are my cultures healthy?

[Guest guest]

Hi list. I've been lurking here for months, and actually brewing

kombucha tea for a couple of months now. I use two 3 litre vessels to

brew in.

2 weeks ago, after noticing that one of the cultures was much more

active than the other, I decided to cut the active culture into two

halves and use those two halves from then on. The other, slower

culture made tea which smelled and tasted a bit strange. I thought it

was probably just that because it was slower, there was still some

smell and taste of black tea left around.

Anyway, I cut the culture into two semicircular halves and made fresh

brews. The two halves were both very active, and produced a lot of

gas. This gas bubbled up around the outside of the semicircles,

constantly disturbing the growth of the new scobys.

As a result, the cultures now have holes in them, which don't get a

chance to heal due to the regular 'farting' of gas though them.

Is this normal?

Also, when changing the brew I notice there's a lot of yucky brown

stuff in the bottom of the vessel.

I took photos of both cultures and the yucky brown stuff and put them

on the web, here:

http://s89213869.onlinehome.us/kombucha/

The brown circles on the cultures around the holes seem to be a result

of the constant bubbling of gas through the holes, but I'm wondering

whether this could be mould. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks.

Chris.