I always keep some homemade kombucha in the fridge. It’s packed with probiotics and is fantastic for your gut health. Plus I get a glow from drinking it, a kind of sense of well being after taking a couple sips. Similar to how I feel when I crack a beer and take a sip or 2 even though the alcohol content is less than 1%, probably closer to 0.5% really. Anyway, my go to flavor is lemon, ginger and honey but I play around with other flavors sometimes. My recent batch is ginger berry. Who else drinks kombucha regularly? Anybody else brew their own? What flavors do you like? I’ll put some pics up if I can find any from when I’ve made batches, otherwise I’ll snap a few later of some related stuff 
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Yeah dude. I love kombucha. Love the idea it’s promotes gut health. I like ginger/honey/ lemon kombuchas. Berry ones are lovely. I also am bang in to the kimchi these days. I’ve found a hot one that makes you shit like a race horse. I make my own Latin American version - Curtido and love the sauerkraut also. If you’ve got good recipes for kombuchas, please post. It’s great how they’re such simple ingredients and simple to make and store.
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Is it easy to make?
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Curtido is easy. Chop half an onion, half a head of gem cabbage, grate one carrot, chop small one jalapeño. Put in a bowl with half a cup of boiling water and half a cup of white wine vinegar and a squeeze of lemon. Let sit at room temperature for a couple of hours or longer at room temp. Then jar in an old jam jar and stick in the fridge. It’ll last for a couple of weeks. You can then use it as a side, like a slaw or use as part of filler for a sandwich. Works great with barbecued stuff also. Good posting OP.
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Will do. But I follow a pretty standard recipe for the brew and as far as flavoring I kind of fly by the seat of my pants cause the potency of the ginger used always varies and fruit flavors vary with seasons so I use more/less of things as needed
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Yeah. Potency of ginger kind of makes it different every time. I hear you. I like that though. Like when you make lentil soups with cumin and turmeric. They also have varying strength.
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Super easy. It’s basically bring water to a boil and add sugar 1 cup/gal of water, put teabags in(8 teabags/gal)and remove them once cooled to room temp. I prefer using about 2/3 black tea and 1/3 green tea. Add in starter kombucha(to lower pH slightly) and SCOBY(symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) or just use a bottle of store bought kombucha in place of both of those. Cover with cheesecloth or paper towels and place dark at room temp for about 7-10 days for fermentation depending on temperature. Remove SCOBY culture and put in a jar with some brewed tea with approximately same ratio of sugar(to keep the microbeasties fed and happy)in fridge for storage til you brew your next batch. I also remove a quart jar of plain kombucha at this point to use as starter kombucha for my next 2 gal batch. Mix in flavoring/sweetener and extra sugar for carbonation. I let mine sit at room temp for 2-4 days for carbonation before I put the batch in the fridge for storage
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Kombucha can also be used as a soil drench to boost microbial life and add enzymes or in your ipm regimen as a foliar spray. I used it to fight septoria leaf spot last year
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I recently started a ginger bug following a conversation with another OG.
The ginger bug smells decidedly better than a batch of kombucha, having endured years of complaints over my continuous brew kombucha. Hopefully the flavour is also on par. Bottled my first batch of ginger tea just yesterday, waiting on the secondary ferment now.
My Salvadorian family uses apple cider vinegar but otherwise same idea. I love curtido when it’s freshly made and still super crispy, nothing goes better on some pupusas.
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Dang that’s great info!
I love kombucha and hate septoria 
Does the quality of a SCOBY vary from 1 to another? Is there such thing as a healthy/unhealthy SCOBY?
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Fuck man! Just had a papusa for the first time the other day. So fucking 
and I made my first homemade ginger ale the other day. I don’t have a fancy machine or anything, I used a recipe I found in a medicinal herb book that used yeast (along w/ sugar obviously) for carbonation. Turned out delicious
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SCOBY could possible pick up other things from the air/environment but if it is an established/healthy SCOBY to begin with the yeast/bacteria in it will outcompete anything else. It’s pretty hard to fuck it up imho, but I guess maybe it comes easier for me since I’ve been a brewer/distiller for a good 15 years or so
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I love bucha, but have been drinking GTs because the flavors are delicious and and it’s easier than making. I’ll try and make my own one of these days.
Interesting info about leaf septoria. I battled it last year on my outdoor grow, and have since picked up some FPJ but didn’t know it could help battle the sep.
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Oh yeah, when it happens you’ll know. Wont forget that smell… I was just fermenting a single batch in a jar and the scoby changed from it’s pinkish-beigeish colour to dark brown in just a day or two.
With the continuous brew I would put a splash of vinegar in the mix when topping up the sweet tea. Not sure if it legitimately did anything other than offer me comfort, but I never had any problems with the continuous brew.
I might have to go see Abuela this afternoon for some almuerzo 
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GT’s has a bunch of good flavors, I drink theirs if I’m out and waiting on a batch to finish up. Also where I captured my SCOBY to start brewing in the first place
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Lucky… I wish I had an abuela who made such deliciousness I had a Mexican mom (what I referred to her as) when I went to school down in Cuernavaca for a month. One of the best cooks I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. I miss that family, I should send a letter 
I’m lucky there’s a phenomenal Salvadoran restaurant like a half mile from me, gonna have to hit it again soon after this convo 
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Otra Salvadoreños en el mundo! 
. Saludos a tu abuelita.
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Jeje gracias, mi esposa esta una guanaca
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Que bien. Los Ticos. Hermoso pais y gente. Saludos compa.
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