My mother's inner hippy came out at some point and she bought a $200 kombucha kit from KombuchaKamp last year. She had never had kombucha nor has she ever a sustained a hobby very long. She decided that she didn't like how it taste so I have been gifted an old SCOBY and a bunch of other stuff that she never used.
I have never tried the stuff either but I have an addiction to fermentation and love tea.
I have been doing a lot of reading lately on this but much of what I read is littered in hippy nonsense with incorrect assumptions and poor advice based on my knowledge of fermentation and vinegar making. I have a few questions that I haven't run across the answers for yet.
Is there a "style guide" for kombucha?
Why a SCOBY; why wouldn't you conduct these two different fermentations separably to better control the variables and improve consistency?
WLP600 looks to be the only available SCOBY created in a lab by actual technicians. Is this beverage too new and community too sparse that variation hasn't occurred yet? You cannot use the same yeast strain to make a Bud Light and then a Trappist beer; why would you use the same SCOBY to ferment an English breakfast tea and then a green tea?
There are no nutrient additions mentioned so what is in the tea that the yeast are using for reproduction?
What keeps the yeast from falling to the bottom like in a beer/wine fermentation (yeast attenuation)?
Why must I add "starter fluid" to a new batch? Is it because of yeast attenuation?
Acetobacter looks to be the dominate bacteria turning most of the alcohol produced to vinegar; what roles do the other bacteria strains carry?
This appears to be a beverage with a short life span, at some point the entire thing will turn to vinegar. Is this a correct statement or is my assumption wrong?
I am thinking that I will want to bottle and carbonate some of this, what VOL should I aim for?
I am thinking that 1.5vol maybe?
Is there a water chemistry that works best? Most reading does agree that chlorine must be eliminated, however I plan to use RO water. Should I use the same mineral cocktail that I would use with a pale ale or something different? Maybe the tea contributes enough minerals?
Have anyone here done some scientific experimentation with kombucha on this forum?
In beer making there is a such thing as too much yeast. This is because many of the flavors produced by yeast are done when oxygen is present and the yeast colony is growing. So why would many of these kombucha stores recommend a continuous brew using massive SCOBYs that cover the entire top keeping oxygen away from the yeast so all they do is produce alcohol that is then eaten by the bacteria happily sitting on top? I would image these being very vinegary and less complex; am I correct?
Thanks for reading and satisfying my curiosity.
I have never tried the stuff either but I have an addiction to fermentation and love tea.
I have been doing a lot of reading lately on this but much of what I read is littered in hippy nonsense with incorrect assumptions and poor advice based on my knowledge of fermentation and vinegar making. I have a few questions that I haven't run across the answers for yet.
Is there a "style guide" for kombucha?
Why a SCOBY; why wouldn't you conduct these two different fermentations separably to better control the variables and improve consistency?
WLP600 looks to be the only available SCOBY created in a lab by actual technicians. Is this beverage too new and community too sparse that variation hasn't occurred yet? You cannot use the same yeast strain to make a Bud Light and then a Trappist beer; why would you use the same SCOBY to ferment an English breakfast tea and then a green tea?
There are no nutrient additions mentioned so what is in the tea that the yeast are using for reproduction?
What keeps the yeast from falling to the bottom like in a beer/wine fermentation (yeast attenuation)?
Why must I add "starter fluid" to a new batch? Is it because of yeast attenuation?
Acetobacter looks to be the dominate bacteria turning most of the alcohol produced to vinegar; what roles do the other bacteria strains carry?
This appears to be a beverage with a short life span, at some point the entire thing will turn to vinegar. Is this a correct statement or is my assumption wrong?
I am thinking that I will want to bottle and carbonate some of this, what VOL should I aim for?
I am thinking that 1.5vol maybe?
Is there a water chemistry that works best? Most reading does agree that chlorine must be eliminated, however I plan to use RO water. Should I use the same mineral cocktail that I would use with a pale ale or something different? Maybe the tea contributes enough minerals?
Have anyone here done some scientific experimentation with kombucha on this forum?
In beer making there is a such thing as too much yeast. This is because many of the flavors produced by yeast are done when oxygen is present and the yeast colony is growing. So why would many of these kombucha stores recommend a continuous brew using massive SCOBYs that cover the entire top keeping oxygen away from the yeast so all they do is produce alcohol that is then eaten by the bacteria happily sitting on top? I would image these being very vinegary and less complex; am I correct?
Thanks for reading and satisfying my curiosity.