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I am brewing my Kombucha for about four months now, starting a new batch every four to five days.
Since three weeks my Kombucha got a little thick (viscous, syrupy). I did not change my recipe, the SCOBY just got bigger.
Is this normal? Is this caused by the bigger SCOBY?
Yes, it will probably be related to the large Scoby. Either trim the scoby, or use a larger container. That seems a very short ferment too though. What size is your scoby, and what volume of tea are you using?
Probably caused by the larger SCOBY, next time round trim down the SCOBY and try again.
If it smells OK and tastes OK then you are most likely fine, if it has sulfur notes or anything else unpleasant, then ditch it and start again with a trimmed down SCOBY.
The thickness is likely the bacteria, it's the slimy clear part. The yeast is the brown stringy part. Higher temperatures and sugar content are going to influence the consistency as well as your total volume of fluid. As others have noted, your scoby might be too big for the container and volume of tea. I use a 1 gallon jar and my scoby is about 3 inches thick. My brew cycle takes 7-10 days and I take out a little over half the volume of raw kombucha each time.
Just a note, higher temperatures will really speed up the brew, so keep that in mind and taste more often.
The problem seamed to be related to the raising temperature in the spring. When I started brewing it was January and the temperature was changing daily from 18°C to 23°C. When my Kombucha got thick the temperature was changing daily from 20°C to 26°C.
Just trimming the scoby didn't solve the problem.
After I moved my container into a cooler room (19°C) my Kombucha is delicious again. :-)
