Kombucha Chronicles, Part 9: Vessel Cleaning and Update

Everyone's kombucha tastes are different. Some swear by the continuous brew method, in which you never really remove the scoby from the vessel in which it brews, save for a few cleanings a year.  Then there's the batch method, where you clean and sterilize your jars every cycle. 

When I noticed a slight change in the taste of my kombucha to something more...beery...I decided it was time to clean the vessels.  So I've cleaned my smaller jars and my biggest jar, and the pictures in this article are of the scoby I have grown in that big jar. 

I peeled a bit off to share with the chickens, but I think I've done a good job growing a nice thick healthy one.  I just poured the entire contents of the jar into a big, clean bowl.

The undisturbed scoby just before I cleaned it's home.

It's kind of hard to tell by this photo but there's a light brownish whitish film across the bottom and the vessel has a yeasty peculiar smell once the rest of the brew has been removed. This smell is just from the coagulated now dead yeast cells in the bottom of the brew, totally harmless but also not very tasty.

The brownish smudges and smears are those yeast cells.  Yeast loves to take over kombucha if left to do so, so I decided to strain the starter tea as well, removing many of those dark strands.

I've got a fridge with more than ten full, flavored bottles of Kombucha in it that I've been working my way though.  I've got a few customers as well, so this is going to blossom into another business for me.  

Since adding kombucha to my diet, my body has undergone a great many changes and it's been very interesting to observe.  I've noticed changes in just about every area as the brew has thrown my body into detox, something I'm not sure I've ever gone through.  I'm experiencing interesting changes in appetite, as I am hungry but no longer satisfied by the same things I used to crave.  As I write, I've got sliced cucumbers and ranch dressing sitting in my lap, ready for me to munch on as I decide to do so. 

I'm not ready to share the followup on the effects it's had on my body because things are still changing so much every day.  I know that yesterday when I was feeling horrible with headache and fatigue, kombucha somehow managed to bring me back to a state of feeling almost human.  I've had many experiences like this where it's been the only thing to help and bring relief, so I'll just keep drinking it and brewing it. 

I hope you enjoyed my scoby shots as much as I did, I now get very excited at the idea of a thick white scoby floating in that jar. 

Thanks for following and supporting us, until next time!