Hi Johnny! I’m a biologist. Granted, a molecular/biochemist but many of my colleagues are microbiologists so maybe knowledge by diffusion? Lol Bacteria in the SCOBY are also fermentative much like the yeast, but a lot of fermentative processes rely on heavy contribution of yeast. You may be getting mostly fermentation from the bacteria and not the yeast which wouldn’t be as strong. I would guess either A) your SCOBY is not rich in yeast (either lots of death or poor expansion) or B) as someone else mentioned, nutrients. You could consider taking a bit of your SCOBY and spiking it with yeast to see if that forms a better batch. I would recommend the very common yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae if you can find it. This could help to address my point A. To point B, I’d be interested to know what type of water you’re using. A problem we run into a lot with biochemical work is that the solutions we use contain different metals, salts, pH (someone else mentioned acid), etc.. so we need to adjust on a case by case basis. Common microbes like those in SCOBY survive just fine in normal water. You could use filtered water which may not be as aggressively desalted as something like distilled water. Consider your source of water and make sure it isn’t too heavily processed for removing minerals. This, in addition to other nutrients, could explain the better fermentation in the pomegranate juice. I would also suggest testing different sugar concentrations. Everything in the bottle is competing for those nutrients. If you add too little, someone will be more successful and others will start dying. The juice also contains more sugar, so that simplest explanation may be best. It seems most recipes do a 1 part sugar to 8 parts water. Try this and adjust up or down to your tastes. To the pH point, different waters can also have different pH. This may not be an insignificant contributor, so maybe test the pH of your water before you change it with any kind of acids. Slightly acidic to physiological pH is what you should aim for (6.5 - 7.5). Perhaps a small, and stupid, point, but make sure the bottles are tightly sealed. These microbes need to be deprived of oxygen to go into oxygen-poor, or anaerobic, metabolism and oxygen can easily break this. Lastly, make sure your water is sterile. The juice has to be sterilized in the factory, but what can be microbially “dirty.” Which could be introducing species that your probiotics do not like. Again, filtered water may help here. I hope this helps! And if you have any questions I can try to answer! Or I’ll ask my microbiologist colleagues 😂 good luck!
Hey Johnny! I’m fairly new to making kombucha (I brew beer as a hobby), but I think low bottle fermentation could be due to a lack of yeast nutrients. That might explain why the pomegranate version was more fermented than the plain one, thanks to the nutrients in the juice.
Agree with this and further expanding on it: Highly recommend using something like Fermaid-O Nutrient which provides essential nutrients for yeast health, ensuring a robust and complete fermentation. Additionally, you could use the following: Tartaric Acid: Adds acidity to balance flavors and enhance the tartness in meads, wines and certain beer styles. Malic Acid: Another acid used to adjust acidity levels, contributing to a balanced flavor profile. Campden Tablets: fermentation stabilizer that releases sulfur dioxide, preventing oxidation and microbial spoilage, thus extending the shelf life of your brew. Potassium Sorbate: Works alongside campden tablets to inhibit yeast reproduction, preventing refermentation and stabilizing your brew. Something that’s very optional is the use of pectic enzyme powder in the case if you are using whole fruits in your brews.
