How do I know if my homemade kombucha is safe?
Mold, which is usually fizzy and colored, is a sign that your kombucha has gone bad. See pictures of kombucha mold here. Vinegary or overly tart kombucha is simply over fermented. It is safe to drink, but not very tasty.
Many cases of foodborne botulism have happened after people ate home-canned, preserved, or fermented foods that were contaminated with toxin. The foods might have become contaminated if they were not canned (processed) correctly.
Making kombucha involves letting bacteria grow in a liquid you're going to drink. Many of the bacteria are considered probiotics, but if it's not prepared properly, it can grow harmful bacteria or mold. Since the mid-1990s, several cases of illness and at least one death have been reported in people who drank kombucha.
But, if you see greenish or pinkish “stuff” floating, it can be a sign of mold and that your kombucha has gone bad. It's best to just toss it and buy a new bottle.
When kombucha ferments for longer, it becomes more acidic. This is because the yeast in the SCOBY eat the sugars and tannins in your kombucha, transforming them into ethanol. The bacteria feed on this ethanol, turning it into acidity and giving kombucha its distinctively tart taste.
People who have sensitivities to mold, fungi and yeast may be more vulnerable to allergic-type reactions. Kombucha is generally considered a safe beverage from a food safety perspective if it is made, handled and stored properly.
Unlike canning or oil marinades, there is no risk of botulism in fermented vegetables! As a matter of fact, no case of botulism in fermented vegetables has ever been reported (ref.) Botulism is a serious disease caused by a bacterium (Clostridium botulinum) found in the soil.
Is there a risk of botulism in fermented foods? Foodborne Botulism is very rare in the U.S. The environment that botulism prefers is the opposite of the environment we create when fermenting foods. The leading causes of foodborne botulism is improper canning techniques in home canned foods.
You should still follow good practises while fermenting vegetables, like using fresh produce, chlorine-free water, iodine-free salt and ensuring your vegetables are properly submerged.
Home-brewed kombucha tea has been associated with several adverse health events. These include at least one death, a case of cardiac arrest, several cases of hepatitis, one of severe muscle weakness and inflammation of the heart muscle, and cutaneous [skin] anthrax.
Can you get food poisoning from homemade kombucha?
In addition to the issue of contamination, uninformed or lackadaisical home brewing can also cause lead poisoning over the long term. How does this happen? If you're fermenting your kombucha in ceramic ware, the kombucha can leach lead from the glaze and gradually poison you.
- Nemesis of Kombucha - none of which are harmful to humans though each may cause stress and discomfort.
- Kombucha Tea is simply fermented Sugar and Tea with our SCOBY.. ...
- Mold.
- Mold almost always FUZZY or DRY and DUSTY. ...
- Human error. ...
- Always have a Plan B ready.
With proper care, SCOBYs can last many generations. But when you see excessive, dark yeast growth on a SCOBY layer, or if it starts producing Kombucha that tastes bad or overly acidic, it's time to get a new one.
If you've been able to produce a successful batch of first fermented kombucha and you've gone over a week without any mold in your brew vessel, it's very unlikely that you'll develop mold during second fermentation in the bottle.
How To Tell If Your Kombucha Is Moldy... And What To Do About It!
Storing Your Kombucha Scoby in the Fridge
The scoby then goes dormant and can be stored for up to 6 months. However, we have seen scobys forgotten in a corner of the fridge for more than a year that have come back to life without any problems.
How Long Does Homemade Kombucha Last? Perhaps you're a kombucha wizard, and you're experimenting with your own kombucha concoctions at home. Once you've whipped up a batch, you can expect the homemade kombucha to last between one and three months when stored in the fridge.
During each ferment, the mother scoby (the one you added) will produce a baby scoby. Every scoby can be used four times before it gets too old and needs to be discarded. With each batch of kombucha a baby scoby is produced and the process starts again, you will have a fridge full of scobys before you know it.
Fermented products needing refrigeration and kombucha are not allowed to be home-processed and sold.
While most fermented foods are safe, it's still possible for them to get contaminated with bacteria that can cause illness. In 2012, there was an outbreak of 89 cases of Salmonella in the US because of unpasteurised tempeh. Two large outbreaks of Escherichia coli, were reported in South Korean schools in 2013 and 2014.
Does kombucha need FDA approval?
The basis for determining if your kombucha is considered an alcoholic beverage is simple: if it contains at least 0.5 percent alcohol by volume, it's an alcoholic beverage. If your kombucha falls below that threshold, your labels fall under the guidelines of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Raw honey, which is used in mead and some of the more fanciful micro-beers, can be a source of botulism.
