Kombucha Brewing, Harvesting, & Flavoring

[Willd]

OK because this recipe uses a glycerine based cannabis tincture for it’s flavor I’ll start it with a link to another members post on how to make cannabis tincture using food grade vegetable glycerine. A god send for people who for whatever reason do not which to ingest alcohol. Kombucha does contain a trace amount of alcohol by volume so if you’re adamant about not consuming alcohol at all you’ll be better served to pass on trying it.

THC pill form

Tincture is probably your best bet. You could potentially make a home made gel capsule with an alcohol tincture or a glycerin tincture. You could also make edibles of course, brownies, or even kinda like a gummy bear or gum drop/spice drop. You can even just make a gel capsule from finely ground dry cannabis. Be careful, edibles can be very strong and take a while to fully kick in. I can’t tell you how many first timers ignored the advice and kept eating and eating thinking it wasn’t going to w…

Kombucha is a drink made by fermenting sweetened tea using what’s called a S.C.O.B.Y.
S.ymbiotic C.ulture O.f B.acteria and Y.east
It does require some inexpensive equipment and supplies to get going.
How big a brew vessel you start with depends on your projected intake. Just like cultivating cannabis, there are numerous options for every level or brewer. I settled on a 2.5 gallon glass pickle barrel because we usually drink an entire harvest by the next batch is ready.

The first thing you’ll want to do is go buy a commercial Kombucha to find out if you even like it. There are more brands than ever now. Any of the GT original are suitable. Many other brands have been filtered modified or otherwise diluted or are only available regionally. You’ll want to check your average indoor temps. Booch is healthiest when temps are maintained somewhere between 75-85°F with as little fluctuation as possible. I use a thermostatically controlled band heater since my indoor temps frequently dip below 60°F overnight in my kitchen during winter.

You’ll need to cultivate from scratch or acquire a healthy SCOBY before you can start. Many online sources discourage doing so using commercially available booch, but that is how everyone I know who is successfully brewing acquired theirs. I think it’s just a marketing ploy.
So much info and so many other errands beckon so I’ll have to post this in parts.

Taste testing for maturity with my long straw. I think pros use a brewers pipette.

This purple thing is a fruit fly trap, not really necessary in the dead of winter.

Sugar, Tea bags are the consumables you’ll need to have on hand and restock periodically. I put a cups worth of loose gunpowder green tea in every batch as well.

1 gallon vessels with spigots I use to fill my empty bottles

Brewer’s siphon to transfer to the the filling vessels.

Charging the empties with flavorings-

7 pints of Ripping Reefer sodas for WillD

7 pints of Lemon Cayenne Zinger for Mrs. WillD who is already high on life and doesn’t use any substances

Our own “crushed reds” 100% home grown dehydrated cayennes.

More to come. Errands call.

[Sl1]

Following with great interest - have given thought to make hibiscus kombucha (image and drink a gallon of hibiscus x green jasmine iced tea every day).

To keep the temperatures to be in range while fermenting? Will a seedling mat do?

[Nug-bug]

Man this topic is so far out man

[TxGrowman]

Tag me in on this brother ! Looks interesting and I am going to follow it !

[Willd]

Sure thing @txgrowman

[Willd]

A seedling mat would work but may encourage too much yeast growth on the bottom and may mess with the yeast:bacteria balance. All my sources recommend a band type heater over heating from the bottom but like cultivating cannabis it’s not an exact science but based on science and guidelines that can be bent and stretched to accommodate each brewer’s needs. Keeping the temp stable really helps produce consistent results but isn’t necessary. My buddy in TX’s daily temp indoors can range from mid-high 60’s overnight to mid 80s and his still comes out fine.

[jeffro]

Hi Willd, kick ass man. Please tag me I would really dig learning more.

[Sl1]

@Willd I’m totally inspired and have ordered starter and a big jar.

My first batch will be:
Hibiscus flowers and jasmine green tea - it’s a tea I make very night and drink about 2 quarts throughout the evening at room temp. My winter tea, tastes like summer but not too cold

I see how you have your jar strapped so I’m thinking I can rig it like a band using Velcro tape and see how my first batch goes.

More fun with urban homesteading!

[Willd]

So you will want to also make sure that you use some regular tea like Lipton or Salada The orange pekoe type. Some herbal teas may not contain the tannins required to get the reaction to occur between the yeast and bacteria that’s needed to ferment. So of those teas don’t cut it you can make it with regular tea and make a tisane of the hibiscus /jamine teas to use a flavoring. A tisane is just a concentrated version of any herb steeped in water

[Willd]

More info for y’all including @jeffro
The basic recipe is:
1c granulated white sugar
8 tea bags
1 gallon water -1pint
1 pint of kombucha
1 healthy SCOBY
7-14 days of consistent temps @ 75-85° F
A tea towel and way to fasten over mouth of brew vessel

Bring 1/2 the water to a boil and stir in the sugar. Then add the tea bags and steep for 7-10 minutes. Remove the tea bags and combine the sweet tea with the other 1/2 of the water in your brew tank. Put your scoby in the tank then dump the 1 pint of kombucha over of the scoby. (once you harvest your first batch you just keep out a pint) That is supposed to protect it from mold and incursion of other household cultures.
If you make any other cultured foods such as yogurt kraut etc, brew beer or make wine you want to make sure there’s adequate separation of these operations to avoid cross contamination.