Hi Johnny, really enjoying the kombucha series. It's unusual to find something with fermenting that I have more experience than you! I've been making kombucha for probably 18 months and I now make 4 litre batches at a time. My batches are 4l water, 8 black or green tea bags (or a mix of the two) and 300g sugar. That typically takes 10-14 days to ferment, but is very dependent on a few things. I'd say freshness of the scoby is the first one (if I've left a scoby in the fridge for a month or two covered in kombucha, the next batch is always a slow one), then the next is ambient temperature. I'm in the UK and my kitchen is often quite cold (never warmer than 20 degrees) and I've known batches to take three weeks for the first fermentation. The next thing I'd say is that you can get a visible sense of how fermentation is going by the formation of the new scoby, but also the 'silty' stuff that sinks to the bottom which builds up as fermentation progresses. You can see this in the bottom of the bottles in the second fermentation, so if you haven't got much of that, the fermentation probably hasn't gone far. The number one way to see how fermentation is progressing is to taste! You can either use a clean spoon to take some off the top, or I've found the best way is to do the main ferment in a 5l Kilner vessel with a tap, so I can just draw off a tiny bit from the tap and taste it. If you leave it indefinitely you'll basically end up with vinegar (acetic acid), so that's the flavour note you're looking for. My strategy is to do a long first ferment until it's tasting pretty sour and not that sweet, so you know most of the sugar has been fermented, then add quite a bit more sugar in the bottling phase, both for carbonation and sweetness. I started making fruit cheongs after seeing your videos and I make big batches now because that's what I use to flavour and carbonate my kombucha. I very rarely make plain kombucha. I add 70-80g of cheong to a 1l bottle and add probably 850ml of Kombucha to that. I suspect that's a lot more sugar than you are adding, which is likely why the carbonation is weak. I don't filter the kombucha before bottling at all. Because I make 4l at a time, I'll leave them out in the kitchen with a tea towel over them, and probably won't even check them for 4 days. I also don't burp them because I assumed removing the pressure will slow carbonation (as will your method of squeezing the bottles, because you aren't generating any pressure in the bottles until the volume has been filled by gas). After three to four days (depending how warm the kitchen is) I'll put a bottle in the fridge and try it when it's cold. If it's nicely carbonated I'll move all the other bottles to the fridge, but if it isn't I'll leave them out, then try another bottle in a couple of days to see where they're at. Final thought - it may just be in my head, but the carbonation always seems best if they've been stored on their side in the fridge for a week or so rather than standing up. No idea if there's any science to this or all in my head though. If you ever want to chat through kombucha I'm happy to help (although I'm strictly a keen amateur!).
My kombucha is really gassy, which I believe comes from my preference for a sourer kombucha (long 1st fermentation 3-4 weeks at 29/30ºC) and I don't filter the kombucha. All the silty and floaty alien stuff in my brew goes in the bottle. If you prefer to have a 100% clear kombucha, just filter the brew after F2 just before drinking. Also, your less active culture might be the result of the fact that it's kind of... young? Like, it's still adjusting to being transported and setting up shop in a new vessel in a new place with new conditions. I brew in a jar like yours (no spigot), but I use the "continuous brew" method where I just pour out what I want to harvest, don't wash out the container, leave the pellicle inside, and simply top it off with more sweet tea straightaway to start a new batch. My gut feeling is that this method has made my culture very concentrated and active :) My evidence is that, even when my raw kombucha is stored in the fridge over a few weeks, more yeasty strands and fermentation byproduct continues to form... in the fridge close to 0ºC! hope you continue to have fun brewing! Kombucha is real fun :)
The coffee filter would remove any large biofilms, which would function as strong seeds but there should absolutely be free floating yeasts that pass through fine.
Speaking of infusing, try infusing some dried fennel you'll be amazed by the sweetness it brings, which also plays a crucial role in enhancing the carbonation process. Fennel is one of the flavors that surprised me in CO2 production during my exploration. I can't guarantee your results, but it's definitely worth trying. It's fascinating!
I used to do home brewing. Home brewers use "carbonation drops" to prime their bottles. Basically it is sugar, but the type of sugar is different. Often they contain glucose, maltose or dextrose, in addition to sucrose (table sugar) which you are using. Maybe give them a go?
Try honey instead of sugar with a green tea kombucha, or Jun, especially if your chef friend was using honey. Your scoby may not be acclimated to can sugar.
Hi Johnny, a fellow kombucha brewer here. I had the same problem with a plain kombucha. It won’t carbonate as much as juice flavoured kombucha. I’m guessing it has to do with type of sugar we are feeding to the yeast. I haven’t tried it, but if you’re open to it, can you try a good ratio of 3:1 sugar and high-fructose corn syrup (but I might try it as well in my next batch)? and we do ratios because we cannot just suddenly change type of sugar we feed to the kombucha, as it shall be introduced gradually. Or add sweet tea in your bottle. Sweet tea ratio should be 7:0.5. To your bottle it shall be 1:1 kombucha and sweet tea.
