Bubbles You Say?

...Bloop, bloop bloop...

Only five days into brewing, there is some serious bubbling going on. I have more green tea brewing in the foreground, and a mostly white tea brewing in the background (had black tea starter).

The white tea is really chugging up a storm. There is a mother of size in there, and the bubbles have forced it from the bottom up to the top.A few hours before these pictures were taken, I push down on the surface SCOBY to allow some gas to escape. A few hours later, my mothers were all gassy again...

I was doing some reading online this morning about kombucha (as I cannot seem to satiate my desire for more information), and learned that the more you brew, the more CO2 is produced. Basically, when I received my SCOBY mothers, they were somewhat shocked from inactivity and transport. As the SCOBY mother (namely the yeast) begins to proliferate, it becomes more active.

It explains why my first batch of kombucha was a bit sweet, and not so fizzy. They are drinkable, but still to sweet for my taste. Also, I kept about 1/10th of the last batch in each container to keep the brew acidic. I think this allowed the mothers to get right down to business as soon as they were plopped in the jugs.

The more you do something, the easier it gets. That means me brewing kombucha, and the mothers' laborious duty of converting sugar and tea into acids, alcohol and CO2. And yes, it's okay to personify the mothers :D