Kombucha Update #4

I started brewing my own Kombucha in Jan 2013. At that time I was still consuming white sugar. In 2014, I decided to slowly remove white sugar from my diet. It has been tough and challenging, but I am lucky that I can still have other forms of sweeteners. During this transition I decided that my Kombucha recipe had to change. I wasn’t sure how much of the white sugar would be consumed by the bacteria after the fermentation. I took a risk and started using coconut sugar. I wanted to completely remove white sugar from my diet. At first my Kombucha was fine. My scoby looked healthy. The taste was pleasant. It has been over a year now since I switched over. Currently my Kombucha has grown pungent and has a strong taste of alcohol. The taste is not as sweet and slightly bitter. I do not mind the taste especially when you put blueberries in it. It isn’t as sweet as it used to be. The scoby mother is still healthy looking so I don’t think that the coconut sugar has affected the scoby. I do think that the bacteria consumes the coconut sugar quicker and causes the Kombucha to taste less sweet. So if this is something you like or you want to reduce your sugar intake, try replacing your sugar with coconut sugar. (or even part of it)

I am not sure what the next step would be at this time. Should I try an alternative sugar? Reduce the fermentation time to see how it tastes? I will keep experimenting. Have you tried experimenting with your Kombucha?

Tips to keep your Kombucha tasty:

When you find that your Kombucha tastes too much of alcohol, it is time to clean up the yeast at the bottom of the jar. In a clean jar pour out the Kombucha being careful not to pour too much of the yeast from the bottom of the jar. Remove the scoby and set aside. Pour out the yeasty Kombucha. You will see the yeast settles at the bottom of the jar. It is cloudy and sludgy. Place the scoby back in the empty jar and pour in Kombucha. Doing this helps to make your Kombucha have a cleaner taste. ( You can keep the yeast for making Kombucha sourdough.)
Keep only one or two 1 inch scobies in your jar. Having too many, ferments your Kombucha too quickly. Toss the rest into your compost or make doggie treats.
If you are experimenting, keep a scoby hotel of your extra scobys. You never know when you will mess up. A scoby hotel is a jar with extra scobys topped with Kombucha. You don’t need to feed as regularly. Just make sure there is enough liquid. Here is my scoby hotel.