Kombucha

[Mylo]

Alright.... what's the deal? During a moment of lunchtime surfing, I found myself at a the wikipedia site for yeast. Kombucha was mentioned... I ventured.

Apparently this is some weird, antique health elixir made by fermenting tea with a yeast/bacterial "mushroom". This mushroom contains some acetobacter and Brett Bruxellensis (Umm, tasty), and some other cultures. Homebrewing it seems pretty straightforward.

Anybody ever try any commercial examples of it, or try brewing it? Is it nasty? Is it good for your yin/yang (or wang)?


Mylo

[Bugeater]

Why don't you get some, use it in a beer and report back? http://www.kombucha.org/

We have probably all had worse things in our mouths.

Wayne

[BadRock]

Man I love Kombucha, you can find it at wild oats, natural grocers, whole foods probably other health food stores.

Check out http://gtskombucha.com/

[noremorse1]

We have probably all had worse things in our mouths.

Especially JP.

[Azimuth]

I had this for the first time last weekend; did not know what it was or how it was made but after tasting it I told my sister-in-law that is seems to be fermented and that it has some Lambic qualities. I liked the taste but the smell was a bit much.

[rhino777]

Yeah I've been brewing this the last few months. Good stuff. Supposedly at one point they found a tribe of peoples that were raging alcoholics but for some reason didn't have nearly the liver damage that they should have had. The only major difference in their diet was they were also regular kombucha drinkers. I'm stickin' with it!

[slim chillingsworth]

without any research, here's some of my personal knowledge on the subject.

kombucha is sweetened tea fermented with a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast). brett can be a part of the scoby, from what i understand, as well as acetobacter as you mentioned.

i brew it regularly. you need a scoby culture which you can get on ebay for around $5. make a strongly sweetened tea, cool it and pitch the scoby. the drink is strongly acidic and very healthful in the same way that most active culture foods like yogurt are. the taste can range from mildly acidic to near-vinegar, depending on the length of fermentation. i like mine on the sour-side. it's usually highly carbonated.

mike tonsmeire (the mad fermentationist) has done a batch of flemish red soured with kombucha. the conclusion was that it came out too acidic. there was an interview/tasting on basic brewing radio.
http://madfermentationist.blogspot.com/ ... bucha.html
http://madfermentationist.blogspot.com/ ... radio.html

[JediHopTrick]

It's interesting stuff. I've grown a bit of it. Not very pretty, like a cellulose pancake. I love the drink. I ferment a quality loose leaf green tea w/ a little cane sugar. Played around w/ it in wort. Don't know if I cared for it. Throws of some vinegar. Very easy to keep. It produces baby pancakes quite often.