Author: Rhonda

Last week I bottled up our first ferment to make four flavours of kombucha: Pineapple Mango, Strawberry Cream Soda, Blueberry and Kiwi. This week it was time to test our second ferments.

I moved our production to the basement. I started out burping the kombucha. As you will see in the video that follows my first time opening the flip top bottle I was quite nervous. Thankfully the first flip open on the Pineapple Mango was not very explosive. There was a little carbonation. It did have a nice flavour profile. Next I opened the Strawberry Cream Soda. This one had a lot of pulp. In our taste test my daughter and I thought this one was quite flavourful.  Having opened two flavours I went into opening the third, Blueberry with a little more confidence. It was explosive! The blueberry was so pressured that it sprayed the roof, wall 10 feet behind and even hit my cream coloured couch in the adjoining living room. This was a little upsetting and I spent most of the evening cleaning. I will have to replace the drop ceiling tiles. Thankfully I was able to get it out of the couch cushions. Into the fridge went our second fermentation to prevent over carbonation.

We now open our kombucha outdoors. The blueberry was a bubbly disaster. It tasted horrible, it was overly sweet with a boozy aftertaste. Finally we ended off our flavour tests with the kiwi. It came out on top for flavour despite not being carbonated. It was tangy, sour and sweet and my daughter’s favourite.

I think I need to learn yet about carbonation. I listened to a podcast this week that while it was from a commercial brewer it left me with a few questions. In this podcast, Living Full Kombucha – Teacher Turned Alchemist/ Episode 17- All Things Flavoring, she speaks of force carbonating her kombucha. Can I do that? Is that what they are doing with kombucha I purchase at the grocery store? I love when a kombucha is carbonated and yet my explosive tests this week leave me questioning does increased carbonation also equate to a boozy taste? My blueberry had the most carbonation, but it was also the worst. The kiwi had the least carbonation, but tasted the best.

It was interesting to hear that as a commercial brewer she is only working on mastering three flagship flavours. Here I was trying out four flavours! Actually, I am sure she landed on these three flavours after much trial even though she does not mention this. Part of mastering these three flavours is keeping consistent flavour, and a low alcohol content while increasing batch size. A low pH starter that was acidic combats bacteria and drives down alcohol content she shared. I thought the podcast was very interesting, she was good at storytelling and I may return to her story later. I enjoy listening to podcasts for their flexibility. I can listen while driving, walking or doing chores around the house. As a way of learning a skill it is easy to fit learning into daily life. I also enjoy auditory experiences in my downtime as sometimes I come home from a day of screens and feel like my eyes could use a rest. At the same time the podcast was a little confusing for where I am in my journey. A podcast has limited interactivity. In a way it is harder to practice alongside the content or visualize what the speaker is saying. If I was really learning from this experience or another podcast I would need to pause and replay frequently, which disrupts flow.

After the question of carbonation was raised I mined Youtube for videos on carbonation. YouTube makes it easy to see process in action.  At first I was excited to find Bite Scized Education had a video on the Science Behind Kombucha Carbonation and I could connect with Molly’s journey. The hardest part she found initially when she was learning how to make kombucha was deciding if she wanted it fizzy and then how fizzy. “Making kombucha that is not fizzy is so much easier.” This video models scientific thinking and encourages curiosity, observation and inquiry by setting up a testable question. She asks “can we engineer a way to measure the pressure that builds inside a bottle.”She then builds a few prototypes to measure the pressure including using a gauge from a basketball, a recycled bottle and household glue. This demonstrates that learning is not always about answers, but the process of exploration. While this was a fun video to watch she concludes that maybe it is up to us the viewers to figure out. The conclusion is open ended leaving viewers to think critically and encourages active engagement. However, this lack of closure still leaves me confused without clear answers. It still feels ambiguous.

In this next video, the creator talks about carbonation being something that every brewer struggles with at some point. To address it he also uses a scientific process to test various variables in a lime juice kombucha. Controls include temperature (stored in a chest set to 78 degrees) and 9 grams of sugar in each bottle. The changing variables include nucleation sites (lime pulp, ginger, strawberry), pH (removing lime juice replacing with more simple sugar and zest) and time. The takeaways were to reduce the amount of pulp (nucleation sites) and that ginger always overwhelms. The most explosive/pops were the ones with increased nucleation sites yet after the explosive impressive show (the strawberry) what remained in the bottle was flat. The creator’s advice was to increase the amount of time as the second bottle with 7 days of fermentation compared to 3 in each of the others produced an effervescent, carbonated, delightful tingle with the best flavour profile. This video is helpful to see various variables manipulated. Viewers might apply these findings in their own problem-solving process especially with citrus based kombuchas. I appreciate his conclusions even if I might not be able at this time to control variables like temperature or sugar levels. I wonder if he is letting it ferment for the full 7 days without burping. It seemed like the 7 day open was the first open. I reflect on Madison’s instructions to leave the second ferment for 7 days before returning to the fridge. Further, she added in juice rather than fruit. Perhaps there is something in having less nucleation sites!

