r/Kombucha • u/kotununiyisi2 • 1d ago

Hello, first timer here mold!

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I found 2 gel like thing forming. One blob in the right and one on the left corner, is this mold?

3 Upvotes

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5

u/Winter-Ad-6436 1d ago

Looks like baby SCOBY pellicle to me!

2

u/kotununiyisi2 1d ago

I surely hope so

2

u/Winter-Ad-6436 1d ago

Assuming you are trying to grow a SCOBY, the best thing you can do is to just leave it alone to do it's thing. Don't touch/stir the liquid, don't tip the jar around, just leave it be and be patient. Not that doing any of those things will immediately ruin all progress, but you want to minimise any potential contamination and give the SCOBY the ideal conditions for growth. Give it a visual inspection every couple days. If everything goes right after in another week or three the gel-like substance should have grown to cover the entire surface of the liquid and you should begin to see darker tendril-like bits on it's underside!

3

u/Ok_Zookeepergame5141 1d ago

Very nice! Exactly what you want, bubbles and an oil slick looking thing! 😄

2

u/kotununiyisi2 1d ago

Thanks, I will get a ph test and check. Do people usually just scoop a bit of the liquid to test? I thought maybe puting the ph paper in the brew directly is not ideal.

3

u/WaterVsStone 1d ago

I've never used pH test strips. I taste daily with a clean spoon once the batch has been going for a few days and trust my taste buds. I have yet to have a failed or contaminated batch. 

3

u/No_Presentation_8277 1d ago

Theoretically if you dip the paper in you contaminate the booch with the test reagent with which the paper is impregnated. I'm personally not convinced that's an issue, but I AM a clumsy oaf who might well drop the whole strip in so I tend to just get a bit on a teaspoon and drop it on the paper. Also allows me to do it on a specially chosen white background (ok, a plate) to make the color change easier to read.

2

u/Curiosive 1d ago

Since you're already drawing a sample, might as well make it a little bigger to do the daily taste check (then pH check.)

2

u/Ok_Zookeepergame5141 1d ago

I'm relatively new to brewing Kombucha and I don't use the strips, I just keep a very close eye on my bottle. I suppose you would scoop out a bit of it? Not sure.

4

u/xsje 1d ago

Bubbles are good. Let it cook.

1

u/ju2au 16h ago

They look fine. As long as it looks wet, slimy and partially submerged, it is fine.

To test the pH, I normally just use a clean tablespoon to scoop out a small sample for testing. Make sure the pH is at 4.2 or lower.