Both Kombucha and Kefir are great for health! I have about 20 Kombucha SCOBY's right now and I brew in monthly cycles. Kind of addicting stuff, and fun to play with flavors

thanks for the post!

I love milk kefir. My favorite is goat milk kefir, the fungi adapt pretty well to goat milk. But yes, it's pretty easy to mess up. Also, when rehydrating a culture, the result will be unpalatable for the first five days or so, and will be highly alcoholic for a while after that (which in my experience seemed to diminish with time).

At one time I tried a magnetic stirrer to keep the culture moving, which was kind of a mixed bag. The fungi didn't seem to like continuous stirring, as the grains broke up into very small particles, and the quality of the kefir declined... What turned out best for me is 6-8 hours at rest, and then 6-8 hours slowly stirred.

BTW a slight correction, kombucha actually means "kelp tea" in Japanese - and in Japan, the word kombucha means actual tea made from actual sea kelp... Kombucha in Japan is known as kouchakinoko according to several sources (literally "tea mushroom"...

http://rut.org/cgi-bin/j-e/dose...S&L=E&T=kombucha

Ive been a fan of kefir for a while now.

I never used to get heartburn until 8 or 9 years ago when I started getting really bad symptoms. Kefir turned that around. Im back to drenching my hot wings in some Insanity sauce at the wing shop with no complaints. It got me into fermenting my garden produce too. Which give me plausible deniability for all the glass jars

Anecdotally. My father and I went to a dinner party. Everybody ate pretty much the same thing. I was feeling a little upset in the stomach at night and I heard dad moaning and groaning. My phone rings and it was a friend asking if we were feeling ok, everyone else was getting ill and they were going to the hospital. Went out and raided my kefir stock. Divied out two portions for me and six for dad. We both purged as best we could. Then we took two portions of the kefir grains, he complained more about the taste than his upset stomach LOL.

I had him take the rest of his portions about a half hour to an hour apart. By now, I was feeling sick, but not as bad as he was, and nowhere near what everyone else was at. By the morning we both started feeling pretty decent considering, but still ill. Again nowhere near as violently ill as other people had become. After dad talked to my brother about how ill him and his wife got, dad asked me to start brewing some extra kefir for him too.


When my dog was still around she would stare at me in disgust until I put a few tablespoons of kefir on her kibble.

Im a huge curd nerd (cheese), and once I accidentally left kefir for too long and the curds started seperating from the whey. I strained out the curds, mixed in some chives and onion flakes, strung it up and hoped for the best. The single best cheese spread I've ever had and I continue to make it.
The dog would go crazy for the fermented whey which I also used as stocks in stews and 1:1 with beer for my crockpot roasts.
And my dad's next healthscreening showed MUCH better cholesterol levels as well which was enough to get him off his medication.

I cant sing enough praises about probiotic stuff.

I give andecdotal credit to Kefir for healing my torn meniscus,at least it seems to be anti-inflammatory. My whole life I had stomach issues before kombucha and kefir. I had a really long kombucha brew make vinegar so I made lime pickles with it and some homegrown cucumbers. Super yummy!!! I brew with green tea rather than black the scobies are healthy healthy after 2 years of brewing. I believe kombucha is one reason my liver survived severe alcohol addiction in my late 20s. I dont have the link but a independent study says it helps the body produce its own detoxing acids rather than containing them in the brew. I will try to find and pozt the research. It wasnt easy to find. Kefirs benefits are well documented.

Have you tried making lactic-acid pickles with limes, cucumbers, and other veg, Skooby? You just need a dash of salt, and you get a whole other population of sharp, tasty, friendly bacteria going on...

That sound Dee-lish!

I have been making tibicos (water kefir) for years, on and off. It has helped me out a lot with digestive issues, it is delicious, and just the action of making it is beneficial.
As Terence would describe how growing mushrooms teaches patience, hard-work and timing the same rings true for these cultures.
It is basically a superorganism, I even talk to them sometimes and send positive vibes .
Flavoring is always fun and keeps it interesting. Some of my favorites are grape juice, raisin, pomegranate, and various blends with alcohol-free vanilla extract.
Furthermore, it's great for social bonding. I take bottles with me to visit friends and they often beg for more. It's a conversation starter too, beyond being healthy it has unique tastes from one brew to the next much like a wine or beer.

[quote+Skoobysnax]That sound Dee-lish![/quote]

And don't get me started on kimchi...

This guy is a superb authority on all things fermented, from kombucha to kvass.

LQ: can you compare the acidity of tibicos to that of kombucha?

They are pretty similar but I think Kombucha is on average a bit more acidic. Either way, given enough time you get vinegar.

I would feel the same as LQ, water Kefir AKa Tibicos taste less acidic to me, but also, we ferment very shortly like one day or two max ( one day each of the two fermentation is good for me ). Kombutcha shares a buit more caracteristic with Apple cider Vinegar, the scoby looks the same ( I do not imply it is the same synergy of bacteria and yeast ) and the acidity is more welcome ( refreshing ).

I found out Tibicos cultures and Kombutcha doesn't ferment well in the same time. Maybe they compete. I tend to brew Jun and Kombutcha on runs, then put them scobies to rest in a hotel and do water kefir after.

just want to remind everyone that we are talking about "kombucha" and "water kefir"....which means we probably all have different substrains...so we should all send out overflow culture giveaways and start growing each others cultures side by side and noting any notable differences...then we can mix and select for our own "nexus super strain" i made my culture by acquiring 5 different strains from origins around the world and mixing them together, ive enjoyed training them to thrive on essential oil rich solutions... also has anyone herd of or does anyone have "wine kefir" or "jun"...worth looking into if you wanna nerd about it..

The Jun is very fine. Am gonna attempt resurrect a culture, from a old, very acidic now, starter. The wine kefir I don't know. Do you make those two also ?
To share the strains is good, maybe using "share the seeds" platform for that coud be done.

Call me a heretic, but would differences in strains even be discernible?
I mean, there is a very big difference between what is comercially sold as "Kefir" and the real stuff.

As i understand it, kefir grains have firs been cultivated hundreds, thousands (?) of years before in rennet and then simply propagated in milk...

I'm having a first run at brewing kombucha using a commercial bottle as a starter... I'll try to take pix soon .. looks like jellyfish is growing well..
Also fermenting cabbage and Apple cider..
I fermented cabbage in jail using ramen soup packet in lieu of salt and it worked alright..
This should be much better...

Has anyone here had any experience with kombucha, kefir or other living ferments assisting with the healing of inflammatory skin diseases?

A way forward would be most helpful...

Hey DZ, If you want to share more details, or PM... I had a severe case of atopic dermatitis with bullous pemphigoid, over a year. Was drinking kombucha before, during and after, with no obvious effect either way. TCM was the breakthrough, after being offered, and refusing, steroids and immunosuppressants. Learned a lot of good skin care along the way too, if you're interested?

(PM sent, although I'm off to bed soon)