This week I am going to scale back my flavours and test the lime kombucha that this creator makes. I am going to be patient and wait the entire 7 days before opening my second ferment. I am also going to test the kiwi kombucha again/juicing the kiwi this time and waiting 7 days.

As a fun addition to this weeks learning, I thought I might make a matcha kombucha float with the first ferment this week and I thought it was delicious.

Inspiration was a matcha float . Instead of sparkling water I added kombucha because Food52 has an article on why kombucha floats are the greatest drink of the year (even if it was 2019).

 

 

In this week’s learning project update, I will explore the second fermentation process of kombucha, focusing on flavouring and using social media platforms like Reddit, Instagram, and Pinterest as sources of inspiration.

As the snow started falling outside, I found myself deep in a digital rabbit hole of kombucha flavour ideas.

Reddit

I started my search on Reddit, where communities like r/Kombucha share tips, troubleshoot, and post pictures of their latest brew. I admit I initially went with the hope of maybe finding a copycat or “inspired-by” kombucha recipe of  Parkerview Brews, my favorite brand of kombucha. Sometimes home brewers will post threads like “Anyone made Kombucha w/ kiwi juice like GT’s (THE kombucha brand)?” Unfortunately, while I did not find the flavour recreation I was looking for I decided I have to recreate this Ocean Blue one day (Coconut, Pineapple and Blue Majic). Oh wait, what is Blue Majic? And how can I find it?

Reddit is useful if you are able to find a community around a shared interest. Here people will share advice, questions and experiences. These experiences are authentic, personal, and often include practical tips. It can also be interactive where users ask and answer questions. I was inspired by one post to make a list moving forward of my batches and to rank them in flavour profiles. I also found this chart an interesting way this user came up with to describe flavours of various kombuchas to others. It can be a challenging to use Reddit to search for specific information. Sometimes information is not current, or mixed in with long discussions or tangents. What you’re searching for can be buried within the comments. Sometimes the comments are unreliable. Everyone has an opinion and not everyone’s version is great. Beginners to experienced brewers may be weighing in. While sometimes there are photos, like the Ocean Blue mentioned above, details are often missed. Reddit is conversational and often unfiltered.

Instagram

I decided to start a Kombucha collection on my Instagram account perhaps to further influence the Algorithm to send me content that was useful. I like the visual, micro-learning that Instagram offers. I found it useful to have a visual refresher on how to make kombucha. I also thought it might be useful to save posts as stories disappear quickly and posts can be hard to find again.  While I may not always find what I am looking for, often I am inspired or my curiosity is piqued.

I had this idea that I wanted to make a matcha kombucha as I had some matcha powder. Trying to find the matcha kombucha that was in my head on instagram proved impossible, but I did find some interesting ideas that I might want to try later. In this instagram post on Matcha Raspberry Kombucha salomelafermentee shows making the first ferment from matcha powder then later adding in the raspberries. I thought it might be interesting later to explore making other recipes/drinks from kombucha such as this mango matcha smoothie that looked delicious, or a kombucha ice cream float, or even mocktails.

 

Pinterest

As the snow continued to fall, I had less of a desire to brave the cold and source ingredients. What did I have at home? I turned to Pinterest as a digital file cabinet for recipes. Pinterest is also image focused with posts that often link to blog posts, tutorials or videos. I searched for recipes that could make use of what I had on hand: strawberries, frozen blueberries, frozen pineapple and kiwi. This allowed me to plan a second fermentation without leaving home. A challenge I found with curating a board was that there is an overwhelming volume of pins and often many are ads for products or unrelated. One of the pins that I tried to follow my computer informed me that it had malicious links attached which was a little shocking and I quickly clicked off. While the pins helped source blog posts often I found the blog posts were so cluttered with pop up ads.

