Starting, but problems, help me out?

topic posted Sun, July 26, 2009 - 7:45 PM by  dylan
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so i just started brewing my kombucha tea, and i read that if i poured storebought raw kombucha tea in with sweetened tea, jared it and covered it with a cloth and rubber band, i would have a culture/tea in a few weeks. So this is exactly what i did a few days ago, and i looked at it and there isnt any kind of culture forming, just a few dark clumps on the top that are kinda stringy hanging from the top. i can post a picture if this is confusing. can someone tell me this: is it mold? is it going to become a scoby? a few things that may be important, i used half raw and half ginger, and the bottles were sitting unrefrigerated for a few days, but closed.
posted by:
dylan
SF Bay Area
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  • Re: Starting, but problems, help me out?

    Wed, July 29, 2009 - 1:52 AM
    I agree with the above post. I have never grown a culture from storebought tea. even raw tea, i expect, would take a while to develop a baby culture. It takes ~2 weeks to grow a baby when you have a big powerful mama culture. So... be patient. stringy is, actually, good. Mold can happen if you were not careful enough with the cleanliness of the brewing jar, or if your cloth you covered it with, has holes (mesh). make sure that cloth is very fine-holed so no spores or mold can get through. if you continue to get worried, take a picture. good luck!
  • Re: Starting, but problems, help me out?

    Wed, July 29, 2009 - 1:59 PM
    • j
      j
      offline 0

      Re: Starting, but problems, help me out?

      Wed, July 29, 2009 - 4:46 PM
      How does it smell?
      I can't tell from the pictures if it's good or bad, but, my scoby just died and I dumped the lot because mold formed on top. There was a pretty unpleasant smell - not so much as you'd notice it a couple feet away, but not good. K has always had a pleasant, albeit vinegary, smell to me. I knew something was wrong because the smell was off. I know you're not too experienced, but give it a sniff. If it smells bad, toss it. Smells good or you're not sure, let it ride a while longer.
      Regarding my scoby's sudden death, it's strange. It had been going strong for many months and I've made maybe 20 gallons of excellent K all told. About a week ago, the scoby was about 4 inches thick and I removed 2/3 of it, added new sweetened tea and put it back where it usually sits. Carrying it, some of the liquid sloshed up to the cloth covering the top and then dripped back down and I think there was probably residual detergent in the cloth. A day later the scoby sank (it's always been a top floater) and then a new skin formed which started to grow fuzzy spots. It might have been something else, but that's my theory. - Sad. Will start again next week.
      • j
        j
        offline 0

        Re: Starting, but problems, help me out?

        Wed, July 29, 2009 - 4:51 PM
        By the way, I started, as you have, by growing a scoby from bottled stuff. Took 3 weeks until I had a healthy scoby on top in moderately cool weather. mid 70s during the day, low 60s at night. Temperature makes a big difference. And I remember the stringy things. My recipe was 6 quarts of brewed tea, 2 bottles of store-boughten brew, 2 cups of sugar.

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