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To Tell the Progress of a Kombucha Ferment


For the virgin brewer, assessing the progress and completion of a kombucha ferment can be daunting. It shouldn't be.

The virgin brewer will often initiate a brew, leave it to sit, and hope for the best. Certainly, disturbing a ferment can be detrimental to its growth. But tracking its progress is just as important. It's a bit like keeping a house plant: you wouldn't want to grope and water it at every moment, but once in a while, it's important to check for mites or wilting. And perhaps to sing to it.

Although kombucha is a comparatively low-maintenance pet, negligence is a poor strategy if a delicious commodity is desired. If left to itself for two long, it might develop in any of the following ways:
  • turning to vinegar,
  • not fermenting at all,
  • growing a fat, unmanageable mother,
  • cultivating mold,
  • exploding, if it has been bottled.
Fortunately, these are all easily prevented. Appearance and taste are your most effective indicators of a ferment's progress.

To begin, we'll review what a successful ferment looks like.

Formation and Growth of the Mother.


¹My friend Tori one took to this strategy, and later discovered that her ferment had grown a mother four inches thick and too firm to remove from the jar. She mailed the ferment to me, but did not replace the breathable cloth top on the jar with a proper lid, and the package arrived drenched in eerie kombucha vinegar.