Finally I sourced four recipes that would provide direction for my second fermentation. Mostly I was interested in the ratio of fruit/kombucha and hopefully, if this is a recipe that has been tested, how long ideally to let it ferment for the second fermentation to avoid a kombucha bomb.

Pictured below are the four types of flavours I made for my second fermentation and a review of the recipe.

• Buchabrewers Strawberry Cream Soda

This recipe, from Bucha Brewers, leads with a clear photo that shows the ingredients that are needed. I found this helpful to see quickly what was needed. The recipe layout is well organized and printable. The jump to recipe button improves navigation, even though the entire post is not cluttered. The author tries to make the post fun and engaging pointing out visual cues like carbonation building up in the bottle. There are links to resources and support that are subtle and unassuming offering convenience without overwhelming the reader. While the author provides the opportunity for feedback, “enjoy! Let us know if you like this one,” I do wish there had been a comment. It shows how a platform like Reddit or even Instagram shines in the opportunity it provides for users to discuss and review providing tips, variations, and troubleshooting advice.

• Grow Forage Cook Ferment Homemade Blueberry Kombucha

This blog prominently shows a toolbar indicating how many times the post has been pinned or shared which highlights its popularity and encourages further sharing. There are options to jump to the recipe or print which are helpful considering the lengthy post which includes videos, advertisements and descriptions. The photos are visually striking and clearly designed to be pinned. The photos make the recipe attractive and even inspired me to try this recipe. There are multiple links to other kombucha flavours and additional blueberry recipes which allow the readers to explore related content.

• Intuitive Food Design Pineapple Kombucha Tea Recipe

This blog was quite clean also. I liked that there were clear directions indicating how much pineapple in comparison to amount of tea and what size of flip top bottles were used. Also in the method it tells how to avoid gas build up and explosions. If I search Kombucha on the blog I can see several other posts about Kombucha which gives me some hope that this author, a holistic health coach, knows what she is talking about.

• Create Mindfully Kiwi Kombucha

While the first two steps of the recipe were clear making it easy to follow, the blog was less polished in other areas. One of these areas is the tip about straining out the mango which is confusing since the recipe never mentions mango. This inconsistency may cause confusion for readers especially beginners. I did not like this blog as much for all of the advertisements which distract from the main content. It impacts readability and makes the page feel cluttered. I thought the background information was basic.  I question the nutritional information included as fermentation consumes some sugars so the numbers may not accurately reflect the final beverage. Accuracy, clutter, and clarity in tips and nutritional claims could be improved.

Today felt like an ambitious day as I attempted to make four flavours for the second ferment. I wasn’t completely done. The process of making kombucha is a cycle. I needed to rehouse my original SCOBYs and start the fermentation cycle again. I am happy to report my SCOBY’s are looking good (even the  Amazon SCOBY batch actually formed a new SCOBY on top), my kombucha is bubbling (hopefully  not a bomb in the making!) and I’m proud of what I created from what I had on hand. I am excited to see and taste how it will all turn out this week.

Fermentation School: Learning from Others

On Tuesday of this week I went over to Madison’s to watch her make her second fermentation. Second fermentation is when you flavour and add carbonation to your Kombucha brew. She shared a bottle of her second ferment with me that I am anticipating trying.

I wish I had been more proactive in taking photos or a video to document this learning journey as I only took two photos and they are not that great of quality.  In this photo on the left she is showing me that you need to leave at least an inch in the top of the bottle. She also recommended these air-tight, glass, flip-top bottles. When pouring in the Kombucha from the first brew she strained the kombucha and filled the bottles about half full before adding  different flavours of juice.

The photo on the left shows the type of juice she adds to her second ferment. Her favourite juice flavour to add is Raspberry Juice. Madison recommended leaving the bottle for about 7 days at room temperature. After about 7 days the bottle can be transferred to the refrigerator to halt fermentation and prevent over-carbonation. Refrigeration, she shared, prevents it also from becoming too sour.

Madison also shared with me a SCOBY that she separated from another SCOBY. I was a little worried about my previous Amazon SCOBY as it is living on the bottom of the jar, (and later a comment from Matt) so I was excited to try this time a version with Green Tea.

On Wednesday, a new jar arrived as well as some pH strips. Wednesday evening, I brewed a new batch of Kombucha and changed out the cheesecloth covers for a thicker weave of bamboo cotton material.

