Kombucha is too strong

I've been experimenting with a continuous kombucha this year. The trouble have is that I find the taste a bit strong, so I'm not gong through it as quickly as I make it. I have to dilute it quite a bit to make it more palatable for me.
I use our normal black tea at normal brew strength and add about 2 tablespoons sugar per pint (20fl Oz). How can I change my method to make the kombucha milder in flavour? Am I just letting it brew too long? Suggestions as to what to do with the excess or how to slow the fermentation down might be helpful too.

Do you mean too sour?  If so that's brewing too long, typically.  If you have to brew too long to get it to work, sometimes that's not using enough active starter, in my experience.

I use about 1/4-1/2 c of kombucha (best the cloudy stuff off the bottom) plus the rubbery mother.

The sugared tea mix I use is 1/4 cup of cane sugar to 4 cups of water, with 4 tea bags or one heaping tablespoon of loose leaf tea.  For the amount of mother I'm mentioning above, I will use 4 - 8 cups of the sugar water.

If I make more, I use more mother mix to keep the ratios near the same.  I also let the mother get FAT.  I noticed a friend of mine was using a really thin layer of mother and sometimes it would mold.  I like a beefy mother.  haha

I don't usually make less than 4 cups at once.  There is a sort of golden ratio of material, kitchen temp, and time to figure out.

So when the kombucha has used most of the tea up, it will taste sour but not anywhere near unbearable, and the sweet tea flavor is diminished significantly.  If the yeast ratios are happy, there will be bubbling.

Then I bottle the booch for a second ferment at room temperature.  I use one big growler or storebought booch bottle that has a reusable lid (Synergy is the best brand for reusing bottles here in the US).  One big bottle works better than many smaller ones.  (I also do the smaller ones, but the results are much more consistent in one big one).  

I add either a little bit of fruit juice (about a 1:10 ratio), 1/8 tsp ginger juice, 1/8-1 tsp dry turmeric powder, or sweetened herbal tea at that point.  Then bottle and cap, and let sit 1-3 more days to get fizzy.  And watch for lid swelling!

You can learn to start the secondary ferment at a point that will make a product that tastes almost exactly like storebought.  Not lemon-pucker sour, but tart and vivaciously fizzy.  It's a matter of learning the flavors and timing.  Good luck!

Thank you Kim!
I am getting bubbling, although it takes a day or two to start. I'm probably adding 1 pint new sweet tea to 2 pints in the jar with the mother, so maybe I'm starting with too much old kombucha?
I might try emptying the next batch out and making just one pint at a time. I just split the mother so it is quite thin (but now double).

I've been leaving the bottles in the fridge for second fermenting (just run out of my elderflower cordial, so I may try fruit juice next) as I'm concerned about bottles exploding all over the kitchen! It seems to take about a week for them to become nice and fizzy.

I'm not brewing kombucha right now, but I did for a few years. By the time the sourness exceeded what I was willing to drink, it was fine to collect it in a jug and call it vinegar.

My experience is that the SCOBY is entirely incidental. You can use one if you like -- and if you don't, one (or more) will form. And the culture sours equally well either way.

Christopher Weeks wrote:I'm not brewing kombucha right now, but I did for a few years. By the time the sourness exceeded what I was willing to drink, it was fine to collect it in a jug and call it vinegar.

My experience is that the SCOBY is entirely incidental. You can use one if you like -- and if you don't, one (or more) will form. And the culture sours equally well either way.

I thought the SCOBY (which I incorrectly called the Mother above) was incidental until moving to the desert SW and started brewing in the summer.  Turns out here, if I don't have a thick SCOBY in the jar, a little thin weak SCOBY will form and get mold on it.  I think it's the heat.  Our house is never below 80 in the summer, even with air co on.  I'd never, ever had mold  happen in 10+ years of kombucha brewing in Oregon, with or without the SCOBY there.

Here in the desert, I still start a new kombucha SCOBY and mother brew from about 1/4 of a leftover Synergy (commercial brand here in the US) , and those will grow a SCOBY in a couple days that will not mold.  However, that is already kombucha to start with.  When I start with 4 - 8 cups of sweet tea plus 1/4 to 1/2 cups of kombucha - I do need that SCOBY in there or bad things happen.  

Too bad I don't have a picture...  but it's mold.  I never thought a SCOBY could mold.  Never say never!

Nancy Reading wrote:Thank you Kim!
I am getting bubbling, although it takes a day or two to start. I'm probably adding 1 pint new sweet tea to 2 pints in the jar with the mother, so maybe I'm starting with too much old kombucha?
I might try emptying the next batch out and making just one pint at a time. I just split the mother so it is quite thin (but now double).

I've been leaving the bottles in the fridge for second fermenting (just run out of my elderflower cordial, so I may try fruit juice next) as I'm concerned about bottles exploding all over the kitchen! It seems to take about a week for them to become nice and fizzy.

Yes!  The sweet tea-to-booch ratio is off, too much mature kombucha!  Wow, that would be very strong tasting.  You'll have this solved instantly and your booch game will take off!  ha

Someday, try one bottle on the counter for a secondary ferment when you know you will be in the kitchen a lot.  I put them right behind my cutting board where I can see it all the time.  It's so fun watching the bubbles form.  I've never had anything explode in under 2 days, usually it took 5 of forgetting it.  Now I keep my booch bottles in full view.