However, some no-chill brewers store wort for prolonged periods of time. This represents an increased risk over conventional no-chill approaches. You can eliminate this risk by pre-acidifying the wort to a pH below 5.0, or by ceasing the practice of storing no-chill wort for more than a day.
You cannot see, smell, or taste the toxin, but taking even a small taste of food containing it can be deadly. Botulism is a medical emergency. If you or someone you know has symptoms of botulism, contact your doctor or go to the emergency room immediately.
Laboratory confirmation is done by demonstrating the presence of toxin in serum, stool, or food, or by culturing C. botulinum from stool, a wound or food. Laboratory testing may take hours or days.
You may have heard about a cheap, quick way to make a kind of homemade alcohol that goes by many different names, including pruno, hooch, brew, prison wine, and buck. No matter what it's called, it can give you more than a cheap buzz. It can give you botulism, a life-threatening illness.
Honey is one of the most common sources of botulism. About 20 percent of botulism cases involve honey or corn syrup. One 2018 study looked at 240 multifloral honey samples from Poland. The researchers found that 2.1 percent of the samples contained the bacteria responsible for producing the botulinum neurotoxin.
The bacteria can get on surfaces like carpets and floors and also can contaminate honey. That's why babies younger than 1 year old should never be given honey. These bacteria are harmless to older kids and adults. That's because their mature digestive systems can move the toxins through the body before they cause harm.
When your case is mild, you may need weeks or months for a full recovery. It may take months or years to completely get over a very serious case. If the illness isn't treated, botulism can be life-threatening. But people recover in about 90% to 95% of cases.
So just how much kombucha should you drink? Too much of anything is bad for you, of course. The Centers for Disease Control recommends that four ounces of kombucha can be safely consumed one to three times a day.
Who should not drink kombucha?
For this same reason, one study from 2022 recommended that children ages 4 or younger should not drink kombucha. To err on the side of caution, you may also choose to avoid this beverage if you have an alcohol dependency.
It can save you a lot of money
If you make it at home, you just need water, a few tea bags, and a little bit of sugar (to feed the bacteria) to make about a gallon. You don't even need the fancy equipment most tutorials recommend.
Because kombucha is made from bacteria and yeast and can be homemade under non-sterile conditions, per Mayo Clinic, you could get sick with stomach problems such as nausea and vomiting, which have been reported as side effects of drinking kombucha. Some containers can also have toxic chemicals.
When looking at the slimy, alien-looking kombucha starter, you might wonder, “Can you actually eat a kombucha Scoby?” It might look strange, but yes, the kombucha starter is absolutely edible.
Like any carbonated beverage, drinking too much kombucha, or drinking it too quickly, can cause tummy trouble because of the carbon dioxide. Drinking fizzy, gaseous beverages can make you gaseous too, stretching the gut and potentially causing discomfort and bloat.
If kombucha isn't fermented at all it won't have any acetic acid in it and will just be sweet tea. And if it's fermented for too long it will have lots of acetic acid in it and turn into vinegar. Regularly brewed kombucha will usually be 1% acetic acid, which is much less than vinegar, which is often 4-7%.
Liver toxicity
Research posted to SD Med attributes some cases of toxicity of the liver and inflammation to kombucha consumption. These may lead to complications such as jaundice or lactic acidosis. Those with conditions affecting the liver may want to avoid kombucha or ensure it comes from a controlled environment.
- Add half a bottle of your favorite kombucha bottle (8oz or 250ml is usually enough)
- Stir gently, so the batch is mixed.
- Retest pH to see if it's below the critical 4.2 number and above 2.5.
- If it's in this critical range, then you're good to start brewing.
You can safely cut a SCOBY in half. Just make sure your scissors or knife are completely clean before you handle it to avoid contamination. The next batch you brew with the cut SCOBY will grow a new SCOBY to grow across the top, as always. To cut a SCOBY in half, place it on a cutting board with the cut side down.
You have 2 choices for dividing it. The easiest choice, which also makes the most sense for brewing, is to peel off some of the SCOBY horizontally so that you're down to a 1-inch thick piece. Put the younger part (the top) back in your container, and pass the older part (the bottom) on.
What to do with extra SCOBY after brewing?
You can use your spare scobies to experiment with new tea's (or even coffee) or different sugars and then throw the scoby away when you have finished. Add a small piece of scoby to smoothies or juices to add a bit of extra zing and nutition and probiotics (not too much though!)
Mold, which is usually fizzy and colored, is a sign that your kombucha has gone bad. See pictures of kombucha mold here. Vinegary or overly tart kombucha is simply over fermented. It is safe to drink, but not very tasty.
