the Twelfth day

My kombucha is forming a baby on top and is now tasting more like what my expectation of plain kombucha would taste like. I went out and bought 3 different brands of plain kombucha to try.  High Country Kombucha is supposed to be closest to what homebrewed kombucha tastes like. I didn't really like it at all, the sweetness was brewed out completely. On the other hand, I really like what my homebrewed kombucha tasted like after 10 days in comparison, I suspect though that the sugar content is high at that point and not sure it would be as healthy. Apparently, continuous brewed kombucha is the healthiest, but it doesn't form a baby scoby, though I guess I don't really need a baby scoby.

I've also tried the local Buddha's Brew plain kombucha. I usually only drink their ginger flavor. The plain was okay. They had peach last summer and it was really, really good but they didn't bottle it. You had to buy on tap and I never managed to get more than a little bit. I actually like my homebrew better. Same after trying the GT's plain. I usually drink mostly GT's because they have great flavors, I like the guava, multi-green, gingerade, and mango. I occasionally drink their other flavors, though when I feel the need to drink kombucha everyday I was buying the Buddha's Brew in bulk at the farmer's market because it was cheaper and I like their ginger flavor better than GT's.

Of the bottled plain, I think the Buddha's brew tastes best, then GT's, and for me the High Country just wasn't drinkable at all. I also got a flavored high county the Wild Root which is suppose to taste similar to root beer. I haven't cracked it open yet. As I've been tasting these kombucha's I've been rubber banding a paper towel on top to see if I can make my own scoby from the leftover kombucha. I'm really curious if I can brew kombucha using those leftovers. I need to get the materials to try it. I feel bad about wasting the pickles so I can have cheap brewing jar.

I was positive I was going to flavor my homebrewed kombucha because I didn't think I would like it plain, but now I'm thinking I should go ahead and bottle mine and drink it as is. I don't know what will happen if I disturb it at this point and I wanted it to be less sweet before I tried to flavor it. I wonder if part of the flavor difference is that I used white tea and I suspect that the plain kombucha I've tried so far uses black and the other part is the sweetness. I think the flavored kombucha's are just sweeter.

I'm also not sure how I'm going to get it from the big pickle jar to the smaller bottles. Since brewing my own is super cheap and unexpectedly is turning out to taste better, I'm planning on getting materials to do a continuous brew basically something with a spout at the bottom like a stainless steel or ceramic water bottle holder which will also make it easier to bottle.

This process reminds me how much I love experimenting with food and recipes. So much fun!