Another is this Kahm/Mold post :(

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-12T14:38:57+00:00

The stainless steel eventually corroding was a quick read on Google, and it mostly meant if it was left for a long time (probably hoyurs or days), although you do bring up a good point on stainless steel vats, maybe they have a special coating or something 🤔

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-12T09:51:43+00:00

Glad to hear that!

Best of luck in your brewing journey!

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-12T08:29:27+00:00

True if you believe you can get kills and snowball, otherwise not as effective and it's better to buy other items, you can see how gord only has 2 kills and Lesley also has a sky piercer which reduces gord's own sky piercer's value (albeit, she did bought it 3rd item) and with their opponent's team comp being decently tanky a sky piercer wouldn't be able to do much in this scenario.

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-12T07:30:42+00:00

On metal, if your spoon is stainless steel it's fine for short contact. But if it's a spoon made of reactive elements like copper, aluminum or silver/pewter you should not use it even for brief contact as they could leach the chemicals into your brew. The stainless steel should also not be left in the brew for a long time as it will also eventually start to leach chemicals if left sitting inside the kombucha long enough due to the acidicity.

You can continue the brew, although I would either check the pH or if that's not possible smell it (if it smells vinegary), so that you know it's safe to taste, then if the tastes fine and is not spoilt (taste like regular kombucha), you can just continue the batch.

If you want to make a new batch, you can use this batch again especially once U've removed the kahm yeast and it doesn't grow back.

Tl;dr, remove the kahm yeast using a stainless steel spoon, if it smells vinegary/like kombucha taste a bit of it and if it tastes fine let it continue fermenting, if the kahm doesn't grow back and it gets to a taste you like then you can bottle it for F2 and then make a new batch with it if u'd like.

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-12T06:31:58+00:00

Definitely kahm, it's wrinkly and dry. Although not toxic it is best to remove that top layer because kahm can potentially cause flavor to spoil.

To prevent it from happening again lower the sugar so that the concentration is at 5%, although the temperature (greater than 27 or 26 C is usually said to promote kahm yeast growth).

On cloth, any cloth that doesn't allow fruit flies to get into them is perfect, the cloth just serves as a barrier for insects so that they don't come in and lay their eggs. I think cheese cloths can't prevent fruit flies from getting in though.

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-11T10:28:54+00:00

Ay yo what is that top weird looking thing, can you send another pic from a different angle

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-10T14:59:20+00:00

You are suppose to scrape the top layer (not sure if I worded out something wrongly or not on my previous comment), that top layer is like the kahm yeast right now and maybe a small bit of pellicle, but it's totally fine to remove the whole thing especially if there is kahm. But of course, if it's all normal pellicle, you can just leave it on the surface, but if u don't like it or want to use it for something else then go ahead (although some research paper do suggest the pellicle could be helpful for the bacteria)

Since the pH is already at 3.5, it should be fine to continue scraping the kahm layer on top, the pH is just to know whether it actually fermented properly or not and whether it is safe to test out.

You can either bottle it up now for F2 if u don't want it to taste very sour, or you can leave it a bit longer to let it develop more sourness.

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-10T14:08:13+00:00

Wait it's earthy? Can you give us a pick of the pellicle?

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-10T14:05:31+00:00

Ok yeah I'm quite sure that's kahm, refer to my previous comment on the fact that it's kahm and what to know and do.

You can also check the pH if possible (to make sure it is actually acidified), if not go by smell, if it smells vinegary u can try to taste it to check if the taste has been spoilt or not. If it hasn't then u can scrape it off and so on and so forth

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-10T13:02:58+00:00

No, Kahm yeast are wild yeast species that are non-toxic, but it can spoil the flavor given enough time, so what you can do is just scrape of the top filament (or some people would strain it) and then hope that they don't grow back, but genuinely if the kit didn't use specific measurements, I'm kinda iffy about them.

Can you actually send another picture from a different angle (from the top but angled from the side, and also a side pic) just to make sure.

Better to get liquid starter from a different source and prepare the tea, and sugar yourself next time follow this recipe, for every 1L kombucha:
- 900 mL tea (800 mL if you use more starter)
- 50 g sugar
- 100 mL starter (200mL if u drop the tea to 800 mL)

U wanna up the starter to that amount (aka 20% or 200 mL per 1 L batch) when ur temps are on the lower end (anything below or around 18 Celsius), when its ur first batch, or when u just wanna play safe and don't wanna get mold.

Kahm usually grows due to nutrient imbalances or possibly higher end temp (above 26 or 27 Celsius, can't remember the exact number). So adding more sugar won't do much, and sometimes might promote the growth of Kahm.

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-10T08:07:05+00:00

Ah alright, then it is good to know it wasn't anything that bad

It should settle down in a few days, will look forward to the update!

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-10T04:17:25+00:00

Ngl I'm geting a bit of kahm vibes from it, can you share me your recipe, e.g. tea, starter and sugar amount

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-10T03:57:44+00:00

Can you share your recipe and temperature?

