

The name of Yahweh is a strong tower; the righteous run to him

and are safe. (Proverbs 18:1)

[Guest guest]

Good 'rant' ! :-)

In message you wrote:

> I have been following this post and i can definately say i use ordinary white

sugar and tea bags to make my kt and it has always come out fine and to my

liking tastewise. Im not well off so using expensive organic ingridients is an

option for me! I think your remarks are well out of order and i hope not to see

this kind of posting again. We are all on a learning curve and people should use

whatever they can afford and not be made to feel guilty about it which i feel

your post has done. Enjoy kt however you make it. End of rant! linda (uk)

--

+------------------ Minstrel@... --------------------+

http://www.therpc.f9.co.uk/family/scobygrow/home.html

http://bavarianminstrel.wordpress.com

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/index.html

creation.com

The name of Yahweh is a strong tower; the righteous run to him

and are safe. (Proverbs 18:1)

[Guest guest]

I personally appreciate all new ideas thanks Rezz, I will try yerba mate. I had

no idea that would produce good kombu.

Sent from my iPhone

[Guest guest]

I personally appreciate all new ideas thanks Rezz, I will try yerba mate. I had

no idea that would produce good kombu.

Sent from my iPhone

[Guest guest]

I personally appreciate all new ideas thanks Rezz, I will try yerba mate. I had

no idea that would produce good kombu.

Sent from my iPhone