Kombucha makers, do you eat your extra scobies?

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I’ve been making kombucha for I guess 6 or 8 years, once I found out I could make it at about 40 cents per 20 oz serving instead of the $4.00/per my daughters and I were all paying for it.

I had a couple of neighbors, since moved on, who were happy to get new scobies on occasion. Otherwise I’ve been tossing extra scobies. My current 2 jugs (gallon each) for some reason are kicking off 2 nearly full-sized child scobies per batch, and I can’t keep up. I’ve put 6 into a scoby hotel but that’s not going to work long. So I started googling and found several websites that say to eat the extra scobies.

Below is a photo of a first try. This one was an older puck, completely light-yellow throughout and about nearly 2 cm thick. As dried it looks nearly black and is about 3 mm thick. I sugared both sides and dried it in the oven using only the oven lights (appx. 105°F) to dehydrate.

It’s tangy and sweet, the one bit cut out that I’ve tried (I’m afraid to try more until I’ve digested this bit for a day or so - I don’t want to die!). It has a consistency much like beef jerky.

Has anyone else tried eating extra scoby?

Next time I think I’ll go for savory/spicy.

If I live that long.

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Never. I left extras in labeled gallon Ziplocks on the sidewalk, and they all disappeared.

I stopped making kombucha - got too vinegary.

You could try putting them on Craigslist or FB Marketplace as a free/curb alert.

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I used to make kombucha and when the scobys took over the joint, I’d cut them up and put them in my compost. Second Christina’s suggestion to post them on Craigslist, Facebook Buy Nothing, Freecycle, or Marketplace. That is where I got my initial scoby, my sourdough starter, and milk keifer grains.

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I’d be a little apprehensive about putting that much yeast and bacteria directly in your stomach and gut. Dysbiosis is a scary/troublesome thing.

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Thanks both for the suggestions.

I never had one go too vinegary - I’ve often had the opposite problem (that they take waaay too long to get vinegary) with, so far, 2 commercial scobies bought from Amazon.

One of my earlier home-grown guys did start ramping up the alcohol (to a noticeable level) after about 20 batches. Someone here or on a ferment blog opined that it might have swung too high toward yeast with a lessening of the bacteria.

I ate about half of that one (ETA - the dried one shown above) then got tired of it and tossed the rest.

Composting is a good idea. My D3 has been bugging me to set up a compost bin but historically I’ve have so little food waste that I’m not sure I could feed it (but admit I’ve been lazy about basic research/learning on setting up compost).


ETA



Thanks again. I had to look up “dysbiosis”, although once I did, it’s not too unfamiliar of a concept, just an interestingly different aspect - as an old lab tech, I know issues like gut overgrowth of certain bacteria (some worrisome like C. difficile) due to antibiotic administration.

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