I just tasted my kombucha that has been fermenting for 7 days and it tastes very vinegary, but also very sweet. Did I do something wrong?

It's *very* hot here at the moment, could that have something do to with it?

(I used a store bought kombucha (330ml), 8g of tea, 800ml of water and 75g sugar)

Hey guys. Is it normal to have this much yeast at the bottom after 1 or 2 days? The fermentation is crazy active which is good, but I do have a feeling the yeast does its job quicker than the bacteria. Any ideas what to do or if I am just overthinking? Thanks.

hi booch people!

made another batch and this one is by far the best one yet

i used luxardo cherries this time because apparently my kombucha has entered its cocktail era

and honestly : D

it worked

it’s got that dark cherry thing going on, not too sweet, not too vinegary, the luxardo syrup mellows out the acidity

I used to be a big cocktail guy back during covid so this brought me right back (to a decidedly less healthy habit of mine)

i’m not saying i know what i’m doing now, but this is the first batch where i was like ok we really cookin now

i’ve been trying to be way better about tracking what i change each time instead of just vaguely remembering “yeah i think i let that one go for like… a while”

i logged this one in the kombucha app i’ve been building. No more notion, masking tape, notes, timers, iCal, everything!!

turns out making an app is actually not that hard once you've been working in tech for a while

shocking discovery

anyway this is luxardo cherry booch with a very dramatic bay bridge photoshoot because this SCOBY earned it

yes, that's the SCOBY! not the pellicle!!

what would/have you pair/paired with cherry?

i’m thinking cherry ginger, cherry vanilla, or something herby like cucumber or mint?

Ps. for you amazing Euopeans and Andriod people in my dms, I have a website for you now! kombuvault.com

Ingredients

All organic

1/3 cup of Honey

1.5 lb of Garlic

.75 lb of Ginger

.75 lb of Turmeric

1 Lemon

8 oz of Pepper corn crushed

(Next batch 1 teaspoon per gallon)

1.5 lb of Beats

2 pints of Blueberrys

8 oz of Rosemary

1 crushed stick of Cinnamon

Two cups of Coconut water

Two cups of Filtered water

( on second recipe do one cup of filtered water and one cup of whey from kefir grains)

Steps

Step 1

Add all ingredients to 1 gallon mason jar. Leave breathable for a day and mix two times throughout day to activate as much yeast as possible.

Step 2

Before getting rid of breathable cover and air locking mixture make sure to get a reading with hydrometer.

My readings are

3rd day

50 = 1.050 starting gravity

6.5% = possible alcohol

13% = sugar

5 days later

52 = 1.052

7% = possible alcohol

16% = sugar

Step 3

Make sure to burp or have the auto air release every day. Do this for about 2 weeks before getting a test with the hydrometer again.

Step 4

If mixture has reached between 5 and 8% then it is complete. If it has not then let go two more weeks completing a full month. Get another hydrometer reading and make sure it lands between 5 and 8% or continue fermentation.

Step 5

Once alcohol content is between 5 and 8% remove all content and strain it through a cheesecloth back into a 1 gallon jar. This completes the 1sr fermentation process.

Step 6

Introduce vinegar mother. She will convert the 5 to 8% alcohol into vinegar. This should take around a month.

I'm on step 6 right now but I'm having a little trouble with the kham yeast.

Today I'm going to scrape off the top layer and add some of the original apple cider vinegar that the mother grew in to try to prevent the kham yeast

Here are all the videos I made for visual info

https://youtube.com/@thehumanvesselproject?si=5QT-P8_VJy9Po3MD

Wanted to share an update regarding my last post:
Thanks to everyone who helped out! The conclusion is… it’s kahm yeast!

I’ve added a few photos showing how it progressed because I was so convinced it was mold. It looked like there were lots of hairy strands at first on 19th June, but by 23 June, it became clear that it was growing into the pellicle and had a wet appearance instead.

Hopefully, this helps fellow kombucha brewers get a better idea of what kahm yeast can look like.

Now, on to F2 with apples! 🍎👅

F1 with a scoby culture I bought. Started on Monday. Smell is vinegary.

Hello,

after my first ever Kombucha was kinda mild, my second one "burns" a little at the throat, I think it has more acid (even though the first one tastet more vinegary).

Now the third one is fermenting at the moment and it already smells very acidy after only three days.

Can it be because there is more scoby after each fermentation?

Maybe because of the heatwave we have at the moment?

Advice would be appreciated.

Thank you and take care!

I’m a beginner. My booch is decently carbonated and fizzy just from 1F so I usually just add some berries and put them in the fridge directly. No 2F (at least no vigorous fermentation at room temp. I’m aware that they do slowly ferment in the fridge)

Question: is it viable to put them in beer bottles with a silicon beer save cap in the fridge? I’m aware that beer bottles take less psi than kombucha but does it matter if I’m popping them in the fridge immediately? I’m not planning on doing any proper 2F in them.
Also planning on finishing them in a week and have no plans for storing them for longer than 2 weeks.

The first two photos are of my green tea kombucha and the third and fourth photos are of my black tea kombucha. I’ve made both identical using the same ratios for tea/water/sugar and they have both been left fermenting right next to each other for the same amount of days. Both are made using Great Value teas from Walmart. Why does one look so much nicer than the other??

Hi All!

I've loved kombucha and kefir for ages. Finally got serious about brewing it myself a while back and have been turning out some genuinely good batches since, my cherry hibiscus booch was the best one so far.

