Ok it's been a week since we brewed our black tea and put all our ingediants together into the brewing vassal.
Generally speaking we want to leave the brew for 7-10 days, so we are still early. But I thought we could check up on the brew and see if our SCOBY is growing.
The environment where I have left our 5 gallon brewing vassal seems to be warmer than I remember it being. This is a good thing! The best fermentation happens when the brew is between 20-25 Celsius which is pretty warm. The warmer the environment, the faster the fermentation happens.
What,..Wait!
This isn't good! Dude where's my SCOBY... For some reason our SCOBY hasnt formed, it should be well on its way by now, it's been nearly 8 days. I checked in a few days ago and though I saw a thin layer growing on top, but it was way to thin. I thought something may be wrong but figured I better give it a week before I come to any conclusion.
Shit! I'm going to declare this brew dead. First time this has happened. If I run over the steps where could things have gone wrong. I added lots of tea, enough sugar. The water was cool when I added the SCOBY and juice.
But I think that's where we might have the problem, maybe the SCOBY I used was too old, or I didn't add enough starter liquid (the juice in my SCOBY hotel). This was most likely the issue.
I'll give it a bit of time and come back and start again. I'll grab a bottle of raw unfiltered, unflavored kombucha from the grocery store and use that as starter liquid. That should help get our brew off the ground next time.
I'll be back!
DIY KOMBUCHA
Part 1 - DIY Kombucha Homebrew | Preparing Black Tea 🍵
Part 2 - DIY Kombucha Homebrew | It's Fermentation Time 🍵
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I haven't made SCOBY myself but maybe give it a little bit more time? @cybershade
I also hope in the near future I can brew some myself. :D
Adding some local leaves like Pandan leaves or or other medicinal Herbal leaves to make a nice flavor for it.
Just checked again today and no progress, so she's dead.
Yes, can definitely flavour with all kinds of herbs and leaves. Once the initial fermentation [10 days] is done and you have Kombucha, you can add your flavouring herbs or fruit. Then let that sit in bottle for another couple days then done!
:hot_face: