New kombucha batch is like slime?

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legbuh

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I've been doing a continuous brew for quit some time now in a large 1.5 gallon glass jar.

My wife got me another jar to double my production. I took the scoby from the first jar, ripped a few layers off, put it in the new jar with about 4 cups of starter and a gallon of new tea.

Well, it's been 10 days so I went to "harvest".

This entire new batch is slimy. It had a nice mother on top (the old mother was floating in the middle).

It's not liquid like my other batches. It's like a very thin snotty consistency. slimy. :)

Is that good? It smells ok, I haven't tasted it yet. But I wonder if that old mother sitting in the middle/bottom over cooked this batch? I've never seen booch with this consistency. I can't imagine drinking it would taste very good... lol
 
Well, now it seems both batches are getting slimy. The longer they sit, the more thick the slime is (ie, the entire liquid is slimy, not just a little bit)

When I put the mother in the new batch, I took the "stack" from the old batch and split it like peeling krepes from each other that were in a stack.

Is my yeast getting out of control? How can I fix this slimy situation? :)
 
I'm not an expert on kombucha, but according to wikipedia, the SCOBY contains Pediococcus. In lambic beer, Pediococcus can turn a whole barrel slimy, a process called "getting sick".

As far as I know, the only cure for the sliminess is time. Maybe somebody with more kombucha experience can chime in.
 
I started making kombucha a few months ago and I've had a few "slimy" batches after splitting a mother, my friend who is much more versed in kombucha and she told me to use the layers on the top because the layers on the bottom absorb the impurities.
 
Thanks for the info, guys.

I'm wondering if I should let it brew longer to see if it gets better? I find it odd they both got "sick" the minute I started making more and split my nice thick mother. Very weird.
 
an update on this.

I was getting frustrated. I tried letting a gallon batch sit to see if it was just "sick" and maybe would fix itself. What I ended up with was a gallon of thick slime, almost like a mother that was clear. It could have been colored and used in zombie films for sure.. haha..

So I took both jugs I use (1 gallon and a 1.5 gallon) and cleaned them out with hot water very thoroughly. I bought 1 bottle of GT plain booch and put that in a quart jar with about a cup of my home made booch (that was a bit slimey as well).

4 days later, there was a nice mother on top. I poured some into a glass. It wasn't slimey. It was normal. Great smell, liquid like water, and the taste was like a 2 week batch of good booch. Nice and strong. But not vinegary.

So, I put that quart into a gallon jar, added fresh tea to fill the gallon jar and waited. One week later, a nice mother again had formed. smelled good, and I put them into 16oz grolsch bottles for a second ferment.

A few days later we popped one open and it sounded like cracking a soda. Taste was wonderful, no slime and a LOT of effervescence. MMmmm!!!

So, I took my 1.5 gallon jar, added a bottle of GT plain, a 16oz bottle of my booch and a gallon of fresh sweet tea. Things are looking good so far!

My plan with the GT was for the "good" things to overpower the slime makers. So far so good. Even my wife and kids say the booch tastes excellent, and they love the bubbles! As do I!

I may add a GT every now and then to my booch to keep it healthy. :)
 
That's very interesting. Did you happen to take a PH reading? I'm wondering if it acidified enough. From what I understand if the bacteria/yeast ratio gets off the brew may not reach a safe acidity and other bugs may start to take hold. I've only been brewing booch for 6 months or so, but it's been interesting to see how it fluctuates. Sometimes it will be below 4 PH in a week, other times it takes two weeks. In the winter it is always much slower due to temperature. It's neat being a bug farmer :D
 
I never did, no. I normally go by taste/smell and if there's a healthy new scoby growing each time. I did try apple cider vinegar (just a little, so probably not enough) without good results. I don't care for the booch when it goes too much towards vinegar.

I do make my booch down in our "mechanical room" where the furnace/etc is. In winter it's actually warmer down there with all the mechanicals running. So I don't think it was temp. And it made it through last winter just fine.

