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@kimberleegk - you used the phrase "corn sugar" but at least in the U.S. that's not a commonly used expression for any type of sugar. Corn syrup is basically glucose, and folks don't use that to sweeten their tea before the primary ferment. The food industry was trying to use the phrase "corn...

That's a year-old suggestion you're replying to.

When you say "second fermentation" are you talking about a small (maybe 1/2" to 1" or 12mm to 25mm) scoby that formed up in the neck of a flip-top bottle during (sealed) secondary fermentation? Or do you mean it's your second time making Kombucha and you used blueberries in the primary ferment?

Your images are out of focus and the busy background makes it impossible to tell whether the many dark splotches I see are mold or not.

I'm actually glad you bumped this year-old thread because I never did find any specific methods to measure either alcohol content or residual sugar content in my home-brewed Kombucha. Still hoping someone has some detailed information.

pH around 3 sounds great. I suppose I've had baby-scobys less than 1/4" thick also, depending on the temperature in the house - they're thinner in the winter when the house runs cooler. Still strange that it tastes sweet, because even though you didn't quite get up to a full gallon of liquid...

If the yeast & bacteria in the mail-order scoby aren't very active, it's possible you haven't really fermented the tea. Do you have a healthy new baby-scoby that's at least 1/4" thick, preferably more? Can you get some 2.8-4.4 pH test strips & see what you're at?

Do you have any screw-top bottles lying around? Your theory is that pressure is leaking out of the flip-tops, but if you poured your primary ferment into some screw-top bottles at the same time, you could verify that you're getting carbonation at all. If there's no carbonation in the screw-top...

Thanks @AZ_IPA, I didn't know that. I knew that common flies are attracted to trash & pet waste, and for sure I wouldn't want those any where near my KT. Haven't had any problem with fruit flies so I shouldn't have commented.

Large house flies get into all kinds of nasty things, but fruit flies are pretty clean. Bottle it & enjoy.

@dcHokie - nothing wrong with keeping that vinegary batch as a "hotel" to store all your future scoby babies. Every couple of months I brew a little extra sweet tea just to change out the liquid in my hotel btw. [ EDIT: btw changing the liquid isn't just for appearance's sake. The probiotics...

How long is "for a while"? Anyway, no, I never blend.

I believe (but can't say for certain) that their "Classic" line is un-pasteurized and thus may contain more than 0.5% ABV. In some states it's sold only to adults over 21 yrs old. This one seems to be unflavored...

Most commercial KT is pasteurized & the probiotic effects are wiped out. It's crazy, isn't it? We all know that even if fruit juice is refrigerated it will eventually ferment but it's not treated as an alcoholic beverage because of that property. The TTB doesn't treat fruit juice as a...

The bottles were cooled to room temperature before you added the KT, right? If you poured KT directly into bottles that had just been sanitized with boiling water you might have killed the yeast.

Not a true foamy head from pouring a refrigerated KT, usually just bubbles in the glass like a commercial ginger ale or 7up/sprite soda drink. But.... if I pour it room temperature right after a long 2nd ferment it will get a thick head. Every time I decant from my 1-liter bottles (room temp...

Seems like a reasonable question, jbaysurfer. If you're getting carbonation during 2nd ferment then you probably have enough residual sugar left over from your primary ferment to give you the fizz you're looking for. I start with 1 cup per gallon of tea & if I don't add the fruit juice at the...

Because I add either fresh or crystallized ginger at the start of the secondary ferment, I have chunks of ginger floating around the batch. I want that strained out during final bottling into my smaller 12-16oz bottles. If I wasn't adding ginger I would just strain the primary ferment directly...

Tea bags are sometimes packaged & labeled in larger sizes: called "ice tea" or "family sized" or both. I treat them as double a normal tea bag intended for one-cup use. Pretty sure I weighed the contents once but I don't recall the exact numbers. So for me that means 6-8 normal tea bags per...

Yes, if it's warm. I don't get those little scoby-plugs during the winter months in my house when the inside temps are around 70, but when we let it float up to about 78 or 80 in Texas summers I'll get them sometimes. If you fill all the way to the top, leaving no air-gap, you'll also suppress...