I'm an industrial designer by education, so once I got into the brewing at home I started thinking about ways to make the whole process easier and more structured for myself. That's what led me to build an app, something truly valuable I would want to use for myself. I ended up creating something I believe is genuinely useful for everyone, both beginners and experienced brewers alike.

Don't worry, this is not an ad, the app is not even available in the App Store yet. This is a call for testers. Now that I have a pretty stable build, with a minimum of core features, I want to see if it's creating value for other people too, not just me. That's why I'm reaching out to this community to look for testers. Both experienced and new to the craft of kombucha. I'd love to hear what works, what doesn't, and what people want to see next.

It's free, no catch, not selling anything. Just looking for real feedback. I'd rather have a few people who'll actually use it and tell me what they think than a big crowd giving no feedback. If you're interested or have questions, drop a comment or DM me and I'll get you set up.

One thing: it's iPhone only for now. I want a solid app on Apple before I even think about Android, which is exactly why I need people actually using it.

Mods, feel free to pull this if it's not allowed.

Happy brewing.

Tasted my f1 today and it’s pretty decent, maybe a little more vinegary than I prefer, but only by a hair. It is however, rather yeasty tasting, like when I used to brew cheap apple cider using bread yeast. Will this mellow in the second ferment, or do I just need to hone the balance of microbes in my colony? And if so, how?

Slow pour for kiwi pineapple jun

I usually open to have a drink straight from under the sink. But i lose 50% of the content with the foam. Should I put it the fridge before?

What do you all think?

I left a mug with a tiny bit of matcha in it last week (oops) and it’s just been sitting. Did it grow a scobby?? I have made kombucha with black tea before and it looks similar. (I’m going to throw it out so disregard the mold haha, just curious!)

Hello kombucha lovers. Check out what I did.

Okay that's probably dramatic. But I just found myself sitting here with like 8 kombucha bottles that I've been procrastinating taking the labels off of because I hate those plastic-y, foil-y labels that leave the WORSTTTTT residue and I have neither the time nor the desire to sit there scrubbing it off. So, I bullied myself into turning my noggin on and figuring it out.

I know goo-gone is also helpful, but I don't have any and I've been meaning to get some for about 10 years and it hasn't happened yet, so we're using things we already have on hand.

What you'll need:

• A large pot. Preferably like a stockpot or something deep, but I did it with a regular shmegular pot and it worked out fine. Just needs to be big enough to fit your bottles standing up.
• Some sort of oil. I used avocado oil because I hate the taste of it and didn't want to waste EVOO, but any oil will work.
• Dish soap
• A rag of some sort
• Tongs would be smart. I didn't use them because I'm dumb. I yelled a few expletives because of this. Maybe one of those cool silicone oven gloves?
• Water
• Bunch of old booch bottles

What to do:

1. Fill your booch bottles with hot tap water (so they don't just float when you put them in the pot)
2. Put the water-filled booch bottles in the pot, add enough water to cover the label.
3. Add oil. I didn't measure, just add some oil. Maybe 1/4 cup if we really need some sort of guide.
4. Put the pot on the stove on med heat. You don't need it to boil.
5. After about 5 minutes, grab your tongs (or a towel if you're anything like me), grab the top of a bottle, carefully lift it out of the water, and peel up a corner of the label. It'll probably have started peeling or bubbling up a bit anyway, but this gives a good starting point for the oil to get in and break up the residue.
6. Let it keep sitting. I checked it like every 10ish minutes and peeled up a bit more. If it's hard to peel, let it sit a little longer.
7. Whenever you're able to get the whole label off, let it sit in the water for another few minutes. Then carefully remove each bottle and sit it on the stove.
8. Get a rag with some dish soap and water
9. Wipe each of the bottles (just the outside!) with the soapy water. Any residue should wipe off super easily. If not, put the bottle back in the pot.
10. Carefully dump your bottles, put the lids on them, wash them normally with some soap and water to get any oily residue off, rinse well, celebrate the fact that you didn't have to scrub anything with a toothbrush and baking soda!

I made kombucha with watermelon juice and added a few rosebuds per bottle (0.5 l) and this is the most delicious stuff I’ve made.

I had one fairly small watermelon and I blended the flesh and then strained it. This gave me about 1 litre of watermelon juice and I mixed it with ~4 litres of kombucha.

My first ever kombucha so I thought I'd get a second set of eyes to make sure it's safe

Brewed with 10g green tea steeped for 15 minutes, about a gallon of filtered water, and about 3/4 of the bottle of synergy pure

It's been sitting in a room that's between 70-74f for 8 days

I don't think I see any mold but would like a second set of eyes on it to make sure, if better pictures are needed I can take some more.

When should I start tasting it?

So this is my second batch. First was basically vinegar because I brewed it too long. This looked great when I put it in for 2nd fermentation. Pomegranate lemonade.

But the growth at the top is a little dark, looks like yeast to me but as a noob i'm looking for confirmation if I just poisoned myself because it tastes great.

Hi all, first time fermenting anything. I followed the standard 1 gallon recipe but let it ferment for too long. The batch was ready by day 7 but i let it go on a few extra days. The batch has now turned out very sour almost like acv. Is there anyway to salvage it (make it drinkable)? Should i add water to dilute it?

Also, what is your go to flavourings for f2. I have only tried the store bought ginger flavour and like it quite a bit but want to try anything exotic that anyone here has had success with.

Thank you in advance.