Drinks Kombucha question

[WisconsinGardener]

I am new to the whole Kombucha thing. I've made three rounds of it, now. The first time, I let it go 7 days, and the resulting liquid was so vinegary that it was pretty much undrinkable without tons of diluting. The second time, I let it go only 4 days. It was still quite vinegary, but better. Decided to try the "second ferment" that my friend always does. I added a bit of juice (maybe 2 ounces) in a 16-oz. bottle, and filled the rest up with the kombucha, leaving about 1.5" of space at the top. Sealed it tightly and put it on my counter. Got busy and wound up leaving it there 48 hours. There was so much "stuff" in there, that I got worried and dumped it.

Now, round three. Again, let it go only 4 days. Tasted vinegary but not too bad. Put it in the 2nd ferment bottles all by itself this time. Looked at it this morning, less than 24 hours later, and there is "stuff" at the top that I don't know whether it is normal or not.

I posted it on my business Facebook page. I don't think you even need an account to see this link:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=891956810883803&id=113856622027163

Please help. Is it doing what it's supposed to? Am I growing mold and should dump it again? Maybe stop trying to do second ferments?


P.S. I do milk kefir and water kefir and seem to be fine with both of those.

Edit to add: My house is kind of cold at the moment. We've been resisting turning on the furnace, and it is 64 in here.

 

[WisconsinGardener]

The friend that I got the scoby from originally thinks it's mold. To be safe, I will throw it out. Sigh. Maybe my house is just too cold right now.

I should emphasize, again, though, that it isn't white. My pictures make it look kind of white, but it's more amber.

 

[almost ready]

It's hard to know what's going on. As for the second ferment, this sounds dicey. Wouldn't do it.

How does the mother look? Did you start this from a mother or from a live kombucha drink purchased from a store? It can be done, but the first couple of results are not considered drinkable.

What proportions of water, sugar and tea bags are you using? Are they covered with paper towels or some other screening to let air in but keep trouble out?

Are you getting any pink mold or off smells? Bad kombucha is unmistakable - very bad smell.

You shouldn't be getting vinegar in the first week of brewing. Maybe after 10 days to 2 weeks.

Is your kombucha brewing in the dark at about 70 degrees F?

Tell a little more and I'll see if can help. Have a couple books on it and over 10 years experience.

AR

 

[frazbo]

There is a website DEDICATED to Kombucha problems and how to fixes for problems that arise.

http://users.bestweb.net/~om/kombucha_balance/

It's got charts and answers and everything you ever wanted to know about Kombucha. I keep it book marked Just in case.

 

[WisconsinGardener]

The third picture is the scoby mother. I have been doing it in a half gallon mason jar. 1/2 cup sugar, 6 cups boiling water, 5 black or green tea bags (they are plain tea, nothing added and then steeped while the water cools), then, after the water cools, 1 cup of "starter" from the previous batch. My scoby is growing, but the new one is very thin, so I've been putting the whole thing into the new batch. (This is only the third batch).

It gets vinegary rather quickly - quite tart, but good tasting after 4-5 days.

Wow - thanks for that link, frazbo. I'm probably doing some things wrong. Steeping too long, for example. One thing for sure wrong is that my house is too cold. Knowing that warmer weather was coming, we have not turned on our furnace at all, and it got down to 62 in the house. It's up to 65 now.