Having lots of gut issues over the years, I had often thought about doing Kombucha.
Finally, I gathered the needed equipment and got the needed Scoby & teas…but adding something else to an already full life wasnt off to a great start!
Doing the first brew was easy, though my wifes birthday was approaching and we were working over time to try to get the house to a point where it was ready for the 100+ people who were meant to be coming.
By the time of the her birthday, the Kombucha had been sitting for 6-8 weeks and had saturated the whole laundry with the smell of vinegar.
yes Kombucha vinegar can be redeemed and YES! Jesus can redeem!
What a waste! At that party. friend bought us some Kombucha they had made – delicious! It is worth trying again!
It was quite some time before we would try again – and thankfully before that, we wanted to do some Jalapeños . The vinegar choice makes a fair difference, and I wondered if the Kombucha vinegar could actually be used for anything other than cleaning…
No harm in trying… Well the Jalapeños tasted amazing! Can read about that here. One friend who reported how much he hates them tried 3 different batches and loved them all – specificaly due to the flavour of the Kombucha.
We then used some of the Kombucha vinegar as the starter in a new batch. The ‘waste’ vinegar had been truly redeemed! And with life slightly less hectic we actually had time to bottle…
As the time approached I was tasting the brew each day – and continually reminded of how much Jesus had changed me. You see there was a time in my life I was so desperate for alcohol I would drink half fermented (and at times off) beer straight out of the fermenter. Yeast & all. It was disgusting. Worse than Kombucha vinegar.
But my desire to be drunk overcame the taste and possible health ramifications. This Kombucha liquid tasted similar and keeps reminding me of that horrible time. Ironically, I used to use Grolsch bottles then too!
I gave the kids a bottle each to try their own recipes – this time we used ginger, lemon juice and chilli in varying quantities…
We left for a few more days out of the fridge and then cooled to be enjoyed at various times.
Amazing for a first batch!
We have now seperated the scoby into
3 parts and started the next 3 brews to adjust the base brew recipe and will try again.
As with most things we try, I started a spreadsheet to adjust the quantities and take notes. Small changes can make a big difference to the flavour and quality.
When an alcoholic, I used to have beer on tap in my front room. I brewed in large (up to 400L) batches mainly for alcohol content (12% and up) through did steadily make progress in the flavour. Some of the lessons learned will now be used for a liquid that helps the body not hinders it…
For now:
yes Kombucha vinegar can be redeemed and YES! Jesus can redeem!