- Welcome to You Brew Kombucha.
These are the Top Ten Mistakes
Kombucha Homebrewers Make.
(upbeat music)
Mistake number one:
Using vinegar in place of starter tea
when you're getting
your first batch going.
There are a lot of supposedly reputable
online sources that say that you can
use vinegar in place of your starter tea
when you're making kombucha.
That is not true.
If you use vinegar in
place of your starter tea,
you're introducing a whole
separate set of acids
and molecules into your kombucha scoby
that's different than
what's supposed to be
in your kombucha scoby.
So you essentially run
the risk of turning your
kombucha scoby into a vinegar scoby.
And that means that if you
continuously use vinegar,
or if you use vinegar even one time,
you're essentially brewing
vinegar instead of kombucha.
I for one would rather
drink kombucha than vinegar,
so I don't use vinegar
in my brewing process.
I have a sneaking suspicion I know where
the rumor started that you can use vinegar
in place of starter tea.
I've been reading some books on kombucha
that were written in the 70s and 80s
and back then kombucha was
not really a common beverage,
so there were less home brewers
and there were less sources of raw,
unflavored kombucha
that you could just buy.
So if you happen to come across a scoby,
and you don't have any starter tea,
and you wanna make sure
that you're acidifying
your brew to the point where it's actually
fermenting properly,
then oftentimes your only
option was distilled white vinegar.
So in those cases, in
those very dire cases,
where you can't get your
hands on some starter tea
or some finished kombucha,
yeah distilled white vinegar
may have only been your option.
But that's not the case anymore today.
Raw, unflavored kombucha is being sold
regularly all over the place.
And there are enough
home brewers out there
who are willing to share a scoby
and share some starter tea with you,
where you don't need to resort to using
vinegar as a last recourse.
Another big mistake that
kombucha home brewers make
is not using enough starter tea.
I like to use about
two cups of starter tea
per gallon batch, and some people say that
you can use as little as one cup,
I like to be on the safer side,
only because I want to make sure that
my kombucha has enough of that acidic
starter culture to bring
the pH down to a safe level,
and make sure that that fermentation
is getting off to a good start.
Another mistake that a
lot of home brewers make
is agitating the vessel
during the first few days
of first fermentation.
I know it's really hard to leave it alone
because it's a fascinating process,
but that's the critical
time for your scoby to grow.
If you futz around with the vessel
too much you could move around the
different little disparate pieces of scoby
that are trying to form
at the top of your vessel,
and form a cohesive scoby.
So if you mess around with it,
and if those scoby formations sink,
you might end up with
a weird looking scoby,
and it might just stress you out
because it looks like your brew isn't
fermenting properly when
really it was trying to,
but you just messed it up.
I will note though, that even if your
scoby formation does sink,
it's okay, it's not
necessarily a sign that
your brew isn't fermenting properly,
it just makes it a little harder for you
to confirm that your brew
is fermenting properly.
Another common mistake
that home brewers make
is storing their scoby in the fridge,
or storing their starter
tea in the fridge,
or storing their brewing
vessel in the fridge.
You don't really need to do that at all.
Even if you're not actively
brewing a batch of kombucha,
there's no need to store your scoby
or your starter tea in the
fridge to keep it fresh.
It thrives just fine at room temperature.
Cold temperatures basically put the yeast
and bacteria into a state of dormancy,
and if they're asleep, they're
not acidifying the brew.
If they're not acidifying the brew,
that could potentially
lead to mold growth,
which is not good.
So make sure that you're
keeping your starter tea,
your kombucha, your scoby,
your brewing vessels,
all at room temperature
until you've bottled them,
second fermented them, and
they're ready to drink.
Another common mistake
that home brewers make
is using the wrong kind of tea
during the first fermentation phase.
You can check out my video on tea for more
information about the
right types of tea to use,
but basically you wanna avoid any types of
flavored teas, even if
it's naturally flavored,
if the tea has any essential
oils or fruit flavorings,
all of that in contact with your scoby,
could throw off the dynamic
of the yeast and bacteria
that live there.
So make sure that no flavorings
ever touch your scoby.
And no flavorings get into your first
fermentation brewing cycle.
There are a few exceptions to this rule,
so I recommend that you
check out my video on tea,
but for the most part,
you just wanna stick to
Camellia sinensis types of teas.
So that's black tea, green tea,
oolong tea, white tea, pu-erh tea.