If you compare the sugar content of the pomegranate juice vs the amount of sugar you added to the plain, I believe there would be quite a big difference which could explain your difference in results. Also on filtering: do that when you want to drink, not before the second ferment!
You can try adding a little molasses with the sugar in your second ferment. It has a lot of nutrients that sugar is missing. (I heard this long ago related to ferments, but I have no idea the source.)
got so nervous for you. made mango water kefir one time and did the 2nd ferment outside in a fliptop like that instead of a screw top. blew up all over my kitchen all the way on the ceiling. I should have been permanently damaged from glass shrapnel but somehow the glass didn't brea. be safe. outthere
Yeast settles down and bacteria floats up over time. Try mixing before bottling. That will also activate microorganisms a bit. You could also try to do second fermentation before bottling with whole fruits or berries. In my experience carbonation is much more vigorous that way, than just with sugar. You could also try to put a few pieces of ginger or juniper berries in the bottles. That helps with carbonation a bit. Also adds a great taste to your kombucha, especially juniper berries.
Try adding a little citric acid to the plain one. Yeast likes a slightly acidic environment. Also a tiny amount of tomato paste might help, believe it or not it gives a very neutral flavor with fruit ferments. You won't taste much of it. (source: i do a lot of distilling and for that you need yeast to be happy too)
After watching so, so many videos about fermentation and pickling, I've started my adventures this week by starting my first batch of makgeolli and also pickling my own cucumbers. Gotta find a use for all those expensive glass containers I keep buying.
Just a note, it will carbonate faster if you don't squeeze the bottle as much. A pressure equilibrium between the "air" and liquid is what keeps a drink carbonated, which means the more head space you leave, the more carbonation must be produced in order to keep enough pressure to keep the carbonation dissolved in the liquid. If you're having a hard time getting it to carbonate, leaving less headspace will help to a degree. When I make kvass, I don't squeeze the bottle (I usually bottle in large 2L plastic bottles) and it carbonates aggressively.
I tried to make kvass twice now. Is it supposed to taste so alcoholic? I did not want to drink it. I used black bread and pumpernickel + dry yeast + raisins + white sugar.
@@kar5ten_234_2 You're probably not tasting alcohol, but yeast. It does somewhat taste like beer, especially if you don't let it get more sour or if you don't make it sweet.
I brew a gallon of black tea kombucha and a half gallon of green tea based (came from the same scoby), and have for a couple years. In my experience making simple sugar works better than adding sugar in my plain kombucha. Unsure why. And my post bottling fermentation I do in a well lit area. Just ideas
Could squeezing the air out of the bottles before closing them affect the carbonation levels? The pomegranate version in the glass bottle carbonated fine, but the one in the plastic bottle didn't, and the main difference between the two are the containers. I could be completely wrong, but my theory is, the air that was in the glass bottle and the air that was displaced in the plastic bottle is the key. When there is air in the bottle, the CO2 that is made by the fermentation process has nowhere to go but "inside" the kombucha, and thus, the drink is carbonated, but if there is no air in the bottle AND the bottle has room to grow, as in your plastic bottles version, the CO2 that is produced during fermentation just fills out the bottle and doesn't make it into the kombucha itself, which results in a weaker carbonated kombucha.
I was gonna comment this. Yes, carbonation happens because CO2 partially dissolves into the liquid under pressure. By squeezing the bottle, you're just delaying carbonation, and risk running out of sugars before the yeast has created enough CO2
With table sugar it ferments slowly - it's "clean". keep it longer at warm temps or use a mixture of water/sugar/champagne yeast to really get it going. fruit-sugars on the other hand mostely have some fungi/bacteria come with it which seems to make a difference. no pro here, just my observation since i mostely use white sugar for accuracy. Tip: try white sugar but first put some lemongrass in the kombucha for a few days to feed it with microbial stuff and of course aroma.