Scrolling for Answers: Overthinking the Bubbles

Thursday, in reflecting on TikTok’s potential for education I thought I would explore creators who posted about “second fermentation”.  Simply Moods by Ida was an interesting account as well as Cakebrain. Another creator recommended burping Kombucha once every day or every other day after three days of fermentation to prevent Kombucha bombs. There is a lot of crazy content on TikTok also. #burpingkombucha. There is a lot of content about exploding kombucha which makes for dramatic content. I was a little worried about a Kombucha bomb,  so I tried opening the flip-top bottle, but there was only a little carbonation. Perhaps I should have waited 7 days as Madison suggested. I closed it up again and thought I would look further into tips about flat Kombucha on TikTok, manifest.kombucha had an interesting TikTok about decarbonating Kombucha that was in your refrigerator. Searching “kombucha flat” did not give me the search results I was looking for rather it was mostly about flat stomachs. I discovered that searching for specific content may not be the intended use of TikTok. Rather coming across interesting content creators such as the Cultured Guru, a food microbiologist teaching people how to ferment, and following those tangents seemed to be a better use of my time. My questions/concerns about second fermentation I realized were best answered outside of TikTok. I am a little apprehensive about the user agreement for TikTok. While I do not plan to link my CapCut account to TikTok and share my financial information, I made a small video on CapCut to test out the idea of making a short video less than 30 seconds and of the same resolution 720p as a TikTok video and posted it as a short on YouTube (my first ever YouTube short!) I have deep admiration for content creators that can take 30 seconds and make it also educational.

Video Experiments: pH Practice

As soon as my pH strips arrived I was testing different pH levels. It reminded me of Chemistry class. I think I am right on track. The Green Tea was initially 5.5. Then after I added in the SCOBY and starter the pH was around 4.0. Today it was around 3.0. Here is another YouTube short I made. By contrast the Amazon SCOBY trial batch number 1 still is around a 4.0 or maybe even 4.5.

The ultimate test is taste. Amazon batch surprisingly still tastes like sweet tea so I think with a pH still near the starting point this batch may not have taken. By contrast, the batch from Madison already tastes tangy! Follow along next week to see where the fizz, fears, and fermentation will take me!

Despite connecting with several people on Facebook, I soon discovered that their SCOBYs weren’t quite ready to share. Turns out, growing and brewing Kombucha is a bit of a waiting game. So on to Plan B, problem solve. Last Sunday, I ordered a starter kit from a Canadian company, Hoochy Booch in Vancouver, thank you, Instagram algorithm. But by Saturday, even though I swore I’d paid for express shipping, there was nothing in sight. Pivot. Amazon, stage right, with  a SCOBY that promised to arrive Sunday.

In preparation, I subscribed to Revolution Fermentation’s newsletter with new recipes and guides and watched the initial video from an online course on making Kombucha.

Similar to Sonia, my daughter was just as eager to dive in. She had listened to the video from the online course with me and joined me in shopping earlier in the week for black tea, cane sugar, cheese cloth, and a jar that would hold our Kombucha.

We scanned the QR code on the back of the package, which unfortunately, did not take us to the expected directions. My mom soon joined the conversation, with her weekly call, adding in her perspective as I read the directions while boiling water, steeping tea, and measuring sugar.

After removing the tea bags, stirring in the sugar to dissolve, transferring the concentrated tea mixture to a large jar, and measuring in 14 cups of room temperature, filtered water it was time to add in the SCOBY.

I wonder if 14 cups was a little much to add to my jar as there was not much room to add in the SCOBY. I also wonder if the top of the jar is too large for this size of SCOBY. I covered the top with several layers of cheese cloth and secured it with an elastic band. After reviewing the online course video again my daughter and I thought we might change out the cheese cloth to a thicker cloth to prevent any fruit flies from finding our Kombucha.

After making the initial batch of Kombucha I recalled seeing a short on YouTube showing how you could make your own SCOBY from purchased Organic Kombucha so I thought I would experiment with that too as I had a bottle of Synergy in the fridge. As I did not add as much water into the mason jar it took much longer to come to room temperature.

In the meantime, while I waited for the tea mixture to come to room temperature I thought I would explore Dishant’s comment on my last post looking into the Chemistry behind Kombucha. I found a video explaining the Chemistry behind Kombucha, and while I think I will have to watch it more than once to fully understand the chemical reaction, I did have some take aways.

