Tiny white balls around my kombucha

[CorpseOnHoliday]

Hello!
This is my first time making a kombucha. I received scoby from a friend and put it in the sweet tea 7 days ago. When I looked at it today, there seemed to be something translucent and slimy forming on the top with lots of tiny white balls around it. The mama scoby is resting in the bottom of jar. My friend doesn't know what it is and I couldn't find similar looking kombucha anywhere. Can you help me find out? The kombucha smells just slightly vinegary.

Thanks!

 

[Jayjay1976]

Those lil balls are scoby snacks

 

[ralphkaz]

did you use any starter liquid with the scoby? give it a few days and post another pic. they could be vinegar eels or the start of a new scoby forming; doesn't look like mold...

 

[CorpseOnHoliday]

did you use any starter liquid with the scoby? give it a few days and post another pic. they could be vinegar eels or the start of a new scoby forming; doesn't look like mold...

If I remember correctly I just put sweet tea and scoby inside the jar that was washed with white vinegar. I will see how it looks in few days. Thank you!

 

[Calder]

They could be vinegar eels or the start of a new scoby forming; doesn't look like mold...

This is the second thread today that has mentioned vinegar eels. I thought it was a joke in the first one.

What are vinegar eels, and are they good or bad?

 

[Sajbrewer]

Here's a good overview. The key is they are not harmful or parasitic, but you don't want them either...
https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/kombucha/kombucha-vinegar-eels/

 

[Amadeo38]

This is the second thread today that has mentioned vinegar eels. I thought it was a joke in the first one.

What are vinegar eels, and are they good or bad?

I noticed that as well!

My first thought when I read it was vinegar strokes, which is very unrelated.

 

[CorpseOnHoliday]

They don't seem to be eels as they look a bit different and as I read eels are supposed to move towards light. This didn't move. I had my brew in 7 jars and apart from 2 all of them ended up being mouldy. One of them didn't develop scoby at all. All of those that developed scoby had these balls around it though. I discarded all of them as we were unable to find what it is and I will start again... :/

 

[Sajbrewer]

I think I read that you didn't use any "starter tea", which may be the issue here. That keeps the pH at a suitable level to inhibit mold growth. I think it also may help jump start the development of the new SCOBY. So those little "balls" may have been the beginnings of a SCOBY, but the environment wasn't conducive to new growth (but would be conducive to mold). I'd try using 1 cup of starter kombucha per gallon in your future efforts Even store bought, unpasteurized raw will work - I think I read that you can use a few tablespoons of white vinegar too (but you may want to research that).