Typical Newb question.

[brewskiez]

I've been making beer and wine for awhile and my wife started buying some kambucha tea and asked if we could make our own. My personality of enjoying stuff like this I jumped right in. I ordered a scoby off amazon a two gallon jar and enough black tea for the rest of the year. I use RO water made the tea per instructions I found on youtube for a two gallon batch size then pitched the scoby and covered with cheese cloth. I then read the directions on the scoby package... uh oh it was for a way smaller batch 1-2 quarts don't remember exactly. At any rate the complete surface of my tea has now got a growing layer of presumably the same inhabitants of the scoby as the appearance is the same. My real question is will the tea mature and make it or did I screw up the batch by using to small of a start scoby. Its been maybe 10-12 days.

 

[dustinstriplin]

RDWHAHB

Kombucha is very forgiving. The microbes in your scoby will take over the kombucha and grow a new scoby that you can use for future batches. The downside to using a scoby that is too small is the amount of time required to finish the batch. You'll have to taste it until it is to your liking, but it will likely take more than a week to finish.

 

[Yooper]

Be on the lookout for mold, a furry spot or more than one. Otherwise, it sounds fine!

 

[Firstscoby]

Hello there, This is my first time making a scoby and I appear to have made it correctly. No mold or fuzz just a nice white top. I've brew the tea for the first fermentation, transferred scoby and tea into another gallon jar... so all seems to be well there. I plan to let it set for about 7 days and then bottle with fruit. (hope that is correct) After removing the scoby from the liquid that she was made in, what do you do with the liquid? I have about 1/3 of a gallon left? Thanks so much for the help. Not sure why I'm so anxious about this event.

 

[Yooper]

Hello there, This is my first time making a scoby and I appear to have made it correctly. No mold or fuzz just a nice white top. I've brew the tea for the first fermentation, transferred scoby and tea into another gallon jar... so all seems to be well there. I plan to let it set for about 7 days and then bottle with fruit. (hope that is correct) After removing the scoby from the liquid that she was made in, what do you do with the liquid? I have about 1/3 of a gallon left? Thanks so much for the help. Not sure why I'm so anxious about this event.

You use that liquid to start a new batch. You'll want about 2 cups or so, and a SCOBY, to start the next batch.

All the rest of the liquid, except for the next batch, gets bottled usually.

 

[Firstscoby]

Thanks Broken Leg Brewery, Ok, that makes sense... But because I needed or thought I needed a super scoby I let it go longer, which gives it a stronger taste. If I bottle this left over liquid
with fruit will it give a milder taste or have I gone past that point? thanks for your help, I appreciate it.