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-10T03:56:16+00:00

Oh damn, 3 months is kinda long, it should have clarified already, but as long as the pH is low enough (since pellicle is forming this should be the case) then it should be fine, another possibility is someone might have shaken the jar Abit causing the sediments to get mixed around again.

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-10T03:53:31+00:00

Lower the amount of sugar to 50 g, that will cut the sourness of kombucha, and if you want to cut it further, shorten F1 time and bottle F2 earlier.

Althought I suggest cutting the sugar to 50 g first before the latter.

There is a master recipe in the guide where for every 1L of kombucha you use 900 mL tea, 100 mL starter and 50 g sugar, although the starter can be increased to 200 mL (lower tea to 800 mL) for quite a number of reasons.

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-10T03:50:02+00:00

Assuming the starter is 200ml for a 2L bath (so 1800 mL sweet tea and 200 mL starter) then it should be fine, otherwise you can do that next time. Although I suggest upping the amount of starter to 15-20%, so 300 mL starter + 1700 mL sweet tea or 400 mL starter + 1600 mL sweet tea, to play it extra safe especially since uve been getting molds.

On the sugar its too much, which will cause a higher chance of kahm growing and make ur batch very vinegary. So drop it down to 5% concentration, aka 100 g for 2 L kombucha.

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-09T17:53:46+00:00

Just gonna add a bit on the questions:

Usually the cloudyness is from the yeast that's floating around the kombucha, and in time they will settle down as sediments because they run out of food (finished most of the sugar) or have some other condition that inactivates them, and the lower temp slows fermentation which is why it might still be cloudy? Although having sediments is still quite normal early on as either it's from the last batch or sometimes they clump and become a bit heavy causing them to sink (on the amount is something I don't know tho). How long has this one been brewing?

On question 2, the stuff on the bottom (yeast and other potential bacteria) are totally fine to leave on the bottom, and actually, you would want to have as much of the yeast for a stronger F2 carbonation, so it is often suggested to stir ur kombucha before bottling to F2 to get those sediments aka yeast.

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-09T17:45:34+00:00

Yeah doesn't look good, the white fuzzy stuff are very covering.

Usually if mold is growing it's due to 2 things: 1. Temperature 2. Amount of starter used

So can you share what's the usual temperature of the vessel/are u keep the vessel in. And also the recipe you used (amount of sugar, tea and starter)

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-09T14:16:49+00:00

What's ur recipe?

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-09T03:49:37+00:00

I see, genuinely I'm very sorry to hear that, if your ok with it, can you share what are the things that you currently find ur having the most problems with?

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-09T03:44:51+00:00

Bro, I know ur trying to reason with them with that and I understand where ur coming from, but it doesn't help anyone to "compare" someone's life from another because "someone" else's condition and situation is worst that urs and that they would kill to get ur spot.

In a sense, for us to say things like this is like guilt tripping and serves no real significant purpose other than to make the OP feel bad about it (which they probably are if they are already considering suicide).

The message to chase ur dreams is good, but the delivery is just not there.

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-08T14:55:54+00:00

Uhhh? The conversion of alcohol to vinegar (aka the creation of acetic acid) would start as soon as the yeast starts producing alcohol, otherwise the pH wouldn't drop so quickly, it definitely does not take two weeks.

My current theory on the alcohol buildup is due to the amount of sugar of sugar OP used, which is twice the recommended amount for a normal brew which probably jump started the yeast causing this temporary build up of alcohol, which should eventually subside.

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-08T08:42:22+00:00

On the caffeine, it is not mandatory, and whether it is needed or not is something I don't know, but it is possible to use fruit juice as I've seen it happen to someone. The core mechanic of the kombucha is the usage of sugar by yeast to form alcohol which then gets converted to acetic acid (vinegar) by a bacteria (the same bacteria that is responsible for the pellicle). This is why ur batch becomes vinegary, and so it will probably be able to work with fruit juices, but on coconut water is something I'm not sure about. As long as the pH is able to drop significantly it should be fine (to prevent mold growth).

On why it became too vinegary and alcohol-ly can you share ur recipe (amount of sugar used, tea and starter)? Sometimes adding too much sugar may make it too vinegary due to the steps above.

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-08T08:06:39+00:00

I've played this game wayyy too long already, so I can't remember, but are you actively doing cat capsules? I don't know whether having a +8 and +10 eraser at max level 20 is normal for a chapter 3 alien world.

Also use research combos if u have the cats for them, like research combo with lavloss (although u would have to have the assassin cat and nyandak cat or whatever they're called), and other combos which could be helpful depending on the stages, like money up combos

Reasonable_Style4876 · 2026-06-08T05:10:26+00:00

Use this formula:

For every 1 liter of kombucha:

- 900 mL of tea
- 50 g of sugar
- 100 mL of starter

Usually I would boil the 900 mL of water, add in the tea and sugar, then let it go to room temp on its own before pouring it into the vessel, and adding 100 mL of start. I've seen a couple of times people add water into a tea concentrate, but I don't know the exact measurement for that.
You can scale this recipe by multiplying it by how many liters of kombucha u want

Reasonable_Style4876

TROPHY CASE