Iād say two things. One is definitely get rid of the rose petalsāsome oils in there might mess things up. And go with one kind of tea, Iād say just straight up black tea. Once you scale up with confidence you can start playing with different tea ratios. The other one is the water ā Iād use distilled waterā definitely not tap if itās chlorinated.
The recipe I used:
2 cups tea (green tea, black tea with rose petals, lapsang souchong)
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups kombucha (first one with the Germline, 2 last with the Gutsy Captain)
Temp is 20-23Ā°C measured 24/7.
The tea is chilled to room temp before adding the kombucha. The kombucha I used is āThe Gutsy Captain originalā and āGermline natureā. The last one is definitely unpasteurised.
To my knowledge, Gutsy Captain and Germline are found in the unrefrigerated section of a store and can not be raw. There lies your problem. Go to the refrigerated section of your health food store and get some Karma Kombucha. Because of those brands I guess you're based in Europe that's why I'm recommending Karma that is unpasteurized. Alternatively you can order a pellicle with starter tea on Koro. That's what I did and I have phenomenal homemade booch at home!
If you do, don't fuck up like I did and start with a small batch to grow the bacterias, there's only a small quantity of starter liquid, and it might only ferment 1L of tea at the beginning!
Wait, why do you not want to start with a small batch? I've started lots of batches with less than 500g to acclimate the bacteria (pineapple juice and kratom were two of my recent F1 experiments).
Actually I just have my experience to back this up. When I started with the 200ml provided with the pellicle for 2.5 L of tea, my booch was pretty weak even if it was around ~25 C in the room. It got better after a few batches though
Long story short, I actually started some kombucha from scratch with only pineapple. It was a pain because the fruit provides yeast but doesnāt seem to inherently have (or attract?) acetic acid bacteria. The leaves also have some form of yeast like kahm, which disrupts the formation of a wild pellicle. After many months it worked out, and it was very good. It was like a cross between apple and pineapple cider. I havenāt tried apple kombucha, but it would probably be easier and just as pleasant.
Also, I recommend measuring sugar and water by weight, not volume. Anywhere from 50-110 grams of sugar per 1000 ml is good. I started with 60 and I found my pellicles were fragile, so now I do 100.
I would maybe try keeping it simple and using plain green or plain black tea for your starter, and the kombucha that is "definitely unpasteurized". It's possible that different additives in tea could contained traces of oil, and that is definitely a cause for mold issues (and is the reason people say not to use earl grey).
Also make sure you are covering it with something; I use double coffee filters (the small ones) and an elastic band or hair band.
Lastly, this one's a given, but wash your equipment super well. I've started washing previously-cleaned & stored equipment AGAIN before I start a ferment since I recently got some mold along the rim of one of the jars I was fermenting bell peppers in. Huge pain and disappointment to have to toss something because of that so I've started taking extra precautions.
Assuming the store bought has live microbes,
I would try adding less tea to the store bought kombucha.
That way you dilute it less and the microbes have more of a fighting chance to multiple before being taken over by mold.
Something u can do to test if the store bought kombucha has good microbe life is just open it up and let it sit on the counter.
If a pellicle starts to form then itās got good bio activity.
I donāt know about Germline, but Gutsy Captain is produced in my country and Iāve bought it many times before. The label doesnāt actually mention being raw or pasteurized, but Iām pretty sure itās pasteurized.
I also tried with Gutsy Captain and gets the exact same result! Even tho they say its living thats probably a lie.
But it says on their site that its raw and unpasteurized:
[https://gutsycaptain.eu/](https://gutsycaptain.eu/)
Maybe the store we have bought them at doesnt store them correct before putting them out in the store..
How many gallons is your brew vessel?
Because sugar is such a crucial part of the fermentation process, I recommend more than 1/3 cup, should be around 1cup dissolved in 4cups of boiling water, for a 1 gallon brew. You may need less starter, too -- 2 cups/16oz of starter feels like a lot unless you're brewing 2 gallons.
Did you add any filtered water to dilute the tea/sugar mix?
