Kombucha question!

[birdgirl]

Hi everyone.

I started growing a SCOBY in a 1/2 gallon mason jar from bottled kombucha back in December and it is finally thick enough to start brewing with I bought a used 1.5 gallon glass water dispenser to use as a continuous brewer (no metal to come in contact with the kombucha). My husband doesn't want me wasting money on a ceramic one until I see how well everything works. I am wondering if it is ok to leave out on my kitchen counter? Putting it in the cabinet space I have where it is totally dark would be very awkward to move it to dispense the kombucha/add the tea, since it is a bottom cabinet. I have no where else totally dark to put it. We rent a basement apartment, so our kitchen has no window or sunlight at all. There is just a fluorescent overhead light that is on when cooking or doing dishes type thing, but not on all the time. Will this be too much light to brew the kombucha? Thanks!

 

[theDREWery]

I've had mine in direct fluorescent light and indirect sunlight for 6 months +. I dont think there's any damage light can do to a buch ferment. Light strike mainly pertains to beer skunking.

 

[Fedora]

I leave mine on top of my refrigerator. No problems.

 

[sleepspeaking]

Its been a few years since I kept up with a batch but, I brewed mine in 1 gallon glass pickle jars, which were clear, so I threw together some cloth "shirts" for them (Just cut up t-shirts and hand sewed to fit the jar, took 20min or so). Just to block the light, worked fine. It's my understanding that your booch will do better in low light areas. But I've had mine pick up a bit of a garlic smell/taste from keeping it in the kitchen (I guess because it's not really closed off the cooking "smoke" and aroma had on effect on the tea, maybe i'm just crazy, but i noticed it). I was always instructed low light, good air flow (away from smoke and/or cooking aroma), little to no jostling. I played by those rules and always had great scoby growth and good quality booch.

Hope your Kombucha turns out! Let us know how it progresses.

 

[shelly_belly]

Kitchen counter has worked great for me for several years now. I do have a window and glass door in the kitchen but they are on the north side of the house.

 

[birdgirl]

Thanks everyone! Covering the jar itself in some cloth is a great idea. I am pretty excited to give this a try. I was actually pleasantly surprised the SCOBY grew. I found so much conflicting information online about growing one from bottles kombucha. I grew it in a 1/2 gallon mason jar in a cupboard, but a 1.5 gallon dispenser won't fit so easily in there. Here is my SCOBY (it took a little over a month to get this big)

And the container I found for it to live in (the spigot is just silver colored plastic, not real metal):

 

[hunter_le five]

I found so much conflicting information online about growing one from bottles kombucha.

Yup. There's a lot of conflicting information out there about booch in general. Once you get a few batches in, you realize there's really not much to it and you'll stop worring so much.

And the container I found for it to live in (the spigot is just silver colored plastic, not real metal):

I use a container similar to yours, with the same metal-colored plastic spigot. Works great. Been using it over a year.