* Please note that this blog remains up as a resource. However, this blog is currently on hiatus until further notice. For more information, please read this blog post. Thank you and happy kombucha brewing, drinking, and SCOBY trading! Lots of love. ~Annabelle *

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

End of Part 2 of Experiment 2! "Cutting the Kombucha Mother"

The cut kombucha mother again pulled through! After 9 days of fermentation at around 73.4 - 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit, this odd-looking fellow had developed.

So what I have failed to mention before is that sometimes, the new kombucha mushroom that forms is inseparable from the mother.

If this is the case, you can just continue brewing with the kombucha mother and baby mushroom together.


day 9









Although the new mushroom that formed this time does not have an even thickness and is not perfectly shaped because it is still attached to the cut kombucha mother, it still came out cream colored and fermented the 6 cups of kombucha very well!

day 7

day 5




The kombucha from the cut SCOBY had a pH of around 2.5-3.5, and it was very tasty and very comparable to the kombucha that was brewing alongside it with a whole SCOBY!




Overall Conclusions from Experiment 2:

  • Cut kombucha mushrooms can ferment various ranges of kombucha tea. (Here, a cut kombucha mother with an area of ~28 cm^2 was able to brew 1.5 and 6 cups of kombucha effectively).
  • Cut kombucha mothers (1) are able to grow whole mushrooms and (2) can grow into whole kombucha mushrooms, according to the size of the surface area of the brewing vessel (if the old and new SCOBY are inseparable)
A reminder as to why you would want to cut your kombucha mushroom:
  1. To increase your brewing capacity by brewing in more containers
  2. According to this thread, cutting SCOBY's instead of peeling them is better, because each SCOBY layer contains different organisms
  3. The most important reason of all: to share the joy of kombucha brewing with your fellow fermenters! :)

2 comments:

Jim said...

I see the SCOBY in the top picture has a pearly white marbled look. I'm assuming that it is still good and not contaminated. One of my SCOBYs looks like that (being new to the KT world) I let it continue and now it nearly covers the darker portion of the mother. the tea still tasts ok though.

Annabelle Ho said...

the pearly white marbled look is good! the newer/baby mushrooms that grow have the creamy white colored look. and as kombucha mushrooms age, they get darker. eventually, you will probably want to dispose of/compost your older mothers, and continue brewing with your younger ones.