How to Make a Big Batch of Kombucha

Step 13 Vegan Leather Anyone?

The mother is surprisingly tough and solid like squid.
I tried pretending it was calamari and fried it but it wasn't very good.
Then again my fried calamari isn't very good either. Maybe squid isn't supposed to be fried.

Small chunks of mother can be drunk in kombucha and are really good, like the Chinese "pearl" drinks.
The mother chunks are slightly more tart than the kombucha they inhabit.

To get a really thick and solid mother, just let a batch of kombucha keep fermenting. It'll get really sour and you'll get comments about the smell. You'll ignore the comments because it smells good to you. The longer you wait the more sour and vinegary your kombucha becomes, and the better the mother grows.

I tried drying the mother, it gets much thinner and very tough like parchment or rawhide.
I've read that it's been used to make shoes in wartime, but have been unable to find any more details than that.

Comments

[natvlegl]

Check out the clothes that a British designer "grows" from yeast, bacteria & tea .. sounds like scobies to me. I see no reason why it couldn't be flattened when wet, pressed together to dry in sheets & then material cut. They call it BioCouture. The site with the pictures of the jackets is at :

http://www.ecouterre.com/u-k-designer-grows-an-entire-wardrobe%20from-tea-fermenting-bacteria

I think MOV would work as well. I've used them interchangeably for bandages & they both turn out like leather when dried. The pics show it looking to me, at least, like native brain-tanned leather. It can be dyed with natural dyes they say.

[obsidianjaguar]

Yes , Kombucha can be made into a "leather" alternitive , but production methods as of now are still only able to produce a very water soluable version of leather , meaning , as previous comments about the scobys here " Slimy when wet" ...
So not too good if your motercycle jacket would met when you splash in a puddle :) . hope somebody combines it with beeswax or something like that to improve water resistance

[melanyrae62]

slimy when wet - sounds like the perfect material for a snow saucer for sledding. Hmmm, might have to try the swimming pool idea in time for sledding season.

[cloclo59]

Bonjour.
Lorsque la boisson kombucha est acide, à l'odeur et au goût :
Peut-on la boire ? Peut-on s'en servir comme d'un vrai vinaigre ? Si oui, se conserve-il comme un vrai vinaigre ?

Hello.
When the kombucha beverage is acidic, smell and taste:
Can we drink it? Can we use it as a real vinegar? If yes, will keep it as a real vinegar?

[FireSBurnsmuP]

Bonjour. Oui, on peut la boire quand elle est acide, s'il vous voulais.
Aussi, on peut l'utiliser comme d'un vrai vinaigre quand elle est devenu comme ça.

J'espere que je vous ai aidé! (Je suis desolé que je suis un peut rouillé avec le français)

Hi. Yes, you can drink it when it has become very acidic, if you want.
Also, it can be used as real vinegar when it has become as such.

Hope this helps! (Sorry that my french is a bit rusty.)

[jaydedman]

I've been toying with the idea of making things out of dried SCOBYs. Couldn't you grow the SCOBY in a container that was in the shape of the thing you want to make? For example, why not create a "wallet" sized container for the SCOBY.
Or why not a "jacket-shaped" container.

Of course the SCOBY will shrink when it dries, so maybe it's better to just make big sheets. Would a SCOBY grow in a small child's pool so you have a 5' SCOBY?

[yanggers]

idea: vegan sausage skins 

[yanggers]

vegan chamois gloves, grips, polishers,...

[anahatabalance]

We were looking to make shoes from the dried KT.  The culture is very tuff, however if it gets wet it is very slick.  It would work for the upper but not the soul of the shoe.  There's an artist on the net that makes human size scalptures out of big sheets of KT.

[jaydedman]

What is the name of the artist? I wonder how you make a large sheet of KT? Do you just put the mother in a child's pool? Would it grow that big?

[TimAnderson]

I read somewhere it was used to make shoes in wartime, but haven't seen any pix or more details than that.

[SeanPatrick]

 I've always wanted to make clothing patches out of my dried SCOBY, but it gets slimy when wet so I'd have a problem every time I tried to wash my clothes

[Ragman]

I read a magazine article about a guy who made drum skins. From memory, the guy dried out 5 SCOBY's (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast), layered them and rubbed leather oil into them before streaching the ply over his drum.