u/Humanistan

Hey r/betatests, I’m looking for iPhone users who brew kombucha to test KombuVault.

It’s an app for tracking home kombucha batches from F1 through F2.

The problem I’m trying to solve is pretty simple: brewers end up with notes scattered across phone notes, photos, reminders, paper, spreadsheets, and memory. Then when a batch turns out great, it’s hard to know exactly why.

KombuVault tracks:

• brew start dates
• F1 / F2 stages
• pH / temp / taste
• carbonation
• SCOBY health
• flavor recipes
• reminders
• batch photos
• notes and timeline history

I’m looking for actual kombucha brewers to test the app and tell me where it breaks or feels wrong.

Specific feedback I need:

• onboarding / first batch setup
• whether the F1/F2 workflow makes sense
• what serious brewers would want added
• what beginners would find confusing
• what data feels useful vs annoying
• whether recipe sharing feels natural
• bugs, crashes, and weird UX

Compensation:

• $5–$15 for useful written feedback
• up to $30 for hardcore kombucha brewers who can show their setup, batches, or process

Payment is for testing time and written notes. Negative feedback is welcome.

App link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kombuvault/id6778629837

Comment or DM me with your iPhone model and a quick note on how long you’ve been brewing.

Hey fermenting friends,

I’ve been brewing kombucha and kept losing my notes

So I built an iPhone app for kombucha brewers.

It tracks things like:

• pH / temperature / taste notes
• carbonation checks
• recipes
• photos
• a fermentation timeline so you can compare what actually changed

I’m looking for a small group of people who actually ferment at home to try it and tell me what’s confusing, missing, or not useful.

Best fit:

• kombucha brewers

I’m compensating testers for useful written feedback: $5–$15 depending on depth, and up to $30 if you’re a hardcore kombucha brewer and can show your setup/process!

That’s for testing time and notes, not for positive feedback. If something is bad or pointless, I’d rather hear that now.

iPhone only for this round.

app link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kombuvault/id6778629837

Comment or DM me with what you normally ferment and how you currently track it.

#notad

Just moved into a new office and immediately loved what I saw. Saw (In question) this mixed planter. I think the tall one might be a lady palm and the silver leaves might be an Aglaonema, but I’m not sure. Can anyone help ID the different plants in here? Also curious which ones would be easiest to keep as houseplants.

do they look healthy to y'all?
if not, let me know! id love to take over office houseplant duty : )

My best guess is some sort of palm up top and silverleaf Aglaonema in the front.

hi booch people

i’m back with ginger booch this time!!!

last time i posted the luxardo cherry one, which ended up being fantastic and the office loved it.

but i wanted to try the ginger flavor

this batch is basically descended from my original scoby from may. technically i think i started trying to brew back in april, but i killed the first two because of mold,

we choose to remember the survivor only T.T

and now we’re back in business :’)

i was way too excited to bring this one in. i kept testing it every other day. the san francisco summer weather is honestly perfect for kombucha too. never too hot, never really too cold. i think i accidentally picked the best city to make booch in.

also i finally listened to y’all about doing an f3.

and yes.

you were right.

the carbonation was way better this time!!

still not champagne-level, but definitely fizzier than my last guava attempt. also no bottle explosions this time, which is honestly crazy because i am still slowly cleaning kombucha residue out of my fridge from the last crime scene.

this is actually the first batch where i used my own app !! :

f1 timing
f2 timing
third ferment
tea blend
sugar
progress photos
taste / carb notes
and proof that i did not completely make up the dates this time lol

for this one i did:

green tea + oolong
ginger, no guava this time
longer f2
tiny f3 experiment
no explosions
office approval again

i’m still very much learning, but this one tasted way more balanced than my first guava batch. less “sweet tea pretending to be kombucha” and more actual booch.

also small app update since a bunch of you asked last time:

i added the f3 thing because people here kept telling me to try it, and now i’m very glad i did. i’m trying to make the app less like “generic timer app” and more like an actual kombucha log that matches how people here brew.

so now i’m curious:

what would you actually do for ginger batches?

ginger amount?
ginger type?
juice vs chopped vs grated?
bottle type?
burp schedule?
carb rating?
temperature?
ph?
explosion risk level? lmao

question for the ginger people:

do you usually add ginger juice, chopped ginger, grated ginger, or syrup? I just used ginger juice again but I rmbr some of y'all in the comments telling me to use a thumb size of ginger. i’ve just been winging it

so if anyone has a ginger combo that goes hard, pls tell me!!

