DIY Kombucha

I mentioned the other day on Twitter that I would post the directions on how to make kombucha. And I'm at the 50% mark on people receiving their scobies, so here goes.

This is my third go round on making kombucha, so now I'm at the point where I've got the recipe memorized. But I need to give credit where it is due, so just know that this recipe comes from Emma Christensen's book, True Brews. If you are considering making your own bubbly concotions, pick this book up! I admit, I am slowing reading through this book but so far so good. I jumped straight to the kombucha section only because I got a scoby when I was at the DIY Kefir class at Honest Weight (which I still need to cover... oh, so behind!)

Here is the master recipe:

14 cups water
8 black tea bags (you can do a combination of teas), or 2 tablespoons loose tea
1 cup sugar
2 cups starter tea from last batch (or plain kombucha if you're just starting)
1 scoby

1. Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Mix in the sugar and stir to dissolve. Take off heat and add tea. Cool to room temperature.
2. Once cooled, add the starter tea. Pour into a gallon glass jar.
3. With clean hands, gently place scoby in jar. It may sink, it may float. It's all good.
4. Cover the jar with cheesecloth or a paper towel and store in a dark room for a week.
5. After a week, sample! If it's tart enough, bottle it up and store in the fridge. Or you could do a second fermentation (I haven't done that yet). If you're bottling at this point, remember to reserve two cups of your 'booch and get the next batch of tea ready. If it still needs more time, throw it back in that dark room and check back in a day or two. Then proceed as above.

The scobies I gave away are a bit brownish-pink. Not to worry! My last two batches have been a black tea/passionfruit mix... which of course imparted the reddish hue. They still should be okay to make your own kombucha.

And if you would like a scoby, I should have one ready in a week or so. I think. Let me read up on that to make sure.

Recycled Window Boxes

M was on a mission this past weekend. Aside from cleaning up the yard and tidying around the house, he wanted to make more planters. At some point in our house’s past, the living room windows had window boxes. There were no signs of them when we moved in, so either it’s been a very long time since the last installation or the former owners took them when they left.

The wood came from a pallet we got from our neighbors. I was thinking they would be a bit deeper, but boards weren’t wide enough. Not complaining though, because I think he did a pretty good job on them. Now I just have to figure out what to plan in them. Something with shallow roots… herbs perhaps?

Solderless PMT Probe

Diagram show Back of Plugs - Wires Comin' Atcha!

[Open] - No Wire
[Closed] - Wire

[Probe] - Replace Wire with Probe, or add Probe to Wire

[Switch] - Replace Wire with Switch

Back View of Board Plug: (Wires would be coming out of the screen at you)

       | |                 | |

[ 1] [ 3] [ 5] [ 7] [  9] [11]
[ 2] [ 4] [ 6] [ 8] [10] [12]

[ 5]===========| |===========[ 5]       - Probe

                           \/

[ 6]===========/ _==========[ 6]        - Toggle Switch         


Back View of Drive Plug: (Again, wires would be coming out of the screen at you)

       | |                 | |

[ 1] [ 3] [ 5] [ 7] [  9] [11]
[ 2] [ 4] [ 6] [ 8] [10] [12]

Directions:

- Add Probe to 5

- Remove straight wired connection from 6 and replace with toggle switch

Items Needed:

   Stock DVD Drive Power Cable (or buy one here for $2.40 shipped)

   Switch and wires from old computer build; front panel (or buy some wires here for $3.60, without the
           switch. Radioshack should have a decent switch available.)

        Power Switch with attached wires and connectors (removed from plastic housing)

        Wire from front panel peripherals (x2; one side of one wire stripped)

   Leg of infrared LED (or any small, electrically sound, metal object to use as a probe. A pin or needle would
        work as well)

Tools Needed:

   Small flathead screwdriver or thin metal pry bar

   Electrical tape (just in case)

Completely solderless DIY Pogo Mo Thoin Probe.

I made one out of old parts, and it worked a million times better than cutting traces and soldering the PCB (MRA Hack). I'm going to order an extra cable from DealExtreme ($2.40, free shipping takes about a month to arrive) to make a permanent (ie. extra, soldered) version I can use to swap out and update firmware. The switch will be especially handy when updating, letting you power on/off the drive as needed.

I started out by disconnecting the [5] and [6] wires from the plug. The easiest way to do this (just like disconnecting the plastic housing on your front panel wires) is to pry up the small flap of plastic above the wire and pull it out. For the [5] wire, I used a long piece of wire for the front panel speaker, with metal connectors still attached. These connectors fit perfectly into the DVD power cord plug. I jammed the 'probe' (the LED leg) into this connector as well as the spliced end of another length of wire (with the connector also attached at the other end), creating a very snug fit with very little wiggle for the probe. Insert the opposite ends of your new probe wire into the [5] slots. The same was done with the [6] wire. It was removed and replaced with the power button switch. I checked all connections and the switch with a multimeter and recommend you do the same.


Update (3/10/12):

After receiving my extra DVD power cable, I went ahead and made an improved, soldered, easier to use, permanent version of this probe. The steps were exactly the same as above, but I soldered on a toggle switch from an old flash bulb, along with a green LED indicator light so I can tell whether the probe is on or off. I used a cardboard spool from some old thermal paper I found at work for the body, and closed everything up with some epoxy putty on either end. Here's my end result..

Making Mead

Ingredients:
     24oz Honey
     12oz Frozen Juice Concentrate
     3qt Water
     1 packet Lalvin D47 Yeast

Materials:
     1 1/2+ gallon Brew Pot
     Chlorine Sanitizer
     2 4qt Containers
     6ft Plastic Tubing
     1 Balloon
     1 Needle
    
Notes:
     You will need a 1 gallon container for the primary fermentation, and enough empty bottles for bottling. I used a combination of grolsch bottles, beer bottles, and wine bottles that I had lying around. As for the primary fermenter, I used a thoroughly cleaned and sanitized gallon cider container, left over from my cider experiment. The balloon and needle were used as a stopcock/airlock.
     Sanitization is up to you. You can use the suggested chlorine sanitizer, or any other sanitization method you know of. Just keep in mind that this is the most important step for making a drinkable mead.
     Also recommended are a fermentation bucket with stopcock and spout, a racking cane, and a bottling wand. Depending on how you plan to bottle, a capper or corker may be necessary. Using a grolsch (or beugel) type bottle will eliminate the need for these. All these items, as well as the tubing and yeast can be found at your local homebrew store.
     The yeast that's used in this process doesn't have a great affinity for the sugars in honey, hence we'll be using a juice concentrate to kickstart the process. You can also buy a yeast nutrient and add to the must.


Procedure:

Sanitize Everything. Be sure all buckets, tools, utensils, etc. are thoroughly sanitized.
Bring 3qts water to a boil, then turn the heat down to a simmer. Add Honey and Juice Concentrate while stirring continuously until dissolved. Avoid boiling this mixture (known as a 'must').
Remove from heat and cover brewpot while allowing to cool. Once the brewpot is warm to the touch, add yeast and transfer must into 1 gallon primary fermenter (gallon jug?). Cover with airlock (a balloon stretched over the opening with a needle hole poked into it works like a charm). Allow to sit at room temperature for 3-4 weeks to ferment.
Once primary fermentation cedes (no more bubbling/deflated balloon) transfer the mead from the fermenter into bottles. I used some plastic tubing with a bottling wand and siphoned the mead into separate bottles. If you're using a gallon bottle, siphoning from the fermenter into the bottle should be all you need. Just be careful to avoid any sediment.
Cap your bottles (using any of the methods mentioned earlier) and allow to sit for 2-4 months.