Sugar

Do I need Sugar?

Yes, absolutely. Sugar is food for your kombucha culture while it's fermenting. In the first two weeks your scoby eats the tea, turns the sugar into glucose and fructose while producing carbon dioxide and alcohol. Then the bacteria uses the glucose, alcohol and oxygen to create the SCOBY cellulose film (baby scoby), acetic acid and B vitamins. The new SCOBY film protects the kombucha from the air and outside bacteria and molds.

Table Sugar

Plain white cane sugar is the best for the fermentation process. The culture digests this sugar the easiest. Finding organic varieties is the best to ensure that there are no contaminates in it. Although you can use non-organic if you choose too.

Other Sugars

You can try brown sugar, molasses, rapadura, raw sugar, sucanat and turbinado. I don't recommend using other types of sugars or molasses in your brew they are inconsistant and can lead to undesirable results. If you decide to try using different sugars do some research and keep a spare scoby on hand. (Just In Case!)

What About Honey?

Honey is antibacterial which will damage the SCOBY over time. If you want to try it, use extra SCOBYs that you're willing to sacrifice should things go wrong.

Jun?

Similar to kombucha in that it too makes a SCOBY. It uses green tea and honey instead of black tea and cane sugar. Give it a try!

Things Can Go Wrong!

Fruit Flies

Fruit flies love sweet things so kombucha make a desirable place for them. You have to make sure they can't get inside your vessel. If they get inside they could lay eggs which lead to maggots. Throw away any SCOBYs and kombucha that has an infestation in it.

Mold

Mold is rare when you have a healthy scoby. It is common for beginners to confuse yeast for mold. Yeast is brown, stringy and slimy and found throughout the kombucha. Mold is green, blue or grey in colour. Usually it's located on top of your SCOBY culture. It's not like the mold on cheese, you can't scrape it off. There are many varieties of mold that can root in the SCOBY and kombucha and without proper testing it would be unsafe to try and save it. If you think you have mold show take a picture and show another brewer. If you are concerned that it's mold get rid of of your SCOBY and kombucha, sanitize all your equipment. Get a new SCOBY and start over. Better safe than sorry!

Prevent Mold!

You need starter liquid known as kombucha vinegar to keep the batch safe from mold by lowering the pH levels. Mold won't grow in an acidic environment. Older kombucha has a lower pH. Use it to make a good starter liquid. A safe brew requires a minimum of 10% starter liquid in the total volume of kombucha to get a pH below 4.5. Add distilled vinegar if you don't have enough starter liquid. Cover your kombucha and leave it in a place where it won't be disturbed by plants or animals.