the mold question

[Guest guest]

i have never had mold either, but i havent been brewing long and i tend to use

more rather than less starter tea.

as well as the factors that have already been discussed, i would think that the

potential for mold would also be affected by the amount of mold spores in the

air where you live. some areas of the country have extremely high mold counts,

while some are very low. in addition, some houses are infested with mold. i have

never had a problem, but have had friends who are sensitive to mold have to move

when they could not reduce the mold count in their home. the time of year is

also important (I live in OK and believe me, 95% humidity in the summer means

you get mold on all sorts of things you wouldnt expect to mold!), and whether or

not your where you brew your KT is air conditioned, whether it gets light or

not, and how much air flow, etc, etc.

the acidity of the brew is what protects it from mold, so it stands to reason

that if you have a problem with mold in your part of the country, in your home,

or in your KT, you need to take extra steps to make sure it is acidic, and the

best, easiest and purest way to do that is to add more (and more sour) starter

KT to your brew.

 i think this might alleviate some of the concerns from other posts that

somehow they just werent following proper decontamination procedures. i

sterilize my bottles and boil my water, but i admit that i dont sterilize all my

utensils (who can resist a dipper-ful of that sweet fresh tea? and i rarely

remember to sterilize the straw i use to syphon out a sample of my brewing KT),

and my big brew containers just get washed, rinsed in hot water, then rinsed

with white vinegar.

if you've had a mold problem, dont despair and dont try to sterilize to

operating room standards, because the mold spores are in the air and you cant

get rid of them. all you can do is protect your brew with a little more

acidiity. its kinda like cold germs. they are all around us, all the time. its

only when we have stressed out immune system and/or close ourselves inside

because its cold outside that we get overwhelmed by them and get sick. ecoli and

other bad bugs are in our kitchens ALL the time. we dont get sick unless the

concentration is high or, again our immune system is compromised. so keep your

brew healthy, give it an extra dose of acidity when it needs it, and keep on

brewing.

denise

[Guest guest]

Wow, , you're right on! Too many people in this world worry about trying

to keep everything sterile. They think that it was the food's problem when they

get sick with ecoli and salmonella or you name it. We hear all these stories

about contaminated mexican peppers and tomatoes, etc. I'm not advocating dirty

food, it's just that we can never get away from pathogens like ecoli O157:H7 or

Listeria monocytogenies. We may as well learn to live with them, and kt is one

way to strengthen the immune system. Get it up and running and in good shape.

Then it won't matter if your food has pathogens in it. We sell raw milk, and

because of such a hot issue it is right now, we certainly don't try to inoculate

it with pathogens, believe me! We try our utmost best to produce it pathogen

free, and I don't think other foods should be loaded with pathogens, either. My

point was, that if it did happen to get a pathogen, it shouldn't make any

problems. To achieve a strong, healthy immune system, you just need to drink

kombucha, raw milk, kefir, and other probiotic foods.

In Sally Falon's cook book, Nourishing Traditions, she talks a lot about

fermented foods including kt. This is her website.

http://www.westonaprice.org/

Sorry for my boring ramblings again. I just can't help it when somebody is SO

dead on!

Rodrick Shank

The Family Cow LLC

Chambersburg PA

the mold question

<<Big Snip>>

its kinda like cold germs. they are all around us, all the time. its only when

we have stressed out immune system and/or close ourselves inside because its

cold outside that we get overwhelmed by them and get sick. ecoli and other bad

bugs are in our kitchens ALL the time. we dont get sick unless the concentration

is high or, again our immune system is compromised. so keep your brew healthy,

give it an extra dose of acidity when it needs it, and keep on brewing.

denise