Kombucha

Before the Start

Introduction 🖊

This week, Hazal - the new Waag’s intern - learned me how to make KOMBUCHA! I want to learn how to make both the drink and experiment with bio-leather 🤩

My Goals 🎯

• What I think I already know:
  • I never heard before about KOMBUCHA till I started experimenting with biomaterials!
• What I want to learn:
  • Grow new SCOBYS
  • Make KOMBUCHA drinks from new scobys
  • Make bio-leather with new scobys

Project Management 🔢

How I’m going to organize my work during the week.

*Normally new SCOBYs take between 10 and 15 days to grow. Check the growing development every 2-3 days and take pictures!

Research 🤓

Hazal recommended me a few very useful websites with info related to Scobys. Sometimes they can get infected by other bacteria, and it is important to know how to fix the kombucha environment when this happens.

• Kombucha Mold

It is important to know the following info about KOMBUCHA before the start:

• Scobys like high temperatures, it is important to leave them in an environment between 25 - 30 ºC to be sure they will grow in a healthy way and avoid other bacterias to grow in the jug. If the temperature goes down to 16 ºC, Scobys may die.

• If you want to make bio-leather from KOMBUCHA, it is needed to add vinegar to make the SCOBY grow thicker. When doing so, the KOMBUCHA will not be nice to drink since it will be very acid. Make grow different baby Scobys in order to be able to do experiments adding more or less acid to the mix.

• The recommended PH for a drinkable KOMBUCHA is around 4.5, if you want to use it to make bio-leather, the recommended PH is around 2.8.

• The recommended amount of sugar when doing drinkable KOMBUCHA is around 12% of the mix - We are going to make 6% because of preference. When making bio-leather, is recommended to add a higher amount of sugar.

• Avoid using metal Spoons - or other tools - when making KOMBUCHA. Scobys may get infected if in contact with steel tools.

• Attached are some examples of KOMBUCHA BIO-LEATHER made by the FabriAcademy students during the past years. I especially love the squared pattern one!

Recetas Materiom KOMBUCHA BIO-CUERO

• Kombucha material textured and dyed
• Kombucha Fabric K01

During the Process

Results 🌸

Material creation 🧑‍🎨

Ingredients

Tools

In order to make KOMBUCHA, I used the following tools:

1. Scale
2. 1 Spoon
3. Jug
4. Water Heater
5. Jar

Process

I am going to grow new SCOBYs from a Mother SCOBY. In this way, I can use the new baby SCOBYs to make drinkable KOMBUCHA and to experiment with bio-leathers.

It is also possible to grow a mother SCOBY from scratch, but it will take a long time doing that, so by now, I will use the Mother SCOBY which kindly Hazel shared with me. 😇

This is the process which I followed in order to make grow new BABY SCOBYs:

Clean your hands!

It is very important to work in a fertilized environment when working with living bacteria.

Fertilize the Jug

Boil water with the heater, and leave it in the jar where the SCOBY will grow for a few minutes.

Tip 🛎️: Boil enough water to use both to fertilize the jar and make the tea needed for the KOMBUCHA.

Mix Hot Water + Sugar

Dissolve 60g of Sugar + 500 ml of Hot Water in a big Jug. We use hot water to dissolve faster both components.

Add tea bag to the mix

Scale 5gr of Tea in a paper bag, and make tea with the solution prepared in the step before. Wait around 10 minutes for the tea to be ready.

When the tea it is done, take out the tea’s bag from the water.

The mix’s color is very dark because of using brown sugar.

Add Cold Water

Add 500 ml of Cold water to the warm tea. We do this in order to cool down the mix to a friendly temperature for the SCOBY to grow.

Pour the tea mix into the Jar

Fill the jar with the new liquid, reaching a little more than half.

Check the PH from the Mother SCOBY

It is time to mix the new loquid-tea with the starter liquid from the Mother SCOBY jar. But before that, check the PH from the started liquid. We want the new liquid to have the same PH.

The PH from the start lawsuits resulted to be around 4.

Add starter liquid to the Jar

Start adding around 100 ml of starter liquid to the tea mix. Once is added, stir the mixture with a plastic spoon and check its PH. We want to reach the same PH as we had in the Mother SCOBY jar.

I had to add 3 times around 50 ml before I got the same PH. Resulting in 250 ml of starting liquid added to the mix.

The PH of my mix resulted in being around 4/5.

Add MOTHER SCOBY

Probably the most amazing moment of the process. If you have the possibility of choosing between different mother SCOBYs, choose the one you want to use to make new baby SCOBYs grow, and add it to the mix.

I decided to choose the first one I took from the bottle, it looked very beautiful.

pic mother scoby + Paola

Wrap a paper covering on to of the jar

Make a paper covering on top of the jar. In this way, the Mother SCOBY and Its babies will be able to breathe and keep safe from air bacteria.

Place the Jar in a warm place

SCOBY likes to grow in warm environments. The perfect temperature to make them grow healthy is about 25 - 30 degrees.

I placed my Mother Scoby Jar next to the radiators with Hazal’s jars.

Retrospective 🤔

I did experience the KOMBUCHA process as creating new growing pets!

I feel like growing and taking care of SCOBYs is like having fish. I saw my sister taking care of her aquarium and it looks kind of a similar process.

It needs a lot of care and love to make the SCOBYs grow healthy.

I think growing KOMBUCHA is a process that I will enjoy since it needs both of my personal skills. Self-discipline to make it work, but also lots of Creativity to experiment with them and try new cool stuff!

@31/03/22

It is almost a week since I started my KOMBUCHA. During this past week, I did check the Jar’s PH, in order to be sure everything was going okay with the mix.

When doing so, I touched the new SOBY which already was visible on Monday afternoon, so today 31/03/21, there is a third new SCOBY in the jar!

Hazal explained me everytime a SCOBY is touched, a new SCOBY will born within the mix.