First Kombucha Batch

[Mm391]

Hello Everyone,

I’m 6 days into my first Kombucha batch and just wanted to see what people’s thoughts were on what it looks like?

Medium SCOBY
2 litres Black Tea
200grams Cane sugar
Brewing Temp between 20°C and 25°C
Still tastes slightly sweet and tea like for my taste.

I’m think the extra bits are yeast strands or part of the Kombucha but just wanted to see what people’s thoughts are after looking at the picture.

Thanks

Matt

 

[Yooper]

The picture doesn't show me much (can't tell what I'm looking at) but it should definitely be tasting acidic and not so tea-like. How much starter tea did you add with the SCOBY?
Try to keep it much closer to 25C or even warmer if you can. The cultures for kombucha tend to be warm loving microbes and for a great balance (not too much vinegar or lactic, not too much ethanol production), temperature is important.

I live in a cool climate and have to use a seedling mat to warm my kombucha, even in the summer!

 

[Mm391]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. What you can see in the photo is the SCOBY, which is the lighter colour, in the sweet tea. The other bits around it I’m not sure, maybe yeast strands or new parts of the SCOBY? They definitely don’t look like mould. I was wondering if it was anything to worry about?

 

[hottpeper13]

That is mostly yeast, which would be expected with the low temps. Kick it up to 78*-80* and let the microbes do their thing.

 

[Mm391]

Thank you very much for the advice. Would you suggest straining the Kombucha before bottling it for the 2nd fermentation to keep the big clumps of yeast out?

As I am batch brewing would you also suggest removing the large clumps of yeast from the SCOBY before adding the SCOBY to some new sweet tea?

 

[hottpeper13]

This is what I do.
First off it's best to use a fermenter that has a spigot. when ready to bottle I remove the SCOBYS into a clean bowl,remove the old one(top one is new) that mostly gets rid if some yeast strands but they are not that big of deal, and add my starter from the spigot(for a 2 gal batch around 2 cups). I then add a sugar solution to each bottle with some dried ginger and fill. Put these on heating mat at 80* for 3-5 days then in the fridge.
Most of the junk stays on the bottom of the fermenter and I dump it and clean it add the new sweet tea and pour in the SCOBY and starter.