Does this look right?

[je52rm]

Here's a pic of my first attempt at making kombucha. I made a half gallon batch using 1/2 cup sugar, 4 tea bags (2 organic green and 2 black), and a scoby from a friend. The new formation on top looks a little different than the pics of others I've seen on homebrewtalk.com. it looks as if someone took a white candle burning and dripped the hot wax onto the tea surface. It's really raised off the surface in certain areas. There's nothing moldy looking as far as I can see but looks weird how the new scoby forming is sitting so high out of the tea. Is this normal looking? Thanks.

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[kyt]

Absolutely normal and a good sign.

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[je52rm]

Awesome thanks kyt!

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[snarf]

It looks a bit funny, because it seems that there are a lot of CO2 bubbles trapped in the SCOBY. This is a sign that the yeast in your kombucha is quite active. Otherwise it looks fine to me.

 

[je52rm]

If the yeast is overly active is this indicative of a bad scoby and result in an "out of balance" kombucha?

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[kyt]

No.
What you consider the SCOBY is only a pellicle, made of cellulose by the bacteria.
The yeast provide some alcohol, that the bacteria convert to other compound, but bacteria will still process alcohol and oxygen if present.
If your scoby is found in a location other than the jar, with or without partially fermented sweet tea above and or around the jar, then you have a yeast problem that is most certainly "out of balance".
Kombucha is very good at self-regulation, you'd have to intentionally do something irregular to mess it up.
Don't take snarf's comment about the yeast being "quite active" with a negative connotation. You want your yeast to be active, if they weren't, they'd be asleep or dead.