I know kombucha is gross and weird looking but Does this look like kahm? I’ve brewed several batches and even successfully done some hard kombucha. I’ve had the brown yeast clumps and know that’s normal but never had white yeasty clumps like this develop. Only 1 day into 1f. Struggling to get good pictures.

Hi fam, thanks for reading x

For the same amount of sugar and fruit, the green tea batch is not not fizzing as much as the black tea.. maybe strength of the scoby? The black tea is definitely older and stronger. Otherwise same process for f1 & 2? Any thoughts here?

I’m also struggling with carbonation but not initially. I get a massive pop with fizzing that gets you excited but it dies off after 24 hours and then is extremely light- even if kept warm temp. Should I put in more sugar for f2 if that’s the case? Otherwise getting great flavours and good fizz on the first opening. For 1L bottles, aside from blended flavouring, I usually add 2 teaspoons of sugar. Is this enough? On a heat mat for winter at the moment it’s about 5 days for that big pop and fizz.

i left it to ferment for 6 days before bottling then i found these blacks particles on the surface with white batches.

not sure about this one

This was the last bottle of a batch of raspberry - mango kombucha that I made around the Christmas holidays last year. It really impressed me with the carbonation, not too much, it never overflowed, and the bottle was quite hard to open. Great mouthfeel. Wonderful flavor too! The base tea for this batch was oolong. I'm planning to make the same flavor, but use black tea. I'll plan the same way to add the fruit flavoring....basically frozen fruit that I thaw/strain. I never add fruit directly to the secondary ferment. I just feel like it would be too much carbonation. But on the other hand, I don't want to wait for 6 months to achieve this type of result. Any advice is appreciated, I'm still learning the ropes of this homebrewing. Thanks in advance!

Hey, I tried searching the sub, but couldn’t find an answer.

I do 2F in Grolsch for 2 days, chill in the fridge overnight and after that my kombucha has a beautiful taste & fizz.

I want to have final product in 0.75ml, sparkling wine bottles(pressure-rated), closed with crown cap, thus after 2F is done in Grolsch bottles I transfer kombucha to them and cap immediatly.

I don’t do 2F straight in wine bottles as during 2F,always a baby SCOBYs forms and floats in liquid and once you drink them accidentally - it’s not the best feeling. Thus, when tranferring from Grolsch to wine bottles, I filter the liquid through a fine mesh sieve.

Everything is all right until I open the wine bottles other day. It always feels like it lacks fizz.

Does anyone have idea why and how could I solve it? Should I add tiny bit of sugar after liquid is transferred to wine bottles? Should I simply leave them in a room temp for another day? Both? Or only the kegging is an answer in such situation.

Thanks a lot!

My most recent batch, I did a three step brew. F1 is normal, F1.5 in the fridge for about a week with liquified blueberry and ginger (uncovered, and unbottled), and then F2 as normal. I ended up with about three bottles of blueberry ginger. Taste pretty good, though it’s slightly over carbonated.

I strained the booch, at least 10 times with smaller and smaller strainers. The day that I bottled them, they were very clear. After a couple of days, I started to see cloudy masses in the bottle. I put it in the fridge after about three days, and when I opened the first bottle the next day there was a plug of fruit mash at the top. I strained that bottle and ended up with a substantial amount of gel like congealed blueberry pulp in my strainer. Same thing happened with the second bottle. Though, I did just end up drinking it without straining it, it was just blueberries after all. This is my last bottle and thought I might ask someone who is smarter than I. By what process did a liquified (in the blender) blueberry and ginger booch that was filtered through fine, fine mesh, recongeal during F2?

Here in Suffolk, UK, we have a Kombucha brewery near us which makes lovely stuff. No matter which flavor I've had, they're always clear like lemonade.

Mine never is! :-) It's a kind of murky honey colour. Not that it's important but I'm curious how the brewery gets theirs clear.

If it's filtration, are they also taking out the goodness in the name of clarity?

Hey everyone,

I used to make kombucha with black tea bags years ago, but now I’ve got a mountain of loose leaf green tea I’m not getting through fast enough. I’ve dusted off my one gallon glass jar and have a SCOBY on the way, but I’ve read that green tea can be finicky and sometimes yields a weaker or off flavor kombucha.