Kombucha Basics: Is it mold? - YouTube
A SCOBY can have streaks of brown or black on it – this is just leftover remnants of tea from the last brew. You can tell if a SCOBY is moldy by the presence of mold. And mold does NOT look like leftover tea bits. A moldy SCOBY has white or gray fuzzy growths on it.
When kombucha ferments for longer, it becomes more acidic. This is because the yeast in the SCOBY eat the sugars and tannins in your kombucha, transforming them into ethanol. The bacteria feed on this ethanol, turning it into acidity and giving kombucha its distinctively tart taste.
Rinsing Your SCOBY
A SCOBY, by contrast, doesn't need rinsing. You'll rinse away some of the microbes that are responsible for helping your sweet tea to transform into kombucha, so, as a best practice, move your SCOBY directly from one batch of kombucha to the next, with minimal handling and it'll do just fine.
Maybe you've also been wondering if this jelly-like substance is safe to consume. The answer is YES! The little jellies, as we like to call them, are condensed forms of the probiotic cultures found in kombucha. Some people drink the “baby” SCOBYs to get an extra portion of good probiotics.
The only way to know if your kombucha scoby is dead is to test it in a new kombucha batch and wait a few weeks. If your sweet tea has not become acidic after 15 days, then you can definitely conclude that your kombucha scoby has died.
Are kombucha SCOBYs edible? The short answer: yes! Kombucha SCOBYs are edible, contain many of the same health benefits of kombucha, and can be cooked into a number of tasty treats!
When forming, the baby SCOBY initially looks like a clear and kind of gelatinous film/layer. It will gradually fill in more and more, becoming more opaque and less “jelly” looking. If your SCOBY is looking more like a jelly than a creamy white disc, you likely just need to leave your brew for a bit longer.
How do I know if my kombucha is fermenting?
How do I know if it's fermenting properly? If your SCOBY floats to the top or it sinks to the bottom but a new thin layer forms on the top of your tea, it is fermenting properly. The tea will lighten in color over several days and will see some bubbling also. Finally, you can taste it.
With proper care, SCOBYs can last many generations. But when you see excessive, dark yeast growth on a SCOBY layer, or if it starts producing Kombucha that tastes bad or overly acidic, it's time to get a new one.
Every scoby can be used four times before it gets too old and needs to be discarded. With each batch of kombucha a baby scoby is produced and the process starts again, you will have a fridge full of scobys before you know it.
Storing Your Kombucha Scoby in the Fridge
The scoby then goes dormant and can be stored for up to 6 months. However, we have seen scobys forgotten in a corner of the fridge for more than a year that have come back to life without any problems.
Although rare, there have been reported cases of severe allergic reactions, acidosis and liver complications due to potentially contaminated kombucha consumption ( 21 ). Since kombucha is unpasteurized and contains small amounts of caffeine and alcohol, pregnant and breastfeeding women should avoid it as well ( 22 ).
So just how much kombucha should you drink? Too much of anything is bad for you, of course. The Centers for Disease Control recommends that four ounces of kombucha can be safely consumed one to three times a day.
Liver toxicity
Research posted to SD Med attributes some cases of toxicity of the liver and inflammation to kombucha consumption. These may lead to complications such as jaundice or lactic acidosis. Those with conditions affecting the liver may want to avoid kombucha or ensure it comes from a controlled environment.
Home-brewed kombucha tea has been associated with several adverse health events. These include at least one death, a case of cardiac arrest, several cases of hepatitis, one of severe muscle weakness and inflammation of the heart muscle, and cutaneous [skin] anthrax.
Cover your SCOBY hotel with a tight-weave, breathable cloth cover to allow airflow, but keep dust + insects out. Some people like to cover their SCOBY hotels with an airtight lid to prevent evaporation. That's OK too.
If you've been able to produce a successful batch of first fermented kombucha and you've gone over a week without any mold in your brew vessel, it's very unlikely that you'll develop mold during second fermentation in the bottle.
Should I stir my kombucha before bottling?
This is an easy one to make. Yeast has this habit of settling down at the bottom of our brew vessels during first fermentation. So if you don't stir your kombucha liquid before you bottle, that yeast won't be evenly distributed throughout your liquid or throughout your bottles.
It'll already be inoculated with that great, live bacteria. Some people like to drink kombucha right after F1, and that's totally fine. You do not need to flavor and bottle your kombucha before you drink it.
Allow fermenting for 5 to 14 days at a room temperature of 28°C or higher, or until it is sufficiently acidic to taste. Fermentation at high temperature will produce a drier and less acidic kombucha. Set aside 500ml of the liquid and the kombucha scoby in a jar and store it in the fridge.
