Scobys Galore is this normal?

[tigerstephie]

New here and just starting brewing kombucha with plans to keg in the near future. But I started off with just a 1 gallon continuous brew and plan to make a few batches of that before I move to a 5 gallon jar so I can have kombucha on tap all the time.

So I bought a scoby online after realizing the "enlightened" GTs was not going to allow me to grow my own. I made the tea followed directions I found online and left it to ferment. The Scoby I received was smaller than the circumference of the 1 gallon jar but I figured it would "grow" out to take on the entire jar. And sure enough after a day or two I noticed the entire top was a nice continuous scoby. I waited 7 days tried it and it was super sweet still so I waited another 3 or 4 days tried it again and it still wasn't quite there. By day 14 it was just about perfect so I set up to bottle (my temporary solution until I can keg) and make a new batch. As I was lifting the scoby out of the jar I noticed there was a smaller one under it and I was like awesome I did something right as I have a "baby" then when I looked at it closer I realized this smaller scoby was almost identical in size to the original(smaller than the current jar) and that attached to the bottom of it was what I would call a baby from the pictures I have seen. The top scoby that took up the whole jar was a good 1/2 inch thick and pretty firm and this was another 1/2" or more plus the thin baby.

All of the sudden I have scobys galore and I only have made one batch! The smaller scoby was slightly attached to the larger one but it easily came off and I went ahead and put it in its own container to preserve.

So I guess my question is is this normal for them to grow this much? I used a cup of sugar which from what I can find is the right amount and it fermented for 14 days. Should I keep the smaller guy separate or should I just keep it all together and keep going? When I move from 1 gallon to 5 gallon I will probably need a pretty large scoby and I figured I could combine.

thanks!

 

[heatpackinhippie]

What exactly do you mean when you say you can't brew from KT's bottled kombucha?

I'm new to brewing and that's how I started mine. I've only brewed a few batches. Could there be a problem with brewing it from a bottled source? I used the bottle with no flavors, and it was raw.

 

[maffew222]

OP: SCOBYs don't really follow too many rules, so you might get a bunch of babies the first time and none the next. They fall off when they fall off. I've ripped apart inch thick ones into layers and everything was fine.

And as for getting a new SCOBY from GTs, like the previous poster mentioned it can pretty easily be done with patience and by using "raw" unblended Kombucha.

 

[ChaoticDayZ]

In regards to the person asking about scoby's galore that's normal . I get a baby every time I brew a batch . Now
I have 3 scoby hotels I have going from maybe 5-6 brewing sessions. I'm gonna try continues Brewing as soon as I find the right vessel to use .

 

[tigerstephie]

Thanks for the answers guys. I guess I figured it out cause I now have two 1 gallon batches. With the holidays I had let one go a little long and when I went to make a batch of tea last night I had a huge mother and with a couple baby under it. I just left it like that for now in the new batch. Is there any reason not to leave a mother scoby around? Like at some point should I make sure to remove the oldest part? Since I am going to be upgrading from 1 gallon batches to a 5 gallon batch I figured the bigger scoby I had the better and less time that 5 gallons will take to get started.

 

[legbuh]

You'll actually get a new scoby each time. Your smaller scoby didn't "grow", it was just replace with the bigger one.

When I start a new batch now, I don't even use a scoby, I just use a starter solution. The scoby I don't think plays as much into fermenting the new batch as the starter.

I've had mixed results with GT as well. One bottle I was able to grow a scoby, another I wasn't. So who knows there. It may be if all the critters lived through processing/shipping/etc and to the store. Remember, there's probably little sugar in a bottle of GT so the critters have nothing to feed on during their trip from the plant to the store.

 

[tigerstephie]

Thanks for the info! how long does a batch take with just using starter? And what ratio of starter to fresh tea do you use?

OH yeah and the GTs thing I think it probably depends on a lot of factors for sure.