Kombucha Start

[brwmistr]

Hi Everyone,
I have been brewing Gluten free beer for most of the time. I also have a Mead recipe I run every two years and wine as per need. I have been looking at Kombucha after I made a home Kimchi recipe. I went to a store and asked to start my home batch and they sent my to a bottle of "Booch". They told me that all I had to do is pour the bottle into the sweet tea I made and it should work. Now this bottle was cold from their fridge and it did have some floating things in it and as I have never done this took their advise.

My batch was three (Tetley Black Tea) bags brewed in 1.5liters of water and 1cup white sugar. I waited for the batch to cool but not to room temp say 30cel and poured in the Booch bottle and covered it. After three days not much is going on as I would expect from all the brewing I've done.

What do you suggest? would this have worked for you? I didn't have a SCOBY to put into it but was told I didn't need one it will create it own from the drink.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

You definitely don't need a Scoby to start brewing Kombucha. In fact, it's pretty questionable if you even need a Scoby to brew Kombucha at all. You can get started by just using a bottle of GT's unflavored, unfiltered kombucha as your starter tea. That will give you both a Scoby and starter tea to make your first batch (pitch the first batch of Kombucha as it won't be very good). Here is the recipe I use for 3 gallon batches, and you can scale it down to whatever size you want:

3 Gallon Base Kombucha Recipe

3 gallons water
24 oz sugar
15 black tea bags
9 green tea bags
2 cups starter Kombucha

Bring 1 gallon of water and the sugar to a boil. Remove from heat, add tea bags, and steep for 15 minutes.

Chill down in ice bath until temp reaches ~70F.

Meanwhile combine starter kombucha with 1 gallon, 7 pints of water to make 2 gallons and add to fermenter.

Add tea to fermenter, shake well to combine, and then add SCOBY.

This should give you 3 gallons of Kombucha.

Ferment for 7-10 days until desired tartness is reached.

Happy to answer any questions I can about the process.

 

[DurtyChemist]

As a new Kombucha brewer myself I'm interested in this process also. I've brewed plenty of beer but never this stuff.

Is there any concern of infecting brewing equipment?

Any way to get this to taste similar to GT Kombucha? Any clone recipes?

How do you maintain your scoby or culture? Do you just make a new one every time?

 

[drgonzo2k2]

As a new Kombucha brewer myself I'm interested in this process also. I've brewed plenty of beer but never this stuff.

Is there any concern of infecting brewing equipment?

- I don't share brewing equipment between Kombucha and beer primarily just due to batch size. For my Kombucha batches I am only boiling 1 gallon of water and making 3 gallon batches, so it wouldn't make any sense to use my 10 gallon kettle and 6+gallon fermenters. I'm sure if you were though that cross-contamination would be a concern. I would also be worried about transferring tea flavors for my beer.

Any way to get this to taste similar to GT Kombucha? Any clone recipes?

- Dunno about a clone recipe. It's basically fermented tea, so it would really boil down (no pun intended) to trying to match what tea they use and creating your culture from theirs. I use the Newman's Own Organics Royal Teas, and I have had great success with them.

How do you maintain your scoby or culture? Do you just make a new one every time?

- So again, you don't really need a Scoby. It's just a byproduct of fermentation. Think of it like the pellicle that grows on sour beer. Sure, using some of that pellicle in another batch isn't going to hurt, but it's really getting the yeast and bacteria that you're after. It's the starter tea that is really important. I still chuck a Scoby in just because I have it and it looks darn cool in there.

When you harvest your first batch you'll want to draw off 1-2 cups of that and store it in the fridge until your next batch. Then use that as your starter tea. I brew about once per month and in-between I store my Scoby in a fresh batch of tea in the fridge. I just reduce that recipe I provided to 2 quarts and keep it in some Tupperware.

Hope that helps!

 

[DurtyChemist]

So I could make a starter just like brewing beer, harvest from the starter, keep the harvested part in the fridge and ferment a tea/sugar mixture? I assume the amount of sugar added determines the ABV and the tea used to make a batch determines the flavor. Secondary "fermentation" is just like brewing beer and it's mostly to add additional flavors (fruit, ginger, etc.).

