There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why sometimes my kombucha is so fizzy it about blows the lid off the bottle when I uncap it and other times, there’s hardly any fizz at all. I like lots of fizz! I think I brew the tea the exact same way every time. The bottles are all new with good, tight seals. I think I add the same ratios of tea/juice/sugar to the bottles. The only variables are:
- Different fruit juices are used but one time, I might use apple/grape juice and get lots of fizz and the next time, hardly any fizz.
- The temperature in the house varies quite a bit. In the winter, we rarely have the thermostat above 65º but in the summer, during the day when I’m outside working, I keep the thermostat set at near 80º.
- The brew sometimes sits out longer . . anywhere from 5 days to 10 days, before going into the fridge.
Yesterday I had two older bottles of kombucha that had been left in the fridge in the sewing room and they had the exact same juice, made the exact same day, and one had lots of fizz and one had hardly any. It’s just weird.
Fizzy Kombucha
This bottle was so fizzy that I had to stand their with my finger on the lid for the longest time, just releasing a little gas at a time to keep the bottle from spewing over. Oh, that was great kombucha!
Kombucha
For the batch I made yesterday, I added prune juice and a little vanilla. This was in the middle of making jambalaya so please overlook the crowded countertop!
Kombucha
We have enough to last us a while. I think there are 14 bottles in the fridge, along with the 5 bottles I just made that will sit at room temp for a week or so. We drink about 10 bottles per week so every other week, I have to make two batches so we don’t run out.
You can see from the different colors that different juices were used. My favorites are:
- Any of the juices mixed with blueberry juice
- Fresh ginger slices, sometimes with dried lavender flowers
- Prune juice/vanilla
Of all the crazy/weird things I’ve made, kombucha is one of our favorites.
Ruth C says
I wonder if it is the concentration of organisms that get into any one jar. They seem to clump together, as far as I can tell, so maybe the fizzy jar got a bigger clump. My kombucha is still in the growing phase and I haven’t tried to make any to drink yet.
JudyL says
I don’t think that could happen. There’s enough pouring, and stirring, and pouring going on in the liquid, that I think it pretty much gets mixed up nicely.
Good luck with your kombucha.
Laura says
Have you ever checked out culturedfoodlife.com? She has lots of answers. I learned kombucha and kefir making from her.
JudyL says
I think it mostly has to do with the temperature variations in our house. Since we hardly use heat during the winter, and don’t use the a/c most of the day we have some pretty wild swings. Our inside temp at night can drop to 63 and our daytime temp this time of year inside the house can get up to 85 so those wide swings do crazy things to my fermentation, especially since it cycles through those temps most every day.
The last two batches, I’ve started documenting high and low temps for the day before putting it in the fridge and I’m going to see if that gives me any answers.
Julie Stocker says
Judy, I want to come live with you. Everything you do is cool, and right up my alley including the kombucha. I told my kids one year to buy me a scooby or a baby, and they thought I was losing it. It’s not readily available here about so a friend brought me a bottle back from ‘the city’. I opened it over 4th of July, and there was a sharp divide on who would even taste it. 90% turned me down, and they rest of us passed the bottle. I learned that with kombuch, there’s those that do, and those that won’t.
Maybe just a long weekend? I don’t eat much.
Julie @ Pink Doxies
JudyL says
Anyone with pink doxies can come any time!
When I first tasted it, I didn’t like it. I had heard so much about it but then I bought another bottle and it was like I wanted another and then another! I can’t imagine that someone wouldn’t even try it. I’ll try most anything . . once.
Maggie says
It’s odd about the two from the same batch having different amounts of fizz. It seems like all the variables would be the same for both, including the temp. If only you knew the secret, you could get fizzy batches all the time!
JudyL says
The more I think about it, the more I think they were from two different batches. Sometimes I have two batches brewing and I’m betting I used the same fruit but one bottle sat out longer than the others, thereby creating more fizz.
Rebecca in SoCal says
I’m glad you came up with this possible difference, because I was very puzzled that two treated the same way would give such different results!