You start a new batch of kombucha.
You carefully place your SCOBY on the surface of the sweet tea. It floats for a moment, then… gloups. It sinks to the bottom of the jar or lies askew, like a pancake that hasn’t decided to stay on top.
At that point, a lot of questions come to mind:
This is a very common worry, especially at first. We often imagine that a “healthy” SCOBY should float to the surface like a buoy. In reality, this is not an obligation at all. A SCOBY can :
and stay perfectly healthy.
In most cases, a leaking SCOBY is normal behaviour that does not call fermentation into question. Especially if you’re working with a robust culture like a SCOBY Natural Probio, the most important thing is not the position of the old disc, but the ability of the new batch to create a baby SCOBY on the surface.
In this article, we will :
To understand why it sinks or floats, you first need to know what it’s made of.
A SCOBY of kombucha is above all :
This biofilm is soaked in liquid:
Depending on its density, thickness and internal structure, it can :
The SCOBY is not a “boat” designed to float permanently. It behaves like a living object soaked in water, subject to gravity and the movements of the liquid.
The SCOBY is not frozen in time:
All these factors influence its buoyancy. So it’s normal that it doesn’t always behave the same way from one batch to the next, even if you use the same SCOBY Natural Probio.
When you launch a new homemade kombucha, several things happen in the jar.
You start with :
At this point, two scenarios are most likely to occur.
In both cases, the culture of yeasts and bacteria is present. Whether the disc is at the top or the bottom, the micro-organisms it contains will :
The key point is this: the SCOBY that really ferments the new batch isn’t necessarily the old record. What counts is the ability of the culture to form a new film on the surface of the jar.
Even if your SCOBY Natural Probio sinks to the bottom :
It is this new surface SCOBY that is often best suited to the current batch. It forms exactly at the air/liquid interface, where certain acetic bacteria like to work.
In other words: a sinking SCOBY does not prevent the creation of a new SCOBY on the surface, which will take over.
There is no single explanation. Several factors can, individually or in combination, sink your SCOBY.
With successive batches, a SCOBY :
If your jar contains a relatively light (less dense) tea, the SCOBY may simply be denser than the liquid. Gravity will do the rest: it will sink.
This is particularly common with an old, thick SCOBY.
When you :
you modify its structure:
As a result, he loses buoyancy and can sink more easily. This does not mean that he is in poor health, only that his physical condition has changed.
If you transfer the SCOBY into a liquid :
The density of the medium may be higher than that of conventional sweet tea. Depending on the ratio between the density of the SCOBY and that of the liquid, it may float differently – sometimes sinking when it was floating before, or vice versa.
Temperature affects :
Very cold kombucha (or tea that is not completely at room temperature) may behave differently from well-tempered kombucha:
This remains a mechanical phenomenon, not a health diagnosis.
A very thin SCOBY baby:
If you are only using a very young SCOBY, it is normal for it to have unstable floating behaviour. It does not yet have a large surface area and sufficient thickness to remain spread out on the surface.
In a hotel in SCOBY, the :
When it’s time to put them back into a new cup of sweet tea, they can :
It doesn’t matter. The most important thing, once again, is that the microbial culture is active and that the medium is acidified with the mother kombucha.
Sometimes the explanation is very simple:
This leaves you with :
This behaviour indicates a dynamic culture rather than a problem.
A SCOBY is nothing to worry about in itself. What matters are the other signs that accompany it.
Everything is normal if :
In this case :
A leaky SCOBY can be associated with a worry if:
In this case, the problem is not that it sinks, but that :
What you do then depends on what you observe:
sometimes you need to correct the fermentation conditions (temperature, sugar, kombucha mother), sometimes you need to throw it out and start again with a healthy SCOBY.
Most of the time, the best reaction… is to do nothing special. But there are a few things you can do to help.
After placing your SCOBY Natural Probio in the jar :
Leave for at least 4 to 5 days at the correct room temperature before drawing any conclusions.
Even if the SCOBY is at the bottom, observe:
These are signs that fermentation is underway and that a new SCOBY is being born.
From the fourth or fifth day:
If the transformation takes place, the fact that the SCOBY is at the bottom is not a problem.
If you’re really worried, start from the basics:
Sometimes improving one of these points is enough to kick-start a timid fermentation.
Natural question: if my Scoby sinks, do I have to bring him to the surface with a spoon to “help” him?
Pull up the SCOBY :
As fermentation can be carried out with a SCOBY at the bottom, there’s no need to manipulate it just for aesthetic reasons.
In certain special cases :
You can then :
But these are rare situations. Most of the time, a sunken SCOBY does not interfere with the formation of the surface baby.
It is useful to clear up a few common misconceptions.
Not true.
A dead or badly damaged SCOBY can sink, but so can a live one. Position alone is not enough to draw a conclusion.
What counts in judging :
If all this is on track, life is here to stay, even if the old record rests at the bottom.
Not necessarily.
A SCOBY can float simply because it has :
It’s nice to look at, but it’s not an automatic health diagnosis.
Once again, it’s the development of the kombucha itself that counts.
No.
Even an excellent, healthy and very active SCOBY Natural Probio can :
You have to accept that the position of the disc is a moving parameter.
To help you decide, here are some typical combinations.
Verdict: everything’s fine.
Keep the old disc if you like, but it’s the surface baby that will become the future champion of your batches.
Verdict: stuck or very weak fermentation.
Here you need to look at :
Depending on what you find, you’ll need to :
Verdict: probable contamination.
The position of the SCOBY is secondary here. Mould (green, blue, black, white cottony patches) and rotten smells are clear signs:
A new purchase of SCOBY Natural Probio or the use of a SCOBY from a healthy hotel will enable you to start again on a clean footing.
Even if a leaking SCOBY isn’t a tragedy, there are a few things you can do to limit your worries.
When you’re just starting out, everything is easier with a quality SCOBY, suitable for sweet tea and supplied with a sufficiently acidic mother kombucha.
This is precisely the case with SCOBY Natural Probio:
The more reliable the strain, the more you can put little details like “floats” or “sinks” into perspective.
Micro-organisms like stability:
By controlling these parameters, you reduce the variables. If something changes, you can identify it more easily.
A snapshot isn’t worth much. A SCOBY that sinks on Day 1 can be accompanied by :
Rather than deciding after a few hours that “nothing works”, give yourself a window of observation over a few days, tasting, smelling and looking at the surface.
With a well-maintained hotel in SCOBY:
Knowing that you have reserves changes everything psychologically: you observe with more curiosity, less fear.
Seeing your SCOBY of kombucha sink to the bottom of the jar for the first time can be disorientating. It’s easy to project the idea of failure onto this simple gesture: “it doesn’t float, so it’s not alive”.
In fact, in the world of kombucha :
What counts is what the drink does:
If so, it doesn’t matter that your SCOBY Natural Probio has settled at the bottom: the kombucha lives, the culture works, and a new SCOBY is slowly taking its place at the top of the jar.
By learning to look beyond this simple “it sinks, it floats”, you really enter into the understanding of kombucha as a living drink. You see the whole system, not just a disc in a jar. And that’s where home brewing gets really interesting: less panic, more observation, more fun… and, in the end, more glasses of well-fermented kombucha to share.