I'm not sure I follow "in-between (brewing) I store my Scoby in a fresh batch of tea in the fridge" because my understanding is the tea is what the SCOBY/starter is pitched into. Are you saying you harvest from the starter then store the harvested portion in the fridge until your next brew AND you add MORE tea on top before putting it back into the refrigerator? While this is in the fridge you have a 3 gallon batch brewing.

If I understand the "simple" process I buy a bottle, brew up 1 gallon of your recipe (scaled) and pitch the store bought bottle into the batch.
When that is done fermenting I decant the liquid (bad tasting as you say) and have my SCOBY that I'll then brew a second batch of 1 gallon tea to ferment and harvest liquid from this new gallon batch to store for future brews.
The unharvested liquid goes into the 3 gallon recipe you give above. Since this is the starter tea it has all the stuff I'd want to ferment the sugars in the 3 gallon batch I'll end up drinking. The SCOBY is just extra stuff.

I swear...I thought brewing was complex when I started and now brewing with bacteria seems WAY more complex.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

So I could make a starter just like brewing beer, harvest from the starter, keep the harvested part in the fridge and ferment a tea/sugar mixture? I assume the amount of sugar added determines the ABV and the tea used to make a batch determines the flavor. Secondary "fermentation" is just like brewing beer and it's mostly to add additional flavors (fruit, ginger, etc.).

I'm not sure I follow "in-between (brewing) I store my Scoby in a fresh batch of tea in the fridge" because my understanding is the tea is what the SCOBY/starter is pitched into. Are you saying you harvest from the starter then store the harvested portion in the fridge until your next brew AND you add MORE tea on top before putting it back into the refrigerator? While this is in the fridge you have a 3 gallon batch brewing.

If I understand the "simple" process I buy a bottle, brew up 1 gallon of your recipe (scaled) and pitch the store bought bottle into the batch.
When that is done fermenting I decant the liquid (bad tasting as you say) and have my SCOBY that I'll then brew a second batch of 1 gallon tea to ferment and harvest liquid from this new gallon batch to store for future brews.
The unharvested liquid goes into the 3 gallon recipe you give above. Since this is the starter tea it has all the stuff I'd want to ferment the sugars in the 3 gallon batch I'll end up drinking. The SCOBY is just extra stuff.

I swear...I thought brewing was complex when I started and now brewing with bacteria seems WAY more complex.

I think the confusion is coming from trying to equate beer brewing to Kombucha brewing. Toss all that out and just pretend you're learning something completely new. Here is exactly what I did to start:

1 - Go buy a bottle of unflavored, unfiltered GT's Kombucha

2 - Brew a scaled down 1 gallon batch of the recipe I provided

3 - Put it in your fermenter and pitch in the GT's

4 - Don't use an airlock. You need air to get in. I cover mine with cheese cloth and use a rubber band to hold it on

5 - Wait 1-2 weeks (much better to use a pH meter here - when it get's to 3.4 to 3.1 range it's done)

6 - Draw off 2 cups of that, save it, and pitch the rest. You can harvest the scoby too if you're so inclined

7 - Now follow the recipe exactly as I provided

8 - Enjoy your Kombucha and repeat as you would like

To answer some of your questions:

- No, this starter is not like a yeast starter. You don't grow it up, you just use it.

- More sugar does not equal more ABV. In fact, you're probably going to wind up with something around 1-2% at most here. The yeast consumes the sugar which creates alcohol. Then in turn acetobacter consumes the alcohol and produces acetic acid. Scoby stands for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria & Yeast. So the more sugar you add, the more alcohol you will create, which in turn will get turned into more acetic acid. (If you're trying to make "hard" kombucha that's another matter, and I'm happy to help with that as well, but it's a more involved process).

- You are correct about the secondary, except I wouldn't put ginger in there. Add that at packaging time.

