Is this normal?

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Shadow21

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I started growing a SCOBY from a bottle of GT's Kombucha a few weeks ago and I was able to move the SCOBY to a new batch of tea 4 days ago (it sank to the bottom). I checked on the kombucha today and saw that another SCOBY was already forming on the top but it looked like it might have mold on it so I took it out. I did add about 20% of the kombucha from my previous batch (the one that I used to grow the SCOBY) and I have had it covered with a cloth.

When it was still in the jar it looked like it had some gray spots but now that I took it out of the jar it doesn't look like mold but I still wanted to get some opinions on it to see if the batch is still ok.

Here is a picture:

IMG_20111129_140153.jpg


There is also a dark thick strand of the darker stuff that's floating at the bottom of the jar so I scooped some out and that's what the big dark spots are in the picture.

Does this look like mold and if not should the batch be ok?

EDIT: The dark stuff that was on the bottom floated to the top so I got a picture of it.

IMG_20111201_145915.jpg

IMG_20111201_145944.jpg
 
Hi
Yes it's normal formation from yeasts.
Better to leave it alone for at least two weeks to allow it to build up more mass.
It looks too thin.
Better teas make better and thicker scobys.
Now it's been taken out it will have to start growing a new surface scoby but don't worry it will do that at the drop of a hat or in a week or two anyway.

Here is a link to scoby pics hope it helps.

ferment gallery

Chris.
 
I know that the white thing is the SCOBY. I already grew a SCOBY to use in this batch of tea (you can see it in the second picture) so I know what they look like.

What I'm wanting to know is what the dark stuff is that was under the SCOBY and is now floating at the top of the tea?
 
They are strands of yeast colonies. They are perfectly normal in healthy KT. They have been in every ferment I have produced. If you do have mold it will most likely be the same stuff you see on bread; green or white, furry and dry looking. If your still in doubt I would just start up a new batch, no more than 10 bucks and some time.

Ryan
 
They are strands of yeast colonies. They are perfectly normal in healthy KT. They have been in every ferment I have produced. If you do have mold it will most likely be the same stuff you see on bread; green or white, furry and dry looking. If your still in doubt I would just start up a new batch, no more than 10 bucks and some time.

Ryan

I've read that there would be strands of yeast but I didn't know there would be huge clumps of it like the one you see in the second to the last picture.

So do you think the tea is still safe to drink?

I do have another SCOBY growing in another jar and it doesn't have the browns stuff in it so if you don't think this batch will be safe to drink I can always start a new one.
 
It would be fine to drink but it could taste a bit off. Seeing yeast colonies this early indicates (to me anyway) that the yeast/bacteria balance has shifted more towards the yeast. Since your scoby is so young, there isn't a very large population of bacteria and it looks like the yeast are taking over. If you give it some time and change out the KT regularly everything will balance out. It'll just take some time. The older the scoby the better the KT tastes, to me anyway. Some of the best stuff I ever made was with black tea, straight white sugar and my oldest/thickest scoby. At the time it was about 1 year old and nearly 2 inches thick. Oh and by the way if the yeast trip you out just take them out, like I said they're not harmful but I'll admit they look gross.

Ryan
 
I ended up just taking out the mass of yeast like you suggested. I looked around to see if I could find any signs of actual mold in the tea and I couldn't. I also took a sip of the tea and it tasted like it's either done or almost done because it's neither too sweet or too vinegary.

Thank you for the help! I almost tossed this batch of tea because I thought it was mold.
 
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