newbie needs help with kombucha... thanks!

Hi!

I recently got interested in Kombucha and I found 2 mushrooms: a very small one from a bottle of fresh kombucha, and a large one from someone I found online. I prepared two jars. I have no idea what I should with my two jars now, not sure if any of what's happening is normal...

The two jars normally have a cloth over them and they normally get very little light. Both mixtures have been at about 20C for close to two weeks now.

1. Very small mushroom from a bottle of fresh kombucha. About 2.5 litres of green tea, about 200g of sugar, about 20cl of fresh kombucha. After close to two weeks the mushroom has developed some mold at the water surface, there are some black spots on the water. pH is now about 4 (not sure when I started).




2. Large mushroom. About 2.5 litres of green tea, about 200g of sugar, a few drops of cider vinegar. I didn't have pH paper when I did it, pH is now about 3. A layer of hard-ish white stuff has developed these past 2 days on the surface. Is that a new baby kombucha??? If this one is healthy, I'm guess that since I used vinegar, the first 1-2 yields should not taste very good?




Any help is appreciated! Thank you!

The second one looks fine. Probably the new Scooby forming. Black mold is not good. Might want to keep an eye on that one.

Throw away the first one. You didn't use enough liquid at the beginning and the pH is too high. It should be around 3 like your second one. Use 10-15% and you'll have no problems.

Thanks for the answers guys. I threw away the first one, I made 2 new jars, one with the new baby, one with the old big dude. I put enough liquid from the old 2nd batch to get the pH down to between 4 and 5 according to the pH paper. Hopefully this second attempt will not taste too vinegry!!!

Thanks again.

And how much liquid was that? You shouldn't require more than 1 or 2 cups (8-16 oz, or about 250-500 mL).

Is this mold? The specks that r forming?

Looks like mold from here, but if you're not sure I would throw it out to be safe. Mold can't grow if it is acidic enough, so make sure you use at least 10% liquid when you make your batch. Just adding the scoby is not enough - not even required in fact.