Hi all,
I'm a total newbie at this. Someone gave me a scoby about a month ago. The scoby had several layers on it (babies that hadn't detached, maybe?) and was very dark to begin with.
I was leaving town for 3.5 weeks, so per some instructions I found online, I made up a tea for it and let the scoby hang out in the tea in my fridge for 3.5 weeks. When I returned, the tea was still totally sweet and hadn't fermented at all.
I considered that maybe the fridge temp was too cold. I also wondered if this was because the outer layers were super dark, and maybe not as active. So I separated the scoby into 3 pieces. Then I stuck all 3 pieces back into the tea, just to see if I could get any fermentation action going. I put the tea on my counter and it's been there for about a week now, at 70º F. When I checked it today, I noticed that there are a lot of white blobs, some of which appear to be growing ON the old scoby, and some of which are growing on the surface of the tea (see picture. In the picture you can also see that there are 3 overlapping scobys in the jar). The blobs are all gelatinous/wet-looking. I'm concerned that the scoby might have been totally dead, and there is just weird stuff growing in the jar now.
1. From what you can see by looking at the picture, is this normal and safe?
2. If this IS normal and safe, which scobys should I keep moving forward? Should I toss the oldest/most brown ones and use whatever looks newest?
[I should also note that I keep a clean dishtowel tightly attached to the top of my kombucha jar, and I just removed it for the purpose of taking the photo--I don't ever have the jar sitting around with its lid off!]
Thank you so much for any advice you may have!!!
I'm a total newbie at this. Someone gave me a scoby about a month ago. The scoby had several layers on it (babies that hadn't detached, maybe?) and was very dark to begin with.
I was leaving town for 3.5 weeks, so per some instructions I found online, I made up a tea for it and let the scoby hang out in the tea in my fridge for 3.5 weeks. When I returned, the tea was still totally sweet and hadn't fermented at all.
I considered that maybe the fridge temp was too cold. I also wondered if this was because the outer layers were super dark, and maybe not as active. So I separated the scoby into 3 pieces. Then I stuck all 3 pieces back into the tea, just to see if I could get any fermentation action going. I put the tea on my counter and it's been there for about a week now, at 70º F. When I checked it today, I noticed that there are a lot of white blobs, some of which appear to be growing ON the old scoby, and some of which are growing on the surface of the tea (see picture. In the picture you can also see that there are 3 overlapping scobys in the jar). The blobs are all gelatinous/wet-looking. I'm concerned that the scoby might have been totally dead, and there is just weird stuff growing in the jar now.
1. From what you can see by looking at the picture, is this normal and safe?
2. If this IS normal and safe, which scobys should I keep moving forward? Should I toss the oldest/most brown ones and use whatever looks newest?
[I should also note that I keep a clean dishtowel tightly attached to the top of my kombucha jar, and I just removed it for the purpose of taking the photo--I don't ever have the jar sitting around with its lid off!]
Thank you so much for any advice you may have!!!
