Worms in my kombucha tea?

[Guest guest]

HI all,

I've been brewing ktea for about 3 months. I have a big continuous

brewing bucket in one location and 5 gallon jars in another.

For the last 2-3 weeks the gallon jars haven't been making much of a

scoby, if any. There has been a bit of an off smell to the brews and

I've given them extra time to finish (that's why there's 5 gallons ...

newer and older batches side by side). I dismissed the slowness as

being due to cooler temperatures. Then I was out of town for a week and

came back this morning to find that my gallon jars still hadn't formed

much if any new scoby. There seemed to be a fair amount of bubbling,

though. I examined the bubbles with flashlight and magnifying glass and

to my surprise found that the entire surface is populated with tiny

wiggly worm thingies. They are very very tiny, giving the surface a

shimmery appearance, sort of like the air shimmers above hot asphalt.

There were fruit flies atop the coffee filters that I use for a screen,

but none inside the jars.

Two more observations: The scobys seem to be disintegrating rather than

growing. The wormies are at all depths of the brew.

Also, I added some honey to a couple of these batches. I mixed it in

when both honey and brew were at room temperature.

Fortunately my continuous brew doesn't appear to be contaminated.

Anyway, I wonder if any of you have had a similar experience and/or have

any ideas of what it is that I am seeing. I've sequestered the 5

gallons and I suppose I'll wind up pouring them into my compost pile.

Thanks,

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