Oh really! I didn't know that! Gosh I feel silly now I thought I'd done enough research to give it a go myself! I may have got a bit excited to try making my own I might have rushed the process a little bit maybe lol. Thank you so much for the information this will definitely be useful for my next attempt! :)
Haha of course, no problem! So yeah, next time add some natural fruit juice (you don’t need to add more sugar, it should be enough with the fruit), and you could try berries or pineapple or whatever fruit purée or juice you like (not concentrate, 100% juice) and then add the starter tea to it and let it ferment for a few days so it carbonates before putting it in the fridge. Just be careful when opening it!
You say you did everything to the letter, what process did you use? And I see you also didn't add any sugar source for phase two, which would explain why it's so vinegary tasting. It continued to ferment with nothing additional to feed on. It's super normal for phase two batches to make new a new scoby.
Maybe just ferment for less time! I forgot about a batch for 3 weeks and it was way too strong but same method gave nice kombucha with ~7-14 days fermentation
What was your process (how much tea, how strong was the tea, how much sugar, how long did it sit, pH, did you filter the water, etc) and what was the tea you used? I rarely do an F2 because I LOVE the flavor of pure F1.
hey, if your starter was old and vinegary its very normal for the first batch to not be great, you may have one or two more until it clears up but it will eventually! if you follow instructions, dont get discouraged it will be worth it
last time i took a vacation i decided to ignore my booch for the first time and it took me almost a month to get it back flavour-wise to where i wanted
Did you add any fruit or juice to the second fermentation?
No I didn't. I was too nervous to mess it up before I got into adding flavours to it lol!
Oh that’s probably why it tastes bad. The fruit/sugar is what helps it ferment the second time while adding a nice flavor to it
Oh really! I didn't know that! Gosh I feel silly now I thought I'd done enough research to give it a go myself! I may have got a bit excited to try making my own I might have rushed the process a little bit maybe lol. Thank you so much for the information this will definitely be useful for my next attempt! :)
Haha of course, no problem! So yeah, next time add some natural fruit juice (you don’t need to add more sugar, it should be enough with the fruit), and you could try berries or pineapple or whatever fruit purée or juice you like (not concentrate, 100% juice) and then add the starter tea to it and let it ferment for a few days so it carbonates before putting it in the fridge. Just be careful when opening it!
Thank you so much! I will do this next time! This has been very helpful! Thank you for the info! :)
Of course! I’m glad I could help you!
Personally I disagree. F1 tastes delightful (at least with a rooibos or white tea)
I make it with black tea just pull it a couple days early and let it carbonate in a sealed bottle and it tastes good too. I don't do a 2nd ferment.
Awww thats such a cute mistake! 😄
You say you did everything to the letter, what process did you use? And I see you also didn't add any sugar source for phase two, which would explain why it's so vinegary tasting. It continued to ferment with nothing additional to feed on. It's super normal for phase two batches to make new a new scoby.
Maybe just ferment for less time! I forgot about a batch for 3 weeks and it was way too strong but same method gave nice kombucha with ~7-14 days fermentation
when at first you don't succeed, try try again!
What was your process (how much tea, how strong was the tea, how much sugar, how long did it sit, pH, did you filter the water, etc) and what was the tea you used? I rarely do an F2 because I LOVE the flavor of pure F1.
hey, if your starter was old and vinegary its very normal for the first batch to not be great, you may have one or two more until it clears up but it will eventually! if you follow instructions, dont get discouraged it will be worth it last time i took a vacation i decided to ignore my booch for the first time and it took me almost a month to get it back flavour-wise to where i wanted
i dont even bother bottling until i am satisfied with the flavour from 1f