Im actually brewing my first batch right now. The few things that I have learned is that:
You do NOT need to buy a scoby to start! Go to a Wild oats or similar and get some raw, unpasteurized kombucha and make sure that it says "live cultures" on it. GT's is a good brand to use. Then brew like usual. ie make some sweet tea (i used 1 cup sugar to 3 quarts water with 2 tablespoons loose tea brewed strong in a teaball) cool and pitch the entire bottle into your vessel (give it a good shake to loosen all that culture at the bottom, you should have a mini scooby in there). It will take a couple days longer (about 10 day primary ferment time) but will form its own baby so that the next time after you drain your kombucha out you can just dump some more cooled sweet tea on top. Subsequent batches you should remove the baby to give away or use in the next batch since you dont want half your jar filled with scooby.
the second thing that I found out is that 60 F seems too cold for fermentation and thats what room temp is in my house currently. so what I did is got a reptile heating pad and stuck it to a small pane of glass and set my gallon jug on there. It now sits at a perfect 80 F. The reason to use a reptile heating pad is that you can leave it on and it will never get over 80 F.
hope this helps, and if all goes well I should have my first gallon of kombucha done by monday, altho im gonna secondary ferment it in a bottle since I like it fizzy
