HAPPY KOMBUCHA BLOG — blog

Autumn and winter present special challenges for culturing. As the weather cools, the methods for keeping cultures at the proper temperature must also change and adapt especially here in the UK when the weather can change dramatically from one day to the next. Some cultures will actually behave differently during the winter even when the amount of light and heat are constant, they can change their shape, size and texture and you may notice that the taste also changes slightly. How Can You Keep the Cultures Warm Enough? There are a variety of ways to help keep cultures warm enough...

Anyone ferments knows the problems of fruit flies, they just love kombucha, kefir and fermenting vegetables. Covering your brew with a good tight weave cloth can help to keep the little critters out of your brew but how do you keep them away. Well.... It's crazy and we have absolutley no scientific evidence to back this up but we use this method and it works. That's all we can say. Place between 4 and 5 pennies in a bag of water (we like the zip lock bags as they are easier to seal but any clear plastic bag works). hang...

The awesome thing about water kefir is that you can really flavor it however you want. It is very forgiving and you can be as creative as you’d like. Everything from fruit, to juice, to herbs, to flowers. The sky is the limit for creativity! and there really is nothing nicer than sitting on a sunny day with a chilled homemade bottle of water kefir!    Before we get started, here are a few things to remember: For all of these recipes, proportions are given for 500ml flip-top bottles. If you’re using smaller or larger bottles, you can adjust the...

Coconut Kefir Coconut (or other nut milks) milk kefir is a perfect if you are looking for a change in your kefir or if you are looking to make a dairy free kefir. When making kefir with nut milks or coconut milk it is absolutely vital to understand that the grains do not get any nutrients from these milks and will perish If this is the only milk type you sit them in. when you first receive your grains you must sit them in full fat cows/goats milk for twenty four hours, sieve through, and then give them more full...

These are pictures of all the normal things that can happen when brewing with a scoby...some look a little funny but really its all normal... I have included these pictures as people often panic when there scobies stop looking all white and pristine after you first brew with them! Scobies can do some weird and wonderful things during brewing.... here is just a few examples.... This scoby has split in two (this often happens as scobies grow in layers and it is not unusual for the layers to sometimes seperate) and has chains of yeasts hanging from it, again it...