Kombucha getting vinegary

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Catobird

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Okay, I'm confused. I've been brewing kombucha since July and started continuous brewing about six weeks ago or so. I've been doing as suggested and removing about 25% every five days or so and adding the same amount back with fresh sweet tea. As I've been doing more indepth reading on kombucha, it seems that the longer the brewing goes on, the more benefits you get from the drink. The liquid in the CB seems to be getting consistently more vinegary and strong. I was thinking of trying an heirloom Tibetan scoby, as they are not supposed to go vinegary, but it also said they would take 21 days to ferment. Am I not removing enough liquid every five days? I have no idea what kind of scoby I have - it was given to me by a niece when she had an extra and I've been using both black and green tea with it. Any ideas? Should I try a Tibetan scoby and see how it goes?
 
Vinegar is produced from excess warmth or oxygen. Once it's gone vinegar, there's pretty much no going back.
 
I had this same issue with batch brewing. This is gonna sound weird, but try keeping your SCOBY uuuuhhh "nicely trimmed"?

What I mean is, once he gets big enough to cover the entire width of the vessel, he gets really thick really fast. Take him out, trim him back down to "normal" size and put him back in. (And remove the babies that are likely under him and put them in a scoby hotel or give them away.)
 
We're just getting into fall and winter here, so that should slow things down. I've kept a couple of cups of starter and started fresh. I've "trimmed" the scoby and will keep on top of it better, and see if that makes a difference. Thanks for all the advice!
 
I am by no means an expert, but my impression was that kombucha naturally turns into vinegar if you let it (the SCOBY looks almost identical to a vinegar mother, and I believe contains acetobacter in addition to other stuff). I think you just need to remove your kombucha on a quicker schedule. Try tasting every day and drawing off your kombucha as soon as it's ready. You could also try cutting your SCOBY in half to slow it down.
 
I used to buy the commercial bottled Kombucha products, but I got tired of paying $5 per 12 oz bottle or more (one store was selling it for $10). My favorite was "Raspberry Black Chia" which was based on black tea, chia seeds and raspberry juice.
The Kombuch I now make, tastes exactly the same in my opinion. I make it in 2 liter bottles, and takes an average of 36 hours to ferment. I have scoby, but I don't need it; I use a few ounces of the last batch to inoculate the next batch. I'm extremely happy with the results so far.

Here's my recipe:
  • Brew some black tea extra strong.
  • Pour 1 liter of the black tea into a 2 L bottle after it has cooled to about 135F or 60C (The warm temperature speeds up the water-absorption process).
  • Pour in 250 ml (1 cup) of Chia seeds (or 10% of your final batch size) and shake immediately, or it will coagulate into a solid mass. Shake a few more times until about 5 minutes has passed.
  • Add about 1 teaspoon of trace mineral solution.
  • Add 1-5 tablespoons of sugar to preference.
  • Pour in your favorite juice to top up the 2L bottle (Leave a bit of expansion space and room for the culture).
  • Pour in a few tablespoons of your previous batch (This is the starter culture).
  • Shake again, and leave the bottle at room temperature with the lid on.
  • Check for gas every few hours by loosening the cap, and listening for escaping gas. (This can take from 24 to 48 hours).
  • The batch is ready when the batch starts to lose sweetness, and considerably more gas is being produced. (Do this to personal taste and preference).
  • Put in fridge to halt the fermentation process. (but it will continue to ferment much more slowly when refrigerated).
 
You might want to go back to batch brewing.;)

I agree, batch brewing is the way to go.

Regarding your kombucha becoming too vinegary though - that is what happens. It's the natural process of making the drink and acetic acid is an end result.

If you want to keep doing continuous brewing, draw more kombucha out of the pot each time and put in more fresh tea. You may have to wait longer in between for the tea to reach your desired taste, but the vinegar taste will be lessened if you are adding enough fresh tea/sugar.
 
I had this same issue with batch brewing. This is gonna sound weird, but try keeping your SCOBY uuuuhhh "nicely trimmed"?

What I mean is, once he gets big enough to cover the entire width of the vessel, he gets really thick really fast. Take him out, trim him back down to "normal" size and put him back in. (And remove the babies that are likely under him and put them in a scoby hotel or give them away.)

I call mine "she" and "her"
 
It sounds like you're getting more and more of the older, more acidic tea building up in the batch over time. Try taking out 50% and replacing it, then see if it stays sweeter longer.
 
I used to buy the commercial bottled Kombucha products, but I got tired of paying $5 per 12 oz bottle or more (one store was selling it for $10). My favorite was "Raspberry Black Chia" which was based on black tea, chia seeds and raspberry juice.
The Kombuch I now make, tastes exactly the same in my opinion. I make it in 2 liter bottles, and takes an average of 36 hours to ferment. I have scoby, but I don't need it; I use a few ounces of the last batch to inoculate the next batch. I'm extremely happy with the results so far.

Here's my recipe:
  • Brew some black tea extra strong.
  • Pour 1 liter of the black tea into a 2 L bottle after it has cooled to about 135F or 60C (The warm temperature speeds up the water-absorption process).
  • Pour in 250 ml (1 cup) of Chia seeds (or 10% of your final batch size) and shake immediately, or it will coagulate into a solid mass. Shake a few more times until about 5 minutes has passed.
  • Add about 1 teaspoon of trace mineral solution.
  • Add 1-5 tablespoons of sugar to preference.
  • Pour in your favorite juice to top up the 2L bottle (Leave a bit of expansion space and room for the culture).
  • Pour in a few tablespoons of your previous batch (This is the starter culture).
  • Shake again, and leave the bottle at room temperature with the lid on.
  • Check for gas every few hours by loosening the cap, and listening for escaping gas. (This can take from 24 to 48 hours).
  • The batch is ready when the batch starts to lose sweetness, and considerably more gas is being produced. (Do this to personal taste and preference).
  • Put in fridge to halt the fermentation process. (but it will continue to ferment much more slowly when refrigerated).

