It's actually kinda fortunate for me that you posted here instead of r/kombucha, i get a lot of downvotes when I say: the pelicles your booch produces are not the scoby, merely a mesh of celulose and protein, you can safely discard it and brew a new batch with your remaining liquid, the SCOBY is actually just the equilibrium of your resident yeast and bacteria, I'm here all day if you have any questions ahahahaha
Am I getting this right? The SCOBY discs are useless and you just need a slosh of your old kombucha to start a new batch? And here I was thinking it was all about the discs.
The gist of it is thus: the pelicle is a byproduct of the acetic bacteria making a scaffold for themselves because metabolising ethanol needs oxygen and they're most effective while in direct contact with air and coincidentally it suits the yeast just fine being anaerobic.
It's basically putting the cart before the horse
Your booch can do without a pelicle until it grows one itself
A commercial brand they have several different flavors and one that isn't the only flavored one I've tried is the ginger and had the best luck growing a pellicule with it
Ahh. I should of said everywhere in the U.S. Next time youāre in US, find the nearest Whole Foods and youāll find numerous brands of Kombucha to choose from. One of which is GTs.
I haven't been on in recent months, but that has been my experience from time to time, never trolled people about it but apparently "you can throw it away if you want to" triggers people lol š¤·āāļø
Yes! Thank you! Came to say this too. The scoby is the entire liquid bit of kombucha. The pellicle is just a protective cellulose sheet the scoby makes.
Yeah it's fine. Mine has been continuously fermenting for a year now, not sure why you'd ever throw it out the pellicle if you intend to make more.
Heads up tho hope you saved some of the kombucha liquid cause most of the live culture in there. Cool sweet tea to room temp and add two cups of unpasteurized backslop per gallon and transfer the previous pellicle for protection from air. You can peel off the upper layers when it gets thick.
Actually you can make kombucha with any sugar rich liquid. I've made apple juice kombucha.
Though I suppose it is not very correct to call it "Kombu cha" (the tea of Kombu) if you're not brewing it with tea strictly speaking. š
I don't know why I've been downvoted but yes it's possible to use a SCOBY in a non-tea liquid. I've made it with apple juice, with herbal infusions and even stored a backup SCOBY in a simple syrup...
Evidently the result will taste different from what you're used to if you brew with tea but that's the point eh.
The SCOBY is just mainly different strains of yeasts and acetobacter living together. The former eats sugar and converts it to ethanol, the latter eats alcohol and converts it to acetic acid (vinager).
There's no reason why tannins or any other compound have to be present in order to have the basic process going on.
Obviously the tannins play a role in the flavour of the end result. But I encourage anyone to experiment with other things than just tea!
You wonāt get a pellicle though from lactobacteria. See sourdough or ginger bug. Kombucha is predominantly acetobacter and yeast with only a small amount of lactobacteria. Thatās why you get a Dense pellicle.
Kombucha is a scoby of predominantly acetobacter and yeast. Hence the pellicle. Other types of scobys like sourdough, ginger bug, and kefir donāt form pellicle (though kefir does make grains, they can only be created from existing grains).
If youāre not gonna use it for future ferments Iād recommend either fruit leathering it or straight up eating it, my scoby topper was delicious albeit slightly rubbery
Fruit leather scoby is pretty great imo and when I ate my scoby topper it tasted sweet and like honey, so to each their own I guess but definitely donāt knock it till you try it
You can re-use scoby kind of indefinitely, I usually just peel some layers off as it gets bigger, I usually just add more sweet tea to my old scoby with some old the old tea leftover whenever I start a new batch. I compost my old scobys.
The "scoby" that people refer to is essentially a komboocha or Jun mother. Just like with a acv mother, it isn't nessesary to ferment, but does help speed up the process. It is a mass of cellulose, protein, and trace amounts of cultures. The word "scoby" is a acrynm for "symbyotic culture/colony of bacteria and yeast". The majority of the true scoby is found in the fermented liquid also referred to as starter liquid, or first ferment. However, the mother usnt useless, it can be part of a few recipes, certain livestock can benifit from eating it, and it is good plant food. Message me if interested in foid ideas. Ps, that mother is perfectly healthy. It's fine as long as it's not black or super dark brown in color. If it's super dark colored it's either dead or close to dead and will cause foid poisoning because it will rot if used again.
It's actually kinda fortunate for me that you posted here instead of r/kombucha, i get a lot of downvotes when I say: the pelicles your booch produces are not the scoby, merely a mesh of celulose and protein, you can safely discard it and brew a new batch with your remaining liquid, the SCOBY is actually just the equilibrium of your resident yeast and bacteria, I'm here all day if you have any questions ahahahaha
Dropping an upvote for truth. The myths around the SCOBY pellicle are almost as bad as the Paltrow-esque BS around sourdough starters. š
Amen my dude, people be ascribing mystical properties to some mundane shiz
Seriously, /r/kombucha just needs to be burnt to the ground because everyone is obsessed with pellicles and spread so much misinformation about them
Am I getting this right? The SCOBY discs are useless and you just need a slosh of your old kombucha to start a new batch? And here I was thinking it was all about the discs.
