Fermenting temps in winter for Kombucha Tea

[Morrey]

I have struggled with slow ferment times and low quality tea in the winter as my ferment closet is around 67F. The tea seems weak and it takes forever to develop thin, wispy scoby's on top. Clearly, the tea is not happy at 67F

I have a 10" x 20" germination heat mat to pop veggie seeds in Rapid Rooters in the spring. Since the mat is idle at this point, I decided to lay the mat on the shelf and sit 3 one gallon Mason jars of tea on the mat for gentle bottom warming. (A 20" long mat fits 3 Mason jars of 1G each precisely) To control the heat setting, I used a spare Inkbird 308 I have on hand for brewing, and taped the temp probe to the side of one of the jars. I covered the probe with a piece of neoprene beer coozie taped against the glass jar's side to protect the probe from being influenced by ambient temps.

This system is working in an outstanding way, and the tea is very happy at 77F (set by Inkbird) with the gentle bottom heat source doing a great job with temperature consistency.

 

[JohnSand]

Sounds great, glad it's working out.

 

[Morrey]

Thanks @JohnSand. After seeing several posts relating to KT is not fermenting well in the winter - just thought I'd share in case someone could benefit from my "fix".

 

[JohnSand]

I appreciate that. We've all learned from other brewers, and hope to give back.

 

[ScobeyDoo]

A simple method I use is to place a cheap electric space heater in the room where I do the fermenting and set it to the desired temperature. It seems to maintain the whole room at the right spot and thus the vessel as well. Since for me this room is in my basement which tends to be pretty cool the whole year long, I can control the temp to my desired temp in the winter or even summer as well.