I will try to answer all of the questions, @John Brunner . I bought several flavors of kombucha to drink to see if I liked it and I saved those bottles and I re-use them. Then I found the swing-tops on sale and bought 6 of those, so I use all of the bottles over and over. I make the kombucha in two large gallon jugs, and always have one that is ready to do the second ferment. I use a half gallon jar for times when it needs to actually sit and ferment, like when I added the hops. Otherwise, I just use frozen fruit juice added to about a half gallon of the ready kombucha, and bottle it right away. Then, I leave it out for 4-5 days for the second ferment because I LOVE carbonation. After that, it goes into the refrigerator for another day. With the rotation, I always have some in every stage of the fermentation process. You can also just siphon out a cup of the plain kombucha and not do a second ferment. I have done that and it tastes okay, and a lot of people just drink it plain and uncarbonated. I didn’t get a crock, and it has not been an issue just using the glass jars. They are kind of under the kitchen cupboards, so not in any direct light, and I have the large blue towels over the top which also helps keep out the light. What I would suggest is to start the same way I did, and get a few bottles of bottled kombucha at the store and see if you enjoy it, and if you feel a difference after drinking it. Be sure to get the refrigerated bottles, not the canned stuff, so that you get actual live kombucha in it. Synergy is a good brand. Here is a picture of some of mine, stored in reused Synergy bottles. I think the carbonation is better with the swing-top bottles, but the plain bottles do carbonate if you tighten the lid down good. You can see the carbonation bubbles at the tops of the bottles.
Thanks for the explanation, Yvonne. I read one site that said it's easier to start with plastic bottles because you can tell when it's fermented by how hard (swollen) they get. And I'm glad you said "refrigerated." I put kombucha on my shopping list, thinking I would find it in the soda aisle. It sort of reminds me of my dad bottling homemade root beer. And crocks are real expensive these days (we had a couple.) They have been for a while, if you can even find them.
This week’s experimental flavor is Root Beer ! Since we have sassafras everywhere, I put some of the branches from the small sassafras saplings in with the fermented kombucha, along with a bottle of root beer pop (the kombucha eats up all of the sugar from the pop), and left it to do a second ferment. Today, I checked it and it was kind of a root beer taste; so I took out the twigs, added a little more sugar to make it carbonate, and some root beer concentrate from my Sodastream flavorings. It actually tasted pretty good, and even Bobby said so when I gave him a taste. So, now it is bottled up and sitting on the counter to carbonate for the next 4-5 days, and then it should be ready to try by next week.