Oh my G__--What is this growing?? Help, please

[Goldie88]

I started brewing kombucha at home a few months ago, after a lot of research and tasting several from stores that were pretty good. I'd never had (or heard of) it before, and it has been helping me with ulcerative colitis. When I drink it, I basically feel better, but it's expensive to buy from the store long term. So, home brew.

I started a batch from store-bought, plain, unflavored kombucha from GT's, which is the best of all the kinds I've tried in the store. I have the Big Book of Kombucha, a wonderful resource, but as a PR person I see that the author is clearly trying to drive sales to her site. More power to her. But I got a perfectly great seeming SCOBY from a bottle of GT's, following the steps I found from the Kitchn, here: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-your-own-kombucha-scoby-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-202596.

Things have been going pretty swimmingly for the last few months. I have both a continuous brew and a batch brew, both have been good. Flavor, floaty things shown in the book, all is well.

I kept the original "starter liquid" from that Kitchn recipe because it keeps making Scoby after Scoby after Scoby. It's been a machine, but seemed to slow down after about five Scobys, which I stuck in the continuous brew (aka, The Big Mouth Bubbler).

Then I go in to check on the original starter liquid, aka Scoby manufacturer, and I see this horrifying drape of ghost stuff that I can only describe as, quite literally, those Dimentors from Harry Potter.

It kind of looks like ghost poop wearing a cape and promenading into a fancy ceremony. I am afraid of it. I want to destroy it, but maybe it's food? Good-for-me food?

Do I need to bleach it, kill it, burn the house down?

Is this just yeast?

What is this stuff, and what do I do with it?

With sincere gratitude,
Goldie

 

[RPh_Guy]

Doesn't sound like mold, so don't worry about it.

Welcome to HBT!

 

[kingmatt]

You'd have better luck posting this in the kombucha sub forum. A picture would also help ☺

 

[IslandLizard]

We definitely need to see a picture of that "drape of ghost stuff."

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Without a picture I can't be sure, but my SCOBY's get what I would call wispy, thin streamers that can vary in color from very light to light brown coming off them that eventually float to the bottom, my understanding is it is often yeast colonies, but without a picture can't be sure if this is what you have going on.

 

[Goldie88]

Hopefully these will post this time, I think I got stuck in the spam filter as a new user. The "thing" is housed inside one of those 1 gallon Ball jars.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Crikey! That is more of that junk than I have seen before. Unsure how to advise with this one. Maybe after this run it is time to cut down your SCOBY and reset a little bit with the next batch. Maybe someone who has experience with something like this will have a better moving forward plan.

 

[IslandLizard]

Crikey! That is more of that junk than I have seen before. Unsure how to advise with this one. Maybe after this run it is time to cut down your SCOBY and reset a little bit with the next batch. Maybe someone who has experience with something like this will have a better moving forward plan.

She isn't kidding about ghost drapes! These put Harry Potter to shame. It's almost a museum piece! Or at least AB normal.

It seems to sprout from the scoby.