Scooby's

I also have scooby's available, I'm in Miami, Fl. if anyone is interested!

what is a scoby? ive read a few posts about kambucha, but am totaly lost. Im picturing a little slime man in the bottom of a fermenting bucket brewing away. Does it have legs? hehe

it's this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombucha

looks like a floating mushroom with strands of brown goo floating around. absolutely disgusting in appearance, but then again, beer looks pretty strange too when its fermenting.

I got Scobys too ... In Seattle.

Can a SCOBY go bad but still continue to grow/mature?

technically it could go bad. only one of the bacteria that comprise the mix of the 'scoby' is responsible for the rubbery mushroom-like disc that they all grow on. one or more of the normal yeast/bacterial species could die off while the growth bacteria survives.

though by going bad, i just mean it would be altered from what it normally was. it's very similar to beer in how harmless it would be if it had gone bad

TxBrew said:

Can a SCOBY go bad but still continue to grow/mature?

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If I have extra in a container on the counter, I usually add some tea/sugar or ACV to keep the scoby at least in liquid. Other than that, you can store them in the fridge and they will stop feeding and go dormant.

Take them out a day before using to warm them up and get them going again.

I grew my own Scoby, which seems to work fine so far. I brought a bottle of plain KT and added it to half a recipe of sweet tea. I covered it and set it aside just like I would a batch of KT. It takes a little longer (2-4 weeks), depending on the conditions (warmth etc.) and how thick of a Scoby you are trying to grow. Mine was about 1/8-1/4 of an inch thick after 21 days, and has made some fine brew. I now have three 1 gallon containers brewing with homemade Scobies, and I am trying to grow three new Scobies from Green, Red and White teas. I made my new batches with the starter liquid from my new born Scoby.

Anybody else have any extra Scobys? Possibly in the DC area?

CookHomebrewer said:

Anybody else have any extra Scobys? Possibly in the DC area?

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I ordered one from here:
http://kombuchahealthdrink.com/
$9.99 including shipping.

I am going to see how it works. I was preparing to start a scoby with store bought kombucha but I saw this and though I'd give it a try first.

I hope it works. I love the stuff. Seems pretty foolproof really.

--Shoki