Can I brew in the hotel?

[claypot2]

I siphoned off my first kombucha batch into jars on Sunday. I left about 1.5 -2 cups of Kombucha in the brewing vessel with the scoby. Tonight (4 days later) I'm ready to put a new batch of tea in the jar. I was just going to add it to the scoby and kombucha that is sitting there after I drained off and bottled the batch on Sunday. Is this OK to do?

 

[Double_D]

That's the way I understand the process. Only made a few batches of kombucha though. What does this have to do with a hotel?

 

[JunkCatsOnThePorch]

That's the way I understand the process. Only made a few batches of kombucha though. What does this have to do with a hotel?

That's what I thought at first! From all the tutorials I have seen the "hotel" is another vessel that stores your extra scobys.

Can't wait to start kombucha, got scobys in the mail! I hope they survive...

Something about brewing in an actual hotel sounds fun, but impractical.

 

[user 204491]

Hah, not that kind of hotel! Although when I saw this post in my feed I didn't realize it at first, and I thought, "what in the world is this guy trying to do!?!"

Yes, JunkCatsOnThePorch is right, a Scoby hotel is not the same thing as your brewing vessel. It's a different vessel where you store your collection of Scobys when they're not in use, or you're waiting to give them out to friends, etc.

Brewing vessel - This is the pot you brew up your sweet tea in before fermentation.

Fermentation vessel - This is the thing you put your sweet tea in, drop in your Scoby, and leave it to do its thing.

Scoby hotel - Where you store scobys when you're not using them.

Claypot2 has the right idea though. That's more or less the continuous brew method. Basically take out most of the fermented kombucha, leaving a little bit behind as your "starter" tea. Then fill the vessel back up with unfermented sweet tea, leaving the Scoby on top of course.

I think the starter tea is actually more important than the Scoby, and modern line of thinking is that the Scoby might not even be needed at all, but is more of a protective barrier byproduct of fermentation, similar to a pellicle on sour beers.

I didn't actually buy an Scoby to kick off my kombucha brewing habit. Just start by using a bottle of commercial, all natural, unfiltered, unflavored kombucha as your starter tea (GT's is great for this), and brew a batch as directed, just don't use a Scoby. A couple of weeks later you should have kombucha and a nice scoby on top.

 

[claypot2]

The reason I called my brewing vessel "the hotel" is because in my mind once I siphoned off most of the kombucha - and since I didn't immediately add any new brewed tea, the brewing vessel changed to a hotel where I stored my scoby - until it reverted back to the brewing vessel when I added tea last night.

The other thing is - I think that the kombucha left with the scoby in the brewing vessel/hotel was pretty vinegary (the stuff I drew off was on the vinegary side so that stuff had to be even further along the path to vinegar). Once I added new tea last night - the ph was about a 3. (My ph never sees to change - I started wondering if my test strips are bad - but i checked it against water and I get about a 6 with tap water.

 

[claypot2]

So - I guess what my original concern really was - can I just leave the scoby in the brewing vessel with a little bit of kombucha that I didn't siphon off - for a few days - before I add new tea? I think that is what i really was wondering.

 

[dyqik]

It would be easy enough to do a 1-3 gallon extract batch of beer in a motel room though...

 

[user 204491]

For a few days to a week you should be fine just as you described. If you're going to go more than that then you should brew a small batch of sweet tea store it in that. If you're going to go more than a few weeks between brews, then store it in a small batch of sweet tea in the fridge. Going that route you will want to pull it out to reuse it, or replace the sweet tea, every 30 days or so.

 

[JunkCatsOnThePorch]

Man, I consider myself a somewhat decently experienced home-brewer. But this kombucha stuff seems so mysterious to me. I am reading so many different opinions all over the web-just like beer brewing. Guess I am just gunna have start up with what sounds like best practices and go from there-just like beer brewing.

Wish me luck!
(If it is anything like some of my first batches of beer, i am gunna need it!)

 

[user 204491]

If you can make beer at home, you should have no problem at all making kombucha. It's really simple and fast compared to beer. About the only thing easier (in my opinion) is making cider. I recommend the book True Brews to get started with kombucha (and other things like soda).

 

[compadre]

This is intriguing, I have actually gone completely without the starter tea and just put fresh tea and sugar and thrown the Scoby in, I find they grow additional ones quicker this way (if you need additional ones) but also it seems that they tea changes color less quick and seemingly is not the ready kombucha product as quickly. I am running out of space for them so I will always use the starter tea from now on. I think it slows their multiplying down.

 

[GoodBookBrewer]

This is intriguing, I have actually gone completely without the starter tea and just put fresh tea and sugar and thrown the Scoby in, I find they grow additional ones quicker this way (if you need additional ones) but also it seems that they tea changes color less quick and seemingly is not the ready kombucha product as quickly. I am running out of space for them so I will always use the starter tea from now on. I think it slows their multiplying down.

Makes sense. The SCOBY is produced by the organisms wrapped up in the matrix of cellulose. The kombucha is produced by the organisms in suspension in the tea. If you don't use starter tea, there are NO organisms suspended in your tea at first, alas the SCOBY is the only source of critters. It works, but it takes longer for them to populate the tea to start munching on sugar.

 

[GoodBookBrewer]

Makes sense. The SCOBY is produced by the organisms wrapped up in the matrix of cellulose. The kombucha is really produced by the organisms in suspension in the tea. If you don't use starter tea, there are NO organisms suspended in your tea at first, alas the SCOBY is the only source of critters. It works, but it takes longer for them to populate the tea to start munching on sugar.

 

[jtratcliff]

If you have too many SCOBYs, you can always make SCOBY jerky...

Slice them into strips, add seasoning of choice (teriyaki, Worcestershire, etc), then dry (dehydrator, warm oven, etc)

No need for a hotel

 

[hunter_le five]

Makes sense. The SCOBY is produced by the organisms wrapped up in the matrix of cellulose. The kombucha is really produced by the organisms in suspension in the tea. If you don't use starter tea, there are NO organisms suspended in your tea at first, alas the SCOBY is the only source of critters. It works, but it takes longer for them to populate the tea to start munching on sugar.

Quoted for emphasis.

The scoby is mostly just a waste byproduct. Most of the fermentation power comes from the critters swimming around in the starter tea.

When I get too many scobys, I just toss them in the garbage. They're really not worth holding onto IMHO.