4 ?s from Newbie: Houseplants, Unattended Brewing, Children, & Cider Vinegar

[Guest guest]

Hi. I'm new to Kombucha and new to the group. I'm going to get a

scoby

locally to start my first brew, but I have a couple of questions

first.

**I want to be quite careful and do everything " by the book " for

best

success. I read that beginning the brew should not be done " near

houseplants " . What does " near " mean? That sounds silly, but I plan

to

do this in my kitchen, which has a window full of plants. My counter

where I'd be doing the setting up is quite close to that window.

Then

I could put the bowl on top of the cabinet to ferment for the week.

But should I not be starting the process near that window? Am I

being

too particular here?

**I want to start as soon as possible. I was going to start Tuesday

and brew for 7 days. We are going to be out of town Friday through

Monday. I'm wondering if you see any problem with letting it go

while

I'm away. It would be so nice to come home to a finished brew. But

if

something could happen, I would hate to lose the scoby and have to

start over. Would I be better off waiting until I can watch the brew

for 7 days straight?

**Does anyone know about giving Kombucha tea to children? Is there

any

problem with that? My children are healthy and not babies, but they

are young. I read that the alcohol content is about the same as that

in orange juice. I don't know if that's accurate. Any thoughts?

**Has anyone ever compared the benefits of drinking pure unfiltered

apple cider vinegar versus drinking Kombucha tea? (I'm hoping it at

least tastes better! But then, it would have to!)

Sorry to be so long-winded and needy. I appreciate the advice from

the

experts!

Thanks,

Kathleen

[Guest guest]

>**I want to be quite careful and do everything " by the book " for

>best

>success. I read that beginning the brew should not be done " near

>houseplants " . What does " near " mean? That sounds silly, but I plan

>to

>do this in my kitchen, which has a window full of plants.

I brew in my kitchen, and I've got a greenhouse window with a few

plants. The reason for the caution is because mold hangs out in the soil

of the plants, and occasionally people who have had chronic mold attacks in

their KT brews have found that their house plants were the problem.

But as I say, I didn't know anything about the potential houseplant issue

when I started, and have been brewing with no problems. I would say that

it is very important to keep good hygiene and certainly don't place your

vessels below houseplants. If you wind up with a mold issue, you may need

to reconsider your brewing situation. That's how I would approach it,

although some people might consider that too lax. btw, I have my vessels

on my kitchen counter and they do great there.

>**I want to start as soon as possible. I was going to start Tuesday

>and brew for 7 days. We are going to be out of town Friday through

>Monday. I'm wondering if you see any problem with letting it go

>while

>I'm away.

There no reason this should be a problem. If you did have a mold problem,

you'd have to throw out the SCOBY regardless of whether you there or

not. That's about the only thing that could happen in 4-5 days. Your brew

should be fine perking along by itself.

>**Does anyone know about giving Kombucha tea to children?

I'll folks with children or more experience answer this. The basic answer

is, it's good for children.

>I read that the alcohol content is about the same as that

>in orange juice. I don't know if that's accurate. Any thoughts?

This is considered true.

>**Has anyone ever compared the benefits of drinking pure unfiltered

>apple cider vinegar versus drinking Kombucha tea? (I'm hoping it at

>least tastes better! But then, it would have to!)

KT enthusiasts say that you get the benefits of ACV with additional

benefits of the complex nutritional acids that are in KT. Also a greater

range of probiotics is claimed. The other thing is that with KT we can

drink a lot more per day than one can with ACV, so there are even greater

benefits.

--V

~~~ There is no way to peace; peace is the way ~~~~

--A.J. Muste

[Guest guest]

Hi Kathleen,

2006/5/8, kawtch :

> I read that beginning the brew should not be done " near

> houseplants " . What does " near " mean?

I brew beside three houseplants (25 cm / 10 " apart from my brewing

jars) for about one year and have no problems with mold.

(in Belgium)