kombucha gone bad?

I need help determining if my first batch has gone bad.

Why do you think it has gone bad?

More information would be helpful.

I've tried attaching a pic but its not working. Large brown globs under my SCOBY the top layer of the SCOBY looks like Swiss cheese and is not smooth

Is this a healthy SCOBY?

Hard to tell from the pic, but it looks fine as far as I can see.

Nothing in your description sounds off to me either.

Edit: posted before seeing the second pic.

How does it smell/taste?

Its only day 8 so I haven't tasted it yet. I figured I would give it a few more days to sit. It smells like store bought Kombucha. But I'm not sure how it would smell of it were bad since its pretty vinegary smelling to begin with. Should I be concerned with the amount of floating particles?

Taste is the best way to judge. Mine is typically ready after only 7 days.

I wouldn't worry about particles in the tea. Just watch out for mold on the surface.

No mold on the top as I have seen other pics online of but the glob seems strange and I've seen some comments about yeast stringers. Not sure how to tell since the tea I very dark.

I always get strings in mine. I wouldn't worry about it. If it tastes fine, it's fine.

Thanks for your help

I had some kombucha that I thought had gone bad, then they told me it was supposed to taste that way.

So you're probably fine as long as it tastes terrible.

The dark brown globs are yeast flocs, while the pale areas are bacterial cellulose matting. Scobys are often deformed looking or irregular for the first few generations. If there's no mold, you're probably gold.

Looks fine to me.
Scooby on Top tends to grow wired if it looses contact to the liquid. That might happen if it gets attached to the Jar.
If it really goes bad, you can tell because it is moldy and smells disgusting.

Thank you all for the help. I taste tested and decided to let it sit a few more days. It was still very sweet. I've heard some of my friends say they are not able to get their home brew to be fizzy. This batch seems to be quite fizzy. Any tricks to that since I seem to have accomplished this by accident.

It could to be an issue of the starter culture.
I had super carbonated Kombucha and I am currently not doing anything different than what I have been doing for years but I can not get a significant carbonation.

Also, it might be the water.

I did not bring my Kombucha when I immigrated to the US. I got a new starter scoby here. And the waterprofile here is significantly different from tab water in Munich.

My Kombucha ferments fine and comes out very tasty yet no significant carbonation, not even when I do a "secondary" fermentation with dried fruit.

I let mine sit extremely long because I like it sour not sweet.