New Continuous Brew Help

[Matthew Liscomb]

New Member, thank you for inviting me in, I am excited to get advice from veterans! 

I am new to the process of continuous brewing. I bought a Pilon 4 liter and started my brew (as instructed) with 4 cups of sweet tea (using Oolong). I let that ferment to about 3.2 PH which is to my liking. Then added again, as instructed, 14 cups of sweet tea and let that ferment.

So technically I should have 18 cups of tea at this point. So once I reached 3.2 PH I siphoned off 14 cups and the level was lower than I thought it should be. Is there evaporation? I added another 14 cups of sweet tea and noticed that this time the scoby sank. a couple days later though it's back to floating, but of course now the scoby is bigger than the top so it can't make it to the top of the brew to float.

My question I guess is trying to figure the appropriate ratios. Once I reach the preferred sweetness level or PH, how can I be sure to add the correct amount of tea to bucha? My thinking is if I siphon off X cups, I should replace X cups? Is that over thinking it? From some of the videos I have seen it struck me sort of like cooking. Amounts are not a science per say, and the numbers can be slightly loose. 

I guess I am unsure of myself. When I did this via mason jars it was easy to know the exact amount of starter tea to sweet-tea given the size of the jar.

Any advice to a new continuous brewer?

P.S. Side question. With Kombucha I am always paranoid about contamination. I practice the standard cleaning processes. Clean hands, surfaces, tools, ect. Just hot water and vinegar and so on. But I also brew Kefir which I keep on the other side of the kitchen in a sealed Mason Jar (mindful of gasses but that I have been doing for years and I love my Kefir!!). I am more concerned with molds or bad bacteria and possibly getting sick. I wish there was a more definitive way to know if your batch is bad. Any advice on keeping your bucha pure would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you all again! 

Matthew

[Jared Englund]

Hi Matthew,

There could be evaporation, and yes the level of the liquid goes down as it turns into SCOBY.

The continuous brew is meant to be simple.  Yes basically drink X cups, replace X cups.  Once you do it for a while I'm guessing you will get a feel for how to make it how you like it.  I encourage you to take notes especially until you have created a recipe you like.

Also, if a batch goes bad, it tastes bad.  It looks not right on the surface of the liquid.  When in doubt, start over from a fresh culture.  Get your friends to make Kombucha as well so that if your SCOBY goes bad, you can get a new one from them.

Keep learning!