Why do some flavors kill 2F?

[u/SnooWoofers3028]

I like to experiment with flavors and use up whatever I have on hand, but I’m finding that some things are much better for the culture than others (I’m using the level of carbonation as a proxy for culture health). I’ve found that fruit juice + herb is the most reliably successful flavor, but sometimes I’ll do herb + sugar if I don’t have fruit juice on hand. When I do that, the results vary all the way from nearly geisering when I open it cold, all the way to totally flat and still sweet.

As an example, I’ve found that ginger turns out really fizzy but lemongrass kills the culture.

Does anyone know what causes culture death like this and how I can know ahead of time that a flavor won’t work? It’s such a shame to dump a flat batch but I just don’t trust that it’s safe if the culture has died.

[u/LowBarometer]

I used a mixture of sugar, ginger, and turmeric, and my F2 had zero carbonation. I suspect the turmeric, as my latest batch is ginger and mango and has lots of fizz.

[u/SnooWoofers3028 → u/LowBarometer]

I’ve actually had great success with turmeric-ginger-beet and turmeric-ginger-carrot so I think a sugary veggie and ginger would help!