- If you store the Scoby you need to make sure it has a food source, thus the 2 quarts of fresh tea that you make. If you just store it in Kombucha it will likely starve as it's already consumed all of the sugars. I've stored mine as I described in the fridge for about 5 weeks in-between batches with no problems. Store the "starter tea" from your last batch of kombucha separately from your scoby.

I would also highly recommend the book True Brews which has a very easy to follow chapter on kombucha.

 

[DurtyChemist]

The following 10 steps, or this entire thread, need to be a Sticky here for new brewers.

Would using a mason jar with the lid just screwed on enough to hold it there work in lieu of cheese cloth? I'm assuming you want aerobic respiration to grow the bacteria in the starter.

For the 3 gallon batch would putting it into a Better Bottle work? Again only using cheese cloth to allow air to continually feed the bacteria. Also is there much head space required for Kombucha brewing or is it similar to sours/brett beers where there isn't much need for head space?

Storing the starter tea/SCOBY...SO...pull 2 quarts from a fresh 3 gallon batch of tea, pour into whatever I'm keeping the SCOBY/Starter Tea made during the first 3 steps and let this sit in the refrigerator. Correct? Leave it room to offgas/ferment in the fridge? This is if I want to "reuse" the original starter tea, much like sourdough bread, for a second/third/18th batch of kombucha. Correct?

It's really helping to say it out loud because what you typed out I literally walked through telling my wife as we drove to dinner and reading an experienced brewer confirm my thought process helps.

I think the confusion is coming from trying to equate beer brewing to Kombucha brewing. Toss all that out and just pretend you're learning something completely new. Here is exactly what I did to start:

1 - Go buy a bottle of unflavored, unfiltered GT's Kombucha

2 - Brew a scaled down 1 gallon batch of the recipe I provided

3 - Put it in your fermenter and pitch in the GT's

4 - Don't use an airlock. You need air to get in. I cover mine with cheese cloth and use a rubber band to hold it on

5 - Wait 1-2 weeks (much better to use a pH meter here - when it get's to 3.4 to 3.1 range it's done)

6 - Draw off 2 cups of that, save it, and pitch the rest. You can harvest the scoby too if you're so inclined

7 - Now follow the recipe exactly as I provided

8 - Enjoy your Kombucha and repeat as you would like

To answer some of your questions:

- No, this starter is not like a yeast starter. You don't grow it up, you just use it.

- More sugar does not equal more ABV. In fact, you're probably going to wind up with something around 1-2% at most here. The yeast consumes the sugar which creates alcohol. Then in turn acetobacter consumes the alcohol and produces acetic acid. Scoby stands for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria & Yeast. So the more sugar you add, the more alcohol you will create, which in turn will get turned into more acetic acid. (If you're trying to make "hard" kombucha that's another matter, and I'm happy to help with that as well, but it's a more involved process).

- You are correct about the secondary, except I wouldn't put ginger in there. Add that at packaging time.

- If you store the Scoby you need to make sure it has a food source, thus the 2 quarts of fresh tea that you make. If you just store it in Kombucha it will likely starve as it's already consumed all of the sugars. I've stored mine as I described in the fridge for about 5 weeks in-between batches with no problems. Store the "starter tea" from your last batch of kombucha separately from your scoby.

I would also highly recommend the book True Brews which has a very easy to follow chapter on kombucha.

 

[kev211]

That step by step tutorial is huge! I'm gonna start making kombucha and that will really come in handy. A few questions if my own...

Does water matter as much in kombucha as it does in beer?

I keep reading, use black tea. Does it have to be unflavored black tea? My wife gets some cran orange stuff from teavana and I feel like it would make a good kombucha (maybe, maybe not). If flavored tea is a no go, when do I want to add fruit (strawberry, guava, etc)? Puree or whole?

Is an sort of priming sugar required at bottling?

