Cathy125

Hi LadyShanny, I've left my 2nd ferment as long as a week with no real fizz... It must be the strength of my actual tea. I'm using a 2 .5 gallon CB that I drain 1 gallon from every 5-7 days and cap off with a gallon of fresh tea. It tastes to me like it's ready and tests out a 2.3 on my meter but, perhaps if I left it a bit longer I will have better results.

I'm new to Kombucha making since summer Started out with 2 ( one gallon ) jars and quickly moved into a 2.5 gallon CB. I've bottled approx. 6 batches to date. So far the only ones I have gotten to fiz in the 2F are ones that I've added Dried or Fresh/Frozen fruit. The times I tried pure fruit juice it did not fizz at all. Is this pretty normal? Perhaps it just takes longer when using fruit juice?

I just wanted to share that I tried my first bottle of my homemade Komucha last night. It had only been 2 days at F2 in the cooler. I choose the Ginger/Lemonade flavor. Oh My - - SOOO much better than store bought- It had a hint of carbonation and interesting to me that I was satisfied w/ just 1/2 of the bottle and put the rest in the fridge for today. I left my other 3 bottles in the cooler and will tranfer them to the fridge tonight giving them an extra day to ferment. One thing I'm not sure about is how to know it's ready... So much depends on the amount of starter tea / temperature . They say to determine when ready is to just start up to tasting it each day after about a week. I let mine go about 2 weeks before I bottled it - To me it tastes wonderful but, still leary if it was long enough for the cup of sugar in my sweet tea batch to be consumed. I know that testing the PH level will help to determine this?? I've got my strips on order but, have not yet received so for my next batch will try to use that as a gauge along with the taste test... So much to learn yet about this process. Can't hardly wait to start to explore the endless combination of flavors..

Hi LadyShanny , I prefer the cloth too but, this is direct from KombuchaKamp / Kombuchamomma.. so that's why I added ok for plastic cover. —————————————STORING YOUR SCOBY HOTEL: You can cover this jar in a couple of different ways: a. With a cloth cover; the liquid will evaporate more quickly and you will need to check it more frequently but a new SCOBY will form to slow the evaporation process. b. With a lid; plastic lids work best. Avoid metal lids or line them with a piece of plastic wrap to avoid metallic condensation from dripping onto your SCOBYs. Whenever you encounter any problems with your brewing process, use a SCOBY from your Hotel. It’s great to have a couple, three of them hanging out, just in case. From time to time, make sure there is enough liquid in the jar and refresh with unflavored Kombucha Tea when it starts to get low. That’s it!! The SCOBYs will just hang out in the pool until you need them!

Hi Jen, For my gallon jug I used the starter tea that came with my Scooby plus 1/2 cup of distilled vinegar as I was not sure it was enough. I've since read various schools of thought on the distilled vinegar but, have concluded it worked just fine especially since it produced a fine Scooby baby. I hear ya on the amount of tea you might have to sacrifice during the first few batches to get your brewer(s) and hotel up and running. I'm patiently waiting for this baby to arrive so I can start my CB system. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0082HB5CU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's taking awhile to get here and I might even order another but, would like to try it out first before committing.. Hi Casey, I've read that Scooby's do not like the fridge at least for extended periods of time and give live very happily at just room temp either in a cloth covered jar ( in which you will need to feed fresh sweet tea on occasion to keep from drying out) or with a plastic lid. F1 = First Fermentation or the actual brew cycle F2 = Second Fermentation done during the bottling with the addition of fruits / teas / herbs . The hotel is just the vessel that you keep all of the extra scoobys in awaiting a good home either in your own vessel should you lose one to mold etc or you want to start another vessel OR you want to give one away ( w/ a fair amount of starter tea) Like I said - Very novice at this so if anyone disagrees with anything I post - Pls. let me know as I am learning this too. Oh - and look at these cool sticker that you can put on your bottles to identify the flavors / dates & would be great for brew vessels to keep track on the date started etc) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FD6ATQ0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hi Jen, I'm a new Kombucha brewer too. I just finished up my first F1 yesterday ( 1 gallon Batch Brew) and saved quite a bit of the starter fluid for my new baby Scooby that developed that is not sitting in it's own hotel waiting for my CB crock to arrive :). Meanwhile, I started up another batchf in my gallon container from my original mother Scooby. I only got five 16 oz bottles from my first batch due to needing starter tea for my new batch and sufficient tea for my hotel but, ok with that for now I put dried ginger and lemon juice in 4 of them and tart cherry juice in the 5th I'm re-cycling my GTS Kombucha bottles. Put them in an empty cooler 'just in case' and gave them each a small burb this morning. There was a slight hiss but, nothing too bit. I might let them go for another 2 days before putting in the fridge until ready to drind to slow down the F2 process I agree , I spent hours reading all of the information on this thread plus KombuchaKamp.com. I started with a Scooby from Amazon that came in a baggie with about a cup of tea. Was so nervous at first but, quickly learning it's a waiting game. Looking forward to sharing our experiences and anyone else on these boards that are still active. My motivation was the cost of the commercial brews and the fact the closest store that sells it is over 20 miles away.