I think of adding the GT as a booster shot to the farm. :) Introduce new bacteria, and strengthen those you want and weaken those you don't (ie, the slime buggers... lol).

I just did another gallon last night and I must say, it's very good again! I may have morphed my original booch which I've had for over 2 years (got from someone on CL), but I think it was for the better. My kids are happy again because they would not drink it if it was slimy. And they helped me "harvest" it so they saw what it looked like.. haha!

The taste of the slimey batch was the same as booch, but the consistency.... ugh... It's hard to explain. Sort of a mix between a heavy motor oil and corn syrup. :)
 
Legbuh
Thanks so much for posting about this. I'm a booch newbie and in my second batch I have encountered this same problem. I stick a straw into my brew the other day to test it and it was gooey. Was not pleasing going down. (Shudder) I'm going to try what you did incorporating some store bought plain to level it out. I'm still looking for that good fix after second ferment too. Hopefully this will do it.
 
I had a batch turn slimy on me. From what I read there's just to much yeast going on. I bottle my tea in swing top bottles to further ferment for a week or so then refridgerate. After refrigeration the slimy Ness goes away and the color goes clear but it's not as fizzy as id like but it still tastes good.... to correct the imbalance I make the new batch with overly sour fermented tea for the starter (at least 3 weeks fermented tea) or you can add some vinegar to the mix (I used 3 to 4 tbsp for 1 gallon of tea) it helps to kill off the extra yeast. I think if your batch has to much sugar and not enough tea it causes this imbalance. Hope this helps!
 
I had a batch turn slimy on me. From what I read there's just to much yeast going on. I bottle my tea in swing top bottles to further ferment for a week or so then refridgerate. After refrigeration the slimy Ness goes away and the color goes clear but it's not as fizzy as id like but it still tastes good.... to correct the imbalance I make the new batch with overly sour fermented tea for the starter (at least 3 weeks fermented tea) or you can add some vinegar to the mix (I used 3 to 4 tbsp for 1 gallon of tea) it helps to kill off the extra yeast. I think if your batch has to much sugar and not enough tea it causes this imbalance. Hope this helps!
 
Wow.. year later.

I haven't added any GT since... everything is going very well! 2 Gallons a week still and I've shared starter with 4-5 people as well. All reporting excellent results.
 
legbuh said:
an update on this.

I was getting frustrated. I tried letting a gallon batch sit to see if it was just "sick" and maybe would fix itself. What I ended up with was a gallon of thick slime, almost like a mother that was clear. It could have been colored and used in zombie films for sure.. haha..

So I took both jugs I use (1 gallon and a 1.5 gallon) and cleaned them out with hot water very thoroughly. I bought 1 bottle of GT plain booch and put that in a quart jar with about a cup of my home made booch (that was a bit slimey as well).

4 days later, there was a nice mother on top. I poured some into a glass. It wasn't slimey. It was normal. Great smell, liquid like water, and the taste was like a 2 week batch of good booch. Nice and strong. But not vinegary.

So, I put that quart into a gallon jar, added fresh tea to fill the gallon jar and waited. One week later, a nice mother again had formed. smelled good, and I put them into 16oz grolsch bottles for a second ferment.

A few days later we popped one open and it sounded like cracking a soda. Taste was wonderful, no slime and a LOT of effervescence. MMmmm!!!

So, I took my 1.5 gallon jar, added a bottle of GT plain, a 16oz bottle of my booch and a gallon of fresh sweet tea. Things are looking good so far!

My plan with the GT was for the "good" things to overpower the slime makers. So far so good. Even my wife and kids say the booch tastes excellent, and they love the bubbles! As do I!

I may add a GT every now and then to my booch to keep it healthy. :)
Click to expand...
I'm not a native English speaker. So I am wondering what is GT as it seamed to help. I have the same problem.
 

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