I think that's my list of questions (for now) haha

 

[Sir-Brews-Alot]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but this seems as good a place as any to ask questions. When you pitch a bottle of GT kombucha, will you get a large scoby? I pretty much followed what drgonzo2k2 outlined above and everything is going good as far as I can tell. I used my 3 gallon SS pot, and just put the lid on, rather than going the cheesecloth route. It's been 17 days and the pH is at 3.2. I have a nice film on top, but it's very thin. Is that normal? When I see pics of scoby's they're always pretty thick. The booch tastes pretty good, has a nice acedic bite. Thinking I'll probably bottle soon with some fruit juice of some sort.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

Okay, lots of questions here. I'll do my best to try to answer them. Keep in mind that Kombucha brewing is not something that's been as scientifically studied as much as say beer brewing, so there is just as much bad info out there, if not more, on this subject. I've tried to read lots of books and articles as well as the few actual scientific papers I've come across about it. Here goes...

The following 10 steps, or this entire thread, need to be a Sticky here for new brewers.

- Fine by me if someone wants to pin this post or have me write something up on my process. Just let me know!

Would using a mason jar with the lid just screwed on enough to hold it there work in lieu of cheese cloth? I'm assuming you want aerobic respiration to grow the bacteria in the starter.

- I would think no. You want pretty easy exposure to the open air. Last time I ran out of cheese cloth I just used an old mesh hops bag I had laying around and rubber-banded it over the top of the fermenter. Basically anything that's food safe and mesh should work here. The idea is to let the air in but keep bugs out.

For the 3 gallon batch would putting it into a Better Bottle work? Again only using cheese cloth to allow air to continually feed the bacteria. Also is there much head space required for Kombucha brewing or is it similar to sours/brett beers where there isn't much need for head space?

- I wouldn't use a Better Bottle. I think getting the Scoby out would be a big PITA. I use the 12L Speidel plastic fermenters, and they are awesome for this. You don't need much, if any headspace. There will not be a Krausen or any sort of blow off.

Storing the starter tea/SCOBY...SO...pull 2 quarts from a fresh 3 gallon batch of tea, pour into whatever I'm keeping the SCOBY/Starter Tea made during the first 3 steps and let this sit in the refrigerator. Correct? Leave it room to offgas/ferment in the fridge? This is if I want to "reuse" the original starter tea, much like sourdough bread, for a second/third/18th batch of kombucha. Correct?

- Not quite, but you've almost got it. Prior to packaging every batch you are going to wind up with two things:

1 - 2 cups of the Kombucha you just brewed (this is your "starter tea" for the next batch)

2 - A Scoby

Those two things need to be stored separately until you're ready to brew again. You can't keep the Scoby in Kombucha, as it will have nothing to eat and die. You can't keep the Scoby in nothing, as it will have nothing to eat + go dry, so it will definitely die. The solution to this is to scale down my 3 gallon recipe to 2 quarts, and then store the Scoby in that in your fridge. Keeping it in the fridge will slow down its fermentation quite a bit, and you should be fine for 6 weeks or so of storage like this. Anymore than that and I'd brew another 2 quarts, dump the old tea and add the fresh.

It's really helping to say it out loud because what you typed out I literally walked through telling my wife as we drove to dinner and reading an experienced brewer confirm my thought process helps.

That step by step tutorial is huge! I'm gonna start making kombucha and that will really come in handy. A few questions if my own...

Does water matter as much in kombucha as it does in beer?

- Not really. I mean I'm sure there are some water chemistry combinations that make better tasting Kombucha than others, but like I said, there's not a lot of scientific info here. You basically just want chlorine/chloramine free water. I keep it simple and just use RO water like I do for brewing.

I keep reading, use black tea. Does it have to be unflavored black tea? My wife gets some cran orange stuff from teavana and I feel like it would make a good kombucha (maybe, maybe not). If flavored tea is a no go, when do I want to add fruit (strawberry, guava, etc)? Puree or whole?

