Growing my first Scoby

[Seamonkey84]

I’ve read mixed reviews with growing a Scoby from the reformulated bottles of GTS, but since that’s all I could find I gave it a go. Yes I do have a brew shop down the street from me that sells them, but IM doing this more as an experiment, and a friend asked me to make her some.
Started on 7-17 with a bottle of GTS “Original” enlightened, and two cups of tea with two tablespoons of white sugar, and two Tbs of Brown sugar (read that the molasses helps grown healthy Scobys).

Being the middle of July, the temp has been pretty high in my kitchen. Just three days in, I checked on it and found this

I’ve read on this forum that I could of just dumped the starter bottle into some tea and get it going from there, but I wanted to see if I could get a Scoby to grow. I’ll keep this updated as it forms up.

 

[DIYer]

I’ve read mixed reviews with growing a Scoby from the reformulated bottles of GTS, but since that’s all I could find I gave it a go. Yes I do have a brew shop down the street from me that sells them, but IM doing this more as an experiment, and a friend asked me to make her some.
Started on 7-17 with a bottle of GTS “Original” enlightened, and two cups of tea with two tablespoons of white sugar, and two Tbs of Brown sugar (read that the molasses helps grown healthy Scobys).
View attachment 636516
Being the middle of July, the temp has been pretty high in my kitchen. Just three days in, I checked on it and found this
View attachment 636515
I’ve read on this forum that I could of just dumped the starter bottle into some tea and get it going from there, but I wanted to see if I could get a Scoby to grow. I’ll keep this updated as it forms up.

Congrats on your new baby! I've always used GTS to grow my SCOBYs, all last year and as recently as 2 weeks ago.

 

[Seamonkey84]

Update, first Scoby got floated up by bubbles, then it sank. Now A second Scoby has formed. I’m currently brewing up a gallon batch of tea to dump this whole starter into.

 

[Seamonkey84]

Four days after adding the starter culture to the gallon batch.

 

[Seamonkey84]

So my first batch kinda gots away from me. Kinda forgot about it a few too many days, and all I have are wine bottles and nothing to bottle carb anything in. So once I get some of the right bottles, I’ll use most of this as a starter tea for my next batch. Would mixing this stuff 50/50 with fruit juice or more sweet tea get this into a secondary ferment and make it usable for bottling and drinking?

 

[Bubbles2]

So my first batch kinda gots away from me. Kinda forgot about it a few too many days, and all I have are wine bottles and nothing to bottle carb anything in. So once I get some of the right bottles, I’ll use most of this as a starter tea for my next batch. Would mixing this stuff 50/50 with fruit juice or more sweet tea get this into a secondary ferment and make it usable for bottling and drinking?

To taste. I watched a few vids on the Tube, he was doing fruit juice 1/3 after ferment of course. PET works, I will prob use that or beer bottles, since I keg now and have a surplus of caps and bottles. Or Flip tops if you forgot you might have those.
FWIW- I grow Roselle and make tea, my tea is then mixed or brewed with Pineapple or Guava off the tree. I add a 1/3 cup of sugar to a liter PET with a 1/2 fleck of champagne yeast. 24 hours bottle is firm and carbed. Now I know SCOBY is different, but carbing will be the same.
SCOBY DOBY DOH

 

[Seamonkey84]

So... at what point do you just toss the scoby and start over? I haven’t done anything with this since I pitched the starter tea. Months later, it’s now only about an inch of liquid on bottom, 6” or more of scoby, then 3” of head space.

 

[Bubbles2]

So... at what point do you just toss the scoby and start over? I haven’t done anything with this since I pitched the starter tea. Months later, it’s now only about an inch of liquid on bottom, 6” or more of scoby, then 3” of head space.

If it is not Moldy it should be good to use. I had no luck with mine. It turned moldy so I tossed it and never tried again. Check out Youtube on what they are doing with it.