Persistent mold

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Persistent mold

Postby Kpotta on Mon Jul 27, 2015 11:03 am

I'm new to kombucha and this is the 2nd out of three attempts to have to be thrown away because of mold. It's very discouraging because I don't have access to an endless supply of free scobys to use after I have to throw each one out. Is there any known way to prevent this? I guess I could try a different room but this one is relatively traffic and light free. Otherwise I'd have to carry the open jars up and down stairs which just seems like an accident waiting to happen.

Also, I'm about to start some Jun, which requires large amounts of raw honey which is really expensive and I don't want to start it if I don't know how to minimize the risk of it developing mold.
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Re: Persistent mold

Postby Christopher Weeks on Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:02 pm

Maybe your SCOBY supplier is infected? Maybe your SCOBYs are spending too much time in non-acidic solutions?
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Re: Persistent mold

Postby Tibor on Mon Jul 27, 2015 1:12 pm

Scobies like other things get used to whatever their environment gives them. Was your scoby fed green tea or black tea before you got it? Black tea has a lot more caffeine. The only time I had a moldy unhappy scoby was when I switched to green tea without an adjustment period. I'm not sure if the quantity of sugar would have any impact.

Anyway, that's all I could think of besides what Christopher mentioned.
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Re: Persistent mold

Postby Kpotta on Mon Jul 27, 2015 4:35 pm

This scoby was first in green tea and didn't mold. This time I used a mixture. I've only tried three or four times and mold only didn't devop on the batch with all green tea and it was a smaller batch.
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Re: Persistent mold

Postby Christopher Weeks on Tue Jul 28, 2015 7:24 am

Are you starting the batch out with some acid? (Kombucha from a previous (or commercial) batch or vinegar or lemon juice or something?)
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Re: Persistent mold

Postby Kpotta on Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:20 pm

Yes I used vinegar.
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Re: Persistent mold

Postby Joanne on Sun Aug 02, 2015 1:16 am

Kpotta, are you certain it's mold you're looking at? Scobys can look pretty weird sometimes, especially the first few days. Could you post a photo?

If you're sure it's mold and everything is cleaned well and changed, maybe you could try a different room.
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