The short story on the kombucha:  our whole family drinks it and likes it and it’s easy to maintain.

It is very ugly, though. I’m not sure if I should show you some of the pictures I have. You might not ever make it.

I tried solving the problem first by giving the “mother” a bath. She had these green hangy things. I think they were sediment that collected on her underside from the green tea. They weren’t moldy or anything that had gone “wrong”. Anyway, once when I was mixing up a new batch I took the mother out and rinsed her all off with vinegar. I think I killed her.

But then the new batch grew a new mother who was much more respectable looking so it all turned out ok.

It’s still not a pretty sight, though, so I told my mom that I needed a kombucha cozy. She knitted me this out of some scrap yarn she had:

She even put her pattern on ravelry. Here’s a link to it:  mimaknits’/beverage-jug-warmer-cover. It’s free 🙂

When my kombucha gets low in my 5 gallon beverage jug I replenish it with this recipe:

• 12 cups of non-chlorinated water
• 2 cups of white sugar
• 12 teabags of organic green tea
• 12 cups cold non-chlorinated water

I bring the water to a boil in my largest stock pot. Then I add the sugar and the tea and let it steep for 15 min. I take out the tea bags and then add 12 more cups of cold non-chlorinated water. This cools down the sweet tea enough that I can go directly to the next step.

I wash my hands, rinse them in vinegar and then remove the mother to a bowl and leave behind a few inches of the previous batch of kombucha. This helps acidify the next mixture of sweet tea before adding the mother back in.

Then I add the 24 cups of cooled sweetened tea. I replace the mother, re-wrap the seedling heating mat around the outside of the jug and give her back her hat and sweater 🙂 We usually wait a few days before drinking it until it tastes sparkly and sour-ish again.