- Welcome to You Brew Kombucha.
Let's talk about mold.
This is probably one of
the most common questions
that new brewers have during
the first fermentation process
and a lot of the concern
is largely unfounded.
I'm gonna say right off the
bat that more often than not,
it's probably not mold.
If you want to find more information about
what to expect during the
first fermentation process,
be sure to check out my video on that.
But for this video we're gonna talk about
how you can prevent mold
from happening to you,
how to identify mold, what isn't mold,
and what you can do on the off chance
that you do end up having
a brew that develops mold.
So you really only run the
risk of developing mold
in your brew during the
first fermentation cycle.
If you've made it far enough
in the process where your
kombucha tastes great and it's
acidic and ready to bottle,
you're probably past the
point of that danger zone
and that risk of developing mold.
Only because the pH of
the kombucha will have
dropped to a safe enough
and low enough level
that it'll be pretty
inhospitable to the bacteria
and harmful pathogens that cause mold.
But if you're still in the F1
or first fermentation stage
where your kombucha is in the vessel,
you can tell pretty easily if it's mold
because it'll look just like mold that
develops on cheese or bread or
other items in your kitchen.
So if it's fuzzy and if it's
on the surface of your brew
then it's mold.
Mold can't thrive in an
anaerobic environment.
It needs to have access to
air in order for it to grow
and spread.
So you won't find mold on
the underside of your scoby,
you won't find it floating
around in your brewing vessel
or settling down at the bottom.
If you do have mold, it'll
only be on the surface
and it'll be clearly identifiable
by concentric circles,
fuzziness, and weird off colors
like green or blue or black.
The first few days of the
first fermentation cycle
are typically the most nerve
wracking for new brewers
and a lot of the time
just because of curiosity
and just cuz of excitement,
they'll end up opening their vessel
and checking to see
how things are working.
That's the time when your
scoby is trying to develop
so for the most part I
recommend just leaving it alone
and let that scoby get information.
But if you do take a peek
into your brewing vessel
and you notice that there
are a little white opaque
kind of floating things, stringy bits,
or even just spots that start
popping up around the top of your brew,
know that for the most part
that's likely just your
scoby trying to form.
So I wouldn't necessarily
worry at that stage yet.
If you think it might be mold,
what I would do is just let
it go for a few more days,
wait to see if those individual
white specks come together
and start taking the shape
of your brewing vessel
because then you know for
sure that it is the scoby
and it's not mold.
So here are some steps that
you can take to avoid mold
and the biggest one and
the most important one is
to make sure that you're
using a good amount of
starter tea in your first
fermentation vessel.
I usually use around two cups
of really strong starter tea
from one of my scoby hotels
or from a previously
brewed batch of kombucha
to inoculate my new batch of kombucha
and make sure that the pH
drops to a low enough point
to make it inhospitable
to harmful pathogens.
Make sure that you keep
your brewing vessel
somewhere where there is
really good air circulation.
A lot of people say that they
keep their brewing vessels
in a cupboard or somewhere in a pantry
that's dark and closed off.
I don't recommend doing that only because
if there happens to be some
moisture in the cupboard
or if it happens to be really humid,
that could be a really
great environment for mold
to start growing and if
there's mold in the cupboard,
there's a likelihood that the mold
might get into your kombucha.
So another tip is to
obviously not brew anywhere
where you know there's
mold floating around.
I actually don't brew my
kombucha in the kitchen
only because I don't have a
ton of space in my kitchen
but also because there is
a nice dark corner of my
living room where I have some bookshelves
and I just set aside a couple of shelves
dedicated to my brewing vessels.
It's nice and out of the way.
It's not in direct
sunlight and there's enough
air circulation to make sure
that that area of the house
isn't really going to be
hospitable to mold growing.
Lastly, if you want to avoid mold,
I recommend never
refrigerating your scoby,
never refrigerating your brewing vessel,
and never refrigerating your scoby hotel.
Environments below 65 degrees Fahrenheit
basically put the yeast in
bacteria into a state of dormancy
so the fermentation process is on halt,
that means it's not acidifying
and if it's not acidifying
fast enough then mold and
harmful pathogens could get in
and infect your brew.
So leave it at room temperature,
mid to high 70's is ideal
and the faster that you
can get that fermentation
kick stared with a good
amount of starter tea,
the less likely you'll end up with mold.
And if you're buying a
scoby for the first time,
make sure that you're buying
from a reputable source.
You can check out my video on that,
but in a nutshell, make
sure that you're not buying
from somewhere that will
sell you a dehydrated scoby
and make sure that they don't recommend
that you use vinegar in
place of your starter tea.
If they do, they probably
don't really know
what they're talking about
and it just makes you more
susceptible to mold growing.
Over the course of your kombucha journey,
you'll probably realize that the scoby
and the brewing vessel
and the whole process
can have some weird looking bits to it.
Don't mistake a really
healthy, brown, yeasty scoby
for one that's infected
with mold because it's not.
The yeast has a really great job.
It might look a little weird and mucusy
every once in a while but that
yeast is there to help you
and if you happen to spot
some black dregs of tea
or like little poppy seed
looking things in your scoby,
if it's embedded within your
scoby, it's probably not mold.
A lot of the times people
won't fully filter out all the
tea bits during that first part
of their fermentation cycle
and some of the time the
yeast can kind of settle down
at the bottom of the vessel,
or sometimes it might just get embedded
within the new scoby that's growing.
That's perfectly okay too.
So I'm just going to wrap up
with a little bit of real talk.
More often than not, mold is
not going to happen to you.
It happens really rarely, if at all,
to experienced home brewers
and the more you get your process down
and the more you're
familiar with that process,
the less likely you'll make
mistakes that could lead to mold
So don't stress out about it too much.
It's not anymore poisonous
than mold that grows on
bread or cheese or any
other item in your kitchen
and I know that most of us
have experienced mold in that
way, shape, or form at
some point in of our lives.
So when that happens, we don't
freak out, we just toss it.
If you do happen to get
mold in your kombucha,
just toss the whole thing.
There's no salvaging a scoby
or even the liquid in the brew
that's been infected with mold,
so just throw the whole
thing away and start over.
Not a big deal.
And make sure that you sanitize
anything that your kombucha
and the mold has come in contact with,
so that's your brewing vessel,
any stirrers or spoons,
or cups, or glasses that
you've used during the process.
Anyone that home brews beer
is probably familiar with IO Star.
It's basically an iodine
based sanitizing solution
that you mix with water
and it sanitizes all of your equipment.
It's pretty affordable so
you can get this at any
home brew supply store or
online and just use this
to sanitize all of your equipment
and then you can get right
back to brewing kombucha,
no problem.
So the bottom line is
you don't really need to
stress out so so much about mold.
It's pretty rare when it happens
and unless you have some
deathly allergy to mold,
it's not going to be poisonous.
So be on the lookout for mold,
but if you're taking the steps
to make sure you're doing this properly,
you're probably not going to get mold.
I've never gotten mold in my kombucha.
If you want more information
and want to see some examples
of what is and what isn't mold
make sure you head to YouBrewKombucha.com
and as always you can check
out all the other videos
that I have on my channel
for more information.
Happy brewing.
