Noobie questions

[Kpotta]

Hi all! I'm Kelsey and new to the forum. This is my first time making booch and after reading tons of threads I have a question. My scoby is sunken which I know is normal and there's a "feathery" growth on it and there is no new scoby growing on top so I put it into a warmer location. I'll take a pic of this feathery growth in a sec. It didn't really look like any of the other scoby pics I've seen. I've been brewing this batch for three days. If I don't see scoby growth on top in the next couple days should I be worried? Is it normal for the sunken scoby to grow? After all I've read I thought new growth was only to take place on top of the liquid. It smells right by the way.

Also, to make the tea I used three extra large tea bags because they are big and one cup of sugar. I used something called "pH minus" safe for fish to lower the pH. I had vinegar but I didn't know I could use it at the time. (I'll let you know if I'm hospitalized)

Thanks in advance for any response

Kelsey

 

[Kpotta]

 

[skadalajara]

I'm looking at it on a phone, but that doesn't look worrisome to me.
I am curious, though, what this pH Minus is.

 

[skadalajara]

Ok, I just googled it. It's battery acid. Free sulfur ions tend to be bad for microbes.
In your shoes, I'd toss it and start a new batch.

 

[Kpotta]

Can I use the scoby still? Thanks for telling me it's battery acid. You would think battery acid would really hurt fish. There is something wrong with the brew I think for sure because there's no new scoby forming and its day five. Thank you for your reply.

 

[Kpotta]

Tossed the last batch and made a new batch. Scoby floated this time. It's one gallon. Used 3.75 tbs of vinegar. I hope this goes well. At least I'm not brewing battery acid.

 

[Adam_Trainor101]

What made you want to use Ph minus? Had you seen it in a recipe somewhere? On the new batch you started did you use the same scoby? It'd be good to know for those who might end up in your shoes

 

[Kpotta]

Hi, I used pH minus because I couldn't find unflavored kombucha for starter and I read it helps lower pH to inhibit bad things growing. It didn't occur to me I could have used vinegar till after. Yes, I used to same scoby because it still looked alive. There's something going on on top of my new batch but I'm not sure if it scoby growth but I imagine it is. Got pH test strips in the mail last night and the pH was 6 I'll recheck again today. I made this new batch Monday late at night and now its Thursday afternoon so I guess it hasn't been brewing that long.

 

[Kpotta]

5 days and no new scoby forming that I can tell. It smells like kombucha tho. PH test strips read 6.

Started another batch with green tea.

 

[Kpotta]

[/URL][/IMG]

Does this look right? This is day six.

 

[skadalajara]

Can only view one of the pics for some reason, but it looks like a pellicle is forming. As long as there's no blue, green, hair, fur, fuzz or bugs it should be fine.
Does it taste like kombucha or is it still sweet?
Also, what's the temperature like where it's brewing? I suspect it may be too cool.

 

[Kpotta]

I haven't tasted it yet. I will in a sec. I think the temperature is in the seventies.

 

[Adam_Trainor101]

I haven't tasted it yet. I will in a sec. I think the temperature is in the seventies.

I always stick a straw in and taste mine 4-5 days in. Has the PH lowered yet?

 

[Kpotta]

PH hasn't lowered and I tasted it, it tastes like sweet tea.

 

[skadalajara]

If we connect the dots, we seem to have a dead (or weak) SCOBY. Did this come from the same container as the pH Minus one? If so, there may have been enough residual sulfur to inhibit production of a new colony.
Best bet now may be to dump it, go buy a couple bottles of unflavored, unpasteurized kt from your local store and use those as your starter tea.
You shouldn't need to add anything to drop the pH that way.
It took me many failed batches to finally get mine going right, so don't get discouraged.

 

[Kpotta]

There is no unflavored kombucha in my area. Even traveled thirty miles and I couldn't find any.

 

[Kpotta]

Yes, it came from the same container as the pH minus.

 

[skadalajara]

Yes, it came from the same container as the pH minus.

That's what I was afraid of.
Whereabouts are you located? There may be someone nearby who could give/sell/trade you a SCOBY.

 

[Kpotta]

I'm from near Indianapolis. I have another scoby in another batch that's been brewing since Thursday (five days) and nothings growing on top. The temp is 75 degrees.

 

[skadalajara]

Lack of a pellicle is not definitive. How's the 2nd batch taste after the 5 days? And did you do anything to it when you started it?
Also, what kind of tea are you using? And where do you source your water?

 

[Kpotta]

Okay, first batch was developing a scoby but our little friend mold also developed so I threw everything, even the scoby, out. I'm 100% sure it was mold. It was hairy.

Second batch is 1/2 gallon. I added 1/2 cup sugar, 4 green tea bags were used in steeping for like six minutes, added two table spoons of distilled white vinegar. When everything cooled i added the scoby of course. It's day six and I think a scoby is forming. I want to taste it and test the ph but I don't want to disturb the growth of scoby. The original scoby was so tiny I'd rather grow a nice big one and have to throw out the first batch. No mold on this one though that I can see.

 

[Kpotta]

Oh, water quality. It easily could be an issue because I used water out of the tap. I declorinated it before introducing the scoby however. I haven't tested the tap water pH in a while but it used to be pretty alkaline which leads me to believe I should have either used more vinegar or simply purchased bottled spring water. I found a thread on here which says to use one table spoon vinegar per litre of tea but that however can't be accurate for everyone unless this is the rule of thumb for (7) neutral pH because everyone's water is different and varies in pH.

 

[skadalajara]

If your municipal water utility has switched to chloramine instead of ionic chlorine, you need to chemically dechlorinate it. Boiling no longer does the trick.

 

[Kpotta]

That's exactly what I did.

 

[Kpotta]

Sorry should have said that dechlorinator is exactly how I declorinated. I'm aware boiling or letting it sit out doesn't work.

 

[Kpotta]

Update! Second batch seems to be done! I did it! I tasted it and tested the pH and there's even a new scoby. I don't know why it was different from the first batch but just glad it worked!

 

[skadalajara]

Excellent!

 

[Kpotta]

So, I had to go out of town for a few days and wasn't able to let the bottles complete the second ferment/carbonating process and put them in the fridge. Will they resume once I take them out?

 

[skadalajara]

If there's a viable culture, a hospitable environment and something to eat, they will pretty much always resume fermentation.
Refrigeration won't kill most microbes, so you should be good.

 

[Kpotta]

Thank you my next batch it brewing while I'm away. I can wait to see if there is new growth when I get back. This is fun!