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Comment by nchmy | Hacker News Reader

I bottled 20 litres of kombucha yesterday with ginger and lemongrass. It'll be very fizzy and ready to drink in 3-5 days. Costs next to nothing and quite healthy - water, black tea, sugar, (gifted and self-reproducing) scoby. The flavourings are what costs most, depending on what you use.

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Kombucha is the best "natural" soft drink for me, too. It's not entirely sugar-free, though (even though you can get it to low-sugar with longer fermentation).

I'm not concerned with sugar-free. I drink maybe 500ml per day, and otherwise consume ZERO added sugar. And It's surely a small fraction of the sugar in soda, fruit juices etc... I also like it sour/highly fermented

Oooh that sounds good! I’ve been meaning to add fermented stuff to my diet.

me too, thinking of buying fruit juices and yeasts. These taxes are killing me.

Maybe try water kefir first then. I've got mine for 5 years now at least, making 2 bottles every couple of weeks or so.

Kefir is easier and quicker to make than kombucha, there is no caffeine and maybe less sugar. Probably the best intro to fermented drinks!

Thanks! I think I might! I’m not very adventurous food/taste wise so that sounds like a good entry point.

Yeah I do ginger beer! There's plenty of recipes online. Simplified version:

Combine ginger + sugar + water in a quart jar. Let it sit for 3-7 days, covered but open, at room temp. Will stary to bubble. These are your live ginger yeasties, or ginger bug.

Boil a big batch of ginger tea (more ginger + sugar + water). Cool to <100F, add ginger bug. Strain. Bottle in plastic bottles (glass explodes on me sometimes). Ready in 3-7 days. Gets boozy if you leave it out longer.

Add a little citric acid and/or lemon juice at tea step to give it a little acid to counteract the funk.

what did you bottle it in?

Bottles?

Looking for specific bottle recommendations and suppliers

youre overthinking this. use any bottle that you want.

glass, plastic, etc.. Buy some swingtop beer and you'll get the bottles for free. screwon - be it glass or plastic - also work.

There's also surely 1000 articles and videos on this very topic, but its not important

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