- The tea you use for your primary fermentation should be unflavored. A lot of people go with just black tea, but I like a mix of black and green tea for mine. If you use flavored tea initially you probably won't get much flavor left over, so it'd just be a bit of a waste. You can do a secondary by steeping your flavored tea bags in your finished Kombucha. Fruit is awesome here. Just like in beer Puree is a nightmare unless you have the commercial filtering capabilities to deal with it. I use fresh whole fruit that I wash, slice, and freeze. Then I thaw it in the fridge for a couple of days before secondary. This freezes the cell walls, bursting them when it thaws so the juice more readily flows out. 2-3 days at most is all you need for your secondary. 1 Lb/gallon works out well for most fruit.

Is an sort of priming sugar required at bottling?

- Sorry, but I've honestly never bottled Kombucha, I always keg it (just kegged a batch of Strawberry-Peach-Mango last night - I call it "summer breeze" Kombucha). I'd have to look that up.

I think that's my list of questions (for now) haha

Sorry to hijack the thread, but this seems as good a place as any to ask questions. When you pitch a bottle of GT kombucha, will you get a large scoby? I pretty much followed what drgonzo2k2 outlined above and everything is going good as far as I can tell. I used my 3 gallon SS pot, and just put the lid on, rather than going the cheesecloth route. It's been 17 days and the pH is at 3.2. I have a nice film on top, but it's very thin. Is that normal? When I see pics of scoby's they're always pretty thick. The booch tastes pretty good, has a nice acedic bite. Thinking I'll probably bottle soon with some fruit juice of some sort.

- First, putting the lid on probably didn't help. Second, if you used anything other than 304 Stainless Steel I recommend you not drink anymore of that and pitch the whole batch out. Kombucha and metal do not get along. Generally a little bit of contact won't hurt anything, but if you're brewing in anything other than 304 SS you could get some problems like harmful metals leaching into your Kombucha. It could also severely pit your pot ruining it.

I would say it was probably a combination of lack of air exposure and the metal that caused your lack of Scoby here. Although, you basically just proved my point that you don't actually need a Scoby to make Kombucha, as you just did it! Again, think of the Scoby as the same thing as a pellicle on sour beer. Beers sour just fine and don't create a pellicle if you don't expose them to oxygen, which is basically what you just did.

My first Scoby that I created with my process was on the small side, but it gets larger with every batch. It now covers the entire top of the liquid in my fermenter and looks pretty gnarly. I named him Scoby-Wan Kenobi.

 

[DurtyChemist]

Good to know the base tea isn't what controls flavor all that much. I was probably going to spend a LOT of money buying various teas just to find out minimal flavor carries over to the Kombucha. Any particular reason YOU go with a blend of black/green tea? I thought the blend added the bulk of the flavor.

Oh and sorry if you've become the de facto expert on Kombucha brewing because of this thread. Maybe other brewers will step in with their knowledge and give you some time to rest.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

Oh, I just preferred that flavor versus when I went with all black tea. I'm not really a tea drinker, so maybe not describing it correctly, but I felt the all black tea version was a little heavy while the blend was lighter and easy drinking.

I would encourage folks to play around and see what they like.

Again, I use the Newman's Own Organics Royal Black and Green teas. They're pretty easy to find and relatively inexpensive, especially if you're going to do a secondary with fruit, etc., where a lot of the original tea flavor is not going to come through.

 

[55x11]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but this seems as good a place as any to ask questions. When you pitch a bottle of GT kombucha, will you get a large scoby? I pretty much followed what drgonzo2k2 outlined above and everything is going good as far as I can tell. I used my 3 gallon SS pot, and just put the lid on, rather than going the cheesecloth route. It's been 17 days and the pH is at 3.2. I have a nice film on top, but it's very thin. Is that normal? When I see pics of scoby's they're always pretty thick. The booch tastes pretty good, has a nice acedic bite. Thinking I'll probably bottle soon with some fruit juice of some sort.

it will be a very thin film. it will grow as you wait. The film you see is a good indication its working. I wouldn't use SS pot - use plastic or glass jar. There is bad reaction between steel and kombucha culture.

So use a jar, ideally with a spigot, so you can taste the kombucha (or even drain it all if you want) without having to siphon. If you don't have cheesecloth, just use paper napkin and rubber band to keep it on top.

