The Thing About Kombucha Tea

You have to bottle your kombucha tea... once you have tasted your own foamy bottled bubbly k-tea you will never go back... kombucha is only good fresh... I'm not talking about health benefits now.. I'm talking about taste and more than taste...I'm talking about the whole kombucha tea experience... it is the mouth feel along with the taste that make a kombucha tea ceremony worht while; oh, also who your are drinking your tea with is very important

People always ask "How long do I ferment my kombucha before it i ready?" It is not the amount of time... I brew until I have a nice baby scoby on top and then I taste... once there is a good baby up there I find there is also lots of bubbles as well... I then taste and if I like what I find my kombucha is ready for bottling

I use sixteen ounce or 500 ml bottles... some are glass... glass can blow up... kombucha aged in a glass bottle can blow up like a champagne bottle can blow ... that is just the way it is ... it hasn't happened to me yet but it can happen.. I keep my glass jars in the closet and I age for 3 weeks... I have timers on my bottles and after 3 weeks or so I put the bottles in the refrigerator...at that point the bottles are safe.. Usually when I open the cooled bottles a smoke will come out of the bottle and then comes foamy kombucha.

So; I get my komucha the way I like it... I put in 14 parts kombucha to one part berry or cranberry or what ever is laying around... oh I pour my kombucha through a clothe sieve first to get out all the yeast trails and solids. I have read that it is not good to put in anything sugary like what I just mentioned ... the one part fruit juice because that may induce the bottled mix to ferment in the jar more but I don't care... I have read that it is best to put in non sugary things like ginger or lemon zest and I do that to but I like the way it comes out with the fruit juice... it is your choice to do what you want here.

I am very serious about glass bottles blowing up.. and like I said it has not happened to me yet but any glass bottle may have a flaw in it or your number may just be up so keep the bottle away from where children might be and just be aware of this fact.

I also use stone ware bottles and I don't think they will blow up but if they did it would really be something.. these bottles are lilke concrete... You can use new or used beer bottles and cap them with a capper or even just putting the bottle cap over the top of the bottle and place a piece of wood on top of the bottle cap which is on top of the bottle, then you would hit the piece of wood with a mallet hoping to secure the bottle cap on the bottle without breaking the bottle... this can be done...

 I uste swing top bottles and I use them over and over... the stone ware bottles cost about 15 dollars... here are some pictures of the bottles and I have them for sale also but if you find a beer making place in your area they will have these items for sale.

On top here and on the left if a brand new 16 ounce swing top amber bottle and on the right is a 16 once used Grosch beer bottle... Believe it or not it is cheaper to get the Grolsch bottle filled with delicious beer than to get the new empty bottle .. The Grolsch bottle cost about 2.75 and maybe some tax and the new bottle costs about 3.25.. If you can find ither of them.. I have a local place where I get mine at a retail price .. the same price you can buy them for if you had a place to get them from .. I will also say that they charge a fortune to ship them.. the price for shipping often equals the price of the bottles when you are buying a dozen... I make packages complete with fermenting jars, bottle brushes, sieves and scobys to make the whole thing a little less painful money wise.. I also ship via USPS Priority Mail to get the package delivered in 2 to 3 business days.

These are stone ware bottles or at least that is what I call them... I feel a little safer using them.. They would make a good murder weapon

   And this is guess what?.. right .. it's a bottle brush and it is good to have... the brush part is 6 inches long and the wire part is another 12 inches long... sometmes it is very hard to get it in the bottle but it can be done... I do it

On the left is a picture of a nine inch cotton sieve sitting on a half gallon wide mouth Ball Company canning jar. The sieve has a 5 inch mouth and tapers down to the bottom. On the right is the Ball Company jar. You can see it has a special tow piece lid that hold a brown basket coffee filter like it was made to do so. I have found that this method of covering the kombucha while it ferments is the best method of allowiing in air while keeping the smallest sugar ant out of the process. The only better method of doing this might be putting a nylon stocking over the jar... a napkin and a rubber band will not work as well... no way

These are the items that you need to brew age infuse and bottle your kombucha... it is an investment but then you don't have to pay 3.50 everytime you want some good bubbly brew... I know that you will not want to drink 16 ounces of kombucha everytime you open a bottle but then again it is good to have a kombucha tea drinking buddy for when you crack open a bottle... that is also part of the ceremony .

All these items to make your own foamy bubbly bottled kombucha tea are available for purchase   The stone ware bottles may or may not be available ... try to find these items locally and you will save a lot of money. If you can't find them locally I have some listings below... I will have more up in a few days and today is Jan 3

This is a bottling package... included are five used Grolsch Bottles... I do the hard part... I drink the beer... the bottles have the swing top as shown in the picture... also included is the nine inch cotton sieve and one of my big fatty kombucha scobys and 8 ounces of starter... all will be sent via priority mail for a two to three day ship time... remember I don't ship on thursday or friday but I do ship on sat.... The shipping is only ten bucks because I made the package to fit the small flat rate box from the PO and the package before shipping is 27 bucks for a total of 37 bucks ... for the 37 bucks you get the 5 bottles, the sieve and the kombucha scoby and starter