11/24 I took your advice two years ago and I bought my Scoby from who you suggested and it took three weeks to get to me and was healthy and made really good kombucha BUT now, 11/24 I ordered a new Scobie from them, and it came the next day, which tells me it was probably sitting around someplace local, and it grew a funky white mold right away when I attempted to brew with it. I had noticed that Amazon had some bad reviews of people having the same problem, but I didn’t believe it because I had such a good experience a couple of years ago, but I have been making kombucha for over 30 years and never never had that problem before so obviously they either have a problem in their factory or Amazon has a very serious problem when it reaches them . I will no longer buy a Scoby from Amazon.

Where is your herb video?

I got so many scobes now. My hotel is full. I do not carbonate. I am using fruit flavored teas and am successful. I strain my kombucha from the hotel. Thanks for the vids. Have you tried a bubbler vs coffee filters?

Senpai..... Thank you for Teaching me how to DO Kombucha the Right WAYYY!!!

Kia Ora! We call those pineapple guava, Feijoas in New Zealand 😂❤ delicious and very popular here!!!

Mine was taking too long even with strong 2 cups of starter tea, scoby, and hot weather. The temperature is always 29-30°c. Today is the 18th day of fermenting and I was expecting it to be done by only 10 days! I tasted it earlier and it has a vinegar like taste and kick already but still sweet. Will ferment it for maybe 5 more days. But I love the look of the pellicle at the top, smooth clean and jelly like! Hope my 2nd batch will ferment faster. I was wondering what's taking my kombucha so long to ferment? Maybe because I keep disturb mine whenever I taste it? Does disturbing the kombucha slow it's fermenting time? I insert a straw just like you did when tastinf and I always accidentally giving it a slights stir whenever I do that because the jar is too big and it's hard to get my hands inside with the straw.

Hi, I have started brewing kombucha after following you for last 3 yrs. Recently, I was rather busy n left the kombucha for abt 3 mths. There is a whitish layer formed above the scoby. No smell. Do you think it still can be consumed or recycle the scoby? I used dried stevia leaves as sweetener. I hv taken a photo but unable to attach.

Thanks!

Phew! Thank you for doing this video!!

I fixed the over souring of the continuous brew! I love the idea of the continuous brew. Just pour a little from the pour-spout every day as needed. But it was way too sour. So after I make my initial batch of kombucha I take the Scoby and discard it. (you could save it in a little jar with some kombucha, if you want to keep it ) As I use my kombucha and add more sweet tea, it grows a new Scoby every single day, which I remove daily to slow the fermentation process so that it never gets too sour.

I love your tutorials!! I took some time off from making kombucha and now I have got back into it. I had to come back to your tutorials to remind myself of the process and the endless possibilities for flavouring in the 2nd fermentation. Thank you!

I think the trick for doing unflavored kombucha is bottling it a day or 2 before you normally would, while there's still enough sugar in the base tea. I've had good success with that, without adding any sugar to it.

does the temperature of the juice matter? For example, can I put in my just warmer thanfrozen purée?

I'm new to this I was worried after I received my Scoby in the mail I placed it in refrigerator a week because I was super busy and needed to know if it's good until I found your video ❤"SUBSCRIBED"❤

I LOVE YOU, I was looking for a video like this.

This channel is the best thing EVER

One of mine exploded yesterday. They sat on my dinner table. The shards of glass bottle went down the hallway from my dining room, 10 feet into my living room. I’m so grateful the shards didn’t take my eye out. I’m not even joking. I’m using bottles from store bought Kombucha. I’m gonna check out the bottles you suggested.

This video is the best! My first go at it, I had 1/16 cup left of starter tea and no scoby so i put it with fresh tea and it made its own scoby a day behind the rest and it was literally rinsing out the jar. Fruit flies loved it but having bowlsnof water mixed with vinegar got them right away and now i see none. Im onto 2nd fermentation now 😊😬

I grew mine from a bottle!

Excellent ❤

can you ferment without the added sugar?

I made some but afraid to drink it lol

It is therapuedic making Kombucha! It is a very loving bit of self care.💖

i always get kahm yeast in my brew even when i change the bottles, should i try the environment?

What is your experience with using room temperature ground tea leaves with room temperature water? How does the kombucha form?

Can I use square bottles which I use for fruit juice?

When doing a second fermentation there is a scoby growing on top. Can I use these to make kombucha with sweet tea?

Can adding pureed fruit go off?

A scoby formed in the bottom of an empty kombucha bottle and i want to see if i can get it going but i don't know what to do. I have no starter kombucha here. Is is even possible to keep this baby alive? I don't understand the process of all this.

I did something stupid - I’ve never been a tea drinker, so working w tea is new to me. I took up your measurements of tbls for loose leaf tea, but my “loose” tea was granules & should have been measured in tsp. It’s been fermenting fine & growing scobies, but it’s not lightening up much. I’m assuming there’s still a LOT of tea & caffeine still in it. Should I just add (hot) fresh sugar water to refresh the sugar/tea ratio & dilute it & then let it ferment longer? Or just keep letting it ferment as is until the culture eats up more if the tea & lightens up? Can anybody answer this? Thank you!!!

