continue fermenting for less sweetness?

I am on day 8 of the first fermentation (for my first batch of Kombucha). My sampling tonight was quite delicious, but I would prefer a little less sweetness.

I plan on bottling and doing a second fermentation for fizz and was also going to flavor with blueberry juice and maybe ginger, although it's so yummy right now, I may keep some plain.

This was my recipe: 8 black tea bags, ~1 gallon water (maybe 13 cups), 1 cup sugar, 1 cup starter (maybe a little less than 1 cup), 1 cup distilled white vinegar & small SCOBY (purchased online from Goldfinch)

If I continue to let it go, will the Kombucha become more dry (less sweet)? Thanks!

Yes, as it continues to ferment it loses the sweetness, pH drops, turns more vinegar like.

I would pull some now and try the 2F, see how that works out. You can let the remainder in gallon just keep fermenting, etc.

Welcome to KT fermenting!

Oh good idea to pull some out and bottle now. This will help me get an idea of where I like it. I'll make a plain bottle tonight. Or maybe just ginger. Thanks!

Ordered ph tape and should arrive tomorrow. I'm anxious get a solid figure to match with my description of "yummy". Lol

If the yeast & bacteria in the mail-order scoby aren't very active, it's possible you haven't really fermented the tea. Do you have a healthy new baby-scoby that's at least 1/4" thick, preferably more? Can you get some 2.8-4.4 pH test strips & see what you're at?

The Kombucha was at a pH of 3. The baby SCOBY was probably not 1/4 inch thick. Thoughts, Zapped?

I got pH tape from 0.0 - 6.0 (0.5 pH increments)

I was only going to bottle one up...but when I saw it was at a pH of 3 I said what the heck and bottled it up. perhaps a little over zealous.

pH around 3 sounds great. I suppose I've had baby-scobys less than 1/4" thick also, depending on the temperature in the house - they're thinner in the winter when the house runs cooler. Still strange that it tastes sweet, because even though you didn't quite get up to a full gallon of liquid, your 1 cup of sugar isn't excessive.

Sounds like you're doing just fine. I wouldn't be too worried about anything going wrong with Kombucha other than bluish or greenish mold, which personally I've only seen in pictures (knocks on wood).