2/22 – Yellow Mango

by | Feb 22, 2018 | Uncategorized

We are now brewing 35 grams of Tie Kwan Yin Oolong in a gallon of distilled water. After steeping 30 minutes we transfer it to our big jar with 1 2/3 cups of sugar. After letting it cool we add 1 1/2 additional cups of water, 2 cups of starter buch and transfer the SCOBY.
We harvested this on 3/2 for an eight day fermentation as it’s been a little strong the past couple of harvests. We tried a new flavor this week, fresh yellow mangos. We used 1/4 cup of mango puree and 1 tbsp of sugar (the mangos were tart). We expect this to be a recipe for a bomb so we’ll check it after 3 days at the most. 
We ended up leaving this out for about a 5 day fermentation. It took longer than strawberry but not much. Oh and the tbsp of sugar was a little much. The mango was sweeter than we first thought. Still good though!

2/13 – House Buch

by | Feb 13, 2018 | Uncategorized

We use 21 grams of Tie Kwan Yin Oolong tea, steeped in 1/2 gallon of distilled water for 30 minutes.  After cooling to room temperature we added 2 additional cups of water,  1 1/4 cup of starter buch,  and 1 cup of sugar.  As always when we harvest our House OG we will be adding an additional 1 tsp of sugar when bottling for the 2nd fermentation. We’re now doing a 2 week second fermentation on the house buch.

2/13 – Pink Greyhound

by | Feb 13, 2018 | Uncategorized

We are now brewing 35 grams of Tie Kwan Yin Oolong in a gallon of distilled water. After steeping 30 minutes we transfer it to our big jar with 1 2/3 cups of sugar. After letting it cool we add 1 1/2 additional cups of water, 2 cups of starter buch and transfer the SCOBY. Our fermentation time this time of year is nine days.

We harvested this on 2/22 and added 1/3 cup of fresh squeezed pink grapefruit juice and 2 tsp of sugar. We’ll let it go at least a week in second fermentation.

Yikes! We did a 6 day second fermentation and not only is it too explosive but it doesn’t have near enough sugar. So we can learn a few lessons from this. One, that when we have a strong first fermentation (which this was), we need to sweeten it more and do a shorter 2nd fermentation.

2/4 House OG

by | Feb 4, 2018 | Uncategorized

We use 21 grams of Tie Kwan Yin Oolong tea, steeped in 1/2 gallon of distilled water for 30 minutes.  After cooling to room temperature we added 2 additional cups of water,  1 1/4 cup of starter buch,  and 1 cup of sugar.  As always when we harvest our House OG we will be adding an additional 1 tsp of sugar when bottling for the 2nd fermentation. We will probably let this batch go a full 2 weeks in second fermentation. We accidently let a batch go that long and it was very good. It was dry and snappy like champagne without being too dry. We’ll probably lean in the direction of longer second fermentations, even if we need to add a little more sugar.

2/4 – Cara Cara Orange

by | Feb 4, 2018 | Uncategorized

We are now brewing 35 grams of Tie Kwan Yin Oolong in a gallon of distilled water. After steeping 30 minutes we transfer it to our big jar with 1 2/3 cups of sugar. After letting it cool we add 2 additional cups of water, 2 cups of starter buch and transfer the SCOBY. Our fermentation time this time of year is nine days.

We found some more cara cara oranges for our new favorite flavor. We used 1/3 cup of fresh squeezed OJ and 1/2 tbsp of sugar. We’re not sure how long we let the last batch go but it was at least a week.

We did a one week fermentation on this and it was fizzy without being too explosive. We’re thinking we might add some extra sugar next time and move to 2 tsp.