It was interesting to learn from this video that the bacteria in Kombucha produces acetic acid as compared to other forms of fermentation where the bacteria produces lactic acid. Acetic acid bacteria needs oxygen whereas other forms of fermentation do not need oxygen. A take away from this is that Kombucha cannot just be covered over with a lid but needs a cloth that allows it to breathe. A second take away was that as it sits more acetic acid is being produced and the more acidic it becomes. I think it will be interesting to purchase some pH strips to test the different pH levels and perhaps start to understand how this contributes to flavor.

For now, my two experiments are sitting on my counter.  I am looking forward to next week as a friend messaged me while I was writing this post that she has a Kombucha SCOBY ready for me and invited me by to see how she makes Kombucha.

 

 

How often do we go where our curiosity invites us?

I like to think of myself as a lifelong learner and yet sometimes I stall when it comes to taking the initiative, choosing what to explore, engaging with what I am really curious about. Self-directed learning or SDL involves choice, personal relevance, flexibility, motivation, problem-solving and reflection. In the article, Self-Directed Learning and Student-Centred Learning: A Conceptual Comparison Morris, Bremner and Sakata reference SDL as the fundamental competence for a lifelong learner.

More recently, perhaps in accordance with rapidly changing conditions, driven in part by digitisation, COVID-19, and times of conflict, SDL has been highlighted as a fundamental meta-competence for living and working in our increasingly complex and unpredictable world: because it empowers a person to upskill – and be therefore adaptable to change

Why procrastinate then? Perhaps it is because we wonder if taking that initiative is worthwhile. For instance, I am mildly obsessed with Kombucha. Is it worthwhile for me to learn how to make Kombucha when I can purchase Kombucha at the grocery store near my house? Oh! you will save so much money making it yourself. I thought this myself when I taught myself how to sew. I thought if I make my own clothes I will save so much money. In reality I spent a great deal of money purchasing equipment, tools, supplies, and for every item that was wearable I made many other versions that were not. And yet, while others may have done it before or your first attempts might be a disaster, following curiosity is worthwhile.

One of the major components of EC&I831 is a personal learning project that is process based. I find this process based approach fascinating as a learning and teaching strategy and hope to learn more about this learning and teaching strategy through experiencing it. AI for instance, has entered the scene, even in my grade 5 classroom. And where students who just learned how to login to a computer in September, by October can generate and turn in products that exceed the model. In my own teaching practice I am trying to incorporate more triangulation of assessment as traditionally the end product was what we entered into grade book. Process based learning involves goal setting, making connections, planning, research, inquiry, experimentation, risk-taking, problem-solving, adapting, reflecting or metacognition, and documenting the journey.

I included the video linked above because I liked the idea of setting a fixed study time of perhaps 25 minutes a day where you focus on the material. The reasoning the video shared was not that you meet your goal of finishing rather the very act of being interrupted in process keeps interest and motivation.

Initially I struggled with what to choose for my learning project. I wondered if making kombucha would be complex enough. Would it be as simple as brewing a sweet tea, adding in a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast), and letting it ferment 1-2 weeks? In my initial searches I realized learning anything can be as simple or complex depending on how in depth or detailed you want to go. For instance, Revolution Fermentation offers a number of topics to learn about kombucha on their site. Digging deeper, I followed a link on their website to a kombucha masterclass and realized my initial concerns of whether kombucha was complex enough could be put to rest.

Where to start? My first initial impulse was to order a SCOBY off of Amazon, and just get started, however after in the spirit of EC&I831 being a course on Social Media & Open Education I put a call out on Facebook to see if any of my friends also make kombucha and may be willing to share a SCOBY, apparently SCOBYS have babies (more on that later)! 

I thought of how I could incorporate Social Media into learning about Kombucha. Some of the ideas I had included online tutorials and watching topical videos on Youtube. Further I could read blogs. I could follow links on Pinterest to save recipes and brewing guides. I could perhaps join online communities such as Facebook groups or Reddit communities where enthusiasts share their advice, successes and failures. I could listen to Podcasts where fermentation experts share their research and insights.

What I think will actually be complex will be the process of using social media to inform, to make connections, and to share this process.

Embarking on this personal learning project, this video is inspiring, Danny Gevirtz encourages making what you want to make and sharing your work. At one point in the video he says, “if I listened to my dumb brain, and didn’t share what I wanted to share, we wouldn’t be right here right now.” Learning to make kombucha, sew, knit, edit videos, or play the guitar is worthwhile because the process of doing it, connecting with others, and basically getting out of our heads is worthwhile.