PH vs sugar content

i took the ph of a batch and the colour denoted around 3 , so i jar'd it all up. but when i drink it i can taste and feel its still very sugary. i thought PH 3 was sign it was ready? also with the tea in the jars , i figured ill just leave them to fement further and digest the sugar , most of them have form'd there own little scobys , i assumed leaving the jar lids off is best for this ?

Kombucha Tea should be fermented to a pH of ~ 3.0 especially if bottling or storing for long periods.

Department of Food Science Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14853

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http://www.happyherbalist.com/howtomakekombucha.aspx

How much liquid, tea, sugar did you start with? Please be specific. How long was the primary ferment?

If you're going to continue the primary ferment, you definitely want the lid off. Hopefully you know to cover the top of the jar with cloth or a paper towel, secured by a rubber band - unless you like those fruit fly maggots for the extra dash of protein You'd only securely cover up the batch when you bottle it for a secondary ferment, to let carbonation build up.

i cant be that specific , my brews have gotten huge ha , about 23-24 liters of water , 2kg of sugar and 15-20 tea bags. it was just over two weeks , which i know its short for such a large brew but i thought the ph strip was giving me the ok. ive poured what i can off the sugary brew back into the current brew , and with the rest just left the jars lids open with netting over. im just gona leave them for ages ,drinking kombucha thats not ready is no fun , massive sugar spike , then a right shaky moody come down. i miss kombucha , i paitiently await its return

carsick said:

i cant be that specific , my brews have gotten huge ha , about 23-24 liters of water , 2kg of sugar and 15-20 tea bags. it was just over two weeks ....

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The added sugar of approx 10 cups may be a bit much for the 6 gallon batch, so it is simply going to take a bit longer for the ferment to reach its taste target. The tea bags, are these individual or the larger family sized ones? How much starter tea do you typically add for a batch this size?

family size tea bag???? ha didnt know there was such a thing , these tea bags are ment for one person one time use. i tend to be abit stingey leaving behind starter brew , less than 10% , ill stop doin that though. i thought i was using too little sugar to be honest , thought i read a calculation that worked out 1kg of sugar per 10 liters of tea. Also , i should have enquired about this along time ago but am i still suppose to be taking out the baby scoby after each brew with this continuous brew system? because i havent been :s ha

carsick said:

family size tea bag???? ha didnt know there was such a thing , these tea bags are ment for one person one time use. i tend to be abit stingey leaving behind starter brew , less than 10% , ill stop doin that though. i thought i was using too little sugar to be honest , thought i read a calculation that worked out 1kg of sugar per 10 liters of tea. Also , i should have enquired about this along time ago but am i still suppose to be taking out the baby scoby after each brew with this continuous brew system? because i havent been :s ha

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Hmmm.....try 4-6 indiv tea bags per gallon, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup starter per gallon and you should see a significant difference in your tea. The baby can stay/go in the CB, no harm done.

carsick said:

family size tea bag???? ha didnt know there was such a thing , these tea bags are ment for one person one time use.

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Tea bags are sometimes packaged & labeled in larger sizes: called "ice tea" or "family sized" or both. I treat them as double a normal tea bag intended for one-cup use. Pretty sure I weighed the contents once but I don't recall the exact numbers. So for me that means 6-8 normal tea bags per gallon or 3-4 of these family-sized bags. Lately I've been going with 6 normal or 3 family-sized.

Cup sized packaging from Lipton: http://www.liptontea.com/product/detail/141444/black-tea-cup-size
Family or ice-tea sized packaging from Lipton: http://www.liptontea.com/product/detail/141453/iced-black-tea-pitcher

Cup sized from Tetley: http://www.tetleyusa.com/our-teas/products?id=9
Family-sized from Tetley: http://www.tetleyusa.com/our-teas/products?id=12

thank you both . so i jus worked out ive been using 2kg of sugar when i should have been using 1 :cross: , will all this sugar get converted in time or should i tip it an start again

carsick said:

thank you both . so i jus worked out ive been using 2kg of sugar when i should have been using 1 :cross: , will all this sugar get converted in time or should i tip it an start again

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It will covert in time.