New To Kombucha Making.....

[patchesnposies]

and I have a question for anyone who has been doing this for a while.

Today was the first official taste testing of my first batch of Kombucha Tea. I am happy to say that it turned out wonderfully and I am anxious to start my next batch. Except that my new baby scoby's are rather thin and anemic looking next to the robust mother I started with.

First of all, I found that I did not have a gallon jar handy, so I used two half gallon canning Ball jars cutting the original mother into two pieces with my fingers and putting half in each jar. The babies grew well and did a fine job, they are just sort of thin and much lighter than the original starter.

I found that today was not a good multi-tasking day for me. I am making Kefir cheese and wanted to put a bit of the whey into my jar of natural leavening (raisins) that is developing on the counter, but accidentally put a few drops into the jar of scoby's that were sitting in the midst of all of my alchemy! I hurriedly rinsed them off and stuck the four of them into a new jar of KT to wait for my tea that was brewing to cool off.

Do you think the scoby's will suffer after being exposed to the kefir whey? Do I need to add both new scoby's to my fresh batch of tea, or an old one and a new one?

Last question (for this post!) One of my baby scoby's top layer peeled off when I was rinsing it. Have I managed to kill off all of my wonderful cultures?

Any advice, reassuring, and handholding is much appreciated!

Patches

 

[miss_thenorth]

The fact that your scobies are thin is not a big deal at all, they wil grow. And the fasct that you got kefir whey on your scobies is not really a big deal. I would in the future use some kombucha to rinse off the scobies, as tap water is not that great to put straight on the wcobies. But I have also found that the scobies are quite resilient, so I wouldn't worry about it. Enjoy your kombucha.

 

[TanksHill]

 

[patchesnposies]

I did use RO water to rinse them in, so there should be no harm done. I am glad to know that the thin scoby's are more than able to do the job. Do I discard the spent mother or throw that in too?

 

[dragonlaurel]

Give them a little bit of the old liquid when you are starting off new scobys.

Scobys seem to grow slower in cold environments. My friends that kept the ac on really Cold all summer always had thin "pancakes".
My old trailer used to get up to 95 indoors in the summer and they still lived. They turned into big thick scoby monsters and their babies were thick too.
I was using 5 bags of tea and unbleached sugar. White sugar is processed with chlorine so I avoid using it.

 

[rathbone]

Mine has mold growing on top. (yep I am cutting to the chase here). It smells good. The kombucha tastes good (yes I was brave and drank it anyway). Is the mold going to hurt me?

 

[miss_thenorth]

Mold is NOT a good sign. I honestly would dump that batch. I read somewhere that the mold spores could get in your brew and cause problems. Do you have a back up scoby?

 

[rathbone]

Nope - no back up. This one was shipped to me in the mail...hence the mold issue.
Question: Can I feed this to my chickens? The scoby I mean?

 

[miss_thenorth]

My chickens eat scobies, but the mold has me freaked out. don't toss it yet. Wait for the other fermentors to show up--they might have more insight.

 

[rathbone]

No worries. It can just sit in its little jar and wait till someone else weighs in. I really like all the good info everyone has to share.