What the hell is happening to my booch? Followed my standard procedure continuous batch and it tastes like ..butterscotch? honey? and has strange things growing in it. Kombucha

Hi all.

I have been continuous brewing for ~6 months now. This batch, I followed the exact same procedure that I always follow -- except for one variable: I bottled it in beer bottles instead of 1L swing tops.

Total 1F was 10 days. 2F for 3 days. Popped one.

I found that instead of being carbonated and tasting like gingerade, it tastes like a sickly sweet butterscotch or honey. I also bottled ONE 1L swing top, which seems to have carbonated, while the other bottles have not.

I taste tested prior to bottling and it tasted like it normally does, a little more tart because I forgot about it and let it go an extra two days, but still good nonetheless. There was a very weak scoby growth in my main vessel, and a very healthy scoby growth in my hotel. I filled them with the same concentrations at the same time.

See procedure and photos below:

1. 4L bottled water boiled.
2. At boiling point, add in 27g loose black & 27g loose green (I do this in a mesh bag for easy cleanup).
3. Let boil for 30 minutes with the tea inside.
4. Turn off heat/burner.
5. Add 4L bottled water from refrigerator.
6. With a vinegar-sanitized wooden spoon, add 600g sugar. Stir until dissolved.
7. Allow to sit overnight until room temp(covered).
8. Remove covering from continuous batch jar, spray surrounding area with vinegar (not directly inside).
9. Pull tea bag.
10. Dump tea/sugar mix right on top of the SCOBY.
11. Cover with fine mesh and rubber band.
12. Spray fine mesh with vinegar.
13. Close and let sit for 7 days before using the bottom spigot to taste.
14. Taste every day until sufficiently tart.
15. Wash all bottles with hot water.
16. Create bottled water/vinegar solution, and wash all bottles with that solution.
17. Rinse all bottles with bottled water.
18. Fill bottles with booch. Leave approximately 500ml in bottom of continuous batch container.
19. Add 25mL ginger juice to each bottle. Cap bottles
20. Wait 3 days, refrigerate one over night, pop and drink.
21. If carbonation OK, then move all to the refrigerator. If carbonation bad, let sit more days based on level of carbonation (this is a "by-feel" thing).
22. Repeat 20-21.
23. Repeat 1-22.

If I have too many SCOBYs, I wash my hands with vinegar and transfer them to my hotel, leaving one inside. Note that I have not cleaned my continuous brewing vessel in over 6 months (~20 batches maybe).

See photos: http://ift.tt/2uL1kPr

Submitted August 17, 2017 at 11:25AM by kcramp http://ift.tt/2v3DN7L Kombucha