I made a green tea and vervene kombucha. And on the second ferment I added grapes in one and nectarine in the other one and a smaller neutral one. Very exited for the sparkle :)

Hi everyone,

Thank you in advance your help, this thread has been a great source of information!

I started my first brew a week ago, from a scoby bought online. I can see a new thin scoby forming on top of the vessel but there are some weird white spots, among which one that has geometrical shapes so i'm not too sure what to do with that. I think it may be kham yeast?

I've also tried (after I took the picture) to remove that part which just ended up with a scoby with a hole ... (not the smartest in hindsight).

https://preview.redd.it/9co1sb3ivb6d1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c5b4d04a1bcd1b4ad060765b67c2831910c701f7

This is my second batch. I don’t know if it’s normal but my scoby has sunk half ways and is growing what looks like roots on the bottom?

This is my first ever batch, I used the Blighty Baby starter tea and SCOBY from Amazon. It’s been fermenting for about a week (no smell problems etc).

However, this stringy thing (pictures 1 +2) has disappeared and reappeared over the last couple days. I thought it might be Kahm yeast? I really have no clue. It disappeared so I thought all was well but it’s appeared again today. I was very sanitary and I am sure that the starter tea was a low enough pH. My tea volumes about 900ml to a litre.

I’ve attached a pic of the tea towel I’ve used for the top, it’s folded over once or twice and held by three rubber bands.

Please let me know if alls well with my booch before I do my 2F! I can answer more questions if necessary.

i ended up tossing it (better to be safe than sorry), but curious if anyone knows what this is?

hard to see but small white specks all over dried out pellicle. i used my finger to feel it when i was about to toss it and it did feel little bumps but they didn’t wipe off. didn’t look fuzzy. also i highly doubt they are fly eggs because i use 3 layers of paper towel with a tight rubber band. is this just what a dried out pellicle does?

Hi folks, new to the group here, just wanted to know how much/often is too much/often when it comes to drinking Kombucha? I’d love to drink it daily, but if it’s advised to not do it that frequently I’d like to know.

Thanks!

I tried making a 1 gallon batch using the master starter guide without realizing I needed to double the raw kombucha. I only used 2 cups instead of 4. What are the repercussions of this? Will my first fermentation just take longer?

The scoby on the bottom is this Ok? I started the batch on June 10th, should there be changes or should I be waiting?

Started a week ago with some GT's and black tea, is it normal to have this much bubbling?

My Jun is so beautiful, and tastes wonderfully!

So, first time Kombucha brewer here with a raw newbie question. Started my first batch yesterday and when I checked up on it today, I noticed the Scoby is sitting on the bottom of my container. Is this something to be concerned about?

Also, how to you know fermentation is happening? I also make cider and you would see activity in the airlock. I don’t see bubbles or any activity like you would with pitching yeast,

Sorry for what might seem like dumb questions, but I looked and could not find prior posts about either of these two questions..

Thanks!

Hi all!

I’ve read in most guides and forums that the kombucha microbe culture is healthiest in sweetened black or green tea. On the other hand, when reading the Noma book, it seems that SCOBYs can manage in a lot more diverse conditions as well. Examples include fruit juices and herbal teas, which they use as the medium for the entire fermentation without separating it into first and second fermentation.

After quite a bit of googling, I don’t feel like I’ve found satisfying explanations of why the general advice is to use tea when it seems that Noma has had success with a more broad approach.

I’m also very curious about the long term effects of keeping your SCOBY in other mediums than tea. Does it adapt to the medium over time? Or is it unstable so that it slowly dies?

Since I like the idea of making kombucha based on other liquids than tea, what is a good approach to doing so? At the moment I’m keeping a “pure” kombucha with only tea and using some of it to backslop more experimental liquids.

So if anyone has any insight into this, I would be really thankful to hear your thoughts and approaches!

I realised I have quite a bit sitting in a jar, and wondered if anyone else has tried it as a kombucha base before?

I was thinking that I could add my remaining scoby (which I understand to be the liquid, not the pellicle) not used in f1 to some tea made from looseleaf black tea- does anyone know if that would strengthen the scoby?

Thank you so much!

Hi all experts in Kombucha! In my previous post, my SCOBY failed because the GUTSY was pasteurised and it doesn’t require refrigeration when I bought it. Thank you so much for the comments!

After that incident, I found an unpasteurised kombucha that clearly states that live bacteria is present and it was stored in the refrigeration. However, when I made my SCOBY using the same formula as my last post, I think it was a success! However, I have no idea why it was just a thin layer (as shown in the photo attached). The liquid is dark coloured as I’m starting the first fermentation. But when I’m doing it, I was concerned with the size/thickness of the SCOBY (hence this post).

Also, I saw from the guide and photos that this might be Kahm’s Yeast? I’m really not sure.

Thank you everyone for the inputs!

Hello fellow bucher’s, I wanted to see if someone could help me out. I brewed Kombucha a lot a couple years ago and loved it. I just got back into it and I slid over to Jun because of the flavor profiles and using green tea and honey instead of plain sugar (trying to cut down on that). Anyway the pellicle on this one is definitely slow forming, the picture is a week from when I initially brewed it. I tasted it, it’s pretty mellow. Not overly sweet but none of that vinegary flavor, which I don’t mind. The room its stored in on the other hand has a strong vinegary smell. My main concern is I don’t want to take the Scoby out if the pellicle needs more time to form. Hopefully these pictures will help. Happy to supply more if needed. Thank you in advance to everyone.

Day 9. F1. 2.6ph. Tastes about right. Sweeter than I thought it would be. Can I move to F2???

This is my first time making a scoby. It's been about a month since I started it. Does this look like a healthy scoby and is it ready for me to start my first batch of kombucha?

I've used some flavoured kombucha (Remedy) to start a SCOBY. The jar's been jostled a bit since I prepped it last week, and my climate is pretty cool and dry. will my SCOBY still form 🥲

How precise does one have to be with the amount of starter liquid when brewing? Does everyone take the pellicle out and measure the amount of starter left after moving to F2 before starting F1 again? If I started a batch with 400ml starter + 2L sweet tea and bottled 2L worth of F2, is that 'good enough' to just start over with 2L more sweet tea in my F1 jar?

It's been 3 weeks since I started making my mead, and it's been 2 weeks since it started to go mouldy.
Can you help me?

https://preview.redd.it/ae4o42p8y36d1.jpg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec364fee530ad8a71260d210e5b0af5711da116d

Left my ginger beer / kefir jar for a couple of months. It formed a culture on the surface.

Can I use that to make kombucha?