Re: 2.5 gallon continuous brewing

October 20, 2011

This is what I'd like to do as well. I'm very new at this, so will be following

this thread closely. I have my very first, ever, brew on now, it's on day 4 and

I already like it. It might not last long enough to get a good scoby on top.

Yvette

>

> Anyone doing this? I was last spring, but my scoby didn't seem to want to

> grow and stayed very translucent and thin.

October 20, 2011

We all probably do this.

You're having trouble I never had, and I have troubles of my own.

Where do you live? I live in the top of WV.

Tell us how you are doing your continuous brew--from the chosen vessel, to the

cleaning practice, to the finished product of what you drink. Give us a good

picture so we can see what you do in our kitchen and maybe someone can spot the

problem. Tell us what your temps are. Where you place it.

Do you have successful brews in the gal jugs?

Lyn

----- Original Message -----

Anyone doing this? I was last spring, but my scoby didn't seem to want to

grow and stayed very translucent and thin. The first couple batches seemed

okay, but the last few were - ick. I finally just stopped and went back to

gallon brewing, but would really like to get back to continuous brewing.

I would brew until it tasted like what I wanted. Then I would use the

spigot to pour off until it didn't come out. What was left in the bottom

was my starter. I poured the cooled tea in on top (was advised by the

person I bought the set up from to do it this way).

What am I missing or not doing? Or do continuous brews need to have their

scoby replaced after a couple of brews?

Thanks for any insight you can give me!

Shari

October 20, 2011

I have a 2.8 gal. continuous brew jar. For it to be " continuous brew " you

should not take so much at one time. The " continuous " part means it takes a

much shorter time to get to drinking stage as opposed to the 1-2 week period for

most " non-continuous " brews. My schedule is to draw off one gallon and refill

with one gallon every 3-4 days. If you were to draw off, say, a quart and add

back a quart of sweet tea, it would probably be ready to drink in a day.

The issue of the thin scoby probably has to do with the balance of bacteria and

yeast being off. I'm sure others can give you advice on that.

in Texas

>

> Anyone doing this? I was last spring, but my scoby didn't seem to want to

> grow and stayed very translucent and thin. The first couple batches seemed

> okay, but the last few were - ick. I finally just stopped and went back to

> gallon brewing, but would really like to get back to continuous brewing.

>

> I would brew until it tasted like what I wanted. Then I would use the

> spigot to pour off until it didn't come out. What was left in the bottom

> was my starter. I poured the cooled tea in on top (was advised by the

> person I bought the set up from to do it this way).

>

> What am I missing or not doing? Or do continuous brews need to have their

> scoby replaced after a couple of brews?

>

> Thanks for any insight you can give me!

>

> Shari

>

October 20, 2011

From your description I would guess your crock became unbalanced towards too

high of yeasts. By draining it and only reserving the dregs in the crock

you are maintaining lots of the yeasts. I always keep around 2 cups from

the main part of the crock set aside, bottle the rest, pull the old SCOBY

and leave the new one (although if your new one is thin you may want to

reserve the old one or both of them), top with new cooled sweet tea, THEN

top with those 2 cups of reserved KT, cover the crock with a cloth and let

it do its thing. My SCOBYs are thick and healthy and my KT is yummy. You

want to make sure you have some good acidic not overly yeasty starter. AND

periodically you'd want to clean the whole crock out - pull and set aside

the SCOBY(s) - set aside some KT starter to top off with - clean the crock -

rinse well - fill with sweet tea, add SCOBY, top with starter and away you

go.

Jaxi

> Anyone doing this? I was last spring, but my scoby didn't seem to want to

> grow and stayed very translucent and thin. The first couple batches seemed

> okay, but the last few were - ick. I finally just stopped and went back to

> gallon brewing, but would really like to get back to continuous brewing.

>

> I would brew until it tasted like what I wanted. Then I would use the

> spigot to pour off until it didn't come out. What was left in the bottom

> was my starter. I poured the cooled tea in on top (was advised by the

> person I bought the set up from to do it this way).

>

> What am I missing or not doing? Or do continuous brews need to have their

> scoby replaced after a couple of brews?

>

> Thanks for any insight you can give me!

>

> Shari

>

> ------------------------------------

>

October 21, 2011

Thanks for the help. Here's the rundown:

I do not clean every time and I'm thinking this is what the downfall was.

The jug is made of porcelain or some such glazed material with a plastic

spigot and plastic o'ring. I bought it from a kombucha dealer and it was

sold specifically for continuous brewing.

It sits on my kitchen counter (would like to find some place else!) and when

I was brewing it was spring and rather cool and rainy here in western

Washington state.

I use a black, unflavored tea and raw sugar for making my tea.

Shari

October 21, 2011

Thanks for the help. Here's the rundown:

I do not clean every time and I'm thinking this is what the downfall was.

The jug is made of porcelain or some such glazed material with a plastic

spigot and plastic o'ring. I bought it from a kombucha dealer and it was

sold specifically for continuous brewing.

It sits on my kitchen counter (would like to find some place else!) and when

I was brewing it was spring and rather cool and rainy here in western

Washington state.

I use a black, unflavored tea and raw sugar for making my tea.

Shari

October 21, 2011

wrote: " ......but add a litre of sweetened tea every few days -

depending on how much I've had to drink - I usually just draw a glass

straight from the container, so in a couple of days it needs topping up. So

I probably maintain a gallon of brew in the container at any one time.

After adding tea, the kombucha is ready to drink again within 24 hours. My

scobies are thin, but there are about 1.5 inches of them.... "

I'm wondering how you can drink out of your brew everyday and add tea every

few days and still get true kombucha. I would think it was just sweet, room

temperature tea doing that.

Thought it had to " brew " for a time to eat the sugar and become kombucha.

Shari

October 21, 2011

So I have an 8oz glass of tea on day one, an 8oz on day two, and 8 oz on day

three, when I add a litre/quart of sweet tea to a gallon of brew. The next day

my gallon and a quart is perhaps a bit sweeter than it was the day before, but

there is a big scoby and a gallon of brew working on it, and I find it

insignificantly different. It's a living food, and each batch would be

different as well if I was batch brewing. My brew tends to be on the acidic

side, minimally sparkling, and I don't think anyone tasting it would think it

was just sweet tea. Continuous brewing in this way works for me & I like it

because it is be less labour intensive, with less waiting once you have your

brew going.

> wrote: " ......but add a litre of sweetened tea every few days -

> depending on how much I've had to drink - I usually just draw a glass

> straight from the container, so in a couple of days it needs topping up. So

> I probably maintain a gallon of brew in the container at any one time.

> After adding tea, the kombucha is ready to drink again within 24 hours. My

> scobies are thin, but there are about 1.5 inches of them.... "

>

> I'm wondering how you can drink out of your brew everyday and add tea every

> few days and still get true kombucha. I would think it was just sweet, room

> temperature tea doing that.

>

> Thought it had to " brew " for a time to eat the sugar and become kombucha.

>

> Shari

>

October 21, 2011