Krausen on Konbucha?

[Silver_Is_Money]

I'm making my very first batch, and I'm 5 days in. 5 days back I added a scoby and some starter Kombucha to half a gallon of tea and sugar water. The scoby sank, and now I'm seeing what I (as a beer brewer) would have to describe as a brown foamy Krausen forming on the top surface.

Is this normal?

 

[Yooper]

I'm making my very first batch, and I'm 5 days in. 5 days back I added a scoby and some starter Kombucha to half a gallon of tea and sugar water. The scoby sank, and now I'm seeing what I (as a beer brewer) would have to describe as a brown foamy Krausen forming on the top surface.

Is this normal?

It isn't really "normal" if it's a true Krausen. Normally, you get a replacement mat under the orignal, and if it's brown with brown stringy things hanging from it, that's the yeast. Krausen rises, then falls, but the SCOBY just hangs around at the top, covering the liquid across the top.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

It isn't really "normal" if it's a true Krausen. Normally, you get a replacement mat under the orignal, and if it's brown with brown stringy things hanging from it, that's the yeast. Krausen rises, then falls, but the SCOBY just hangs around at the top, covering the liquid across the top.

So far it smells only like tea with a bit of vinegar in it. Only some brown foam on top, which is getting a big bubble in it, and some white globs forming within this foam also. Somewhat concerned at this juncture.

 

[dmtaylor]

Nice coincidence... looks like Silver and I are going through our first batches together.

I just started my first batch yesterday with a SCOBY from a friend (who got his from a friend, and so on and so on). After 24 hours, mine has no krausen, really, just a few bubbles at the surface, and smells pleasantly vinegary as sensed through the coffee filter on top. I think all is going well. My donated SCOBY is hanging diagonally from the top and has lots of brown threads (yeast?) hanging off it. Looking forward to the finished product.

Silver, how is your kombucha covered on top? You need lots of access to oxygen for the acetobacter and other bacteria to work properly. Unlike beer, this is aerobic fermentation, not anaerobic. Like I said, I used a coffee filter with a rubber band over a wide neck one-gallon pickle jar. If you've used an airlock or anything airtight, that could be a problem, until/unless you open up the top and allow air in. Just thinking out loud of what your issue might be.

Cheers and good luck, hope it works out.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

My "krausen" like foam ended up being a new scoby, which was (after one week) only partially formed. I believe the scoby I started with was not fully active. The Kombucha is in bottles now, and a second batch was just started.

Mine is in a wide mouth gallon jug covered with a coffee filter that is held down by a rubber-band.

 

[Yooper]

My "krausen" like foam ended up being a new scoby, which was (after one week) only partially formed. I believe the scoby I started with was not fully active. The Kombucha is in bottles now, and a second batch was just started.

Mine is in a wide mouth gallon jug covered with a coffee filter that is held down by a rubber-band.

It's really important to have enough 'starter tea', about 1 cup per 1/2 gallon of tea, to ensure a low enough pH for the kombucha to not grow mold or undesired bacteria. If you didn't have enough starter, that could be why the SCOBY struggled.

I generally start with a good amount of old kombucha, and that helps start fermentation quickly.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

We got both the starter scoby and starter Kombucha from our local home brew beer and wine supply store. I believe it had the right amounts in it. However, the store proprietor took our tea water and sugar jug into the back room of the store and then emerged again with it, this time with a scoby in it. She said she also added the needed starter Kombucha. No charge for this.

Our second batch has the right amounts in it, along with both scoby's.