This week we fermented for nine days since it’s been a little cooler lately. The big batch we flavored with 1/3 cup blackberry puree (thanks Rindon!) and just a tad of lemon juice (we used 6 clams of blackberries and 1 whole lemon for 10 bottles) along with the usual 1/2 tbsp of sugar for the fizz. The small batch (and one bottle from the big batch) got 1 tsp of sugar for our plain house buch, everyone’s favorite.
This week we made one of our favorites, Strawberry. We did the usual 1/3 cup strawberry puree (really nice from farmer’s market) and 1/2 tbsp sugar for carbonation. The plain got the usual tsp of sugar. Here’s a good article that mentions Strawberry being the champion fizz producer. As usual we’re using 22 grams of the best tea buds for the small batch (about 11 cups of water) and 35 grams for the large (about 17 cups of water). We use 2 cups starter buch and 1 2/3 cups of sugar for the large batch and 1 1/4 cup of starter buch and 1 cup of sugar for the small. We’ll refrigerate the Strawberry Thursday morning for a 2.5 day 2nd fermentation.
This week We flavored the big batch with 1/3 cup apricot puree and 2 tsp sugar and the small with just 1 tsp of sugar.
No Cara Cara this time but some nice oranges to flavor a nine day batch. The large batch tasted a little stronger than the small but they both tasted great! We flavored the big batch with 1/3 cup of fresh squeezed OJ and 1/2 tbsp sugar. The plain got a tsp of sugar. I tried a little different brew technique this time. For the small batch I added two more cups to the pot. Then I added 1 additional cup of cool water (almost) to each, for about 17 cups for the large and 11 cups for the small. I used 22 grams of the best tea buds for the small leaving 37 g for the large. The large got 1 2/3 cup of sugar and 2 cups of starter buch, the small 1 cup sugar and 1 1/4 cup starter. We’ll let the OJ go on the shelf for about 5 days.
We let the brew go a little long this week. After 9 warm days it’s a potent batch but with the sweet Texas grapefruit we have (1/2 cup) and a full tbsp of sugar. We made the big batch grapefruit and added just 1/2 tbsp sugar to the small batch for our plain (we tried a little extra sugar due to the strength). We’ll check it after 3 days on the shelf.
We flavored this week’s big batch with 1/3 cup apricot puree and 2-3 tsp sugar (there was some confusion with the measuring spoons). Our big batch is about 1 2/3 times our small batch. We used 18 cups of water for the big batch along with 35 grams of tea, 1 2/3 cups sugar and 2 cups starter buch. For the small we use 11 cups water, 22 grams tea, 1 cup sugar and 1 1/4 cups of starter buch.
Rindon gave us some seedless berry puree to use this week! We flavored the small batch (23 g Oolong tea, 11 cups of water, 1 cup sugar, 1 1/4 cup starter) with 1/3 cup of fresh berry puree and 1/2 tbsp sugar. It tasted pretty sweet before flavoring, more so than the big batch. We flavored the big batch with just 1 tsp of sugar. We’ll let this go 3 days in second fermentation.
This week we are going to start making the larger (17 cup) batch plain and flavoring the smaller (11 cup) batch. For the large batch we are using 34 grams of tea, 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of starter buch. For the small batch we are using 23 grams of tea 1 cup of sugar and 1 1/4 cup of starter buch.
We flavored the small batch with 1/3 cup of fresh cantaloupe and 1/2 tbsp sugar in each bottle. We’ll check it in 3 days.
The flavor of this week is raspberry. We used 1/3 cup of fresh strawberry puree with 1/2 tbsp of sugar. We’ll check it in a couple of days. We flavored the plain with 1 tsp of sugar.
We are now using 17 cups of water for our large batch and 11 cups for our small which makes our large batch about 1.5 times the small. Splitting 57 grams of Oolong tea we use 23 grams for the small batch and 34 grams for the large. We use 1 cup of sugar and 1 1/4 cups of starter buch for the small batch and 1 2/3 cup sugar and 2 cups starter buch for the large.
Last Tuesday we made a batch of apricot which I forgot to blog.
This week we flavored the large batch with 1/3 cup of fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice and 1/2 tbsp sugar. The smaller batch tasted a little sweet (temperatures were cooler this week and the SCOBY had that swiss cheese look from the variations) so we added 1 tsp of sugar and we’ll let it go a full 16 days on the shelf.
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