my buddy roasted my kombucha setup and honestly he was right

Dude came over last weekend and saw I was using this old pickle jar with a paper towel rubber banded on top. He straight up laughed at me and said "you know that's not doing you any favors right?" Told me about how the airflow was too inconsistent and the paper towel was probably letting in fruit flies anyway. Switched to a proper cloth cover with a real band after he left and my last batch actually turned out way cleaner. No floaties or weird stuff. Has anyone else had someone just call them out on their fermentation gear? Kinda glad he did honestly.

2 comments

2 Comments

caleb14011d ago

Your buddy did you a solid. Those pickle jar setups are a gamble, I learned that the hard way when a fruit fly got in and I had to dump a whole batch. A proper cloth cover with a tight band or even a coffee filter with a rubber band makes a huge difference, the airflow is way more even. Also, if you haven't tried it yet, swap to a wide mouth jar with a spigot for bottling, it cuts down on mess so much and keeps the sediment out of your final bottles.

alex_hall9111d ago

Has anyone tried a vacuum seal system for long term storage? I get that @caleb140 mentioned cloth covers for airflow, which is solid for active brewing, but once it's done, an airtight seal stops any chance of bugs or dust messing with the batch. I switched to a narrow neck carboy with a rubber stopper and airlock for that part, and it's way less hassle than worrying about fruit flies. The wide mouth spigot jar is smart for bottling, but I'd rather keep that for serving and use something else for the fermenting step. Every setup has its tradeoffs, but picking the right tool for each stage saves a lot of wasted batches.