Anyone know anything about kombucha?

[bonescwa]

I have a specific question I can't seem to find an answer to. I have a bottle of organic apple cider vinegar that I've had for about a year. There is a thick layer of yeast/bacteria at the bottom, it looks pretty similar to a SCOBY. Has anyone made kombucha, and do you think I'd be able to use this stuff? I don't want to waste time and effort if it can't be done this way.

[ole]

I think I would be a bit cautious of using an unknown bacteria culture to make anything edible, but that might just be me.
In all seriousness though, be careful, if you don't know what you're doing it could go very wrong.

[Drax]

I used to make kombucha a few years back, and I did it using tea I had picked up from an organic market.

The only thing I would be worried about in your case is that the SCOBY-like thing that you have might be bacteria only, since it's in some vinegar. As you state, the stuff you need for kombucha includes yeast. But perhaps you could add yeast to it manually if you wanted to balance it?

I don't know if kombucha uses any special strains (or, special strains compared to vinegar).

[bonescwa]

I think I would be a bit cautious of using an unknown bacteria culture to make anything edible, but that might just be me.
In all seriousness though, be careful, if you don't know what you're doing it could go very wrong.

But it's organisms from vinegar, so that certainly is edible. I'm not scared of any health risks, I just don't want tea-vinegar

[debunix]

I would not expect a vinegar culture to yield anything like Kombucha--yeast die off at vinegar pH. Disclaimer: I have no personal experience with Kombucha, but have worked a little with sourdough cultures, which also are mixtures of yeast and bacteria, and I'd be very wary of trying to create my own from a non-traditional source of culture material.

[Drax]

When you make kombucha, you don't let the pH of the beverage get to the pH of vinegar. You get some amount of it as the bacteria chew their way through the sugar that you add. The yeast are presumably there to add a fizz to the drink (and a very tiny amount of alcohol).

When I used to brew kombucha, successive batches got more and more acrid (vinegar). In retrospect, I think I lost more and more of my yeast. If I were to do it again, I'd add yeast to the mix and watch the balance of the two better.

[entropyembrace]

mother of vinegar (what you have) consists of bacteria that metabolize ethanol to produce acetic acid (vinegar) at least some of them won't even be able to grow without the ethanol.

[bonescwa]

I guess I'll give it a shot anyway. I can put a bit of yeast in as well.

[Maertin]

I brew about 12L of Kombucha weekly and I'm pretty sure you won't get any kombucha SCOBY from pure vinegar that has been standing somewhere for a year. Agree there is most likely no yeast.

Best source on balancing bacteria vs yeast in Kombucha is this site: http://users.bestweb.net/~om/kombucha_balance/

To get a SCOBY shouldn't be that difficult and it's worth it! My fav is brewing it with either cheap sencha or some really strong pu ehr. Those taste amazing with ginger and chilli for example.

[bonescwa]

Yeast can just come from the air

[Chris418]

In your first message, you said that you dont want to loose time with something that will not work.

People here keep telling you it's not a good idea to try this.
So at least if you ask a question, listen the people who take the time to write to help you..

[bonescwa]

True, but I was more asking if people have tried this. I'm not going to order a special thing online for something so simple, so I'll forget about it if someone tried it and knows for a fact it won't work

[entropyembrace]

I have not tried it but I think that you can add yeast to mother of vinegar and use it, the yeast will make ethanol to feed your acetic acid bacteria. The kombucha I've tasted all had plenty of acetic acid in it...though I didn't care for it.

[Drax]

Yeast will not come from the air in the quantities that you need. As I mentioned already, I had problems with the yeast becoming too few with subsequent batches. The yeast are at a serious disadvantage in this process.

If starting from your vinegar culture and adding yeast doesn't work, you can just pick up a bottle of real kombucha from the market (which is how I started). Make sure it's live culture and hasn't been pasteurized or sterilized in any way. Drink half of it and then use the other half to start your own kombucha. Very simple.

[bonescwa]

True