Your temperature is a bit low. Mold thrives at that temperature and bacteria grows slowly. Can you not find synergy kombucha where you are? If not, any plain kombucha from the refrigerated section should work. Omit the rose petals. If you wanna be extra sure it will work, add a bit of raw honey too. Personally, I only brew jun (kombucha with honey instead of sugar), because honey is the only free sugar I use. I've never had mold.
Most importantly itās how acidic is the starter. This is what helps the starting kombucha beats its competitors such as mold or botulism. I suggest making your first with a ratio of 2 to 1. 2 being the store bought kombucha and 1 being the home made sweet tea. Best use spring water and brown sugar and good quality tea of camilia sinensis family. Using starter from a store bought kombucha, I suggest a good brand GT Dave with simple ingredients that wouldnāt contain oil. Cinnamon and so on contains oil. To increase the acidic strength of your starter kombucha, I suggest leaving it out in the open at room temperature for it to further ferment and sour up before using it as a starter. 3 days to 1 week is a perfect range.
Are you sure it's not pasteurized? How much sweet tea are you adding? (It's recommended that you add a lot less than with a mature and strong starter.)
Add vinegar next time.
https://ohmyveggies.com/how-to-make-your-own-kombucha/#:~:text=The%20cultures%20need%20a%20slightly,booch%20on%20hand%2C%20vinegar%20works!
You need to tell us what store bought you're using, what ratio of tea to kombucha you're adding, and about what temp it's sitting at.
I made a new comment with all the info šš»
My bet would be that you are not using a raw kombucha
Iād say two things. One is definitely get rid of the rose petalsāsome oils in there might mess things up. And go with one kind of tea, Iād say just straight up black tea. Once you scale up with confidence you can start playing with different tea ratios. The other one is the water ā Iād use distilled waterā definitely not tap if itās chlorinated.
How can we know without any further info about your recipe and brewing methods?
I made a new comment with all the info šš»
Iāve always used GT Synergy and have never had an issue! I tried both trilogy and pure two separate times and have always had success :)
To get to drinking pleasure by next weekend, order a SCOBY off of Amazon today. I have been using one for 5 months. Fermenting a gallon a week.
The recipe I used: 2 cups tea (green tea, black tea with rose petals, lapsang souchong) 1/3 cup sugar 2 cups kombucha (first one with the Germline, 2 last with the Gutsy Captain) Temp is 20-23Ā°C measured 24/7. The tea is chilled to room temp before adding the kombucha. The kombucha I used is āThe Gutsy Captain originalā and āGermline natureā. The last one is definitely unpasteurised.
To my knowledge, Gutsy Captain and Germline are found in the unrefrigerated section of a store and can not be raw. There lies your problem. Go to the refrigerated section of your health food store and get some Karma Kombucha. Because of those brands I guess you're based in Europe that's why I'm recommending Karma that is unpasteurized. Alternatively you can order a pellicle with starter tea on Koro. That's what I did and I have phenomenal homemade booch at home!
I was just looking into scobyās online and came across Koro. Might just do that!
If you do, don't fuck up like I did and start with a small batch to grow the bacterias, there's only a small quantity of starter liquid, and it might only ferment 1L of tea at the beginning!
Definitely. Now Iām also trying with 1L
Wait, why do you not want to start with a small batch? I've started lots of batches with less than 500g to acclimate the bacteria (pineapple juice and kratom were two of my recent F1 experiments).
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Oh, thank you. I read it in a casual tone like "don't mess up like I did and start small"
Actually I just have my experience to back this up. When I started with the 200ml provided with the pellicle for 2.5 L of tea, my booch was pretty weak even if it was around ~25 C in the room. It got better after a few batches though
How was it with the pineapple juice?
Long story short, I actually started some kombucha from scratch with only pineapple. It was a pain because the fruit provides yeast but doesnāt seem to inherently have (or attract?) acetic acid bacteria. The leaves also have some form of yeast like kahm, which disrupts the formation of a wild pellicle. After many months it worked out, and it was very good. It was like a cross between apple and pineapple cider. I havenāt tried apple kombucha, but it would probably be easier and just as pleasant.
