CHERYLinND
Active Member
I have been struggling to rejuvenate some SCOBYs that seem to have gone bad. Instead of being rubbery and tough, they are thin and easily break apart.
My students started about 16 pint-size batches with the old SCOBYs. Some were in better shape than others to start with. We used various combinations of honey, molasses, dextrose and table sugar. About 7 of them have formed the nice, smooth SCOBYs I expect, but the rest have varying thickness and textures.
Here are some pictures. Do these look like mold (I don't see or smell mold, and I am a microbiologist... But, if it's some obscure kombucha mold )
The side views show that the weak SCOBYs don't seem to have as much of the brown stuff hanging down that represents yeast growth.
Any ideas or recommendations? My leaning is to scrap the weird ones and replenish my SCOBY stores with the healthy-looking ones.