question about a mistake I made

[Guest guest]

I finished my first brew yesterday and wrote about a problem--I produced vinegar

instead of kombucha. Hopefully I'll get some responses on that. Meanwhile, I

just realized I have another problem--I didn't include any of the liquid from

that batch when I set a new batch to fermenting. I didn't realize I had to do

that, so I just brewed the tea and put the scoby in without adding any liquid

from the previous batch.

I still have the previous batch (the vinegary one) but now it's mixed with apple

juice for the second ferment. So I don't know if I can pour any of this

apple-juiced liquid into my newly fermenting half-gallons. The finished first

brew is now 1/5 apple juice, so what to do? Let the new brew ferment without

adding any of the previous liquid? Will it ferment with the scoby alone, no

previous liquid? Or add some that contains apple juice? I'm stumped.

I went ahead and bottled the half gallon of " vinegar " for the second ferment,

and this morning it already doesn't smell like vinegar anymore--it smells like

apple juice. So again, I'm not sure whether to add it to my new batch or leave

the new batch alone and hope the scoby takes care of the fermenting on its own.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Peggy