Double Fermentation
When I first started to brew my own tea, I read at least 2 versions of how to do this, and even though I was successful in brewing tea from the beginning, this did not really click for me until after about 6 months of brewing. So I show it on my site as a separate guide to review and learn about.
In your brewing of kombucha, you are fermenting the sugars into beneficial acids and B-vitamins. Double Fermentation is easier to think of as just a ‘second ferment’ or basically just fermenting again… even more simply put, giving your tea a bit more sugar to eat.
So you would bottle your original brew, refrigerate and drink it. In this method, you pour a new sugar source into your bottles, and then pour in the kombucha tea. With the many kinds and flavors of sugar available, it is easy to see that this is how the world of kombucha really opens up to people.
The How To
1 add about 1 oz sweetener to a 1 oz bottle
2 fill with Kombucha Tea
3 let the bottle stay room temperature about 2 days
4 refrigerate and enjoy!
It goes without saying that the time frames will vary on different additives. For example, I have noticed that freshly juiced mango, will ferment faster then a store bought, organic, not from concentrate juice. This does not mean to use one or the other, but only to keep in mind the time frames involved to target your optimal flavor.
A future experiment will have to be between different forms of the same kind of juice, like mango from a glass bottle vs fresh juiced mango.
The ratio is also up for liberal experimentation, I originally tested 1 and 2 oz, and I did it over 1-4 day ferments. I found that after about 2 days was the best for flavor and fizz, but when I changed to fresh pressed juice, that seemed too long. So first an foremost remember to adapt to what your flavor goal is and keep improving.
Happy Brewing!