Volume CCLXIX: Bad Ass Buddha Product-Sean; Making Kombucha from Scratch – No Starter, No SCOBY, No Joke!!!

Hello every One and welcome to the Fabulous Free Lance Friday Edition of the Good News Journal, thank King or Queen You for joining Me, it is always an Honour to have You in My House. I have got all My business out of the Way for today, exposing the People of Canada to the corruption taking place in Canada’s Superior Court under the ever so incompetent eye of Canada’s current Minister of Justice and Attorney General, David ‘the Lame’ Lametti (who appears to be perfectly okay with all of this corruption taking place in Canada’s Courts, but My guess is that is precisely why treasonous Trudeau chose him for the position – Trudeau has to make sure that Minister of Justice Will ‘dismiss’ any Claims against the Crown for the unlawful vaccine and mask mandates in violation of Canada’s Charter and the Nuremberg Principles regarding informed consent). Not ONE person in Canada has Given legal or lawful consent to be vaccinated because none of Canada’s People have been fully informed of the risks associated with this dangerous medical experiment and procedure. You can read about all of that here. The Good News is, with all of that out of the Way, I can now Show You how to start making kombucha from scratch – no SCOBY, no starter? No problem!!!

Alright, before We get into it, let’s take a look at today’s feature photo, shall We?

Perhaps the photo is somewhat self explanatory. With a label reading ‘no starter’, You can probably guess that this is a batch of kombucha fermenting without any starter mix or a coveted ‘SCOBY’ (symbiotic culture of bacteria yeast). The ring of bubbles around the surface of the kombucha is the beginning of a SCOBY forming on top. One can also see some white stuff floating inside the jar. Just behind the front jar, One can also see two other bottles of kombucha in different stages of fermentation. The one on the left has a SCOBY, the one on the right (which is also green tea, left is black tea) does not. The reason the vessel on the right does not have a SCOBY is because I do not yet have a SCOBY specifically engineered or Created for green tea. Let Me explain why I believe this is important.

A SCOBY is a symbiotic culture of bacteria (and) yeast. This is important to understand because every type of organic Matter has a native yeast specific to that organic Matter – kind of like viruses are specifically engineered (hopefully by God) to infect a particular species and Will not ‘jump’ from species to species (despite what the gain of function advocates Will tell You, viruses are species specific and must have additional ‘functions’ added to their genome in order to cross over from animals to Man’s kind). Essentially, ‘avian flu’, ‘swine-flu’, ‘mad cow disease’ and the like were manipulated in a lab so that they could infect Man’s kind (while vaccine companies simultaneously produce a vaccine). All of this Will come out with respect to ‘Covid’ being a ‘bat’ virus that miraculously jumped to Man’s kind – that doesn’t happen unless it is genetically manipulated to do so.

At any rate, yeast is similar in that there is a species of yeast that is a match for every type of plant or animal – anything organic in nature. Yeast is produced when a cell dies and feeds on the organic matter, producing carbon dioxide and alcohol as bi-products (or waste products, whichever Way One Wishes to perceive it). That’s why kombucha can contain small amounts of alcohol. Alcohol is kept to a minimum by allowing the mixture to breathe, which allows the alcohol exposure to oxygen, oxygen feeds on alcohol and produces acid, lowering the ph and making it more acidic, which in turn accelerates the breakdown of cellular Matter. This process continues until all the organic Matter is completely broken down, at which time the yeast Will run out of food and go ‘dormant’ (it doesn’t ‘die’ per se). Basically, that’s what’s going on in a ‘SCOBY hotel’ (I told You they are seriously coveted by the kombucha community).

Here’s My favourite YouTuber on kombucha tall King about SCOBY hotels and how to maintain one…

One thing One Will notice if they watch enough YouTube videos or make enough kombucha to gain some experiential knowledge, the tea in a SCOBY hotel Will get very light in colour as it becomes more and more acidic. It Will become a light yellow, almost clear when the SCOBY runs out of food (sugar and caffeine). I placed caffeine in italics because this is the part that I am thing King most kombucha brewers (or most of the Ones home brewing kombucha) don’t fully comprehend. Brewers are consistently tall King about how the sugar feeds the yeast, but very few People are tall King about how the yeast is also feeding on caffeine!

Again, caffeine is in italics because based on My experiences and experiments so far, yeast goes to town on the sugar but takes a little more time to get going on the caffeine. It is important that the SCOBY is doing both because kombucha is strong fermented green or black sweet tea. But when kombucha is ready, it has very little caffeine or sugar left because they are consumed by the SCOBY. The longer the brew is fermented, the more sugar and caffeine is naturally removed from the tea, and the better the quality and population of the desired pre-biotics.

Seriously, understanding all of that is Key to making Good quality kombucha. The industry leader, GT’s for example, ferment their teas longer than any other competitor – thirty days!!! Thirty days is a LONG time to ferment, and it is likely that after thirty days there Will be virtually zero sugar and caffeine remaining, only the pre-biotic benefits of all the goodness of the green and black teas, pre-digested for consumption and ease of digestion. After thirty days, the kombucha Will likely be as tart as vinegar – and that’s basically what it is!

This is also why most People enjoy a second fermentation process where they Will add fruit juice to the mix and then keep the mixture air tight. Depriving the kombucha of oxygen does not allow the alcohol to convert to acid, nor does it allow the carbon dioxide produced by the yeast to escape. Because the yeast Will be virtually starving after thirty days, it Will waste no time going to work on the sugars in the new fruit juices, adding carbonation and a very small amount of alcohol (usually around 0.5%, or the same as non-alcoholic beer). Just to put that in perspective, it means that One Will have to consume ten beer sized bottles to acquire the same blood alcohol level as a single beer!!!