Cover the vessel/tank with a double layer of a tea towel and secure it with a rubber band or twine to keep out any fruit flies. Wait 7 days and start testing for doneness.

Fruit flies are a whole other consideration I’ll cover later. Easy enough remedy using cider vinegar and any number of trap designs.
The screwdriver? yeah I have a little clamp on the siphon hose to make sure it gets good suction. heh.

[Willd]

Garlic, Oregano, Crushed Reds
Tastes like pizza!
This is one of my favorite flavors because all the stuff settles to the bottom so you don’t have to strain it if you pour nice and slow.

[Willd]

Kinda weird how the cannabis one never becomes clear.
The other is Lemon Cayenne Zinger. Another few days of bottle conditioning at room temp and they can be refrigerated.

[Willd]

So after conditioning in the bottles for 7 days the cannabis flavored one has a faint solvent after-taste.
I remembered that that stuff I used had some RSO I made with naptha mixed in.
I scrapped them (right down the drain) and am in the process of making a new batch of glycerin tincture. preheat oven to 225°F
56gm Bubba Kush in a 3 qt graniteware. Cover with foil.

Place on center rack and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove, keep covered. Turn the oven up to 240°F. Let the pan cool to room temp. When oven is 240 and pan has cooled, put covered pan back in oven for 40-60 minutes or 60-90 minutes for high CBD strains.
Remove and allow to cool back to room temp before removing foil.

Then I put 2c food grade vegetable glycerin and the 56 gm of decarboxilated bud in my MBII machine.

Set to 160°F and 8 hours.

[Willd]

OK SO now again I remember why I don’t do make glycerin tincture more often. They yield is minuscule compared to infusing coconut oil or butter or making alcohol tincture. I ran the 8 hours cycle and let it drip through the purity 90 micron filter over night.This is how much I initially drained out.

The rest is trapped in the filter bag suspended in a sieve and slowly dripping.

I’m quite confident there is lots of active THC and CBD in the glycerin saturated poo in the bottom of the filter bag so i’m just going to save it and try to use to flavor some booch. I’ll only try 1 bottle instead of wasting half a batch like last time.
btw those lemon cayenne zingers from the original post turned out exceptional!

[Willd]

Ok so I spent a few minutes wringing out the ball of glycerin saturated ground up bud and the loss is not as bad as I thought. I’ll be harvesting another batch of Kombucha tomorrow. Mrs. WillD requested some Mango for her share.
Turns out Mango helps increase the uptake of all the cannabinoids found in this awesome plant, so my share will be Cannabis/Mango flavor.

So I now have about a tennis ball sized lump of ultra sweetened ground bud AND I’m guessing 66-75% the 2 cups of glycerin I started out with. I think I can use the poo in recipes as a sugar substitute OR as a topical preparation such as a plaster. I will report my findings and results when I get to that stage. In the mean time licking the bowl and spatula has provided me with a nice uplifting dose. I tend to forget how much fun the fringe benefits of cleaning up after edible preparation always is.

[kabongster]

everything was good until the last pic…it does look nasty, Brown 25 type stuff right there

Brown 25 (from Uranus)

[Willd]

That’s a riot. All you can make with mine is edibles. It started out as 2 oz of flowers and I only got about 8-10 of the 16 fl oz of the glycerin back so I have to imagine there’s still useful medicine contained within. Mrs WillD thinks it might be useful to sweeten cookie dough. I’ll eat a 000 caps worth and see if it does anything. If not it’ll go right in the compost heap.

[kabongster]

I’m sure there’s worthwhile remnants of something psychoactive…

There’s a point, for me, I stop chasing the small stuff only because I haven’t explored the uses, but the more I read in the forum, the more I want to try ointments and slaves made from the small stuff.

I just need to read your journal and it’s like a case of the munchies, I need to try the recipes…like watching a cooking show and getting hungry.

[Willd]

Yeah, you know in your mind that when you’re harvesting such quantities of flowers, saving anything not totally crusted with trics is a wasted effort. I make bubble hash with my frozen green sugar leaf trim and airy popcorn from the lower extremities. I make all the infused oil, butter and tinctures from dried, cured flower.

I’m still completely unindoctrinated in the preparation and use of topical applications and not sure that I have the patience or personal need for that. I have a couple of minor plaque psoriasis sites and tried coconut oil on them and it cleared temporarily. But like every other topical psoriasis treatment know to man, it requires constant application which I don’t possess the discipline to maintain. Applying non infused coconut oil would have achieved the same end result.

I’ve seen Youtube videos extolling the virtues of juicing leaf. I could save the fan leaves I strip in the field in the freezer for Mrs. WillD’s juicer. As long as there isn’t any sugar leaf mixed in she’ll be fine!

[Willd]

3/22/17 Booch Harvest & Flavors

Here’s what I accomplished this morning. The potency of the new tincture is unknown so I flavored most with 1/2 Tbs and a couple with a full Tbs.

2 of them got fresh diced Mango added
3 got fresh diced pineapple added
2 got cold brew coffee concentrate added

The other 7 are for Mrs WillD and are all Mango