Optimal sugar concentration

[Vilius]

What is the optimal sugar concentration if my goal is to grow SCOBY colony as fast as possible?

 

[hottpeper13]

Fermentation takes as long as it takes. The general rule is 1 cup per gal of tea. I do 2 gal batches and use 500 grams, a little more then most. Remember you are feeding the tea with the sugar and skimping is the wrong way to make a less sweet tea. Using a little more then 1 cup / gal and fermenting at a warmer temp , say 80* (no more then 86*) will speed things up for growing and repitching,but makes a very sour product for drinking. I've also experienced very low carbonation in bottles when doing a higher temp ferment. I like 72-75 and 21 days per batch.

 

[Vilius]

For these batches, the goal is to grow new SCOBY "plate" layers as fast as possible and brew taste is irrelevant. I know that SCOBY needs 2,5-3,5 pH for being healthy. Temperature up to 27 C, with higher being better. I used 2g tea/15g sugar/250g water per 500g of raw brew as a feed for 10 day growing cycle (grows above several layers of older "plates"). I cant maintain sugar content daily since with each feeding new "layer" will sink and will be too thin for my use case. Thus I wonder what is the max sugar level can be used without killing SCOBY due to alcohol overproduction.

 

[hottpeper13]

It's my understanding that the higher temps favor microbe production and they consume alcohol, so maybe max out on the temp and see if that shortens it for you. I find that a finished pH of 2.85 is where my taste bros like it to be.