Review on Kickstart Your Kombucha Journey with Masontops Complete Starter Kit 🌱 - Deluxe Organic Scoby, Thermometer, Activating Sugar & Brewing Lid Included! by Pleaze Evans

. (UPDATE: They are great! Just don't try to overtighten them.) They are PERFECT for my process. I'm used to brewing two gallons of kombucha a week on two different days, with each gallon batch split between two half-gallon jars. I bought four packs of these kombucha lids, so I will have two blue lids (for Tuesday's batch) and two red (for Friday's batch). These lids are a little pricey but worth it as they replace the PITA coffee filters/screw caps I used the day I wrote a new batch of kombucha on top with a sharpie every time. HOW I MAKE IT: Every Tuesday I pour a 1.5 liter kettle of boiling water into a 0.5 gallon glass and a family size Luzianne black tea bag. While this batch of tea is brewing, I take the two half-gallon jars I started fermenting my last Tuesday kombucha in and use one of the sprout strainer lids and funnels to fill my Otis Classic 16 oz. Top up bottles by dividing the kombucha into five or six bottles depending on what I want to add to the bottles. I leave about 1 cup plus SCOBY in each of the two screw top jars; this comes out about halfway between the 1 and 2 cup marks, and I pour some from one cup to the other to even them out so they're the same height (important later). - aged bottled kombucha, I put some in to give them flavor and start secondary carbonation fermentation. I'm constantly experimenting, but I try to add something with some cane sugar to give the kombucha yeast a second wind. When using juice, I pour it over my shoulder, about halfway down the thin neck of the bottle, then screw on the cap. If I'm using whole chunks (like candied ginger, blueberries, or other solids), I'll add them until the liquid rises to my throat, then close the lid. I gently invert the bottle a few times to mix and set aside to ferment until serving my "Friday” kombucha three days later. (Of course I open the lid once or twice a day during this time, depending on how strong the secondary fermentation is. A pinch of sugar. or not.) Now I remove the tea bag from the freshly brewed tea, stir under a cup with sugar and cover strain it until cool enough.* When cool enough, I give the tea a good stir and divide evenly among the other two 1/2 gallon jars, which contain the remaining kombucha and SCOBY from the batch just filled contain. I fill each up to the 1500ml mark with cold water, stir/shake gently and cover with Tuesday Kombucha lids. On Friday (and again Tuesday, then again Friday, then Tuesday again, LOL!) I turn on the kettle for the next batch of tea and while it brews I taste my bottled kombucha (if not). Yes), and it's usually just the way I like it (slightly sour) in the fridge. If not, I'll let it go another day. It varies wildly depending on how I flavor it, and that's a big part of the fun of making kombucha. Of course I keep 12 bottles of Otis Classic so I always have clean bottles and plenty of kombucha in the fridge.* I don't stand there waiting for hot tea to cool down. I used to use the "quick" method, which involved dividing freshly brewed hot tea into two additional half-gallon glasses and pouring in enough cold water to bring it up to the amount I needed to add to the kombucha - and SCOBY glasses, but it took SIX glasses to sit on my countertop all the time, which resulted in more dishwashing and more chaos, and I still had to wait a while for the warm tea to cool. Now all I have to do is rinse out the jars and bottles while I prepare my batches. I brew fresh tea and a bottle in the morning and then add a SCOBY/kombucha starter later in the day to work well. I leave a glass of cooling tea on the stove so I don't forget.