Day 7

Day 7, time for the taste test. I'll admit I have been putting this off for a couple hours and I was kinda scared about what's been going on in that jar for the last 3 days. It wasn't very comforting that when I walked in the door this evening my house seemed to smell strongly of vinegar... the mushroom running rampant through the rooms, no doubt trailing ankle biting mini-shrooms behind. Dread crept up my spine as I poked my head into the kitchen to spy the no doubt empty jar. That tangy nose twitching smell grew stronger. I reached for the jar, setting it gently and at arms length on the counter top.

I took this moment to thoroughly wash my hands and the utensil (rubber spatula) that I was going to use so I didn't actually have to touch it. Cleanliness when it comes to brewing Kombucha is the most important step and I had already fantasized the nightmare of spores that could evolve out of my giant petri dish. Utensils sanitized and a nice cozy plate of white vinegar set up for Scoby II, I stare down at the innocent jar topped a with crisp white bonnet. The jar seems to glow with a light not it's own. (Duh, its sitting on the counter in SUN light! Just get to the tea already!) Okay, Okay. So I pull off the paper towel and...
Scoby was still in there safe and sound, actually safe and quite disgusting.
But he's just not ready for the world yet, and will have to wait another couple days. I did think it time for a taste test as well, and much to my surprise I have made some nice Oolong tea, with a slight tartness and it is still pretty sweet. Which tells me that the brewing must continue.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the irregularities in the surface are because he got dried out too quickly. A lot of the original liquid has evaporated or maybe it's been used by the fungus? and the surface was pretty dry. And, this may have been a rookie Kombucha brewing move, I went ahead and removed the culture and washed with the white vinegar anyways. I wanted to be very sure that nothing out of the ordinary was in there mixin' it up causin' trouble.
For example
This would have been bad. And would have looked like this in a few more days.
So what's wrong with my tea, nothing
Well, my Scoby may not be very pretty, he may have gotten a little dried out, but at least don't have any mold. So lets call this the pubescent years, pimply, awkward, and smelly. So away to the warm shelf you go to bubble away for a few more days.