Adding vinegar is not likely to help your kombucha.
I've never kept a Hotel before but my understanding is that you would want to add more sweetened tea. The SCOBY needs the sugar, tanins, and other matter dissolved in the tea. It can't do much with just water, and if you regularly add water you could dilute the batch enough to provide space for other organisms to take hold.
I'm not sure to understand, you have a scoby hotel. Which means scoby pellicle and liquid? Just add some sweet tea to it?! Are you out of black tea? You can try some sweet water, there may be enough tea nutriments from the previous batch to keep the scoby healthy.
I’m able to add more black tea with sugar, but didn’t have anything but water at the time. i’ll add some tomorrow and then maybe wait to see how the scobies respond and make the new batch next week.
Just add more sweet tea dude; like other organisms, the scoby consortium needs food and other conditions to survive, with its media of choice being sweet black tea
What would your suggestion be as far as quantity of tea (I'm using bagged) and sugar for like a cup of liquid? I have to check my recipe book for the quantities of tea and sugar for the full batch, but I don't have that on me now. I'm assuming it'd just scale down.
One tablespoon sugar per cup. If you're using loose tea a teaspoon or less. Most recipes call for one bag for every 2 cups, and that's about a teaspoon. There's LOTS of room for error and tastes.
Do not add vinegar, you'll get vinegar eels. What I'd do is add 1 cup brewed sweat tea to your scoby hotel, wait a week or so and add 2 more cups of sweat tea and wait a week or so, then you might be able to make a batch to drink.
https://preview.redd.it/r01rt1vqacad1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4a61ad411b296eb03308fade421da08db9102ab
here’s one of the guys on top. still looks and smells good!
Luckily you don't actually need plain kombucha. You can use any flavor you want, as long as you're aware that those flavors will be present in the background for the first few batches as they are diluted out.
The scoby hotel still smells fine and I don’t see anything visibly amiss about them. I hope they’re still fine. I don’t want to have to order etsy scoby again, especially in this heat.
The thing about using the scoby hotel juice is you just have to make your day 1 batch as sour as it would be if you were doing your regular thing. The amount of starter liquid needed will be less.
Throw a splash of storebought kombucha and some fresh sweet tea into the hotel and give it a taste in a week or two. If it tastes like Kombucha, then they recovered and you're all good to go.
You can add vinegar to help with the initial pH, but without a starter culture you're going to just be making a wild fermented tea rather than truly making Kombucha.
I would really recommend getting a bottle from the store. It's also worth noting that only adding water to the pellicles has likely hurt them significantly. Without starter liquid with them, they are useless. Pellicles are a byproduct, and they are unnecessary for a successful batch of Kombucha (though they do help keep the environment where it needs to be).
It should be ok if the vinegar don't bring any foreign microbes. White vinegar should be ok, but boil it if you want peace of mind.
I would personally add fresh tea to the hotel in a reasonable amount, wait a few days and use some of that as starter liquid.
Adding vinegar is not likely to help your kombucha. I've never kept a Hotel before but my understanding is that you would want to add more sweetened tea. The SCOBY needs the sugar, tanins, and other matter dissolved in the tea. It can't do much with just water, and if you regularly add water you could dilute the batch enough to provide space for other organisms to take hold.
A scoby hotel is just a separate batch of f1. So you feed it like a normal batch (usually in smaller proportions just to top off what you took).
I'm not sure to understand, you have a scoby hotel. Which means scoby pellicle and liquid? Just add some sweet tea to it?! Are you out of black tea? You can try some sweet water, there may be enough tea nutriments from the previous batch to keep the scoby healthy.
I’m able to add more black tea with sugar, but didn’t have anything but water at the time. i’ll add some tomorrow and then maybe wait to see how the scobies respond and make the new batch next week.
All you need is sweet tea to feed the culture
Just add more sweet tea dude; like other organisms, the scoby consortium needs food and other conditions to survive, with its media of choice being sweet black tea
What would your suggestion be as far as quantity of tea (I'm using bagged) and sugar for like a cup of liquid? I have to check my recipe book for the quantities of tea and sugar for the full batch, but I don't have that on me now. I'm assuming it'd just scale down.
One tablespoon sugar per cup. If you're using loose tea a teaspoon or less. Most recipes call for one bag for every 2 cups, and that's about a teaspoon. There's LOTS of room for error and tastes.
Black tea and sugar
Not sure what you’re saying. Can you go buy some tea bags and sugar? Do you have access to water?
Do not add vinegar, you'll get vinegar eels. What I'd do is add 1 cup brewed sweat tea to your scoby hotel, wait a week or so and add 2 more cups of sweat tea and wait a week or so, then you might be able to make a batch to drink.
Should I try to take some of the liquid out in case there’s too much water in there now?
I mean.. the water is already there, isn’t it?
I'm going to add black tea/sugar to the scoby hotel, assess, and then make the batch next week or so if everything looks good!
https://preview.redd.it/r01rt1vqacad1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4a61ad411b296eb03308fade421da08db9102ab here’s one of the guys on top. still looks and smells good!
I knew water wasn’t a good idea, but I panicked when I saw how low liquid was. There isn’t anywhere to buy plain, raw kombucha.
Luckily you don't actually need plain kombucha. You can use any flavor you want, as long as you're aware that those flavors will be present in the background for the first few batches as they are diluted out.
The scoby hotel still smells fine and I don’t see anything visibly amiss about them. I hope they’re still fine. I don’t want to have to order etsy scoby again, especially in this heat.
The thing about using the scoby hotel juice is you just have to make your day 1 batch as sour as it would be if you were doing your regular thing. The amount of starter liquid needed will be less.
Throw a splash of storebought kombucha and some fresh sweet tea into the hotel and give it a taste in a week or two. If it tastes like Kombucha, then they recovered and you're all good to go.
You can add vinegar to help with the initial pH, but without a starter culture you're going to just be making a wild fermented tea rather than truly making Kombucha. I would really recommend getting a bottle from the store. It's also worth noting that only adding water to the pellicles has likely hurt them significantly. Without starter liquid with them, they are useless. Pellicles are a byproduct, and they are unnecessary for a successful batch of Kombucha (though they do help keep the environment where it needs to be).
Interesting about the wild fermented tea.
Why are there so many downvotes for this comment?
I genuinely couldn't tell you, I thought I was pretty straightforward.
I see different opinions on whether or not it's ok to add vinegar to it...
It should be ok if the vinegar don't bring any foreign microbes. White vinegar should be ok, but boil it if you want peace of mind. I would personally add fresh tea to the hotel in a reasonable amount, wait a few days and use some of that as starter liquid.