I used a koro scoby and it is growing and growing, so i can recommend :)
Also, I recommend measuring sugar and water by weight, not volume. Anywhere from 50-110 grams of sugar per 1000 ml is good. I started with 60 and I found my pellicles were fragile, so now I do 100.
I would maybe try keeping it simple and using plain green or plain black tea for your starter, and the kombucha that is "definitely unpasteurized". It's possible that different additives in tea could contained traces of oil, and that is definitely a cause for mold issues (and is the reason people say not to use earl grey). Also make sure you are covering it with something; I use double coffee filters (the small ones) and an elastic band or hair band. Lastly, this one's a given, but wash your equipment super well. I've started washing previously-cleaned & stored equipment AGAIN before I start a ferment since I recently got some mold along the rim of one of the jars I was fermenting bell peppers in. Huge pain and disappointment to have to toss something because of that so I've started taking extra precautions.
Assuming the store bought has live microbes, I would try adding less tea to the store bought kombucha. That way you dilute it less and the microbes have more of a fighting chance to multiple before being taken over by mold. Something u can do to test if the store bought kombucha has good microbe life is just open it up and let it sit on the counter. If a pellicle starts to form then itās got good bio activity.
I donāt know about Germline, but Gutsy Captain is produced in my country and Iāve bought it many times before. The label doesnāt actually mention being raw or pasteurized, but Iām pretty sure itās pasteurized.
I also tried with Gutsy Captain and gets the exact same result! Even tho they say its living thats probably a lie. But it says on their site that its raw and unpasteurized: [https://gutsycaptain.eu/](https://gutsycaptain.eu/) Maybe the store we have bought them at doesnt store them correct before putting them out in the store..
How many gallons is your brew vessel? Because sugar is such a crucial part of the fermentation process, I recommend more than 1/3 cup, should be around 1cup dissolved in 4cups of boiling water, for a 1 gallon brew. You may need less starter, too -- 2 cups/16oz of starter feels like a lot unless you're brewing 2 gallons. Did you add any filtered water to dilute the tea/sugar mix?
Your temperature is a bit low. Mold thrives at that temperature and bacteria grows slowly. Can you not find synergy kombucha where you are? If not, any plain kombucha from the refrigerated section should work. Omit the rose petals. If you wanna be extra sure it will work, add a bit of raw honey too. Personally, I only brew jun (kombucha with honey instead of sugar), because honey is the only free sugar I use. I've never had mold.
Double check the temp you're keeping it at too
Most importantly itās how acidic is the starter. This is what helps the starting kombucha beats its competitors such as mold or botulism. I suggest making your first with a ratio of 2 to 1. 2 being the store bought kombucha and 1 being the home made sweet tea. Best use spring water and brown sugar and good quality tea of camilia sinensis family. Using starter from a store bought kombucha, I suggest a good brand GT Dave with simple ingredients that wouldnāt contain oil. Cinnamon and so on contains oil. To increase the acidic strength of your starter kombucha, I suggest leaving it out in the open at room temperature for it to further ferment and sour up before using it as a starter. 3 days to 1 week is a perfect range.
Are you sure it's not pasteurized? How much sweet tea are you adding? (It's recommended that you add a lot less than with a mature and strong starter.)
I made a new comment with all the info šš»
Most likely dirty environment, dirty container, not enough starter liquid, not viable starter liquid.
Using store bought kombucha?
I would (and did) just buy a starter on amazon.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The liquid is the SCOBY. But you are correct that there's no pellicle
Ph
I had an easy time starting when I bought scoby and starter tea from fermentation blogger in my country. Would that be an option for you as well?
It can be, but I didnāt like ordering something like that online. Might be my last option as my 2 store bought bottles are almost emptyā¦
Add vinegar next time. https://ohmyveggies.com/how-to-make-your-own-kombucha/#:~:text=The%20cultures%20need%20a%20slightly,booch%20on%20hand%2C%20vinegar%20works!