KomBOOYA

My first foray into fermentation commences with an attempt to brew kombucha. Look how I did!

Um, just kidding. I love the hell out of this stuff, but at $3.50 a bottle + Chicago's 10.25% sales tax it's like Cristal or something. Way too exclusive for those of us who are not high rollers. Inspired by friends who have done this (hiiii kAwmanda!), a few weeks ago I casually told JM that I want to make my own, and the next day one of his co-workers coincidentally mentioned that he brews kombucha--and suddenly I had a hook-up for a SCOBY* aka a "kombucha mother." Yippee!  (*Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast)

After doing copious Internet Research that Distracted Me from Working and fretting that I Will Do Everything Wrong, we made our first batch last night.

Step 1: Brew a gallon of sugary tea and let it cool to room temperature

Hello, SCOBY! 

Step 2: Pour sugar tea into large pickling jar, place the SCOBY inside, and top off with 2 cups of the "starter" liquid in which the scoby's been living.

Step 3: Wait a week. Then then taste it. I'm not sure what comes after that, I'm taking this one step at a time. 

The big scoby mushroom thing looks like a slimy alien monster that might slither out of the pickling jar and across the floor like a northern snakehead fish and try to suffocate me when I'm alseep. (Anyone remember the snakehead's invasion of Maryland during the summer of 2002??! So traumatic.) My biggest fear about this experiment is that I might be creating a monster. But I digress.

Step 4: This video says that you should tell the scoby mother that you love it and pray to the kombucha gods before you leave your tea to ferment.



So, now I'm worried for several reasons: the scoby was in a plastic bag in the fridge for a couple days before we did all this. Is that bad? Did that suffocate it or somehow make it impotent? I know you're supposed to store the scoby in glass containers, but we received the it in a plastic bag and didn't take it out right away. And in all the videos I watched, when people place the mushroom into the tea, it floats. But mine's not floating! Maybe it's drowning and dying?

I think maybe I'll try and mix the kombucha with pomegranate juice if it turns out well. I'll update next week...