I think I made it too weak??

[twinkie88]

Hi! I got my first scoby from a friend a few weeks ago, I made my first batch and rebottled it for second fermentation. I decided to try out making a larger (2 gallon instead of 1 gallon this) this time (too soon?). I think I may have miscalculated the tea/sugar/water ratio in that I think it's too weak, I added some cold water to counteract the warm tea (this was probably a mistake right?) and it looks a lot weaker than the last batch. I added a cup of the last batch as well as the scoby which promptly fell to the bottom (probably because of the temperature difference?) anyways my question is, should I leave it like this? is my scoby dead ? should I add some more sugar to it? Please help - I'd really appreciate it!

 

[snarf]

How on earth are we supposed to comment on this, when we have absolutely no idea about the ratios you used? How much sugar, tea and water exactly did you use??

 

[twinkie88]

I'm sorry I'm super new at this and when I asked the question I was a bit panic-y because I was worried my scoby would be destroyed. I'll try to explain as best I can but it truly was a mess. I used about 8 green tea bags for just under 2 gallons of water. I accidentally only added 1/2 cup of sugar but once I realized my mistake I added another cup. The issue was that I tried to use a 2 gallon container but the spigot was leaking so I ended up ditching half of the sweetened tea and relocated it onto the 1 gallon jug with the scoby. Does that help? Like I said this is only my first batch so I'm very new to the terminology and procedures. Thanks! = )

 

[tabrams_usa]

I'm new to this as well, but it sounds like you did start it off too weak. Rule of thumb: 8 tea bags per gallon, and 1 cup of sugar per gallon. I guess it's possible to add more sugar later in process but hard to stir it in without damaging the creature, or? Anyway - your scoby sinking doesn't mean much of anything. It sometimes does sink without it harming the batch in the least. Again, the longer you let it ferment (at least 7 - 9 days) the more fizzy it will be. And if you started off by underfeeding it, it maybe take substantially longer to ferment properly. 2 weeks isn't out of the question.