Does your SCOBY have bumps? Perhaps you have a SCOBY with brown spots forming on the top. Perhaps your SCOBY just looks really slimy. So, what does a healthy SCOBY look like?
The most common question we get from our customers is whether or not their kombucha SCOBY has gone bad. In 99.9% of instances, the SCOBY is perfectly healthy! The fact of the matter is simply that a healthy SCOBY has many different faces. SCOBYs are very much like snowflakes; no two SCOBYs are going to look exactly alike!
If you haven’t actually gotten a SCOBY yet but stumbled on this page, checking out our kombucha SCOBYS and brewing kits!
What Might I Mistake a Healthy SCOBY for?
Based on the questions we get from our customers, you might think that your healthy SCOBY is suffering from any of the following issues:
- My SCOBY looks like it has warts!
These “warts” that you see likely look like multiple bumps on the surface of your SCOBY. This is absolutely normal— sometimes as the kombucha ferments, bubbles of carbonation are let off, creating upwards pressure on the SCOBY. This results in bumps of various sizes on the SCOBYs surface.
In short, it means your SCOBY has a healthy, active yeast population. The yeast are responsible for creating carbonation, and they are letting off such big and strong bubbles that they are leaving their mark on your SCOBY’s surface!
The above picture shows a bumpy, but healthy SCOBY. You might also have noticed some darker spots on the SCOBY’s surface– this is also common when you have a very active yeast population.
- 2. My SCOBY has mold spores on it!
Odds are what you are seeing are actually clumps of yeast, which have nothing to do with mold at all! Mold is fuzzy in appearance. When it forms on kombucha, it will usually be either blue/green or white. Regardless of color, it will always look fuzzy and dry whereas you SCOBY and yeast will look wet and slimy.
The picture above shows mold on a SCOBY. It is NOT a healthy SCOBY
Yeast clumps, on the other hand, look rather suspicious if you are not familiar with them. They might be long, brown strands hanging down from your SCOBY. They might take the form of a large brown clump on top of your SCOBY. Yeast might also gather and float around at the bottom of your jar. It can even detach from your SCOBY and float around as a dark creepy clump on its own—especially if you have packaged a SCOBY in a small container to give to a friend.
Fortunately, all of these forms of yeast are A OKAY and should not be confused with mold or mold spores! All of the above pictures show examples of yeast clumps in their different forms. Do not be alarmed if you see something similar in your brew or on your SCOBY! These ARE healthy SCOBYs!
- 3. There is a strange “jelly” forming in my jar. It is clear, so it can’t be a SCOBY, right?
Wrong! When forming, the baby SCOBY initially looks like a clear and kind of gelatinous film/layer. It will gradually fill in more and more, becoming more opaque and less “jelly” looking. If your SCOBY is looking more like a jelly than a creamy white disc, you likely just need to leave your brew for a bit longer.
Please note that you should disturb your brew as little as possible during fermentation! I know it can be difficult when you are very excited to watch your new SCOBY grow in and drink your first batch of kombucha tea; however, shaking the jar around even just to pick it up and observe SCOBY progress also shakes up your SCOBY. Too much movement can make it difficult for your SCOBY matter to come together and form a solid SCOBY disc at the top of your brew. This is why packaged SCOBYs sometimes have some “SCOBY gel” along with them—more SCOBY matter is forming within the package, but it cannot form into a solid disc with all of the movement the package goes through on its journey to you. It is harmless, but it just doesn’t look very attractive!
The above SCOBY is a healthy SCOBY that needs more time to form into a full and creamy white disc!
- My SCOBY seems to be forming in layers. Is this unhealthy?
This is not unhealthy! Layers on your SCOBY likely mean that it experienced slight disturbances (movement) throughout the brew. Each time the jar is shaken up a little, a layer of SCOBY can work its way a little lower into the jar. This opens up the surface of the kombucha, meaning a new SCOBY layer will begin to form. As long as the jar wasn’t shaken a ton, it will probably still be attached to the previous layer. So, it is completely fine even if your SCOBY is looking like a cake!
The above picture is a SCOBY with LOTS of healthy layers! Some layers are stuck together more, and others are somewhat separated.
- My SCOBY is sideways/sunk/horizontal/doing backflips in the jar. Is it dead?
Okay, if your SCOBY is doing backflips you should get it on camera—it has taken its life to a whole new level! As far as any of the other circumstances, it is totally fine!! Mother SCOBYs may or may not float, they may or may not attach to the baby, and they will quite possibly reposition themselves throughout the duration of your brew.
