Elderberry tea okay for first ferment?

[Bethelwood]

I may have gotten a little overexcited in experimentation land before reading up on the ins and outs of kombucha making.

I just made an awesome herbal first batch before reading that you NEED actual tea for the scoby to feast upon, so I feel lucky it turned out pretty good.

I just made another batch for fermentation with green tea, ginger and dried elderberries (made a really strong tea with it all, then added lots of sugar, then when room temp added it to my mama with a bit of last batch). But now I'm wondering if I should have done elderberry flavoring AFTER? Like, will the elderberries make it go bad or will they just help fermentation process?

Wondering if flavoring HAS to be added during second round of fermentation (when bottled) or if can be included first time around like I did. Any advice would be great! Thanks!

 

[Spaceman]

Technically speaking, you can add those berries during the primary fermentation and as long as there were no inherent contaminants in the dried berries, your booch should be OK. I might be a little concerned about mold in dry fruit though.

However, for the sake of consistency, it is probably best to flavor in the second fermentation. Flavors are a compound just like everything else in your booch and they can be affected just the same. With the elderberries hanging around while the yeast eats the sugar, the bacteria eats the alcohol, the pH drops, etc.. your flavor will be present during all of this and could radically change or even breakdown and disappear. By adding the flavorings during the second ferment, you also inhibit the ability of mold to grow by putting it in an acidic environment (if it was present in the dried fruit).

I have not tried using dried fruit for flavoring myself. I stick to juices/purees to make my batches as "fresh" as possible. Not sure how it is with dried fruit!

 

[Bethelwood]

Thank you for your response! So far it is seeming okay, but your description of why flavoring during the second round makes a whole lot of sense. I am excited to try that method!