If you have brewed kombucha, jun, or vinegar for any amount of time, you will know that scobys accumulate quite quickly. What can you do with all those SCOBY? LOTS! You can make scoby jerky, face masks, grind them and add them to soil for plants, and share them with friends and family. We’ve even heard of people who keep them in their septic system to keep the plumbing running smoothly (there are mixed data on whether this is helpful or harmful, so ask your plumber before doing it). Your imagination is your limit. Here’s a way to store those SCOBY until you can decide what to do with them: it’s called a SCOBY hotel and it’s fairly easy to build and maintain. If you don’t have a SCOBY you can find a variety here.

Your SCOBY hotel will grow a SCOBY on the surface. Even though the directions below say to fully submerge SCOBY in the liquid, you will want to leave this new SCOBY where it’s at because it seals the hotel. If the SCOBY grows really thick you can push that baby down into the liquid and another will grow in its place.

You can also do this for jun and vinegar mothers.

Here is What You Will Need

• Large jar (we like the half gallon mason jars.)

• Tight weave breathable cloth (think coffee filters) and a rubber band.

  *Do not use cheesecloth. The weave is nowhere near tight enough and bugs will burrow and find their way into your SCOBY hotel.

• Extra SCOBY (remove some but not all of the yeast strands to keep the delicate balance)

• Sweet tea

• Strong starter from your last batch

You can do this one of two ways. We’ve personally done both and have fared pretty well.

Option 1

Add cooled sweet tea to the jar. (Make sure the tea has cooled to room temperature.)

Fill with starter liquid. You want to use 1 cup of starter per gallon of sweet tea. (Some use a ratio of 50% strong starter/ 50% sweet tea. Either is fine.)

Add the SCOBY - make sure the SCOBY are fully submerged in the tea!

Cover with a tight weave breathable cloth and secure with a rubber band.

That’s it!

Option 2

You follow basically the same procedure as option one, but omit the sweet tea and use strong starter liquid from your last batch for all the liquid in your hotel. Home brewed kombucha tends to be on the weaker side, so there is still some sugar for the bacteria and yeast to eat but eventually they will go into full hibernation mode.

How to Maintain Your SCOBY Hotel

Every once in a while you will need to clean house. You’'ll want to feed your SCOBY and either clean the jar or replace with a fresh jar. To feed your resident SCOBY just pour off some of the liquid and follow the procedure in option 1.

How often you do this depends on the person. Some feed their SCOBY once a month, every 3 months, 6 months or even longer. If the jar looks like its lost quite a bit of fluid its time to do some house cleaning!

HAPPY BREWING!