HAPPY KOMBUCHA BLOG — Culture care

Autumn and winter present special challenges for culturing. As the weather cools, the methods for keeping cultures at the proper temperature must also change and adapt especially here in the UK when the weather can change dramatically from one day to the next. Some cultures will actually behave differently during the winter even when the amount of light and heat are constant, they can change their shape, size and texture and you may notice that the taste also changes slightly. How Can You Keep the Cultures Warm Enough? There are a variety of ways to help keep cultures warm enough...

Anyone ferments knows the problems of fruit flies, they just love kombucha, kefir and fermenting vegetables. Covering your brew with a good tight weave cloth can help to keep the little critters out of your brew but how do you keep them away. Well.... It's crazy and we have absolutley no scientific evidence to back this up but we use this method and it works. That's all we can say. Place between 4 and 5 pennies in a bag of water (we like the zip lock bags as they are easier to seal but any clear plastic bag works). hang...

These are pictures of all the normal things that can happen when brewing with a scoby...some look a little funny but really its all normal... I have included these pictures as people often panic when there scobies stop looking all white and pristine after you first brew with them! Scobies can do some weird and wonderful things during brewing.... here is just a few examples.... This scoby has split in two (this often happens as scobies grow in layers and it is not unusual for the layers to sometimes seperate) and has chains of yeasts hanging from it, again it...

  Baby Scobies....... Baby Scobies grow on the top of your brew or as a new layer on top of your scoby. This will happen every time you brew (can take up to 14 days before its thick enough to see). When your scoby grows as a new layer it can be a bit worrying at first as it just looks like a funny looking layer of slime/white is growing on the top of your brew. This is normal and good. If your scoby grows as a new layer on top of your brew: Leave the baby scoby where it...