Pretty sure this is the weirdest method I have read on here. But you get good carbonation this way, I'm sure.
 
I'd also vote for batch brewing. An auto siphon makes bottling much easier. I couldn't imagine doing it without one. Bit of a learning curve, but great once you get the hang of it.
 
I've tried it both ways, but the result is the same, very good quality Kombucha. I can't tell the difference from the commercially bottled kind. There are no disadvantages to the "quick" method that I can see, and the advantages are obvious.
 
I have two 1g glass jars with SS spigots and I tried continuous brewing and I was getting loads of vinegar. I had two dump two batches. I have since gone back to batch. With batch brewing I found I could use a heat mat and force the booch to ferment vigorously, and provided I bottled it and removed the heat the taste was pleasant. Continuous brewing with the same heat mat produced a less than stellar result after 1.5 or 2 weeks. I tossed the scobys and used a couple of cups of the remaining liquid for starter. The new batches seem to be done fine.
 
I have two 1g glass jars with SS spigots and I tried continuous brewing and I was getting loads of vinegar. I had two dump two batches. I have since gone back to batch. With batch brewing I found I could use a heat mat and force the booch to ferment vigorously, and provided I bottled it and removed the heat the taste was pleasant. Continuous brewing with the same heat mat produced a less than stellar result after 1.5 or 2 weeks. I tossed the scobys and used a couple of cups of the remaining liquid for starter. The new batches seem to be done fine.

Where did you get glass jars with SS spigots? All I ever find are plastic spigots.
 
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I've made several dozen batches now and there haven't been many refinements, so it seems my method is almost perfected in my opinion. I make it in 2L plastic juice bottles, several at a time. I have noticed some variability in the fermentation time, even within the batch. Some bottles are effervescing and ready to refrigerate after 18 hours, but others take almost 48 hours. I'm not sure the reason, but it may have something to do with how well I shake it once I put the culture in.

Another interesting development is how the last bottle of my most recent batch seemed to over-ferment in the refrigerator. The sugar was almost gone from the taste, and the amount of effervescence was elevated above normal. It could be that it sat the longest in the fridge, or it could be that the microbes are becoming more adapted to the colder temperatures.
 
I have two 1g glass jars with SS spigots and I tried continuous brewing and I was getting loads of vinegar. I had two dump two batches. I have since gone back to batch. With batch brewing I found I could use a heat mat and force the booch to ferment vigorously, and provided I bottled it and removed the heat the taste was pleasant. Continuous brewing with the same heat mat produced a less than stellar result after 1.5 or 2 weeks. I tossed the scobys and used a couple of cups of the remaining liquid for starter. The new batches seem to be done fine.

Sounds like the same setup I've got with the gallon glass jars and SS spigots from Amazon. I keep one in my fridge for dispensing and another on the counter for brewing. Been brewing batches this way for the past six months, starting a new batch each weekend. I like the second jar for dispensing because I prefer it un-carbonated and it's easier to add fruit. Plus with the spigot it's easy to fill a bottle when I'm running out of the door in the morning.

I always brew a little extra tea when starting a new batch so I can adjust the taste of the finished batch if it's too vinegary.
 
The vinegar taste is probably just that it's gotten too strong for your preferences (my tolerance for sour booch has increased dramatically), and as others have pointed out, if that happens quicker than expected, you can avoid that by: consuming it more quickly/shorter ferment time, keep it in cooler location, trim your scoby to a smaller size, stir it before drinking (so you're not leaving extra strong booch somewhere in the ferment), and/or drink it more quickly, so it never gets that strong. Don't try ALL strategies at same time or it'll be weak. If you haven't contaminated it with any fruit/additives, you could pour off most of this string batch and use it for starter in batches, or dilute it with weak booch. I brew gallon to gallon and a half every week or two and bottle it myself.
 
"More than one way to skin a cat" was a common expression many years ago, but what it means there's not always just "one proper way" to do most things. My streamlined method delivers excellent kombucha every time with minimal effort. I've made dozens of batches at this point, and the quality is equal to any other kombucha I've tried. The procedure takes less than a total of 15 minutes of batch preparation each time, followed by 18-36 hours of fermentation.
 
Are you saying you make a new batch and ferment for 18 hours?
 
Are you saying you make a new batch and ferment for 18 hours?

Greg may be using a heat mat. I found that to get a quick fermentation I could seal the vessel (use a glass lid instead of cheesecloth), and use a warming mat to speed the ferment up. I found that the fast ferment would sometimes cause the booch to get vinegary faster than I could consume it, so I alternate warm and cool to moderate the ferment. If I close the fermenter an put the heat it to, I have booch ready in a couple days, but after 7-8 it is mostly vinegar.
 
Greg may be using a heat mat. I found that to get a quick fermentation I could seal the vessel (use a glass lid instead of cheesecloth), and use a warming mat to speed the ferment up. I found that the fast ferment would sometimes cause the booch to get vinegary faster than I could consume it, so I alternate warm and cool to moderate the ferment. If I close the fermenter an put the heat it to, I have booch ready in a couple days, but after 7-8 it is mostly vinegar.
No heat mat, just fermentation at room temperature. I'm waiting for someone else to try my recipe for confirmation. It really does work. The secret is simply to use part of the previous batch as culture for the new batch.
 
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