PS. CO2 gets better absorbed by liquids in cold temps. Keep it out to produce CO2 (which is in the headroom of the bottle), store it for multiple days in the fridge to give it time to absorb. repeat if needed. if you store kombucha reaaally long in the fridge (like months, years) it gets extremely complex and fine-pearly-carbonated like bubbly wines.
ive found the screw on lids dont hold as good of a seal as flip top bottles, granted all of my lids for my bottles are mismatched so that likely has a big effect. Depening on the lid and bottle I've found that a metal lid on a glass growler can hold the best seal without risk of explosion
Very little carbonation is probably becus of the yeast not getting enough food. You should try putting fresh fruits on it next time like just plain kombucha with chopped up strawberries
I heard that metal objects, depending on what metal they are made of, can change the pH of food, which is why metal-kombucha contact is avoided. Anyway I wish you luck in getting the best kombucha 🤞
I heard the same too, I believe some steel or stainless steel have an anti bacterial properties that might kill the yeast during the process. However, I’ve been using stainless steel utensils and I have no issues with it, as long as I sanitise with hot water before
The coffee filter and yeast thing, while "sounding correct" kind of goes against all Beer Homebrewing knowledge. You'd typically do that last filtration AFTER carbonation. You'd only do some sort of cold crash drop if you were doing forced carbonation, bottle carb you kind of just accept the sediment.
Hi Johnny! I’m a biologist. Granted, a molecular/biochemist but many of my colleagues are microbiologists so maybe knowledge by diffusion? Lol
Bacteria in the SCOBY are also fermentative much like the yeast, but a lot of fermentative processes rely on heavy contribution of yeast. You may be getting mostly fermentation from the bacteria and not the yeast which wouldn’t be as strong. I would guess either A) your SCOBY is not rich in yeast (either lots of death or poor expansion) or B) as someone else mentioned, nutrients.
You could consider taking a bit of your SCOBY and spiking it with yeast to see if that forms a better batch. I would recommend the very common yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae if you can find it. This could help to address my point A.
To point B, I’d be interested to know what type of water you’re using. A problem we run into a lot with biochemical work is that the solutions we use contain different metals, salts, pH (someone else mentioned acid), etc.. so we need to adjust on a case by case basis. Common microbes like those in SCOBY survive just fine in normal water. You could use filtered water which may not be as aggressively desalted as something like distilled water. Consider your source of water and make sure it isn’t too heavily processed for removing minerals. This, in addition to other nutrients, could explain the better fermentation in the pomegranate juice.
I would also suggest testing different sugar concentrations. Everything in the bottle is competing for those nutrients. If you add too little, someone will be more successful and others will start dying. The juice also contains more sugar, so that simplest explanation may be best. It seems most recipes do a 1 part sugar to 8 parts water. Try this and adjust up or down to your tastes.
To the pH point, different waters can also have different pH. This may not be an insignificant contributor, so maybe test the pH of your water before you change it with any kind of acids. Slightly acidic to physiological pH is what you should aim for (6.5 - 7.5).
Perhaps a small, and stupid, point, but make sure the bottles are tightly sealed. These microbes need to be deprived of oxygen to go into oxygen-poor, or anaerobic, metabolism and oxygen can easily break this.
Lastly, make sure your water is sterile. The juice has to be sterilized in the factory, but what can be microbially “dirty.” Which could be introducing species that your probiotics do not like. Again, filtered water may help here.
I hope this helps! And if you have any questions I can try to answer! Or I’ll ask my microbiologist colleagues 😂 good luck!
Hey Johnny! I’m fairly new to making kombucha (I brew beer as a hobby), but I think low bottle fermentation could be due to a lack of yeast nutrients. That might explain why the pomegranate version was more fermented than the plain one, thanks to the nutrients in the juice.
Agree with this and further expanding on it:
Highly recommend using something like Fermaid-O Nutrient which provides essential nutrients for yeast health, ensuring a robust and complete fermentation.
