Kombucha with a winey taste

[Boer]

Hi all,

I am a commercial Kombucha brewer that supplies Kombucha nationwide. For the past 3 weeks I have noticed that after the first week of fermentation of my Ceylon tea batches the buch get a winey taste which overpowers all the acidic taste that we know and love of kombucha. Does anyone know what can cause this and why this only happens to one type of tea?

I do Rooibos and Greentea ferments as well. But these tanks are performing much better than my Ceylon (Black) tea. I think it might be because of the high caffeine content of Black tea, but I don't understand why the 'extra' proteins will cause the brew to get the winey taste.

 

[Miraculix]

It's a mixed fermentation, my guess is that one particular yeast was able to show itself more then the other microorganisms. I guess that if you would replace the culture from this tank with one of the others, it will be back to normal.