and as always, comment or dm me. i’m still making the app and my booch it with feedback from this sub, so pls be honest but not mean :’)

android and german/european people, i made a website for you all now!
just search kombuvault, it should come up : )

happy brewing everyone!

hi booch people!

made another batch and this one is by far the best one yet

i used luxardo cherries this time because apparently my kombucha has entered its cocktail era

and honestly : D

it worked

it’s got that dark cherry thing going on, not too sweet, not too vinegary, the luxardo syrup mellows out the acidity

I used to be a big cocktail guy back during covid so this brought me right back (to a decidedly less healthy habit of mine)

i’m not saying i know what i’m doing now, but this is the first batch where i was like ok we really cookin now

i’ve been trying to be way better about tracking what i change each time instead of just vaguely remembering “yeah i think i let that one go for like… a while”

i logged this one in the kombucha app i’ve been building. No more notion, masking tape, notes, timers, iCal, everything!!

turns out making an app is actually not that hard once you've been working in tech for a while

shocking discovery

anyway this is luxardo cherry booch with a very dramatic bay bridge photoshoot because this SCOBY earned it

yes, that's the SCOBY! not the pellicle!!

what would/have you pair/paired with cherry?

i’m thinking cherry ginger, cherry vanilla, or something herby like cucumber or mint?

Ps. for you amazing Euopeans and Andriod people in my dms, I have a website for you now! kombuvault.com

I brought one of our homebrewed meads into the office and gave it the full fancy treatment.

I’ve also been brewing kombucha lately, so I’ve been getting increasingly carried away with making fermented drinks at home. How hard could mead be, right?

Very hard, apparently.

People actually liked it, which was great, although it did take months to make and about ten minutes to disappear lmao 😭

The mead turned out better than my record-keeping did.

The recipe was in one place, gravity readings were somewhere else, additions were buried in my notes, Notion failed me, and by the end most of the dates were educated guesses.

Somehow it worked out.

So we made a super basic web app to keep everything from a batch together: the recipe, readings, additions, notes, photos and the full timeline.

Obviously I'm doing it for the comunity, but also selfishly, we want to learn from the best here! 

I’m happy with how it works for the way I make mead, but I have no idea whether it holds up for anyone else’s process.

I’m looking for around 10-15 meadmakers with a batch starting soon who would be willing to use it through one real batch and tell me what works, what’s missing, and when they end up abandoning it for their usual system.

No public link yet. Comment or DM me if you’re interested, and tell me what kind of mead you’re planning to make.

— Humi

Hi booch brewers

Here's a super cool infographic I found here in the community while browsing a while ago

Hope this is helpful!

Some disclaimers:

• I did not make this infographic
• I do not know if this was made with AI
• All rights belong to the creators

That being said, it's worked for me

• I've been using it for my last few batches
• This is the "is it mold" logic I've built into my personal kombucha app
• It's helped me!

Thusly I wanted to share

Happy brewing!

New batch coming soon

- Humi

hi booch people

i brought another batch to the office!

this one is actually a repeat of my first ever batch, strawberry + guava with a black tea base

everyone liked it so much the first time that i decided to make it again

except this time i learned my lesson and did NOT pour the whole thing into a wine decanter first lol

poured it straight into these two nice glasses instead and everyone loved it again! Pic was from 6:30 PM so by everybody I meant me and my boss lmao. But hey u need to make ur manager happy somehow.

you can even see the tiny pieces of strawberry / guava still floating around in the close up

i did not strain it but apparently some little guys survived from the juice i mixed in

personally i think it looks pretty awesome, but idk if other people prefer their kombucha completely clear

also the Bay Bridge 🌁 was looking beautiful in the background so obviously the booch needed a photoshoot 📸🤳

San Francisco booch with Oakland on the other side : )

do y’all use whole fruit for your F2? do y'all completely strain the fruit out then? or do you also end up with tiny pieces floating around

hi again r/Kombucha brewhistas!!!

i’ve been working on the app more and added a couple things people asked for :