Using the right kind of
tea and not using any tea
with flavorings will
make sure that your scoby
gets the right kind of
nutrients so that it can
ferment your sweet tea into kombucha.
Another common mistake
is using anything other
than cane sugar or trying
to use sugar substitutes.
You can check out my
video on sugar for more
information about this,
but basically cane sugar
is the best kind of food for your scoby.
It's the easiest type of
sugar for the yeasts to
eat and break down, and
any other type of sugar
would just throw off the
symbiosis of your brew.
I know a lot of people
are asking if you can use
coconut sugar or brown sugar or even other
sources of sugar like stevia.
And they're not good
options, because that's not
the type of food that
your scoby needs to eat to
turn sweet tea into kombucha.
And if you're wondering
if you can use sugar
substitutes like aspartame,
like Sweet N Low or
Equal or Splenda, you
can't really do that.
It's a different type of
chemical molecule that
the scoby cannot breakdown.
So you're essentially starving your scoby.
If you starve your scoby,
you won't have kombucha.
Another mistake that
home brewers make is not
stirring their brewing
vessel before they bottle
it for second fermentation.
Over the course of the
first fermentation cycle,
a lot of the time yeast
can settle at the bottom
of the brewing vessel.
So whenever your brew is done
and you're ready to bottle,
you wanna make sure that
you're stirring that
vessel to evenly
distribute all of the yeast
particles that may have
settled throughout the brew.
By stirring your vessel,
you're making sure that
you have consistent kombucha tea,
and if you have consistent
kombucha tea and yeast
evenly distributed,
you're more likely to get
even carbonation across
all of the bottles you use.
Speaking of carbonation,
another mistake that
home brewers make is not
using the right type of bottle
or the right type of caps
to ensure good carbonation.
Make sure you check out
my super in-depth video
on bottles to find out more about that.
But in a nutshell, you
just wanna make sure that
you're using a good
quality bottle that you can
seal as airtight as
possible to keep that great
liquid and carbonation in.
Another mistake that
home brewers make is not
refrigerating their bottles
before they open them.
Oftentimes that leads
to a really big mess,
and your kombucha fizzying
up all over the place.
You can check out my video
on minimizing fizzy messes
if you want more information
on how to prevent that,
but the biggest tip that
I have is to make sure
that your kombucha is fully
chilled before you open it.
When you chill any liquid
it's able to hold onto
molecules of carbon dioxide better,
and hold onto it so that
it doesn't fizzy up all
over the place and try
to get all over your
kitchen when you open it.
So even though I've still
had my fair share of somewhat
fizzy messes when I open a
chilled bottle of kombucha,
it's nowhere near as
big of a mess as I would
have had if I didn't chill
my bottle of kombucha first.
And the last mistake that
a lot of home brewers make
is having too high expectations.
This is a living thing.
It's not gonna be completely
consistent every single time,
and there's only so much
you can do to control
all the variables you
have in your process.
Just know that it's a living thing,
it's gonna change with the seasons,
it's not gonna be super
consistent all the time,
but that's the beauty of it.
It's a real, raw,
homemade natural product.
So don't put too much pressure
on yourself if you feel
like your bottles aren't
getting as fizzy as you'd like.
Or if they're getting too
fizzy and you can't get
that perfect level of carbonation.
It takes a lot of trial and error.
It's definitely taken a
lot of trial and error
for myself to get to the point where I'm
confident about my kombucha bottles.
I've made some bottles
of kombucha that I'm
really proud of and I
can't wait to show it off
to my friends and family.
And I've also made some
bottles of kombucha
that I'm not so proud of
and just drank quietly
by myself in a corner.
And I should also caution
you about having too
high expectations about
the effects that kombucha
is gonna have on your body.
Like any other food that we consume,
it's gonna effect us all very differently.
So while some people
might tout it as some type
of miracle cure-all, kombucha is not that.
Kombucha is not a cure-all.
It's not gonna work any miracles for you.
And the benefits that it has for you
might be very different than the benefits
that it has for other people.
So just be conscious of your expectations
when it comes to kombucha.
It's a really fantastic
drink, but it's a process,
so don't have too high expectations,
know that it's a journey,
and just go with the flow.
So I really hope that this
video is helpful for you.
If you want more information
and in-depth details
on everything that I've covered,
make sure that you check out the other
videos on my channel and as always,
you can find more information
at youbrewkombucha.com.
Happy brewing!
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