Finished first ever brew. While decent, not exactly what I expected. Where could I have gone wrong, and what could/should I adjust in my next batch? Kombucha

First time Kombucha brewer.

I have a 2 gallon container. I made a concentrated pot of sweet Pu-erh tea (dissolved in 400g/2 cups of granulated sugar)

In the 2 gallon container I poured in about 1.5 gallons of fresh water, and then poured the concentrated sweet Pu-erh tea into. After the whole thing cooled, I then poured in about half a cup of distilled white vinegar, and then poured in the scoby/liquid etc. I received in the mail.

Over the next few days, the scoby stayed at the bottom. Then one day it was floating in the middle. White gelatinous stuff began forming at the top. Everything looked alright, so I assumed it was fine doing its thing.

Per some of the recommendations I've seen on this subreddit, I let it do its thing for about 7 days. After 7 days, I poured some into a few different bottles (I used emptied Evian bottled-water bottles, screwing the cap on tight), sprinkled some sugar into each, and let each sit in the room temperate for another 3 days hoping for a fizzy second fermentation.

Then, I put each bottle into the refrigerator, hoping for some fizzy, not-too-sweet Kombucha.

The result? While the taste seemed fine, if only perhaps a little sweeter than expected, there was no absolutely no fizz at all.

My question is, where could I possibly have gone wrong? Not enough sugar in the initial/2F batch? Should I not have used the "concentrated sweet tea poured into water" method, and instead just brew the whole thing as tea? Do bottled-water bottles not work well for 2F? Since it was my first brew, should I have let it brew for longer than 7 days at first? Just hoping for some ideas on what I can adjust my next go-around that might lead to my desired result.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Submitted May 22, 2016 at 05:54PM by edwinthepig http://ift.tt/1TnIrZb Kombucha