Re: Kombucha--Keep the mother?

[Guest guest]

Dear Gemma,

I've been making KT for years and only today ran across this excellent

website that discusses the kombucha with really great info details - it

talks about how the best stuff does not form in the tea until day 8 or

later depending on temperature! It talks about continuous brewing to

get the benefits of both the new and old cultures. Today I ran out and

bought some 2 gallon covered jars (at Wallymart for $13 ea) and am

about to start my continuous fermentation process. I found all this

new info because I was trying to find a good link to give a friend I am

teaching how to care for the scoby. It sure seems there is better info

out there now than when I looked 6 months ago. One of these sites even

talked about the scoby and the sludge on the bottom (keep it, dont wash

it off) Does anyone else keep both the mother and baby for the next

batch instead of separating them? I wait until they are obnoxiously

fat before I start ripping them apart and I think the tea tastes better

faster when I do. At one time, I am ashamed to say, I used to wash the

sludge off the bottom of the shroom between each brewing.

.

http://www.happyherbalist.com/continuous_brewing.htm

this web site claims the mushroom (dare I call it a scoby again?) is

actually a lichen...?

I've got one of these that we usually put a 5 gallon plastic jug of

water on top...

http://www.harmonic-health.com/kombucha_fermentation.php

Awhile back, I added some healthy raw sugar and my scoby doubled over

and phizzed and died. It was traumatic but time is helping. Right now

I'm researching again to make sure cheap processed white sugar is

best? Its so hard to believe. I think I'll do my own experiment again

with some less raw sugar (it was rather brown) I've seen turbinado is

OK?

I had a really great batch last week. I made it with cheap luzianne

tea but after done threw in about a tablespoon of loose fancy Jasmine

tea and the scoby loved it and grew extra fat. I threw some other

loose teas in the others I made at the same time but they were a

fraction less enthusiastic but all were still much better than usual.

Yes, I have come to believe that old might be good with KT. Keep the

mother keep the sludge keep the baby. Also back when I was washing my

scoby between each time I stopped adding the extra old tea to re-

acidify the new. Now after reading the above site I now understand

about not being to anal about being " ultra-clean " because it works

against the process.

~ C.

> I have a question about making kombucha. Sometimes when it's time to

> make a new batch, I find my kombucha has a big, robust looking mother

> (the one I used to start that batch in the first place) and the baby

> is just a thin 3mm film. I wonder if using the old mother instead of

> the new baby would culture the next batch better (stronger, faster)

> since it appears to be so robust and healthy. The baby looks so tiny,

> like it's going to take a long time to make the next batch. What

would

> you recommend?

>

> Thanks,

>

> Gemma

>

[Guest guest]

>Does anyone else keep both the mother and baby for the next batch instead

>of separating them? I wait until they are obnoxiously fat before I start

>ripping them apart and I think the tea tastes better faster when I do. At

>one time, I am ashamed to say, I used to wash the sludge off the bottom of

>the shroom between each brewing.

Thanks for this info. I rarely separate, unless someone wants one and I

have never rinsed the stuff off, mostly because I am too lazy. Glad to know

at least in this one case, the path of least resistance was the right one.

Also, regarding which sugar to use - I had heard not to use the unrefined

sugar that you mentioned killed your scoby, but I could not bring myself to

buy totally white sugar. I bought organic evaporated cane sugar, and it

works fine. When that is unavailable, I do buy the organic white sugar, and

my babies do get fatter with it - but so do we all ;-).

Thanks again for the link.

" Affordable healthcare begins with breastfeeding. "

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