Growing My First SCOBY, tips?

I am about to start growing my first SCOBY. Just wondering if anyone has
Any tips. I thought about buying one online, but I'd rather have my own beast I created myself! I am using this article as my guide:

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-your-own-kombucha-scoby-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-202596

Growing your own is definitely the way to go. It's much cheaper and easier than most people realize.

That article you posted is where I started with mine too.

hunter_la5 said:

Growing your own is definitely the way to go. It's much cheaper and easier than most people realize.

That article you posted is where I started with mine too.

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Awesome thanks! I was thinking of halving this recipe. What is your experience with the volumes?

As long as you keep the ratios the same, it shouldn't have any problem scaling.

Sorry for jumping in on this but I'm in the same process right row. I'm coming up on about 3 weeks right now growing the scoby from a commercial bottle. It's solid pretty much all the way through and takes up the full top of the jar and is anywhere from 1/16 to 1/8" thick but some spots thicker. How do you know when it's ready for the first batch?

(by the way, I used your write-up hunter_la5 for this)

b-radbrew said:

Sorry for jumping in on this but I'm in the same process right row. I'm coming up on about 3 weeks right now growing the scoby from a commercial bottle. It's solid pretty much all the way through and takes up the full top of the jar and is anywhere from 1/16 to 1/8" thick but some spots thicker. How do you know when it's ready for the first batch?

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You can go ahead and use it to make a new batch. It will continue to grow in subsequent batches.

hunter_la5 said:

You can go ahead and use it to make a new batch. It will continue to grow in subsequent batches.

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Awesome! I knew it would continue to grow each time, just didn't know where that 1st starting point was.

Thanks!!

All bow to the article writer!

JK, solid information, that's how I started mine, been brewing and drinking batches from a commercial bottle for over a year now.

Been brewing beer for a couple years now, but tonight the wife and I succumbed to the impulse to try our hands at kombucha. I had never even tried the stuff before, but a quick trip to Publix got me the starter (GT organic + raw) and we gave it a go.

Link put up by the OP was easy to follow. We'll see how it goes, and I'll try to update with some pics of our new SCOBY.

One question I have after reading a few articles on starting a new SCOBY:
Why would the liquid from this first batch be hard to drink?

Article said it would be really vinegary and maybe better suited to cleaning countertops than drinking. Is that because you let the batch go longer than normal to get the SCOBY nice and thick? Otherwise you're just doing the same thing as you would to make a small batch of buch right?

GoodBookBrewer said:

One question I have after reading a few articles on starting a new SCOBY:
Why would the liquid from this first batch be hard to drink?

Article said it would be really vinegary and maybe better suited to cleaning countertops than drinking. Is that because you let the batch go longer than normal to get the SCOBY nice and thick? Otherwise you're just doing the same thing as you would to make a small batch of buch right?

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As you said, because most people let the first batch go on longer to grow the scoby. It becomes very tart and vinegary after a few weeks.

Im surprised they call for all black tea; there tends to be better growth from greens. Anyone try this with all green?