Having said that, some producers did run into problems because to receive the full benefits of kombucha, it should remain unpasteurized or One is killing all that beneficial yeast they just spent thirty days or whatever fermenting! The amount of alcohol that infuses the kombucha and the level of carbonation is relative to how long it is allowed to ferment a second time. With the kombucha and the fruit juices bottled and shipped for consumption, it is impossible to know how carbonated or alcoholic the beverage Will be when it is opened. Refrigeration basically ‘halts’ the fermentation, so brewers either switched to refrigerated transportation vehicles or adopted pasteurization to permanently stop the fermentation process from bottling to consumption.

So, (in My humble opinion) fermenting kombucha for seven to ten days or ‘whenever it tastes Good to You’ is kind of counter-intuitive to the process. Most of the time, it Will ‘taste Good to You’ when it has that distinct ‘sour’ kombucha taste with a little sweetness remaining to offset the sour – that’s not really kombucha!

Don’t get Me wrong, it Will still provide benefits but I am thing King People are missing the point. One should fully ferment the kombucha for maximum benefit (as GT’s does), and then use the second fermentation process to flavour and sweeten to One’s liking. This Way, the second ferment can always be adjusted to perfection, but at least One Will be starting with a constant rather than a variable to control production.

Now for the information that may break the kombucha community – how to TRULY Create a SCOBY from scratch!!!

The next videos were the top three recommended by YouTube in a search query for making a SCOBY from scratch. I’ve already seen all three and spent an evening looking for any One creating One truly from scratch and to the best of My knowledge, no such video exists. Allegedly, there are some that say it can be done by using distilled white vinegar? Who would Wish to add white vinegar to green or black tea? Yuck – I don’t like that idea at all.

The last YouTuber in the selection does TONS of fermentation videos and the process of fermentation is pretty standard. Let Me Give You some basic guidelines to start. If One is Wishing to do a savoury ferment it is done with salt, a sweet ferment is done with sugar. Cucumbers to pickles are an example, grapes into wine would be another. The ratio is roughly 1/4 cup of salt or sugar to one liter of water, or 1 cup of salt or sugar per gallon.

Now, if One has watched any how to videos on brewing kombucha, One Will already know the basic recipe for fermenting tea is a gallon of (strong) green or black tea to one cup of white sugar (50 grams).

If We are not using any starter or a SCOBY, We should be done, right? Well, almost – but not quite. After making the tea and removing the teabags, sweeten with the cup of sugar making sure to fully dissolve, then seal in an air tight jar while the tea is still hot. Any One who has done any canning Will know this creates a vacuum, and sealing the container/jar while the tea is still very hot (but not quite boiling) Will also sterilize the inside of the container. This is important because if One does not do this, One may encounter mould – so be warned!

Basically, that’s it!!! I know it seems kind of anti-climactic and perhaps even too Good to be True, but it is! The downside is that it may take some time before One Will notice anything happening – I forgot to date the One I started but it took at least a week before I noticed tiny little bubbles forming around the rim, just like in the picture below (though considerably less).

The moment One begins to see air bubbles on the top of their tea, remove the lid to let the mix breathe, and cover as shown below.

Another Way One can now if anything is happening, is the colour. The tea changes from clear and almost black, to this brownish, cloudy looking thing. The cloudiness is just millions of microscopic air bubbles of carbon dioxide being produced by millions or billions of yeast particles.

Something I’ve Noticed, is that the yeast feeding on the sugar Will usually form bubbles on the surface exactly as One can see above, clinging to the sides of the jar. The reason for this, is that the yeast feeding on sugar falls or collects at the lowest point in the jar, and bubbles surface from there. The lowest point of gravity in the jar is a ring around the bottom which is now mimicked by the bubbles on the top.

However, (THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART) yeast feeding on the caffeine Will gather on the surface, rather than the bottom. It is the yeast feeding upon the caffeine that floats to the top, dries out with exposure to air, forming a film on the top of the kombucha which continues to grow as the yeast continues to consume the caffeine. Some People say they bottle their kombucha for the second ferment even if there is no (visible) SCOBY on top! Well, frankly, One just has sour tea, not kombucha (again, in My humble opinion). Basically, the coveted physical SCOBY (also called a pellicle) is DEAD or dying yeast! That’s why the size of One’s SCOBY makes no difference because the physical SCOBY is not really doing much of anything, it is only the residual yeast and bacteria on the surface of the SCOBY that enters the new batch, kick starting the fermentation process.

Here One can see the difference. Notice how the bubbles are NOT forming around the sides of the jar? The bubbles are forming directly above a very small SCOBY which Will float to the top when it has enough carbon dioxide molecules clinging to it to make it float. Because there is caffeine yeast as well as sugar yeast in this mix, the film on the top DOES grow much faster.

Basically, yeast feeds on the sugar first because it is a very simple energy source and it behaves in a fermentation much the same Way it does in Our body – it Will accelerate the growth of yeast because it provides an easily accessible energy source, but it Will also burn out much faster. The sugar Will be ingested much faster than the caffeine, so if a SCOBY hasn’t formed, there is not enough native caffeine yeast in One’s mix. It’s an easy fix, all One needs to do is leave their kombucha to ferment a little longer, and a pellicle Will eventually form and start war King on the caffeine. In fact, I believe in the beginning this Will be typical because sugar yeast breeds and multiplies much faster than caffeine yeast.

Finally, I don’t mix My SCOBY’s. I have one for black tea, one for green tea, and one for green and black so that I have a bacterial culture specifically bred and engineered to ferment My tea of choice.

Hope this was inform a Sean all for every One, and happy brewing!!!

Love and Blessings,

Post Script – Don’t hesitate to be as King any Quest-Ions. 😉