[procparam]

The mat at the top of the kombucha is not the SCOBY. It is a waste product of the SCOBY - just a big slab of cellulose. This is a misunderstanding that I've seen people on r/kombucha get pretty upset about

The actual SCOBY is in the kombucha itself, not the cellulose. It's pretty easy to prove; when I made kombucha I would throw out the mat after every batch and save some of the liquid to use as starter for the next.

[richeyryan]

You also don't need the mat, also known as the pellicle, to start brewing kombucha. It is entirely redundant. Just get a couple of bottles of unpasteurised, unflavoured kombucha and use that as your starter, along with the fresh tea and sugar. Those kombucha starter kits with a pellicle are just a big scam.

[rcpt]

You can just use whatever store bought Kombucha to get going. Of course if you find any scoby on Craigslist it's guaranteed to be an interesting encounter

[vbezhenar]

Do you have any reference? I don't think that's strictly true. I agree that this big slab is just some kind of protection, but if you would look at the bottom part of this slab, you would see threads, like small seaweed which "grow" from this slab. My understanding is that kombucha is a symbiotic mix between those threads (it's actually Yeast fungus) and bacteria in the liquid. Liquid does contain some parts of fungus, of course, so you can throw out the entire slab and new slab will grow eventually, but you're throwing lots of yeast and its protection. So your kombucha will take much more time to brew and final result will not have the same proportions of components as "properly" brewed kombucha.

[ValentineC]

> My understanding is that kombucha is a symbiotic mix between those threads (it's actually Yeast fungus) and bacteria in the liquid. Liquid does contain some parts of fungus, of course, so you can throw out the entire slab and new slab will grow eventually, but you're throwing lots of yeast and its protection.

On the other extreme: if one has an old enough continuous ferment, a lot of yeast will settle at the bottom, potentially affecting the end result.

[barbazoo]

I didn't know that, thanks for mentioning it.