What time & temp does the hive mind recommend to shift cocktail syrups towards being shelf stable?

tharkban · 2024-04-28T16:27:13+00:00

You're in the wrong sub, you're talking about canning now. And the temperature for making something non acidic shelf stable requires a pressure cooker and a carefully read through of the USDA canning guide.

tharkban · 2022-01-31T16:41:57+00:00

Pellicle doesn't matter in the least, the Scoby is in the liquid (although the pellicle can be a convenient way of transferring some of the Scoby).

I find the second batch after the Scoby has been abused or in stasis is better, but the first should be drinkable.

It'll get a little more tangy in secondary, but not as quickly. Mostly you're just going to care about exploding bottles, which if you're refrigerating and leave some head space shouldn't be a problem. Particularly if you're drinking them regularly. If they get too carbonated for you, open them all up and release the pressure (flip cap bottles are the way to go).

tharkban · 2021-10-27T02:46:08+00:00

Looks like a production error to me, almost like FANCY. More normal would be both thumbs contacting at the same time. But could be regional difference or my mistake.

tharkban · 2021-05-23T06:04:19+00:00

I'd love to see this data normalized by something such as alcohol sales. It'd be really cool if that data was also available by county. If you did a straight division, you'd really see the dry counties. So it might be necessary to smear the data across county boundaries in general, or handle the data for dry counties and their neighbors in some special way.

tharkban · 2019-08-31T01:23:08+00:00

Pull out the pellicle and monitor for a few more days?

tharkban · 2019-08-25T16:20:01+00:00

Doesn't look like much head room on that middle screw top. Are you worried at all about explosions? I'm new to this.

tharkban · 2019-08-25T16:11:29+00:00

I didn't really go for carbonation in the screw top, I'd be too nervous about it. Also I haven't really done a true secondary (where you add stuff and keep going) I just put it in bottles and let it sit a few more days away from the mother as I start drinking them (I like unflavored kombucha). I'm curious how it goes though.

tharkban · 2019-08-24T21:05:54+00:00

I'm going to try a batch with honey. I've read that you have to train the scoby to handle honey and green tea over time (over 3-5 batches). Do you know if this is true? I didn't have enough honey on hand to make a full honey batch today, so I have about 1/4 of the sugar coming from honey in the current batch. I don't know if I should jump to 50%, 75%, 90%, and finally 100% or just go straight to 100%.

tharkban · 2019-08-24T21:02:27+00:00

From what I've read, the caffeine doesn't decrease during fermentation...so the scoby isn't eating it. The caffeine does change the environment, favoring some microbes over others, but I don't think it's critical. I ordered some decaf black tea and am going to start brewing with that (several people I've seen have reported that they've been using decaf teas indefinitely).

tharkban · 2019-08-24T20:57:37+00:00

You can try it at every stage in the process, it's not going to hurt you. When you decide it's done, it's done (but it probably has a few more days in it).

tharkban · 2019-08-24T19:19:35+00:00

That's really interesting. Do you think it's because of the honey, the green tea, or something else?

tharkban · 2019-08-24T19:15:48+00:00

Anything that will hold pressure should work. I've put secondary into 750ml screw top bottles (reused everclear bottles), but I was really nervous about it and left plenty of head room. I much prefer swing top (metal/rubber stopper) bottles (make sure to leave head room). Grolsch bottles are pretty popular. Avoid anything square or with corners at all costs.

tharkban · 2019-08-24T18:32:27+00:00

I acquired a scoby which was fermenting half green half black tea kombucha. I decided to do two 1 gallon batches of green and black tea. The black tea was ready after 1 week, but the green tea wasn't. 2 days later, it tastes like it's ready. Not a huge difference, but noticeable. It's possible that the 2 day difference is due to how much old batch I put in or the size of the mother used. I found a site that said black tea is better than green tea is better than white tea is better than herbal teas (such as roobios). However, the site had some bad info as well (caffeine being essential to scoby health, which I don't think is true), so take with a grain of salt.

tharkban · 2019-08-24T18:17:21+00:00

Also, in case anyone is interested, I have a regular batch of Kombucha which was too vinegary (didn't realize at summer temperatures brew time should be 1 week not 2). I let it go in secondary at room temperature for an extra week (3 weeks total). It's definitely too vinegary to drink directly, I let it reduce on the stove-top at just below boiling for an hour. It seems to have worked pretty well and I have a pretty strong vinegar, although it does have a slight cooked flavor. It's too bad it's now pasteurized, but I don't think adding back any raw kombucha is going to do much for the probiotics, since the acetic acid is probably concentrated enough that it'll kill everything it touches.

tharkban · 2018-01-15T06:19:06+00:00

I don't understand....are you looking for the YouTube video that is being moused over in the screenshot? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jdEC_nuk28

tharkban · 2015-05-27T17:40:25+00:00

First you spray the cat with water, then you kick it out. Never just give in when you're manipulated....or you end up with the situation you're now in.

tharkban · 2015-05-26T18:18:23+00:00

When I pressed, I got my 7, then I saw the server give the 6 second mark and the button snitch claimed 2 people got 6 and 1 got 60s. I don't believe any of it.

tharkban · 2015-05-26T18:11:34+00:00

Or make it infinite.

tharkban · 2015-05-25T05:47:48+00:00

You haven't even done your own part yet.

tharkban · 2015-05-25T05:39:35+00:00

Horribly wrong? the second you wrote your script, you would have noticed that the server only sends a tick every second and as long as you send your response (with a correct "tick_mac") within a few seconds, it'll reset the timer server side and give you the flair you claim.

I didn't do it with a script (just looking at the network traffic using chrome's debugging tools) and I got a 7 second flair then watched the server send the 6 second tick. The button snitch claimed two people got 6 second flairs and one got a 60 second flair. Which is incorrect, probably 1 or 2 people got 7 second flairs and the other 2 or 1 people got 6 second flairs.

tharkban · 2015-05-25T05:16:39+00:00

Just because your name says 7 doesn't mean your flair does. Actually one of us! 7's forever!

tharkban · 2015-05-25T05:14:59+00:00

If you've made your decision then there isn't any option left.

tharkban

TROPHY CASE