Okay so I went to brew my first batch of kombucha yesterday, without a scoby. I did 12 cups of tea, 1.5 cup sugar, and a 16oz raw organic kombucha. Because I read somewhere that the warmer it is the faster it grows, I decided to put my little space heater next to it for a little while, and I left my house without thinking. When I came back I felt like it got overly warm sitting there for about 6 hours. It got to about 82-83 degrees F in my room and the kombucha brew was right next to my heater so I'm assuming it was around 90 degrees or more where the kombucha was sitting.. So now I'm wondering, did I just kill all of my bacteria on the first day and now my scoby is never going to form? And if that is the case can I potentially just go buy another 16oz bottle of kombucha and add it to my current mixture to ensure there's live bacteria in there? or would I have to start over and waste ALL that tea and sugar? There is a little "clump" of something floating at the top but I would have no idea if it is a scoby forming or just yeast/dead bacteria, I can post a picture if necessary. Any help is GREATLY appreciated!
Is my kombucha ruined?
- Thread starter mike42506
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buzbey
Well-Known Member
I'm new to komubcha as well, recently I've been doing a bunch of reading on it and stumbled upon a page that said keeping it at 86 degrees is good for your scoby and cell death doesn't start tell around 103 degrees so as long as it didn't get above 103 I would think your fine. also if it doesn't end up growing it could be from the kombucha you used they said a lot of it is to old to grow. But I don't know, good luck!
Give it a couple days and if you don't see a thin translucent film starting you might of hurt it.. in that case just get another bottle and decant 2/3 off and throw the rest in.. I put mine on top of my fridge and the heat from the fridge does really good for my starters.. 
alright thanks for the reply I will definitely not toss it yet, then. anyone know if it would be okay to add a new bottle of kombucha just to be sure there's enough bacteria in there in case I killed some of it? or is that a no-no? I just don't wanna have to throw out a gallon of tea and a whole bag o' sugar! last question: does a scoby grow faster if I make it in a smaller container with less sugar/tea? also here's what is floating in my tea, does it look like a young, ambitious scoby or does it look dead? it's like full of little air bubbles.
Looks fine.. that will start to spread across the top if all is good 