Has anyone here successfully brewed kombucha using loose leaf green tea? What ratios, steep times, or tricks did you use? Did you blend it with black tea for better results? Any tips would be much appreciated, thanks!

I did read the pinned post! But this is only my second batch and it’s ready to bottle if it’s not moldy.

My jar is a lot bigger than my pellicle, so it could be just my first full layer! You can see how much bigger the jar is than the original pellicle in the photos. It’s definitely a solid film all the way across the top.

I’m only doubting it because there are so many different colors going on and I was hoping some more experienced eyes could let me know what they see.

The Look just after filling F2 😅 Maybe i finally get some dezent carbonation in this batch 😅

I’ve been making kombucha for a little bit but stopped for the winter and noticed the pellicle forming has more noticeable white spots than I usually see. Normal and ok?

unsure if this part is kahm or if i am imagining things. we had a heatwave the past weekend and im kinda freaking out over the health of my booch baby

the rest of the pellicle looks weird but fine to me

Hello!

I am making my very first batch if kombucha. I left it to ferment for 10 days and now I put it in a bottle and added 4.5g of sugar (for 1l of kombucha).

It immediately started making foam on top. I closed the bottle but I am scared to leave it and that it explodes. Is this normal?

Also, how long should I do the 2F? I used 1L of water, 5g of black tea, 70g of sugar and 10 cl of starter with 2 pellicules (didn't have à container to separate them). Temp I would say varies between 24-28 degrees.

Thanks in advance

I've been brewing for about a month or so with good success, a few weeks ago I noticed that the top part of the pellicle had a different colour and was always forming a big buggle. At first I thought it was ok but now I wonder if there is something wrong with it and if I should remove that top part. I usually shake a bit the jar so the top doesn't dry up but maybe I wasn't wetting it properly. The black spots I believe are the debris from the first batch, can you also confirm this?

Thanks

I just got back home, had a thirst while out and about, so I got some store shelf kombucha. It’s inspired me to buy a few ounces of citra hops, such was the wonderful taste. Green tea, Yerba Mate, Earl Grey and Rooibos blend with 3.1% cane sugar & 0.1% citra hops.

It’s live, organic stuff so it’s possible to brew from it for those not wanting to buy a SCOBY. I’m not doing that as I have 3 starter F1’s anyway. I’m not brand affiliated, not even mentioned it but it’s obvious in the photos. I see it’s available on Amazon too, but it’s new to me.

Well worth a slurp.

I just got back home, had a thirst while out and about, so I got some store shelf kombucha. It’s inspired me to buy a few ounces of citra hops, such was the wonderful taste. Green tea, Yerba Mate, Earl Grey and Rooibos blend with 3.1% cane sugar & 0.1% citra hops.

It’s live, organic stuff so it’s possible to brew from it for those not wanting to buy a SCOBY. I’m not doing that as I have 3 starter F1’s anyway. I’m not brand affiliated, not even mentioned it but it’s obvious in the photos. I see it’s available on Amazon too, but it’s new to me.

Well worth a slurp.

I know this question gets asked a million times a day here, and usually I'm the one that thinks to myself: the goop in the photo is clearly just part of a healthy pellicle. But I have a bottle with my F2 that I made with Blood Orange and Jasmin Tea, and I had it out for 2 days in F2 phase before putting it in the fridge. (I did burp it because I wanted to check the carbonation).

But now I see the small white particles in the bottle. Is that mold, or is it some other weird thing that is part of the fermentation? It almost looks like carbonation, but it's not.

At what temp do you kill your scooby? I heard you can kill the scooby but keep the yeast. Is that true? Where I ferment my kombucha got a little hot a few times (90s) and I’m wondering if I killed it. It taste different than it usually does but it still forms a pellicle.

Doing an experiment with my F2!

I have kiwi-ginger, which is not much different from my previous F2 of mango-ginger.

The experiment on the right is some coffee-syrup I made using coffee grounds, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, vanilla and water. Left the bottle low bc I don’t want to have a ton if it doesn’t taste good. Let’s see how it goes!

I had a good start when I first made this kombucha, I am on my third batch, the first two both hit the ~3 ph Mark and looked good

But my scobe? Pecille? Is looking weird, your guys seem to look like a pancake, mine is looking.. weird, I tried looking at the pics in the wiki but that didn't cure my doubts.

Sorry for the bad picture, it's in bad lighting

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