Where did you get the gallon jars for fermenting?

Puttin us up on game

Thanks!

Why keep the extra SCOBY's?I can understand keeping one maybe two extra, just in case, but why create the "hotel"? Do you ever use more than one in a gallon of sweet tea? Or perhaps having that many makes foe a better starter to use for first fermentation?? Thank you so much for your content and to whomever might chime in what they may know as well!

on buying bottles, lol I just figured out I can purchase 5 bottles of GT's Kombucha for the same price I can buy 6 empty bottles. I'll be happy to do option 1 and enjoy the extra kombucha while I wait for my first ferment!

I'm finally ready for my first time doing a second fermentation! I've just prepared fresh ginger, pear and apple with a little bit of sugar. Wish me luck!!!

Thank you for not only all the great information you share but also for putting out such good quality videos! I am brand new to fermenting anything and just tasted my very first home brewed kombucha!!! I am delightfully surprised at how happy this whole endeavor makes me feel. I am on a self nurturing journey and this just feels like such a loving thing to give myself! I am going to watch many more of your videos ( this is actually my 4th time coming back to your channel)!

The reason that mint changes the profile of the kombucha is due to the oil contents of the herb.

I am a visual learner and this video was perfect for me. I just made my first batch and I am so excited. The person I got my SCOBY from told me to use spring water. I was wondering, can you use filtered tap water?

Are your bottle caps plastic?

You should not to use a metal. Kambucha does not like metal. I use only plastic utensils.

The best way is by testing the ph with a good phmeter100$+(not the stripe). Ph of 3.5 give a sweet kombucha. 3.3 and 3.2 gonna be more acidic like most of people like it. Above this it's more like a vinegar and won't taste good. This is how commercial brewer do to alway have the same taste batch after batch. Also, they don't even use the scoby it's useless. It's like a urban legend that people perpetuate. All the culture and yeast that you need to start a batch are in the ''starter''. And no it's not gonna be faster with a scoby. Make some test just mix an old batch of kombucha well (the top of the liquid have to mix with the bottom) and put 10 to 20% of this starter in your new batch. No scoby needed you can throw it in garbage..

I have been making kombucha since 2008. My kombucha culture is a mix of a live culture I bought in Belgium and a dried scoby sent to me from the States. I started in Belgium, took it to Taiwan, Indonesia and back to Taiwan. Watching this video I seem to do everything wrong and yet I have never had any problems with my kombucha and almost everyone that tries it loves is. A few points if I may: I have made kombucha with infusion, in fact most of the time I do not even add any real tea leaves, as being leaves for a tea plant, and yet my culture is doing just fine and so is the resulting kombucha I have even made kombucha from coffee, I hate coffee myself, but people who tried it thought it was tasty and special. I stopped using white refined sugar after a few trail. Since then I only use unrefined cane or beet sugar or even brown, dark brown sugar or even honey to make kombucha and they really add a lot of depth to the flavour and if anything help the fermentation. I use about 40 gr of sugar and or honey per liter of kombucha My 8 liter jar ( I guess about 2 gallons) sits on the kitchen counter top and is exposed to direct sunlight most days. That does not seem to be a problem. I use the same jar continuously. It has a faucet. After the first fermentation (which takes about 2 to 3 days) I fill my bottles for the second fermentation and leave almost nothing (less than a cup of liquid) in the jar. Every 2 weeks I have to remove at least half the scoby because it has grown so much. I make 2 brews a week. I add flavouring while brewing the 'tea' (or infusion) and it undergoes the whole brewing and fermenting process. I have always found that gives great results. Interesting video because you do everything so differently from me.

12:01 how about soft herbs like mint leaves or lemon balm or basil? Also, how would extracts and/or tinctures blend?

Can I cover my hotel with a cap instead of a filter or cloth? Would an airlock do?

It does! I found out the hard way. I started brewing by putting my scoby and liquid in 4 cups of sweet tea and then a few days later add 8 cups of water. I ordered a Jun scoby from Amazon and the scoby was thin, small and had a little tea. I followed the directions and that tiny thing did not work so I ended up throwing away everything which is a waste of money. Always let your tiny scoby and tea sit in four cups of sweetened tea for a few days before you start brewing. It will give the tea time to start changing and getting more stronger starter tea. This technique has not failed me.

I used a blue n I think flavored kombucha to make my first scoby.. its been over a week. The scoby is growing on top but bc the original bucha was blue the scoby has a lil blue on it. So I'm nervous. Mold? Or Dye? How can I tell ?

Fun fact, the rubbery thing at the top is actually called the Pellicle. While the pellicle CONTAINS some of the SCOBY it's actually the "starter tea" as it's often called that contains the majority of the SCOBY? that's part of why it's so important to have the proper amount of starter tea.

Such a skilled video presentation. Thank you so much.

You said you don't like the acidity, perhaps a Cold Brewed morning coffee (greener notes) might suit your Kombucha experiment.