my poor dog & kombucha tea
Jul. 22nd, 2013 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
Work is running me ragged, physically and mentally. Meanwhile, my dog is running me ragged emotionally. He was starting to recover a bit from the affliction that still has him on Prednisone, but then a few days ago half his face became paralyzed. I took him to the ER, but the number one cause of partial facial paralysis in canines is an ear infection, and does not seem to be the case with him. In fact, his ears "look great." Argh. So it's either idiopathic, which is a fancy way of saying "unknown," or there's something more seriously wrong, like a brain tumor or something. I'm still hoping that it's just a case of canine's Bell's Palsy or something, so that it'll get better eventually on its own. But just to be safe, I have an appointment scheduled with the neurology department on Wednesday. I wish life would just LEAVE MY POOR DOG ALONE. I mean, even if it turns out to be a canine form of Bell's Palsy, in the meanwhile it is so, so sad to see him be so lopsided. He can't even BLINK, except occasionally with his third eyelid (incidentally, did you know that dogs have 3 eyelids? WHO KNEW) so part of my job is to make sure that his eye stays hydrated. As I said to Jade, as if my dog weren't high maintenance enough, now I have to blink for him! I even went and got him an eyepatch, to help with potential eye dryness. So cute, but so sad.
In other, less depressing news, I have decanted my first batch of kombucha tea! I let it ferment for 2 weeks, and even though it still tasted a bit too sweet to me, I decided to decant so that I could get the next batch going. I'm also not sure if I used enough flavoring or too much during the bottling process. After you bottle the tea, you let it sit out at room temperature between 1-3 days, during which time it starts to get fizzy (natural carbonation!). I'm on day 2, so tomorrow I'll actually get to taste the flavored KT for the first time. I'm actually not expecting it to be good this first time. I mean, I'm totally new to the process, so I figure right now is experimentation time to learn how to get the KT to the level of acidity and flavor that I want. What's pretty exciting is that I grew a baby SCOBY, just like I was supposed to! Woot!
It is NOT pretty. But I still feel like a proud parent anyway, lol!
Here's the batch of KT before I decanted. It's a gallon-sized glass jar with a cheesecloth and a kitchen towel over the top. You want to keep out insects, but the KT also has to breathe, so you can't use like metal or plastic.
This is a grainy shot of the mother SCOBY at the bottom of the KT. Apparently the SCOBY can either sink or float, either is fine... but it turns out that I was really glad it sunk. The new baby SCOBY, no matter what, grows at the very top of the KT. If the mother SCOBY is there as well, it makes it difficult to separate them!
This is the baby SCOBY that grew at the top of my brew. /proud I know, it looks disgusting. My mom said that it looked like hardened pork fat. It totally does, lol. But like its mother, it's pliable and smooth, almost rubbery. So weird, I know.
My next batch is fermenting now, and both mother and first baby have sunk to the bottom. :D That means the top is free for a new SCOBY baby to grow! Eventually I'm going to set up a continuous brewing system, but in the meanwhile more SCOBY babies are going to grow. Then it's going to be time to: 1) Pile a bunch of them into a "SCOBY hotel" for safekeeping, in case my original mother SCOBY develops mold or some other terrible thing befalls it; 2) Start giving them away to any friends who want them (slitherhither? :D) so they can start their own KT brewing; or 3) Dry them and use them as dog treats. I don't know if my dog would be into it, though.
In other, less depressing news, I have decanted my first batch of kombucha tea! I let it ferment for 2 weeks, and even though it still tasted a bit too sweet to me, I decided to decant so that I could get the next batch going. I'm also not sure if I used enough flavoring or too much during the bottling process. After you bottle the tea, you let it sit out at room temperature between 1-3 days, during which time it starts to get fizzy (natural carbonation!). I'm on day 2, so tomorrow I'll actually get to taste the flavored KT for the first time. I'm actually not expecting it to be good this first time. I mean, I'm totally new to the process, so I figure right now is experimentation time to learn how to get the KT to the level of acidity and flavor that I want. What's pretty exciting is that I grew a baby SCOBY, just like I was supposed to! Woot!
It is NOT pretty. But I still feel like a proud parent anyway, lol!
Here's the batch of KT before I decanted. It's a gallon-sized glass jar with a cheesecloth and a kitchen towel over the top. You want to keep out insects, but the KT also has to breathe, so you can't use like metal or plastic.
This is a grainy shot of the mother SCOBY at the bottom of the KT. Apparently the SCOBY can either sink or float, either is fine... but it turns out that I was really glad it sunk. The new baby SCOBY, no matter what, grows at the very top of the KT. If the mother SCOBY is there as well, it makes it difficult to separate them!
This is the baby SCOBY that grew at the top of my brew. /proud I know, it looks disgusting. My mom said that it looked like hardened pork fat. It totally does, lol. But like its mother, it's pliable and smooth, almost rubbery. So weird, I know.
My next batch is fermenting now, and both mother and first baby have sunk to the bottom. :D That means the top is free for a new SCOBY baby to grow! Eventually I'm going to set up a continuous brewing system, but in the meanwhile more SCOBY babies are going to grow. Then it's going to be time to: 1) Pile a bunch of them into a "SCOBY hotel" for safekeeping, in case my original mother SCOBY develops mold or some other terrible thing befalls it; 2) Start giving them away to any friends who want them (
slitherhither? :D) so they can start their own KT brewing; or 3) Dry them and use them as dog treats. I don't know if my dog would be into it, though.