Additionally, you could use the following:
Tartaric Acid: Adds acidity to balance flavors and enhance the tartness in meads, wines and certain beer styles.
Malic Acid: Another acid used to adjust acidity levels, contributing to a balanced flavor profile.
Campden Tablets: fermentation stabilizer that releases sulfur dioxide, preventing oxidation and microbial spoilage, thus extending the shelf life of your brew.
Potassium Sorbate: Works alongside campden tablets to inhibit yeast reproduction, preventing refermentation and stabilizing your brew.
Something that’s very optional is the use of pectic enzyme powder in the case if you are using whole fruits in your brews.
Hi Johnny, really enjoying the kombucha series. It's unusual to find something with fermenting that I have more experience than you! I've been making kombucha for probably 18 months and I now make 4 litre batches at a time. My batches are 4l water, 8 black or green tea bags (or a mix of the two) and 300g sugar. That typically takes 10-14 days to ferment, but is very dependent on a few things. I'd say freshness of the scoby is the first one (if I've left a scoby in the fridge for a month or two covered in kombucha, the next batch is always a slow one), then the next is ambient temperature. I'm in the UK and my kitchen is often quite cold (never warmer than 20 degrees) and I've known batches to take three weeks for the first fermentation.
The next thing I'd say is that you can get a visible sense of how fermentation is going by the formation of the new scoby, but also the 'silty' stuff that sinks to the bottom which builds up as fermentation progresses. You can see this in the bottom of the bottles in the second fermentation, so if you haven't got much of that, the fermentation probably hasn't gone far. The number one way to see how fermentation is progressing is to taste! You can either use a clean spoon to take some off the top, or I've found the best way is to do the main ferment in a 5l Kilner vessel with a tap, so I can just draw off a tiny bit from the tap and taste it. If you leave it indefinitely you'll basically end up with vinegar (acetic acid), so that's the flavour note you're looking for. My strategy is to do a long first ferment until it's tasting pretty sour and not that sweet, so you know most of the sugar has been fermented, then add quite a bit more sugar in the bottling phase, both for carbonation and sweetness.
I started making fruit cheongs after seeing your videos and I make big batches now because that's what I use to flavour and carbonate my kombucha. I very rarely make plain kombucha. I add 70-80g of cheong to a 1l bottle and add probably 850ml of Kombucha to that. I suspect that's a lot more sugar than you are adding, which is likely why the carbonation is weak. I don't filter the kombucha before bottling at all.
Because I make 4l at a time, I'll leave them out in the kitchen with a tea towel over them, and probably won't even check them for 4 days. I also don't burp them because I assumed removing the pressure will slow carbonation (as will your method of squeezing the bottles, because you aren't generating any pressure in the bottles until the volume has been filled by gas). After three to four days (depending how warm the kitchen is) I'll put a bottle in the fridge and try it when it's cold. If it's nicely carbonated I'll move all the other bottles to the fridge, but if it isn't I'll leave them out, then try another bottle in a couple of days to see where they're at.
Final thought - it may just be in my head, but the carbonation always seems best if they've been stored on their side in the fridge for a week or so rather than standing up. No idea if there's any science to this or all in my head though. If you ever want to chat through kombucha I'm happy to help (although I'm strictly a keen amateur!).
Gooey answering you when you talk to her is the cutest thing Ever! love her.
My kombucha is really gassy, which I believe comes from my preference for a sourer kombucha (long 1st fermentation 3-4 weeks at 29/30ºC) and I don't filter the kombucha. All the silty and floaty alien stuff in my brew goes in the bottle. If you prefer to have a 100% clear kombucha, just filter the brew after F2 just before drinking.
