Need Kombucha Help

[Mountain Chick]

I normally make my Kombucha with evaporated cane juice as the sweetner, and have never had a problem. But this last time I couldn't get the e.c.j., so I just bought and used regular white sugar from the store. The Kombucha looks the right color and has the bubbles like before, but it tastes like rotten grape juice. Not vinegary, just rotten, like when something goes bad.

What's the opinion about drinking it? Even if it's safe to drink, I don't think I could get it down. But if it's really bad, I would need to start over with a new culture, right? I'm not sure how to tell if it's bad. The scobies looked fine (no mold or anything), and I did everything the same way I always do. The only difference was the sugar.

Any help, even if it's only an opinion is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[xenabyte]

Salvage the scoby, rinse it with a bit of filtered cool water, and then put it in a new batch of tea with the sugar you used to use and like the flavor of.

If you dont see mold and the scoby formed as normal, it should be fine. It was probably funny tasting due to the refined white sugar and it (the scoby colony) was trying to adjust to it.

If this next batch still tastes 'funny' you might need to track down a new scoby.

If you have any left over from a previous batch (that tasted good) you could pour a bit in with the tea to lower the pH immediately and give it a better shot at brewing faster. I assume you had put in some of the old Kombucha tea with the white sugar batch? Sometimes if you forget to 'acidify' the new batch with a 'dose' from the old batch, it doesn't brew as well.

If there is a commercial brand of Kombucha tea you like, you could pour some of that into your new batch too. It should be alive with some active cultures (and will help lower the pH as needed) for a good 're-start'.

Hth, just some rambling thoughts.