Kombucha & Vinegar in the same cabinet

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southpawbrasserie

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So I recently started building a kombucha mother along with cider and red wine vinegar mothers. Well everything was going great with the three until I moved them to the same cabinet. My vinegars didn't have any mother forming or any kind of film on the surface, but smelled of vinegar until this move. A few days went by and the vinegars smell like kombucha. I'm not really concerned, but will this affect me making actual vinegar now? I know kombucha has more bugs but some of the same as vinegar, so it should be good to use the vinegars?

Also, to throw in a curve ball, I have a ginger beer experiment going in the same cabinet that I added brett to.

All of these containers are only covered with cheese cloth.

Hope to hear some good info!
 
Phew--cross contamination nightmare at work. In my experience acetobacter in the same cabinet (and in same ventilated space of fermentations) is detrimental to the other ferments. Granted acetobacter is everywhere but it needs a way to innoculate and establish, and being in the same cabinet is all it will take.

The ginger beer with brett...will become just brett and it will eventually kill off the two organisms in true ginger beer plant (assuming you are using a real GBP, like yemoos.com or gingerbeerplant.net carry). And then the brett may contaminate ANY other ferment in the same ventilated space. Is there a particular reason you want to innoculate GBP with brett? (If your GBP is yeast + ginger, then I understand why you may want to add brett...but to real GBP?)

It may be better if you consider ditching everything in that cabinet and starting over with the vinegar the furthest away, like a garage or basement. Kombucha and GBP should be fine if you keep them a minimum of eight feet apart, but not in cabinets that connect and share same space. (I have fermented all three (no brett) with no issues, at the same time). Introducing brett....take it far, far away from kombucha and/or vinegar.
 
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