Healthy SCOBY: What Does a Healthy Kombucha SCOBY Look Like?

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:

1. 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 🙂