Also, your less active culture might be the result of the fact that it's kind of... young? Like, it's still adjusting to being transported and setting up shop in a new vessel in a new place with new conditions. I brew in a jar like yours (no spigot), but I use the "continuous brew" method where I just pour out what I want to harvest, don't wash out the container, leave the pellicle inside, and simply top it off with more sweet tea straightaway to start a new batch. My gut feeling is that this method has made my culture very concentrated and active :) My evidence is that, even when my raw kombucha is stored in the fridge over a few weeks, more yeasty strands and fermentation byproduct continues to form... in the fridge close to 0ºC!
hope you continue to have fun brewing! Kombucha is real fun :)
I have not brewed kombucha in while but also had problems with carbonation. Mixing whole batch well before pouring it into bottles helped a lot.
The coffee filter would remove any large biofilms, which would function as strong seeds but there should absolutely be free floating yeasts that pass through fine.
Speaking of infusing, try infusing some dried fennel you'll be amazed by the sweetness it brings, which also plays a crucial role in enhancing the carbonation process. Fennel is one of the flavors that surprised me in CO2 production during my exploration. I can't guarantee your results, but it's definitely worth trying. It's fascinating!
I used to do home brewing. Home brewers use "carbonation drops" to prime their bottles. Basically it is sugar, but the type of sugar is different. Often they contain glucose, maltose or dextrose, in addition to sucrose (table sugar) which you are using. Maybe give them a go?
Try honey instead of sugar with a green tea kombucha, or Jun, especially if your chef friend was using honey. Your scoby may not be acclimated to can sugar.
safer in case of the bottles explode, but worse for your health due to microplastic
Hi Johnny, a fellow kombucha brewer here.
I had the same problem with a plain kombucha. It won’t carbonate as much as juice flavoured kombucha. I’m guessing it has to do with type of sugar we are feeding to the yeast. I haven’t tried it, but if you’re open to it, can you try a good ratio of 3:1 sugar and high-fructose corn syrup (but I might try it as well in my next batch)? and we do ratios because we cannot just suddenly change type of sugar we feed to the kombucha, as it shall be introduced gradually.
Or add sweet tea in your bottle. Sweet tea ratio should be 7:0.5. To your bottle it shall be 1:1 kombucha and sweet tea.
Oh my god, I just remembered. Maybe can add some raisins to the bottle too! LMK how it turns out 🎉
If you compare the sugar content of the pomegranate juice vs the amount of sugar you added to the plain, I believe there would be quite a big difference which could explain your difference in results. Also on filtering: do that when you want to drink, not before the second ferment!
You can try adding a little molasses with the sugar in your second ferment. It has a lot of nutrients that sugar is missing. (I heard this long ago related to ferments, but I have no idea the source.)
got so nervous for you. made mango water kefir one time and did the 2nd ferment outside in a fliptop like that instead of a screw top. blew up all over my kitchen all the way on the ceiling. I should have been permanently damaged from glass shrapnel but somehow the glass didn't brea. be safe. outthere
Yeast settles down and bacteria floats up over time. Try mixing before bottling. That will also activate microorganisms a bit.
You could also try to do second fermentation before bottling with whole fruits or berries. In my experience carbonation is much more vigorous that way, than just with sugar.
You could also try to put a few pieces of ginger or juniper berries in the bottles. That helps with carbonation a bit. Also adds a great taste to your kombucha, especially juniper berries.
Try adding a little citric acid to the plain one. Yeast likes a slightly acidic environment. Also a tiny amount of tomato paste might help, believe it or not it gives a very neutral flavor with fruit ferments. You won't taste much of it. (source: i do a lot of distilling and for that you need yeast to be happy too)
After watching so, so many videos about fermentation and pickling, I've started my adventures this week by starting my first batch of makgeolli and also pickling my own cucumbers. Gotta find a use for all those expensive glass containers I keep buying.
carbonation was always my issue with making kombucha, though living in Scotland temperature is a possible issue for me
Just a note, it will carbonate faster if you don't squeeze the bottle as much. A pressure equilibrium between the "air" and liquid is what keeps a drink carbonated, which means the more head space you leave, the more carbonation must be produced in order to keep enough pressure to keep the carbonation dissolved in the liquid. If you're having a hard time getting it to carbonate, leaving less headspace will help to a degree. When I make kvass, I don't squeeze the bottle (I usually bottle in large 2L plastic bottles) and it carbonates aggressively.