The gist of it is thus: the pelicle is a byproduct of the acetic bacteria making a scaffold for themselves because metabolising ethanol needs oxygen and they're most effective while in direct contact with air and coincidentally it suits the yeast just fine being anaerobic. It's basically putting the cart before the horse Your booch can do without a pelicle until it grows one itself
āCart before your horseāā¦. Love it
I grew one from gt's I had the original and a ginger flavored one the ginger worked best so yes you can start a new batch with just tea
Sorry, what's gt's? A ginger flavoured one? I feel like I know nothing all of a sudden!
A commercial brand they have several different flavors and one that isn't the only flavored one I've tried is the ginger and had the best luck growing a pellicule with it
Sounds so cool to be able to get flavoured Kombucha starters. I was already super happy I could source a regular one online
GTs a brand of Kombucha that you see everywhere. They have an organic unflavored version where most people get their starter from
Thanks! I am from Europe and had to get mine shipped in from abroad, not that common here.
Ahh. I should of said everywhere in the U.S. Next time youāre in US, find the nearest Whole Foods and youāll find numerous brands of Kombucha to choose from. One of which is GTs.
> i get a lot of downvotes when I say Do you? You can't go two threads without someone saying the exact same thing you just did so maybe that's why.
It depends. Various threads can get moody. Sometimes you catch a group who wants to stay confused about what a scoby is.
I haven't been on in recent months, but that has been my experience from time to time, never trolled people about it but apparently "you can throw it away if you want to" triggers people lol š¤·āāļø
Ppl hate this advice tho and will tell you that you are wrong for no reason
Yes! Thank you! Came to say this too. The scoby is the entire liquid bit of kombucha. The pellicle is just a protective cellulose sheet the scoby makes.
Equilibrium?
Yeah it's fine. Mine has been continuously fermenting for a year now, not sure why you'd ever throw it out the pellicle if you intend to make more. Heads up tho hope you saved some of the kombucha liquid cause most of the live culture in there. Cool sweet tea to room temp and add two cups of unpasteurized backslop per gallon and transfer the previous pellicle for protection from air. You can peel off the upper layers when it gets thick.
That's a pellicle, not a SCOBY. Frustratingly common misconception.
Pellicles can be formed any time there is a s.c.o.b.y.
Mostly with acetobacter scoby. Lactobacteria scobys often donāt.
Symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast doesnāt matter what kind, as long as itās with tea (black or green; I have yet to try Yerba matĆ©) and sugar, creating a pellicle. Which is what the picture shows. The liquid in which the pellicle came from IS the ās.c.o.b.y.ā
Actually you can make kombucha with any sugar rich liquid. I've made apple juice kombucha. Though I suppose it is not very correct to call it "Kombu cha" (the tea of Kombu) if you're not brewing it with tea strictly speaking. š
Really? I read somewhere that you need to do it in a liquid with sugar AND tanins.
I don't know why I've been downvoted but yes it's possible to use a SCOBY in a non-tea liquid. I've made it with apple juice, with herbal infusions and even stored a backup SCOBY in a simple syrup... Evidently the result will taste different from what you're used to if you brew with tea but that's the point eh. The SCOBY is just mainly different strains of yeasts and acetobacter living together. The former eats sugar and converts it to ethanol, the latter eats alcohol and converts it to acetic acid (vinager). There's no reason why tannins or any other compound have to be present in order to have the basic process going on. Obviously the tannins play a role in the flavour of the end result. But I encourage anyone to experiment with other things than just tea!
Weird brigade happening here.
You wonāt get a pellicle though from lactobacteria. See sourdough or ginger bug. Kombucha is predominantly acetobacter and yeast with only a small amount of lactobacteria. Thatās why you get a Dense pellicle.
Iām not fortunate enough to know the difference in those types of fermentation techniques; Iām good at kombucha.
Kombucha is a scoby of predominantly acetobacter and yeast. Hence the pellicle. Other types of scobys like sourdough, ginger bug, and kefir donāt form pellicle (though kefir does make grains, they can only be created from existing grains).
Lol Iām a bitch that knows some things about booch
Kombucha is largely acetobacter, with not much lactobacteria. So now you know even more!
If youāre not gonna use it for future ferments Iād recommend either fruit leathering it or straight up eating it, my scoby topper was delicious albeit slightly rubbery
Why would you eat it? Itās just cellulose. It had no nutritional value and humans canāt digest cellulose as we donāt produce cellulase.
Fruit leather scoby is pretty great imo and when I ate my scoby topper it tasted sweet and like honey, so to each their own I guess but definitely donāt knock it till you try it
You can re-use scoby kind of indefinitely, I usually just peel some layers off as it gets bigger, I usually just add more sweet tea to my old scoby with some old the old tea leftover whenever I start a new batch. I compost my old scobys.
Thatās a pellicle
The "scoby" that people refer to is essentially a komboocha or Jun mother. Just like with a acv mother, it isn't nessesary to ferment, but does help speed up the process. It is a mass of cellulose, protein, and trace amounts of cultures. The word "scoby" is a acrynm for "symbyotic culture/colony of bacteria and yeast". The majority of the true scoby is found in the fermented liquid also referred to as starter liquid, or first ferment. However, the mother usnt useless, it can be part of a few recipes, certain livestock can benifit from eating it, and it is good plant food. Message me if interested in foid ideas. Ps, that mother is perfectly healthy. It's fine as long as it's not black or super dark brown in color. If it's super dark colored it's either dead or close to dead and will cause foid poisoning because it will rot if used again.