My Ginger Bug Grew a Scoby!
Yes, surprise, surprise, my ginger bug grew it's own SCOBY from scratch. This is really fun... At first I was concerned that maybe this was a bad sign, but it smells great, looks great, and tastes great. No hint of excessive yeasts, no mold. The culture remains active. I had a hard time finding any information about this online, but I did finally run across another blogger who reported a similar experience. You can see from the image above that there is a thin SCOBY film on top of the ginger culture (notice the healthy bubbling action too!). In the picture below, you can see the translucent SCOBY from the top (slightly reflective and shiny in appearance). It is still thin, but I anticipate it will continue to grow.
I have changed my ginger bug routine somewhat. When I first started it, I read that you had to feed it daily. However, some people said twice per day, some
once per day; some said add 1t. of sugar and ginger into 2c. of water, while others suggested 1T. of sugar and ginger into only 2T. of water... In short, there doesn't seem to be much consensus on what makes for a good ginger bug. So I decided to depart from convention and see how my bug would do if I didn't babysit it quite so closely. I have left it for up to 3-4 days without adding any sugar and ginger with no problems. I add about 1-2T. of sugar and 1-2T. of ginger every few days, and add some water when it looks like it needs it. When there gets to be too much old ginger, I just throw some of it out, and continue adding it every few days. About once every 7-9 days, I make ginger beer with a combination of ginger bug and kombucha as a starter. For this, I remove almost all the liquid from my ginger bug except about 1/4 c. or so (out of about 2-3 cups). Then, I add a cup or two of water, and 1-2T. of ginger and sugar to get things going again.
Is the Ginger bug scoby similar to the kombucha one?
ReplyDeleteRandy, the one that grew on my ginger bug looked a little similar to a kombucha scoby, but it was more fragile. As it was "wild" and I wasn't able to put it under the microscope to see what strains of microbes were there, I can't tell you whether it had anything in common with a kombucha scoby or not :)
DeleteMy ginger bug scoby is fat nd strong. Just do not know what to do with it.
ReplyDeleteMine is also strong. I take it out and put it in a small glass bowl when I need to use the bug for a soda. Then, after I feed it, I replace it on top carefully. We'll see how that works but so far so good. My scoby floats easily.
DeleteMy ginger bug scoby is fat nd strong. Just do not know what to do with it.
ReplyDeleteI had ginger bug that grew a SCOBY, which also happened in my water kefir (a SCOBY in addition to the grains) and my GBP (ditto). The reason, as I began to find due to a consistent shift of flavor in all three, was that organisms from my kombucha decided to join in the party (in essence, they got "infected" by kombucha), and the flavor started to develop more along vinegary lines. While this was in no sense harmful, I wasn't fond of the addition. It's perhaps possible your ginger bug will just develop a SCOBY (but the ginger bug I've been brewing at work for awhile, where there is no kombucha brewing, has show no signs of going in this direction), if you also brew kombucha, you may be seeing signs of accidental cross-culturing (which won't hurt you, but you may find it shifts the flavor of your products in ways you don't care for).
ReplyDeleteWow. I never thought of that. Mine might also be a cross colonization because they are in proximity. Good call.
DeleteI woke up this morning and found my ginger bug from scratch grew a scoby. I do Kombucha so I recognized it immediately. It has no mold and smells great. I am glad to know its normal. I've had my bug for about six weeks. I raise mine in a 2 quart Ball jar and keep it under a coffee filter. I feed it every two days and my house temp is about 77 degrees.
ReplyDeleteI started brewing Kombucha a couple of months ago. I had added a very strong mixture of honey-sweetened ginger tea to my mature kombucha (scoby already filtered out) because I love commercial ginger flavored kombucha. It's been sitting around in a half gallon canning jar on the kitchen counter for a week, because I like my kombucha room temperature, and I noticed it seemed to have started a different king of fermentation because it got very fizzy. I was straining myself a drink today, and this totally clear, thick clump of scoby flopped right into the strainer. It looks nothing like my white, discoid kombucha scoby. I'm thinking it's a gingerbeer scoby. What do they look like compared to kombucha scoby? What a blessing! I am going to make it some more strong ginger honey tea and see what happens.
ReplyDeletePlease do tell more about this Ginger Beer Scoby
DeleteIs scoby the same as the 1970s yoghurt plant..a whitish transparenty jelly-plant used to make yoghurt that multuplies and gets rinsed under the tap..lives in milk, and the ginger plant that is v strong, rubbery, jellylike multiplies and is used to make gingerbeer...my mom used them but gave them away in the 80's when we went to college?
ReplyDeleteMy ginger bug scoby is unlike our kombucha one. It started out thin and paper like and has ginger in it. I peeled ginger because I stared it with conventional ginger, it wasn't very active, Then I learned about irradiation and got organic but still peeled it and grated the ginger on a zester. It's not moldy very bubbly. I don't think it's cross contaminated with kombucha because it's not gelatinous it now has several layers but it's like a paper ginger disk. I don't know. I do like to second ferment kombucha in it. I don't strain it since the ginger is grated so fine. I want to try ginger beer. My boyfriends brother made some ginger beer and it tastes really earthy, maybe due to using the peel. I like to use the peel in a water infusion in the refrigerator over night. I take the ginger disk out to feed it and put it back it's in a jar with a coffee filter rubberbanded as a lid. I'm fairly new to all this but I have mastered sauerkraut :) going to grow a ton of cabbage. I could eat it all day.
ReplyDelete* second ferment kombucha with it, ( not in it) lol I pour some in my recycled GT's bottles (labels removed) and then add ginger. I has some canned apricot in light syrup I added to one. It wash tasty, another with ginger bug and a lime wedge that was tasty too. Now I want ginger beer lol
DeleteI went away for a holiday of drie weeks ... and was told to put my bug into the refrigerator so it would stop being productive... and i could get it out when i was back home, start feeding it and we where of again ! Big suprise today ! Got my bug out and found a beurtifull scoby on it !!! exactly the same as a scoby of de kombcha my mum makes .... I will try to start de bug of again now ! xxx
ReplyDeleteMy ginger bug also grew a scoby. But I can tell it was because of the kombucha next to it. I put my booch and bug jars on a tray that has a little bit of water to prevent ants from climbing to the jars. The close proximity probably contaminated the ginger bug. I‘m now sure about it because a biofilm also formed on the water bath! Right now, I put a glass of sweet tea next to my kombucha. Let’s see if it will grow a scoby, too.
ReplyDeleteI began making homemade ginger ale....., to my surprise I got a GBP, a scoby like but white and sponge well defined disc on my little ginger bug glass container.
ReplyDeleteAfter feeding it about 5 days daily 1 tsp ginger one tsp sugar, I fed it about 4 times in about four months with fresh grated ginger, and sugar at 1:1 ratio. I used the GBP disc on a 1 gallons glass container with on cup of the extracted fresh ginger juice with one cup of sugar, 1 TBS lime juice and water. I will be watching the progress of my ginger beer brew....