Mold or naw?

[taylorroly]

This has been brewing for 1 week. Scoby forming or mold?

 

[RPh_Guy]

That is a pellicle.
Not dangerous like mold, but probably not what you want.

Welcome to HBT!

 

[taylorroly]

That is a pellicle.
Not dangerous like mold, but probably not what you want.

Welcome to HBT!

Whaaaaaaaat

Is a pellicle different from a scoby? Will a scoby still form or did I mess up?

 

[RPh_Guy]

I suppose it's just semantics.

I consider a pellicle to be a thin film.

All the kombucha SCOBYs I see generally thick, more like a snot pancake. What I'm calling a pellicle may certain form into a more normal-looking SCOBY or even be called a SCOBY at this stage if it presumably contains both yeast and bacteria.

All the solid "SCOBY" does is provide a convenient method to repitch the microbes. If you're using a healthy culture, it'll be OK regardless of how it looks, excluding mold growth.

Since it's not mold, you don't really have anything to worry about, as long as it smells and tastes fine. I shouldn't have implied it might be a problem, my apologies

 

[Yooper]

It doesn't look like a healthy SCOBY- it looks weirdly like brettanomyces or another bacterial contamination, though, not mold.

 

[taylorroly]

I suppose it's just semantics.

I consider a pellicle to be a thin film.

All the kombucha SCOBYs I see generally thick, more like a snot pancake. What I'm calling a pellicle may certain form into a more normal-looking SCOBY or even be called a SCOBY at this stage if it presumably contains both yeast and bacteria.

All the solid "SCOBY" does is provide a convenient method to repitch the microbes. If you're using a healthy culture, it'll be OK regardless of how it looks, excluding mold growth.

Since it's not mold, you don't really have anything to worry about, as long as it smells and tastes fine. I shouldn't have implied it might be a problem, my apologies

Thank you for all your help! I’m just glad it’s not mold. I haven’t inspected the underside yet but I think I’ll let it go for another week or two and see if the solid scoby forms. Thanks again!

 

[taylorroly]

It doesn't look like a healthy SCOBY- it looks weirdly like brettanomyces or another bacterial contamination, though, not mold.

Would you recommend tossing or should I wait for another week to see if a scoby forms?

 

[Yooper]

Would you recommend tossing or should I wait for another week to see if a scoby forms?

I personally wouldn't keep it- but you can try it by tasting it and see if it tastes horribly off or just a bit different.

 

[taylorroly]

I personally wouldn't keep it- but you can try it by tasting it and see if it tastes horribly off or just a bit different.

Will do. I haven’t tasted it yet but it smells like vinegar.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Kombucha is like caveman brewing.

If it smells like something you might want to taste, then taste it.

If it tastes good, then success!

Otherwise dump it, clean thoroughly, and start over.