Failed First Attempt at Making Kombucha! | Digital Asset Class blog 78
Hello Steemit Community,
These vlog/blog posts have been getting further and further apart, but its for good reason! I've been working on some things I hope you guys/gals will enjoy checking out. In the mean time, I think its important to let you all know that I look forward to continue making these blog/vlog posts to keep you guys up to date! With all that being said, let me tell you about my FAILED Kombucha Experiment.
Kombucha
If you have been following my journey in the cryptocurrency space I enjoy mixing blockchain and food. I've been keeping track of some of food experiments including trying to make Lactic Acid Fermented pickles. Most recently I tried to grow a mother culture (Scoby) in an attempt to make my own kombucha! I found a recipe to grow a mother culture (which was supposed to start growing withing 2 weeks). Well, here are the results.
Day 1:
Day 14:
As you can see, I have not seen any bacterial growth in the surface of the tea in the expected growth time of 14 days.
So now, my job is to figure out why I didn't see any growth. I have a few ideas.
I was told the problem may have been the fact I initially used a cheese cloth and did not use a lid. I was told an anaerobic environment is necessary to begin the culture, and after the mother culture begins growing I can remove the lid and open the bacteria to air.
Another idea of mine was whether I added enough sugar to the tea for the bacteria to take advantage of.
I'm wondering if the type of tea I used may have played a role in inhibiting bacterial growth
I am also wondering if the unpasteurized kombucha I used to incubate the mother culture had sufficient bacteria to grow the mother culture withing the 14 days.
Helping To Install a Water System
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Thank You For Your Time,
McKenzie Gary
Cheesecloth is fine. I use paper towels. The covering is just to prevent contamination. Think: if a SCOBY preferred anaerobic conditions, why would it form at the surface, where oxygen is likely to be higher in any case?
It might work if you wait longer, but the problem is likely that the pH isn't low enough to encourage the organisms you are trying to cultivate. Try adding a small amount of vinegar.
I use a ratio of one cup sugar to one gallon water.
Thank you for your feedback. I see now that the pH may have been too high for the starter culture to grow properly. The information you provided is very insightful and I look forward to my second attempt!