Storey Publishing, LLC The Big Book of Kombucha: Brewing, Flavoring, and Enjoying the Health Benefits of Fermented Tea

I was a bit scared to start my whole kombucha journey - fear of being poisoned, have bottles explode in my face, have the bacteria SCOBY escape its jar and come for me in the night!!!I bought this book, and checked out her website….you will have more information than you knew you needed - it has history of kombucha, health benefits, what you need, tons of photos of what it should look like, or shouldn’t!!! Plus the how to, and enough recipes to last a few years….Really felt confident after reading this book, still have lots to go….The following is my home kombucha journey, that I have posted on the other products I bought related to this one…I’m going to post this review on the gallon jar and book products, since it was this starter kit, gallon jar/heater, and book combo that has set me on my kombucha home brew journey….I bought the starter kit last month, plus The Big Book of Kombucha and was reading it, talked to friends who’d brewed their own kombucha in the past; they all recommended a glass jar with spigot to do continuous brew rather than mess about with the SCOBY, risk it getting contaminated, and make everything simpler. I bought one from Home Goods, but as I kept reading, I realized the cute crystal glass and plastic spigot would not be good…Went back to the drawing board, researched on Amazon and found a great kombucha gallon jar, with stainless steel spigot, and bought their heater, kombucha likes 78 degrees…and ferments faster…A week ago, I followed a hybrid of directions from my book, the starter kit, and jar people….and created my first go, this starter kit is great, has everything you need, the tea is a mix of organic green and black tea, I’m ordering more today, cane sugar, vinegary smelling starter kit and healthy looking thin layers of cream and tan SCOBY, cane sugar, PH strips - I’m going to use their gallon jar to experiment once my SCOBY needs to be cut smaller…Once I’d mixed everything in my jar, my PH was 2.5 = perfect….added the stick on temp gauge, and my heater, and it’s cook little hat…I had placed the gallon jar on a small towel so I could drag it forward, rather than lifting it….i talked to my dear little Scooby Doo, it is a living organism, every time I was in the kitchen, kept temp at 78-80 degrees, a new white seal grew on top, and stringing strands grew down, all by the book….I sampled it today, it was sweet, but a little tart, and decanted half off into an old big 48 oz kombucha bottle, and added fresh ginger, hibiscus, and lemon juice- I will burp it every day for 3-4 days, and when the bubbles, flavor is to my liking, I’ll strain it into small bottles and put them in the fridge.My research says let the SCOBY sit in more concentrated mixture for a few days before adding more sweet tea and starting the process all over again…So far, it has been fun, and I look forward to drinking the real flavored stuff in a few days…

Great book

Me regalaron un scoby de kombucha y no sabía muy bien por donde empezar. Me encanta la kombucha pero ya no quería pagar tanto si la podría hacer en casa. El libro está muy completo y tiene muchas fotos que te ayudan a entender los procesos. Además viene con muchísimas recetas para darle sabor a tu bebida. Súper recomendable

Livro com excelente acabamento. Conteúdo bem distribuído.

This is quite a book! Loads of information, delivered in easy to follow chapters and steps. Lots of hints and tips and pictures showing you what your kombucha will look like as you go. Recommend.