I tried to make kvass twice now. Is it supposed to taste so alcoholic? I did not want to drink it. I used black bread and pumpernickel + dry yeast + raisins + white sugar.
@@kar5ten_234_2 You're probably not tasting alcohol, but yeast. It does somewhat taste like beer, especially if you don't let it get more sour or if you don't make it sweet.
I brew a gallon of black tea kombucha and a half gallon of green tea based (came from the same scoby), and have for a couple years. In my experience making simple sugar works better than adding sugar in my plain kombucha. Unsure why. And my post bottling fermentation I do in a well lit area. Just ideas
Could squeezing the air out of the bottles before closing them affect the carbonation levels? The pomegranate version in the glass bottle carbonated fine, but the one in the plastic bottle didn't, and the main difference between the two are the containers.
I could be completely wrong, but my theory is, the air that was in the glass bottle and the air that was displaced in the plastic bottle is the key.
When there is air in the bottle, the CO2 that is made by the fermentation process has nowhere to go but "inside" the kombucha, and thus, the drink is carbonated, but if there is no air in the bottle AND the bottle has room to grow, as in your plastic bottles version, the CO2 that is produced during fermentation just fills out the bottle and doesn't make it into the kombucha itself, which results in a weaker carbonated kombucha.
I was gonna comment this. Yes, carbonation happens because CO2 partially dissolves into the liquid under pressure. By squeezing the bottle, you're just delaying carbonation, and risk running out of sugars before the yeast has created enough CO2
With table sugar it ferments slowly - it's "clean". keep it longer at warm temps or use a mixture of water/sugar/champagne yeast to really get it going.
fruit-sugars on the other hand mostely have some fungi/bacteria come with it which seems to make a difference.
no pro here, just my observation since i mostely use white sugar for accuracy.
Tip: try white sugar but first put some lemongrass in the kombucha for a few days to feed it with microbial stuff and of course aroma.
PS. CO2 gets better absorbed by liquids in cold temps. Keep it out to produce CO2 (which is in the headroom of the bottle), store it for multiple days in the fridge to give it time to absorb. repeat if needed. if you store kombucha reaaally long in the fridge (like months, years) it gets extremely complex and fine-pearly-carbonated like bubbly wines.
ive found the screw on lids dont hold as good of a seal as flip top bottles, granted all of my lids for my bottles are mismatched so that likely has a big effect. Depening on the lid and bottle I've found that a metal lid on a glass growler can hold the best seal without risk of explosion
I don't strain mine. Straining it slows down the carbonation. You can do it when you open it.
Very little carbonation is probably becus of the yeast not getting enough food. You should try putting fresh fruits on it next time like just plain kombucha with chopped up strawberries
I heard that metal objects, depending on what metal they are made of, can change the pH of food, which is why metal-kombucha contact is avoided. Anyway I wish you luck in getting the best kombucha 🤞
I've heard stainless steel is ok though, because it's non reactive.
I heard the same too, I believe some steel or stainless steel have an anti bacterial properties that might kill the yeast during the process.
However, I’ve been using stainless steel utensils and I have no issues with it, as long as I sanitise with hot water before
what an amazing store, I know I could get lost in there for hours and spend way too much
you could always try force carbonating to get a specific amount you'd want.
I just force carbonate, way more consistent and reliable.
I would love a full Gooey video! 😻
I think you need to use regular tea, instead of green tea. The scoby loves tannins. It's not a jun scoby.
Thanks for making awesome videos!
So have you moved to Seoul completely?
The coffee filter and yeast thing, while "sounding correct" kind of goes against all Beer Homebrewing knowledge. You'd typically do that last filtration AFTER carbonation. You'd only do some sort of cold crash drop if you were doing forced carbonation, bottle carb you kind of just accept the sediment.
more vlogs more vlogs
Wsp, nice content
yeast mate