• “is it mold” : send a photo and we’ll help you figure out “is this mold? is this yeast? is this normal?”
• “🇺🇸/🇬🇧 gallons vs 🌏 litres” : you can now switch between imperial and metric so recipes/logs are less annoying depending on how you measure things
• “3rd fermentation (3F)” : you can now track a third ferment stage if you’re doing a 3F
• “backdated batches” : set batch start dates + stage transitions in the past for stuff you already had brewing
• “specific gravity” : log your SG readings
• “kegging + force carb” : added settings for kegging and force carbonation
• “smarter AI brew assistant” : the in-app brew helper got some upgrades
• “community recipes” : there’s now a full recipe detail view for community recipes

quick heads up: it’s not on android yet and not available in europe yet, but i’m actively working on both

haven’t forgotten about y’all 🙏!

i’m still trying to make this actually useful for real brewers, so i’m looking for a few people who’d be willing to use the app and hop on a quick call with me.

nothing fancy, i just want to watch how people use it, hear what’s confusing/dumb/missing, and figure out what would make it better for actual kombucha people.

if you’re down, you can book a time here: HERE

pls be honest, i am not emotionally attached to some bad UI decisions :’)

also if you don’t want to get on a call but have feature ideas, complaints, or “why would anyone need this” thoughts, i would still love to hear them!

Comment belowww

edit : link for all the great brewers in my inbox https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/kombuvault/id6778629837

hi booch people

i posted my first batch the other day, aka the strawberry guava one i served…in a wine decanter…because apparently i wanted my carbonation to die immediately…lol

i brought my second, unflavored batch to work again and poured it immediately without using a decanter first, and it was indeed much fizzier!

everyone loved it!

thanks for all the advice everyone!

and for the update you’ve been waiting for! 🥁🥁🥁 :

the app is now on the App Store! :’)

it’s still not fully done, so i’m not trying to do some big “launch” here or anything. i just want a few real brewers to beat it up a little and tell me what’s missing / confusing / dumb.

i’ve been dm’ing the kind people from my last post who said they’d try it, and i’ve already got together 10-15 people who’d be down to use it through an actual ferment.

if anyone else is down to be a tester, dm me or comment here!

i’d love to do a quick zoom call or google meet with any testers as well, mostly so i can ask you about how you actually brew and how the app could be better for you.

i’m not the biggest kombucha pro myself so i’d love to meet the community here and hear what y’all pros are doing.

it’s ios first unfortunately. android people i am sorry, i have failed you for now :(

right now it has:

• batch tracking
• f1 / f2 timing
• batch notes
• ingredients
• and the flavor roulette thing from last time

if you’d be down to try it, comment or dm me and i’ll send the link & tiny signup form.

my inbox is open!! pls tell me what you’d want in a kombucha log

temp? ph? sugar? bottle type? starter amount? burp reminders? f2 ingredients? carbonation rating? cursed flavor combos?

also screenshot feedback welcome. pls be honest but not mean :(

love y’all and keep brewing!

I'm a new time brewer (first batch!). Decided to serve it in a wine decanter bc my booch needs to feel boujee like wine.

TIL r/Kombucha's actually bigger than the r/wine sub.

Sadly it did come out a bit too sweet and flat but whatever, still proud of it. My expectation was literally to not kill my scoby and to come out in one piece so I'm happy with that. 🫡

The biggest issue for me was tracking timing. Notion doesn’t have a timer built in, and paper obviously doesn’t, so I kept having to calculate where I was in F1/F2 by subtraction.

I came up with the flavour roulette idea myself. I always end up building an app for my hyperfixations (Kombucha is the latest lmao).

Would anybody be down to help me test it through a batch? This is also how I plan to get better at brewing consistently. 5-10 people would be great T.T 
Pros and beginner testers both welcome. 🙏
It should be done soon...
I wish I had more screenshots but here's the flavour roulette part
Also very open to feedback on the brew itself: strawberry & guava, black tea base, a bit too sweet, and not much carbonation. I’m guessing I either moved too early or something

This is also how I’m hoping to get better at brewing consistently. It should be ready soon. I wish I had more screenshots, but here’s the flavor roulette part for now.

Also very open to feedback on the brew itself: strawberry + guava, black tea base, a bit too sweet, and not much carbonation. I’m guessing I either moved too early, didn’t give F2 enough time, or did some other first-batch nonsense.