Keep it warm (unlike beer), warming it to 75-80 will speed up the culture feeding on sugars.

 

[brwmistr]

Here is the first Kombucha I have ever done and how it looks four days later.

 

[Sir-Brews-Alot]

First, putting the lid on probably didn't help. Second, if you used anything other than 304 Stainless Steel I recommend you not drink anymore of that and pitch the whole batch out. Kombucha and metal do not get along. Generally a little bit of contact won't hurt anything, but if you're brewing in anything other than 304 SS you could get some problems like harmful metals leaching into your Kombucha. It could also severely pit your pot ruining it.

I would say it was probably a combination of lack of air exposure and the metal that caused your lack of Scoby here. Although, you basically just proved my point that you don't actually need a Scoby to make Kombucha, as you just did it! Again, think of the Scoby as the same thing as a pellicle on sour beer. Beers sour just fine and don't create a pellicle if you don't expose them to oxygen, which is basically what you just did.

My first Scoby that I created with my process was on the small side, but it gets larger with every batch. It now covers the entire top of the liquid in my fermenter and looks pretty gnarly. I named him Scoby-Wan Kenobi.

Ok, I may have gotten some of that bad info that you alluded to, as I was reading on another site that SS is fine for kombucha brewing, which is why I went with that. FYI, it is a food grade pot, so I assume it is 304 SS. You know what they say when you assume, though. The lid doesn't fit tight at all, in fact it is basically just sitting on top of the pot, so I don't think that is preventing air ingress at all. Though maybe I'm not getting quite as much as if I used cheesecloth? Thanks for the info, I'll get a glass jug and cheesecloth for the next batch.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

Ok, I may have gotten some of that bad info that you alluded to, as I was reading on another site that SS is fine for kombucha brewing, which is why I went with that. FYI, it is a food grade pot, so I assume it is 304 SS. You know what they say when you assume, though. The lid doesn't fit tight at all, in fact it is basically just sitting on top of the pot, so I don't think that is preventing air ingress at all. Though maybe I'm not getting quite as much as if I used cheesecloth? Thanks for the info, I'll get a glass jug and cheesecloth for the next batch.

Well again, you really want a lot of free air contact with the Kombucha, the more the better here. Acetobactor + oxygen in the presence of ethanol will make acetic acid, which is what you're after here. At the same time you want to keep any insects out (fruit flies are drawn to this stuff) hence the cheese cloth or other mesh.

Not all food grade stainless is 304. 304 has an amazing level of corrosion resistance in the presence of acid. 304 is also costly to manufacture, so if your pot is 304 it would most likely have a stamp on it.

 

[Sir-Brews-Alot]

Well again, you really want a lot of free air contact with the Kombucha, the more the better here. Acetobactor + oxygen in the presence of ethanol will make acetic acid, which is what you're after here. At the same time you want to keep any insects out (fruit flies are drawn to this stuff) hence the cheese cloth or other mesh.

Not all food grade stainless is 304. 304 has an amazing level of corrosion resistance in the presence of acid. 304 is also costly to manufacture, so if your pot is 304 it would most likely have a stamp on it.

That's fair enough. Well I did go ahead and bottle it last night, the scoby was thicker than it initially appeared, probably 1/4" or so. That said, I went and purchased this last night for all future brews. And some extra large coffee filters to rubberband over the mouth. Thanks again!

 

[DurtyChemist]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001B0S8R0/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Would this be a tea I could use for a starter or even a first batch? I have 17 packets of it which appears to be enough to make a starter and close to 3 gallons of Kombucha.

I bought a bottle of the blue label GT assuming it's the unfiltered, untouched, un-non-desirable (sp?) stuff suggested on various websites to use as a starter for my homebrew kombucha.

 

[kev211]

Got 1/2 gallon made last night. Used Earl Grey Black Tea and GT's unfiltered kombucha as my starter. Hopefully it turns out!