This is completely okay and due to a number of variables such as temperature and yeast/bacteria balance in the SCOBY. It will likely be different for your next brew and the brew after that. Again, SCOBYs are living organisms and each one is unique!
The above images contain HEALTHY SCOBYs floating and sinking wherever their yeasty hearts desire!
Does Your Creepy SCOBY Deserve a New Category?
If you have an issue or question about your SCOBY that does not fall into the above potential red flags, feel free to comment about it below! We will get in touch with you and are happy to take a look at it and diagnose Mr. SCOBY! Don’t worry in the mean time—all SCOBYs look pretty unusual! Odds are it is just another peculiar look that can be explained with SCOBY science 🙂
75 comments
My scoby has been getting super bumpy lately. rn it’s covered in a fine layer of tons of hard little bumps!! is it still safe to use?
let me know if i can send a picture!
Hi Nya,
It is difficult to say without seeing your brew, but it sounds like this could be yeast specs or even tiny tea fragments mixed in with big leaves.
Given that you said it is not fuzzy or growing, it sounds unlikely to be mold. Does it look dry on those spots? Mold would look dry whereas yeast would look wet and even slimy/slippery.
Happy Brewing!
Hi there!
I have black flecks in my scoby too, I have been using black lose tea, but very big leaves so I don’t think it ads up with the flecks I’m seeing on the scoby. Is there any chance of it being black mold?
I do not see anything fuzzy or growing, its all small flecks on the surface and in the sides.
Hi Tillie,
If there were tea leaves loose, I would fully expect them to form into the growing baby kombucha SCOBY. I would just suggest ordering some tea bags or being more careful to strain all leaves out in the future. Once you have grown a SCOBY or two without tea leaves in it, you may want to toss the SCOBY with the leaves in it & use the normal ones.
Having said that, I would not expect it to ruin your kombucha brews when used short-term.
I hope this helps!
I found some tiny black flecks on my last SCOBY, though I did use loose leaf tea to brew my last batch (guess I couldn’t get all the leaf flakes out?) Are tea leaves bad for the SCOBY? Could it be something else I should be worried about? The SCOBY’S color and consistency is fine, (slimy, lumpy, no mold) and the kombucha tastes fine.
I had some loose leaf tea that I used for my last batch, and I tried to strain it before I poured it into the brewing jar. Inevitably, my strainer wasn’t fine enough and I saw a few tiny tea leaf fragments floating in the brew. Fast forward to tonight, I’m bottling this batch and preparing the next one along with the SCOBY hotel. I noticed tiny black flecks on the bottom of my SCOBY. The color is otherwise normal, the feel is normal (slimy/bumpy), no mold, and it tastes fine. I can feel the tiny bumps of the black flecks in the SCOBY along with the normal yeast lumps—I’m guessing that the carbonation pushed the tea leaves up and they imbedded themselves in the SCOBY? Are tea leaves dangerous to the SCOBY? Could these tiny flecks be something else I should be worried about? Thank you!
Hi Hannah,
The bubbles are normal, but blue bubbles are certainly strange. This could be a result of the type of tea you used (assuming you did not use standard black tea).
My scoby has bubbles which I think is normal. But they are blue. Is that normal?
Hi Paula,
When in doubt, extra time is your best friend! It sounds like this could be a new SCOBY growing in. I would recommend leaving your brew undisturbed in a dark space for at least 5 days, then checking on it. You will quite possibly find it has solidified into a more recognizable SCOBY.
If you find that you aren’t getting great results with that recipe/ratio, I’d recommend brewing with our kombucha home-brewing instructions.
Best of luck! :)
Hi Sydney,
Thanks for commenting!
It sounds like your brew may just be fermenting very fast. This is not an issue unless it is too tart for your taste preferences. You can certainly go ahead and bottle when this happens.
If this is happening regularly, you may want to reduce your primary fermentation time.
It sounds like you may have overly abundant yeasts, which would reduce the sugar content faster. If you believe this is an issue and would like to reduce the yeast content, you will basically take the opposite of many steps in this kombucha carbonation article
Most important steps to decrease yeast balance in your SCOBY/kombucha: use starter tea from the top of your fermented brews, keep your brew in a cooler part of your home (low as 65 degrees F), etc. Please note this may mean longer fermentation times since lower temperatures slow down fermentation.
I hope this helps! Best of luck.