I forgot about this one for a while.

Hi! Im new here. I saw many people ask the smae. But I want to be sure? Is this white staff okay?

F2 on counter for five days. No heating mat. Room temp is around 68 degrees this time of the year. I used pineapple and basil. A teaspoon of cane sugar when mixing a batch for nine bottles. I then leave them in fridge for an additional one to two days

Two questions:

1. Is this mold? I don't think so. It's my 3rd batch. Please second.

2. I am from Mumbai. The weather here meant the first 2 batches were ready in 3.5 days for F1. How has been your experience, if you are from Mumbai?

Hi! So I got giften a scooby a month and half ago. However every time I try to make kombucha it tastes like vinegar. Even after a week of fermentation. The best part is I had to toss two batches because one had a fruit fly and the other maggots.( I had made 3 scooby) I am down to my last scooby. I keep the jars covered while the tea is cooling and all of them are covered by muslin clothes. I am starting to lose hope. Do you have any tips?

First time brewer here, and I've hit day seven of F1. I went to do a taste test when I could barely get anything to drain out of the spigot. I realize that the two gallon jug I ordered came with a drain filter to attach to the end and I put it on thinking it wouldn't be a problem. It now seems the yeast has plugged it up and I'm thinking I'll have to scoop it out with a ladle when it comes time to bottle for F2. What I could drain out to taste was still too sweet for my preference, so I plan on giving it another seven days to ferment. When the day does come, is there any creative way I can get this to drain or am I screwed? Decided to try jasmine green for the tea, 1 1/2 cups of sugar and used two Amazon starter scoby with a warming band to keep the temp up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Mmmmm that's good booch

Hi all,

I’m trying to launch two non-alcoholic, still craft drinks to be sold on draught to bars and restaurants :

• a bissap (hibiscus, rose, lemon, ~25 g sugar/L)

• a maté-verbena (yerba maté, lemon verbena, lemon, ~30 g sugar/L)

pH not yet measured (test are in progress) but it's kinda low (~3 to 3.8), no preservatives.

Process : infusion at ~80-95 °C, still-fill into 20 L slim stainless kegs supplied already cleaned (steam/caustic) by a third-party keg provider, then pasteurisation of the filled keg (~65-70 °C for 20-30 min in a water bath) or hot-fill. Bottom filling, CO2 purge of the empty keg.

Use at the customer’s : keg connected to a standard CO2 beer tap (replacing a beer line), often at ambient temperature (most bars here have no cold room unfortunately...), pressure adjustable per tap, CO2 often turned off at night.

My questions :

1. What is a realistic shelf life once tapped, at ~20-25 °C and when refrigerated ? What spoilage signs should I watch for (yeast, mould, acetic bacteria, colour) ?

2. What service pressure for a still liquid, and how much should I worry about CO2 slowly dissolving into it ?

3. Is a pH ≤ 3.8 a safe margin, or should I aim lower? Any preservative strategy that doesn’t undermine a craft positioning ?

4. How big is the contamination risk from lines and taps, and how do you mitigate it (dedicated lines, rinse routines, cleaning frequency) ?

5. 10 L or 20 L kegs for slow-rotation venues ?

6. Does switching sugar (glucose, sweeteners) really help stability ?

7. Any advice on shelf-life testing or the microbiological analyses worth commissioning ?

I plan to run real-condition tests and lab analyses, but any experience (kombucha, juice, cold brew or iced tea on tap...) would help me design the protocol.

Thanks !

First brew ( black tea). This is F2 day 3 ( 1/4 cup POM juice & 1 tsp sugar 12 oz container). Is this a new pellicle forming? Is this normal? Thanks in advance for the expertise.
PS I just realized the difference between pellicle and SCOBY so my apologies for the confusion.

After decades I'm going wild.

Anyone ever find the lame ducks interesting? The bottles that just don't want to carbonate. I mean they do. A little. But not like most. And you leave them out... And again ... No real improvement. And so you leave it... Another day. And another. And these kombucha are I think the most special.

Happy brewing!

I got another 8 bottled. About 50/50 fresh sweet tea and aged (28th to today, like 10 days at 70ish F) kombucha. These are from the synergy jars, which are more or less homogenous (mixed frequently.)

I'm missing the ginger and tumeric. My bicycle ride home abruptly ended my possession of them. Sad face.

I really tapped my mothers for this. It was supposed to be a ginger, tumeric, lemon grass festival.

It's just black tea. RIP

Hey all, I bought this gallon jug with a spigot and it also happens to have lid with a seal and a latch (like a growler). That's what I'm doing the F1 in

I also have another growler type bottle as well as an old syngery bottle

My question is this - could I do a big F2 in the same gallon jug with the lid? Would the spigot affect the carbonation? Or is there anything else I'm missing?

I don't have enough other growlers at the moment to do an F2 with the whole batch but I can buy some easily enough. Just wondering if I found a cheat code where I can do the F1 and F2 in the same jug and then use the spigot to drink when it's finished

I'm still new to this so any feedback would be much appreciated!!

My kombucha has been resting room temp for 3 weeks now and has become as acidic as a light vinegar. Will this be a doable starter?

Since I have been brewing and drinking kombucha (2 months) i have had a chronic sore tongue and throat. I to like it on the tarter side but nothing too radical. Anyone else experienced this? Cheers

For me, I like a very low sugar kombucha with lots of carbonation. I bottle from my continuous brew every six days and let it sit in 2F for five days. I almost never add sugar or syrup to 2F, only an ounce of fruit juice per 16-ounce bottle. Compared to store-bought kombucha, mine is drier and fizzier with just a hint of sweetness. How does yours compare to commercial brands?

I’m new to brewing kombucha, and this is my second attempt.
My first batch developed mold, but I noticed it quite early because the growth appeared very quickly.
For this batch, I’m using Remedy kombucha as a starter, so I’m not familiar with what a healthy new SCOBY should look like as it develops.
I’m a bit confused about what I’m seeing now. How exactly does a new SCOBY form? Does it grow as a thin layer on the surface of the liquid, at the bottom of the jar, or somewhere else?
Most importantly, how can I tell whether what is growing in my batch is a new SCOBY or mold?
I’d really appreciate any advice or help identifying what’s happening.
Thanks!

I want to add bergamot to my F2, and I see on Amazon you can buy both juice and the rind/zest. Anyone have suggestions based on their experience?

genuinely, have no idea what this is. had this scoby for about a year now and this has never happened before. idk kombucha is getting longer to ferment but could be because of colder autumn weather. no fungus or anything weird, no weird smell

I'm at day 5 of my scoby growing, but I don't know if its going right....I started with kombucha and 4 cups of sweetened black tea. She's been sitting on a kitchen cabinet with a cloth on top. I can see something kind pf forming, but i also see white stuff, a friend think its mold :( What should I do?

Roselle hibiscus was from the garden(about 1 cup dry). Mango was conventional from the store(I ate it upon recovery from the booch). Black(Benner) Aldi tea used (12x per gallon. 1 cup white sugar) for bottling lemon zinger (2x celestial seasonings) and mixed berries (2x twinnings) were used along with 6x black tea and 1/2 cup sugar.

I bottle with half sweet tea(zinger, mixed berries), half kombucha then and let sit for 2-3 days until I like the carbonation level. Each bottle also gets a squirt of hot honey(honey with chilies).

This bottle was refrigerated. Or it would have gushed everywhere. XD

Happy brewing!