First booch jitters

[shoshin]

Hi all,

I'm about 3 days into brewing my first Kombucha. A friend in Connecticut brews continuously and gave me a SCOBY to bring home to Baltimore. I brought it home on the train to Baltimore in a Tupperware. Immediately upon arriving home I brewed 1 tablespoon of loose leaf green tea in 2 cups of water, mixed in 1/2 cup of sugar, let it cool, placed in 1/2 gallon jar and topped up with water. Then I put the SCOBY in. It floated the first day started dropping the second and here it is on day 3. The tea is a little cloudy. Haven't tasted it. Can you tell how I'm doin? How do I know if it is working and how do I know if bad stuff has crept in? Many thanks.

The first lucite is my tea and SCOBY right after brewing on Wednesday evening View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1463230154.116787.jpg

The second picture is the tea and SCOBY this morning

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1463230177.091342.jpg

No mold visible

 

[Fire Me Boy!]

Patience. It's probably fine. Put it in a corner and don't touch it for a week. Literally, don't move it. After a week, take a look. You should have a nice fresh thin SCOBY floating on top.

 

[shoshin]

Awesome thanks!

 

[hunter_le five]

Looks fine so far. Take a small sample tonight and see how it tastes.

 

[shoshin]

This produced a beautiful thick new SCOBY. I left it going for almost 3 weeks. The resulting Kombucha is quite tart but I rather like it just bottled and I'm starting a second batch

 

[WarmGas]

Glad it all worked out. I am brewing with two new scobies in 20 liter fermenting vessels and it is taking forever. The first cycle or two is supposed to be slow as the microflora that produce your scoby acclimatize to their new environment. You'll probably see faster fermentation cycles going forward.

Cheers.

 

[Fire Me Boy!]

Glad it all worked out. I am brewing with two new scobies in 20 liter fermenting vessels and it is taking forever. The first cycle or two is supposed to be slow as the microflora that produce your scoby acclimatize to their new environment. You'll probably see faster fermentation cycles going forward.

Cheers.

Continuous brew? My first CB too a while, but now it'll transform a couple gallons in a week. I can't keep up with it!

 

[WarmGas]

No, I am doing batch brewing like the pros do. I am trying to learn their process and will be kegging my first batch today, actually. Have to figure out proper carb levels now. I'm thinking 9-10 psi is my target so I'll try carbing at 20 psi for 24 hours, purge and set it at 10 and see what happens.

It's kinda cool.

 

[ericbw]

Lately I've seen a lot of discussion about sinking scoby. Mine did it recently, too. Maybe the hot weather?