Ancient, Acid Kombucha

[Guest guest]

We have had a couple of extremely busy months at our house and our

Kombucha scoby has been sitting on the proverbial back burner. I did a

second ferment with ground cherries in October, which is part of the

reason: it put us off KT for awhile. Gak! It was enough to give us

the willies. The scoby was sitting in the first-ferment jar for

probably 2-3 months and is now around an inch thick and a beautiful

creamy white. I didn't do anything with it all this time because it

seemed okay...like it was still growing. I finally boiled up a new tea-

sugar batch [actually...honey...a first] tonight and it is happily

sitting in its new brew.

But I have a few questions:

- Should I bother with a second ferment, or toss?

- Did I weaken the scoby?

- Has anyone else done this and/or have any advice based off of

experience?

Thanks,

a

[Guest guest]

- Should I bother with a second ferment, or toss?

- Did I weaken the scoby?

- Has anyone else done this and/or have any advice based off of

experience?

Thanks,

a

Hi a,

Does this mean you used the SCOBY for the second ferment? If the SCOBY was never

in contact with your fruit or second ferment, everything should be fine. Time

doesn't deteriorate a SCOBY. It just continues to reproduce (thus the thick

healthy looking SCOBY).

But if your SCOBY was in with your fruit for your second ferment, you shouldn't

re-use the SCOBY. It's one of the few things everyone in the Kombucha community

agrees with.

It seems the SCOBY is changed by fermentation with anything other than sugar (or

other sweetener) and tea. I haven't seen any information on how it changes. In

my experience, it does seem to weaken it, perhaps making it more vulnerable to

mold etc.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

Love and Gratitude,

Barb

..

[Guest guest]

> Hi a,

> Does this mean you used the SCOBY for the second ferment? If the

SCOBY was never in contact with your fruit or second ferment,

everything should be fine. Time doesn't deteriorate a SCOBY. It just

continues to reproduce (thus the thick healthy looking SCOBY).

>

> But if your SCOBY was in with your fruit for your second ferment,

you shouldn't re-use the SCOBY. It's one of the few things everyone

in the Kombucha community agrees with.

<snip>

No, the scoby is always in the first-ferment jar with the

tea/sweetner combo, never fruit. I did the second ferment with

ground cherries, which was oogie-gross. I was questioning using the

ancient, acid KT from the 2-3 month ferment. I think I might just

toss it. As far as my inch-thick scoby, it's a real beauty...though

accomplished through sad neglect. I plan to be more on top of it as

time rolls by.

Thanks!

a