I told my wife that if it does I may have to give up brewing beer for kombucha. The 15 mins it took to make kombucha compared to ~5hours for beer was quite nice

 

[drgonzo2k2]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001B0S8R0/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Would this be a tea I could use for a starter or even a first batch? I have 17 packets of it which appears to be enough to make a starter and close to 3 gallons of Kombucha.

I bought a bottle of the blue label GT assuming it's the unfiltered, untouched, un-non-desirable (sp?) stuff suggested on various websites to use as a starter for my homebrew kombucha.

There's a bunch of stuff in that tea. I would just go with regular old black or green tea at first. Not sure how black pepper, cardamom, clove, basil, etc. is going to taste with acetic acid. Up to you though!

I definitely would not use any sort of flavored tea as your basis for future starter teas.

My advice is to go basic in your primary, harvest your scoby and starter tea, and then get funky in the secondary.

 

[shelly_belly]

I wouldn't worry about infecting your brewery or equipment as long as you clean and sanitize. Acetobacter is present everywhere.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

I would just be extra careful. The only thing I share among my kombucha brewing and beer brewing are transfer hoses, which are only used after all the fermentation is done, so I'm not terribly concerned about an infection happening there (and they're always sanitized).

If you accidentally get a Brett, Pedio, or Lacto infection in your beer you could wind up with a pleasant surprise.

If you accidentally get an Acetobacter infection in your beer you will wind up with malt vinegar.

 

[brwmistr]

Well today I decided the Kombacha has been in my fermenter long enough and I wanted to start a 1 Gallon (3.8L) batch. I scaled down the 3 Gallon recipe that drgonzo2k2 posted and came up with this 1 Gallon Batch

Batch = 3.8L
5 Black Tea Bags
3 Green Tea Bags
226grams of sugar

I boiled up a 1.5 of water and steeped the tea and sugar mix for 15 minutes. I then poured the tea into my 1 Gallon fermenter and shook it until it foamed up. Since I had 2 liters of Kombucha done already I poured 1 liter of that as a starter into the 1 Gallon batch and topped up with cold water. I don't have a pH tester, other then one of those reference type using drops and a color chart, but the first batch Kombucha has a slight acetic taste (vinegar like on the tongue) but due to the batch quantity and the sugar I used it very sweet still.

Question????
I kept the SCOBY in it's original batch and put it in the fridge as there is still lots of sugar in it. Will it still survive the fridge temps? I don't want to kill it off.

 

[DurtyChemist]

I'm back and getting excited for my first batch. I ordered the Kombucha kit from Northern Brewer with a 10 or 20% off which matched shipping costs. It comes with an auto siphone and a glass fermentor so I'm excited about the new gear. It will create 1 gallon batches and if I'm to do this right I'll be here a lot.

Rereading this thread it appears I'll need to have my SECOND batch of 1 gallon tea prepared when I bottle the first to keep things easy/going. If at some point I don't want to brew or cannot I'll want to save 1-2 cups of fermented tea into a mason jar, create a "hotel" for my SCOBY, and save them in the fridge. Just like yeast it only lasts in the fridge so long before I'll need to give the SCOBY a new food source.

Is the 2 cups "starter tea" from fermented Kombucha storing the bacteria/yeast/fermentation bugs? Is this the same as buying a bottle of GT Unfiltered unflavored and pitching it into fresh tea?

If I want carbonated kombucha would adding fruit to secondary be enough to carbonate to...say...2.4 volumes? Would using table sugar and online calculators be sufficient to hit desired levels?

I had a bottle of GT's pink colored kombucha. It's a sweetness thing. Would adding flavors, like those used for beer, get me the same flavor?

When racking to bottles or secondary does it matter how much oxygen I get? Could I rack to a pitcher then pour it into bottles, cap and be safe? I'm assuming since Acetic Acid is the "flavor" we're after for tartness it wouldn't matter TOO much when bottling if a little more oxygen gets in during bottling.



Lastly, I feel like Kombucha groups on face page SUCK and are just full of beginner brewers without much solid information AND they're filled with posts of the same stuff. I'm sticking to this forum as much as possible.