Re: [Biohackers] New kombucha batches started at Noisebridge

Hi all, For me it was a very interesting experience making cambucha. It is my first time doing that, and the tecnic that I use doing banana o apple cider vinegar is totally different that we are doing with cambucha. In the next soon feature, I would like to explore the cambucha tecnic making, making vinegars and the idea is making a banana or any kind of fruit started for making vinegars. Thank your very much all you guys for this tremendous exchange of knowledge and sense of collective fermentation at Sudo. Sincerely, Francisco -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Fermentation Station Aug 11th 2014 meeting notes From: Rikke Rasmussen &lt;rikke.c.rasmussen(a)gmail.com&gt; Date: Mon, August 11, 2014 9:17 pm To: Francisco Jimenez &lt;francisco(a)tucanvinegars.com&gt; Cc: Francesco Capodieci &lt;fgcapo(a)gmail.com&gt;om>, stan(a)ana.com, Alex Alekseyenko &lt;alex.alekseyenko(a)gmail.com&gt;om>, biohackers(a)lists.sudoroom.org Hi all, A quick type-up of my notes for the evening - Stan, Alex, will you take responsibility for making sure they end up online somewhere (other than on the list archive)? 1) Our technical setup is good to go - temperature monitoring, logging and graphing all work, all components have been integrated, and Frank is assembling a deployable setup for next week. 2) We have two established cultures: one from Francisco's vinegar production, and one from Rikke's Three Stone Hearth strain. A batch of each was made on Aug 4th - 1.5L and 3L, respectively - both batches seemed very under-fermented (almost no yeasty flavor, little acidity, almost no sugar) upon tasting today, and had developed exceptionally thick pellicles for the relatively short duration of the fermentation. There was some discussion as to the possible explanations for this, and generally agreement that the most likely is the primary sugar source used (corn rather than cane), and the differing chemical composition of different sugars. 3) Alex purchased 8lbs of sugar for the project - thank you, Alex! =) We added 60g and 120g of pure white cane sugar to the 1.5L and 3L batches of kombucha from last week to boost the fermentation process - the immediate CO2 development and evolution of a distinct yeasty aroma indicates healthy cultures. 4) A potential line of inquiry that could be pursued with minimal analytic equipment would be the comparison across cultures of the influence of different sugar sources on the pellicle development, measured as the wet weight of the pellicle at time of sampling. Influence of sugar source (again across cultures) on pH would also be simple, as would the relationship of both characteristics to temperature profile. 5) Last, but not least, Alex will not be commuting through the East Bay on a weekly basis anymore, and wants to set up a Fermentation Station at Noisebridge. There is strong historical basis and social support for this project, and we anticipate that it will be well receive. As an initial test of this theory, we will prepare a 15L batch for the NB fundraiser on Aug 15th. For this purpose, we have taken 4lbs of sugar, the jar of oolong tea, and two buckets from our supplies at CCL. In addition, we will need to acquire (or bring from home for now): kombucha starter, a 2gal soup pot, something to stir with, a kitchen scale, filter cloth (muslin or similar), a bunch of bottles, caps and a capper, and possibly a dedicated mini fridge. That's everything on my notepad - anything to add, anyone? /Rikke On Fri, Aug 1, 2014 at 1:57 PM, Francisco Jimenez < francisco(a)tucanvinegars.com&gt; wrote: