1. Kombucha & the Human Microbiome

Explore kombucha in this workshop with Hannah Crum. Research is just beginning to uncover our complex relationship with bacteria and discovering novel ways to use bacteria therapeutically. Kombucha is at the nexus of pop culture, cutting-edge science & fermented foods; serving as a tasty gateway to nutrient-dense foods as well as empowering people to reclaim their immunity through the cultivation of this ancient tonic. Learn the basics of brewing kombucha safely at home.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Hannah Crum: Before I get started, who here is kombucha curious? You just heard about it, you don’t know a lot. Who’s kombucha experienced? Nice. And who’s the kombucha lovers? Woo. Love to drink it, don’t know how to make it. Love to drink it, don’t know how to make it. That’s okay. We’ll go over that today as well. Who here knows about their human microbiome?

[00:00:33] All right, love your guts. You know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna hand this over here. May I give this to you? This is SCOBY fruit leather, strawberries. So if you can handle strawberries, then I highly recommend you try a piece of this SCOBY fruit leather, and I’ll tell you a little bit more about it. It’s made from the SCOBY, which is bacterial cellulose, and so it has half the amount of fruit as you would normally have in a fruit leather, which means there’s less sugar.

[00:00:58] And bacterial [00:01:00] cellulose is insoluble fiber, like a psyllium husk, so it’s gonna come through, and it’s gonna sweep out excess hormones, excess sugars, and just keep everything running smoothly. Plus, anyone who’s making their own kombucha knows you end up with so many SCOBYs, you don’t always know what to do with them, and this is a great way you can eat them.

[00:01:17] Eat your mother. Hi, I’m Hannah Ruhamah, the Kombucha Mama Mother to zillions of bacteria, some of which might be in your guts or in your home. Either way, I’m grateful. Thank you. My husband and I started Kombucha Camp many moons ago. I can’t even believe it’s coming on 20 years that I’ve been drinking and brewing kombucha.

[00:01:38] I can’t even believe it. It’s exciting. So if you’ve seen anything about kombucha online, we’re probably involved in some form or fashion, ’cause not only do we teach people how to brew, we’re bacteria farmers. We sell kits and cultures so you can make it at home. We also founded the Kombucha Brewers International Trade Association.

[00:01:55] I work with government regulators, I go to foreign countries, and I help educate people about the [00:02:00] safety and the ways that we can brew kombucha, not just at home, but commercially, so that we protect the integrity of the culture and label it transparently. Because of course, it’s gonna iterate out into from concentrate and pasteurized and all those things.

[00:02:14] And my philosophy is there’s a kombucha for everyone because it’s empowerment through education. When you wanna change the world one gut at a time… Look, I speak Spanish, I speak Mandarin Chinese, but I’m never gonna communicate with all 8 billion people on this planet by myself. But if I teach you and you teach someone else, and they teach someone else, and they share kombucha, this is how we’re going to change the world one gut at a time, is together.

[00:02:40] Our motto is trust your gut. That means what works for me, what’s good for me, how much I drink may or may not be what’s right for you or for someone else. And so listening to our bodies, closing that feedback loop is so important because it allows us to really tap into the DNA wisdom. We have billions of years of information in every single cell of our [00:03:00] body that we just simply don’t take the time to listen and pay attention to because that’s not what the programming tells us what to do.

[00:03:06] So trust your gut is about reconnecting with that ancient wisdom already inside of you. Kombucha gives us hope because it’s a powerful detoxifier, and so if you give an organism what it needs to thrive, including yourself, it means it will. So there’s a lot of empowerment once we start to understand what things can actually nutrify our bodies.

[00:03:26] I consider kombucha a journey because when I first met kombucha, I was sad. Standard American diet, a little out of college, didn’t totally know how to cook, ate a lot of canned foods and frozen foods growing up. Anyone else share this experience? Was this your life? Mom didn’t really cook. Dad didn’t really cook.

[00:03:46] Every once in a while, but I didn’t really know what to do other than like, “Hey, throw it in the microwave,” and… My body though was smart enough to know skim milk, what’s it for? It’s just blue water. My body knew [00:04:00] no diet soda, aspartame, that stuff tasted terrible. Give me the full sugar stuff. And so it had these little ways of protecting me along the way that I didn’t fully understand until later.

[00:04:11] And so I think of kombucha not as an endpoint, like this is gonna cure everything, this is all you have to do is drink kombucha, ’cause that doesn’t exist. There is no one thing that’s gonna cure everything. There’s no magic bullet. But kombucha becomes this gateway through which we start to learn more about fermented foods, our microbiome, how we’re infinitely connected to everything around us.

[00:04:31] And when we plug into those systems, we realize there’s so much more that’s gonna support us through our journey. So I’ve mentioned a couple of these already, and I can’t wait to tell you more about bacteria force fields and things like this. So why do you drink kombucha? What are some of your reasons?

[00:04:50] Gut health, yeah It’s a fun drink. It is so fun. Sodas aren’t fun. Yes? It replaces sodas. It [00:05:00] replaces sodas, absolutely, ’cause sodas are simulacrum. They’re wannabe fermented drinks. Yeah. And in fact, they started as herbal remedies at the pharmacy, right? But then they quickly turned into these cheap mass-marketed products that no longer retain that medicinal value that they originally had back in the 1800s.

[00:05:17] Okay. So a lot of people say the reason they drink kombucha, it helps with digestion, it boosts their energy, and it just makes them feel good, which is really hard to put a price tag on. Wow. That said, lots of people have reported tons of different benefits, and again, everybody’s benefit is gonna be different from somebody else’s because every body is different.

[00:05:36] And part of that is the kombucha’s going to the root cause. A lot of what we see here are symptoms. They’re symptoms of a gut out of balance, they’re symptoms of being exposed to things that aren’t having a beneficial effect on our bodies, and when we start to go to that root cause, of course it’s gonna have this positive effect that’s gonna alleviate a lot of these different symptoms.

[00:05:57] Is it? So what [00:06:00] is kombucha tea? It’s in the name. It’s tea. What is tea? Tea is Camellia sinensis. It’s a plant cultivated from China. It’s also now grown in places like Asia sorry, India, and places like that. But it’s not peppermint tea, it’s not hibiscus tea, because that word tea is now a term of convenience.

[00:06:21] Because we steep those things in water, we call them tea. But when we’re talking about kombucha, and especially when we’re talking about her health benefits, we’re really referencing Camellia sinensis. Tea is one of the best studied beverages. It’s been around for thousands of years. Wars have been fought over it, even here in the United States.

[00:06:37] As much as we’ve all turned into coffee heads, we originally, our Revolutionary War, the Boston Tea Party, tea has always been an incredibly important beverage for human beings. It’s high in antioxidants and polyphenols. So of course, when we’re starting with such a great base material, makes sense why it’s gonna have so many positive effects for us.

[00:06:55] Tea has been shown to help with weight loss and cholesterol and a variety of [00:07:00] things. Now we’re fermenting the tea. Whenever we ferment something, we’re enhancing its nutritional value, and in this case, it’s making acetic acid. So again, you may have heard of apple cider vinegar. It’s really great for helping with weight loss, for helping with digestion and different things like this.

[00:07:17] However, it can be really intense, and some people get really into that very intense shot, but what I like to call kombucha is easy drinking vinegar. So we are making a vinegar. We’re just not making it so sour that it’s too uncomfortable to enjoy. And I do think of it as 21st century yogurt in the sense that before Dannon came along and told everybody about yogurt, people had to make it at home.

[00:07:42] It was a counterculture. But with billions of dollars in marketing and research, it’s become this very ubiquitous product, and it’s a bit different than those traditional yogurts. And so we see kombucha following a similar trajectory. Who’s ever heard this term Bacteriosaphien? Weird. I know ’cause I [00:08:00] invented it.

[00:08:03] What are bacteria? They are everywhere. They are single-celled organisms. And you know what bac means? Bac means rod-shaped. Guess what else is rod-shaped? This entire body, these tubes here, tubes right here. We’re totally tubular, dude. We are bacteria shaped, and we act like bacteria. They have these amazing transformative properties.

[00:08:24] When a cell ruptures, that DNA free floats, and other organisms, bacteria can come and scoop that DNA up and recombine it in different ways. In a negative situation, that’s where we get superbugs from, but in a positive situation, it’s how we have resilience. It’s how we’re able to keep evolving to deal with everything that’s coming our way.

[00:08:43] But bacteria are everywhere. They’re on everything. That’s right. You are literally crawling on b- in bugs, as is every single surface inside and out. I’m not trying to freak you out . But that’s just the reality of [00:09:00] bacteria, and they’re, like I said, genetic fluidity, and they’re highly adaptive. And so this should give us hope, because there’s a lot of ways in which we can work with microbes that I think we have yet to understand.

[00:09:11] And I call microbes magic because what they’re doing isn’t visible to our naked eye, and yet they exert this powerful influence over a lot of the ways in which our bodies function. So the microcosm of the macrocosm, we are the planet. 70% water, just like the oceans. The mineral content in our body mirrors that of the Earth.

[00:09:36] We are the universe. We are a piece of that upon which we live. We- like the little Russian nesting dolls, right? We are a version of our universe. In fact, a, there’s a lot of theories that bacteria came to this planet via asteroids, and they came here, and over time… I know there’s a lot of different thought processes and [00:10:00] philosophies here, but this is one of them, is that they continue to evolve.

[00:10:03] And of course, I still don’t know how that turned into humans, but somehow, here we all are together. And so we’re just part of this beautiful cycle of life, death, life, death, life, death. It’s all part of it. Death is just a normal part of life. It’s not something to be afraid of. But bacteria sapientia, so they cover the entire body inside and out.

[00:10:20] We co-evolved with them, right? When we look at yeast fermentation, did we cultivate the yeast, or are the yeast cultivating us? Because clearly, they have done a good job in training us how to take care of them, how to continue their life cycle, how to pass them on to other people, how to make sure that they’re involved in so many of our different foods And there are so many, there’s more bacteria in our body than there are human cells.

[00:10:47] Again, that’s kinda creepy and weird until we realize that this can work to our benefit. So we also… Who here has watched the Peanuts? Have you ever seen Pig-Pen? No. He’s got that little cloud? Yeah. We have a cloud. We do. We have a [00:11:00] force field. We have a microbial force field that surrounds our entire body.

[00:11:04] It has a DNA signature that’s just as unique as our fingerprint, and it can be detected. You’re sitting in these chairs, if someone came along and wanted to test, they could detect your microbial cloud signature. And so when I say microbes are magic and they do this quorum sensing, which is they send out chemical signals and connect with each other, to me, that’s our ESP, right?

[00:11:25] Maybe a way that we have these connections to other people, or when we run into somebody and we meet them. Sometimes we meet someone, we’re like, “Oh my gosh, you’re like a new best friend,” and we just really jive and have these great vibes together, and other times you meet someone, you’re like, “Oh, I don’t know what’s going on here.”

[00:11:40] And maybe our minds try to make up a story later, but it could be that the chemistry, the communication is simply telling you, “Hey, something here isn’t quite right.” And so the more we listen to those intuitions, the more we trust the wisdom and intelligence of all these microbes working on our benefit, the more intelligent we can be, and we [00:12:00] can make better choices as a result.

[00:12:02] That’s my theory. I’m sticking to it. Now, just like the planet Earth, we have really hot, moist jungles. We have dry deserts. And so there’s different microbes that live in these various different environments, and they’re incredibly important. So they help us to digest our food, they extract nutrients from our food, they are our immune system, they’re our pharmacopoeia.

[00:12:27] They’re what create those chemicals that not only make a… They help our brains to feel good, right? I used to think everything was a pharmacy in my brain, and my brain was making all these happy chemicals. No, it’s coming from your gut. It’s coming from the food you’re eating. It’s coming from what you’re putting in here.

[00:12:41] This is the first brain. I know, we wanna think it’s this one up here, but we couldn’t function if this is out of order. It doesn’t go the other way around. This has to be in order before this can be in order. Yeah. So it’s really important. Now, they work together, of course, and it’s not to say one’s better than the other.

[00:12:58] But when we think of it from that perspective, it [00:13:00] really puts a lot of power back into our hands about what are we putting in our bodies? What are we putting in our mouths? It allows us to really deepen that thought process. Just because this tastes good, but when I read the label, it has a bunch of unpronounceable chemicals, do I actually wanna eat that?

[00:13:15] Do I really wanna put that in my body? And so it gives us a chance to reconsider that we really are what we eat. And symbiosis doesn’t mean kumbaya. Parasitism is a form of symbiosis, but in that equation only one organism lives, thrives. The other one is detrimental. And so what we’re trying to do…

[00:13:38] and a lot of times we’ve had this sort of theory of competition, like the survival of the fittest and everyone’s competing. But the reality is when we look at ecosystems, there’s a lot more cooperation. There’s a lot more collaboration. And how would our worldview be different if instead of thinking, “Oh, only the best can be the survivor,” we figured out ways we can work together to create a better culture, a better, healthier, [00:14:00] diverse society where everybody gets an opportunity to thrive?

[00:14:04] Yes, I’m a peace and love hippie, in case you couldn’t tell. So the thing that we figured out about the human microbiome in our 20 years that we started studying it, and the reason we started studying it is when we did the Human Genome Project, where we’re like, “Hey, look, we’re gonna map out the entire genome.

[00:14:19] Once we know what genes cause which diseases, we’ll have genetic therapies that will be able to save more lives.” They couldn’t finish the Human Genome Project because there was all this bacteria, and they didn’t understand their function, and that’s when they started the Human Microbiome Project.

[00:14:33] And so for 20 years we’ve been studying all these different bacteria in the gut, these different, how many and in what ways and how do they express themselves. And the one thing that we come to is that diversity is key. Again, every body is different. Every body is gonna have a different quantity of different types of microbes, and there’s many ways in which those can be healthy expressions.

[00:14:54] When they’ve done research on native tribes in Africa, they find that they even have [00:15:00] known pathogens in their microbiome, and yet they’re not expressing a disease state. And so this also calls into question, what’s a good bacteria versus a bad bacteria? Is it function or is it environment? But what we do know is the more diverse, the better your health is, and that means we wanna get our bacteria from a lot of different places.

[00:15:20] That’s why kombucha is not an endpoint. It’s a gateway into all kinds of fermented foods, into getting our hands in the dirt, into hugging, into sharing food with each other, right? Because when we exchange trace amounts of bacteria with each other, we’re making our force field stronger. Our immune system has a chance to take on some of those bacteria that may or may not be beneficial for your system, but then in these small amounts it’s able to create those antibodies.

[00:15:44] This is what we do with children. Why children get sick so often is their immune systems are learning how to be stronger, how to create these antibodies. And so it’s important that they be allowed to play, they be out in the sunshine, they get their hands dirty in the garden, right? And as adults [00:16:00] it’s good for us too.

[00:16:05] So this is this is an image of a pathway to autoimmune disease that can have origins from birth. And so when we think about our bacteriological heritage, does anyone know what I mean when I’m saying this? Like the microbes you get from your mother So the way that we get our first inoculation is through the birth canal, right?

[00:16:26] When we’re coming through the canal. As soon as a woman gets pregnant, her whole vaginal microbiome shifts because it understands, “Okay, now I’m making new life.” That life is gonna need to have organisms that help it to digest the breast milk. And so it completely changes the pH and the organisms that are present there.

[00:16:42] And so when a child is born through the birth canal, she’s, she or he is receiving the very best inoculation they can. Unfortunately, due to all kinds of circumstances and/or doctor’s convenience, there’s a lot of C-sections. What’s on the skin isn’t the same as what’s in the canal, right? The desert and the jungle are two [00:17:00] different places.

[00:17:01] And so we need the jungle in order to be stronger. But what they’ve now started doing is they’ll do swa- they’ll swab the baby with the appropriate organisms so that they have a better chance at not having as many allergies, not having as many food issues and things like that. But from that point on, you can have issues start to occur.

[00:17:21] And we’ve lost some of our bacteriological heritage because of over-prescription of antibiotics, because we have this generational situation where we aren’t having babies at home, we aren’t working with midwives and things like that and we’re in very sterile environments. And there’s a lot of different reasons here that I’m not gonna name all of them, but I think you guys know what I’m talking about.

[00:17:42] There’s a lot of reasons why our immune systems have become compromised over time, but that we can still refortify them. So while we can’t go back in time, we can now start to refortify them. But this is the real problem, right? If we can see that chemicals in a natural [00:18:00] environment cause fish to change sex what are, what’s happening here?

[00:18:06] What is that doing to human beings? I think we haven’t fully taken into account how these chemicals can have these really intense impacts on our bodies, especially over time. And we go to the doctor and we tell them our symptoms, and they give us more drugs, but we’re never getting to that root cause, what’s actually happening.

[00:18:23] No, just keep putting the talcum powder that causes cancer on your lady parts. No, just keep using these toxic chemicals and petroleum in products because, we don’t wanna control that. You have governments in other countries that are, that don’t allow products into our food supply but they are allowed here.

[00:18:42] So you go to Europe and you buy Lucky Charms, and it doesn’t have the same amount of toxic chemicals that are permitted here in the US. This is insane to me. It’s insane that any food company would think it’s okay to sell two different products to two different populations just because of government regulation.

[00:18:58] It’s immoral and [00:19:00] it’s corrupt And it’s why we need to keep connecting with our farmers, doing our CSAs, knowing small companies, but they come in and they buy these small companies, and now it’s greenwashed. They slowly over time change the ingredients, but you trust the brand because when they first started, they were that small business.

[00:19:18] And as consumers, we’re constantly having to play the shell game, trying to figure out who can I trust? Who’s gonna have clean food and products? And it becomes a burden on us, and it’s stressful. And after a period of time, you’re like, “Forget about it. I’m just not even gonna care ’cause it’s too much.” But that’s why we gotta care.

[00:19:34] That’s why we gotta keep connecting with people who have these like minds and like passions, and here’s what’s really great about kombucha. The acids it creates bonds to toxic molecules, and you release them from your body. Oh, this is bacteriological heritage, right? So we’re showing science has studied all of this.

[00:19:50] They see that this is incredibly crucial and important. So this isn’t just, ancient wisdom not rooted in science. The ancients knew stuff [00:20:00] because they had an innate knowing. We have access to this innate knowing as long as we are tuning in as opposed to tuning out. So let’s talk about how…

[00:20:11] Okay, we talked about the problem. Now let’s talk about the solution So we wanna cultivate inner terroir. So what is terroir? Terroir is a French term that recognizes that the microbes in the soil, the climate of a specific area or region contribute to the overall flavor and nutritional profile of, say, champagne.

[00:20:33] Remember every sparkling bottle of wine you bought was called champagne? Not anymore, because they said, “No, it’s only the grapes grown in this region, in this style, with these microbes that are allowed to be called that because of the terroir.” And I think that’s great because it helps us to understand that it’s not just the end product, but it’s the inputs.

[00:20:53] The inputs are so important. And so again, kids, they wanna eat dirt. Just don’t do it next to a [00:21:00] Monsanto farm, right? So as long as there isn’t a bunch of poison in the dirt, it’s perfectly health… Those are your soil-based organisms right there. Instinctively, our immune system starts right here in the mouth.

[00:21:11] That’s what’s happening. We’re experimenting. We’re finding those things that are gonna instinctively help our immune systems. They did a study where babies were allowed to just self-select their foods. And over the course of a week, even though some days they only chose certain foods and other days other, over the course of a week they got all the nutrients they needed instinctively.

[00:21:31] Without being fed, without being told. We know what we need to thrive. All this information is right inside of you right now. You might have an issue, an ailment, and that’s where going deep and going in, you can find this. You can figure this out for yourself. The inner terroir. So here’s… We want the good versus bad.

[00:21:48] Like controls like. So in the microbial world and this is what’s great about the kombucha system, is you have all these microbes and these organic acids created that [00:22:00] will destroy pathogens. So think about it like this, right? If pathogens were so strong, we’d all already be dead. ‘Cause they would’ve won.

[00:22:11] So by their nature we can infer logically, by their nature they must be weak. And they are. And that’s where the acids, the organic acids created by kombucha will break through their cell walls and rupture them so they can’t even reproduce. And so when people are worried about fermenting foods at home, it’s like the exact opposite.

[00:22:29] Like fermenting foods at home is actually one of the safest things we can do, because if it weren’t, our ancestors would’ve chucked it on the compost heap of history ages ago and we wouldn’t even know about those things, right? The reason we even know about these things is because they’re inherently safe Now, it doesn’t mean go eat a moldy something or other, right?

[00:22:51] There’s still– We still have to use common sense and our wisdom to make sure we’re selecting the proper things. But compared to a lot of other things, [00:23:00] fermenting foods at home is really safe. Mono anything is anti-nature. When’s the last time you walked outside and there was only one type of bird? Or there’s only one type of tree?

[00:23:08] There’s only one type of grass or one type of flower. It doesn’t exist in nature. Everything is an ecosystem. Everything is a community. And so it doesn’t make sense that our farming practices are anti-nature, right? When we see regenerative farming, when we see the animals playing a part in the life cycle of the grass, when we’re planting different plants together because we know that they’re gonna attract pests over here, but then this is gonna be stronger here.

[00:23:34] This is– We need to work with nature, not against her. Not try to dominate her, but understand her rhythms and flows and work together with that because we are nature. We are. I know we drive cars, we live in houses, we turn on the air conditioning, we’re in control. I’m in control, I turn the air conditioner on.

[00:23:52] I’m in control, I turn the heat on. No. We’re part of nature, we can’t help it. And I love that. I love that we’re part of nature because [00:24:00] it allows us to plug into something that’s d- bigger, deeper, more than just this moment in time. It’s all of human history, all of this planet’s history. So how come they knew and we don’t?

[00:24:15] Why aren’t we still applying these kinds of principles? It’s silly to me, right? But forest bathing, being out in nature, turning off the screens, connecting with other human beings, all of these are so much better for resilience and health than googling the latest symptom or being glued to the latest disaster or, all the other different ways in which they try to grab your attention and keep you in a state of fight or flight.

[00:24:41] Your body cannot heal when it’s constantly responding to a threat And it’s not to say that these things aren’t important and we shouldn’t pay attention to any of them, but what can you actually do about them in your present day moment life? So instead of using them, because they’re my husband, he injured himself.

[00:24:59] He started [00:25:00] watching the news. He’s like, “Wow, I really get it. I understand why people do this.” The amount of fight or flight that’s released creates this almost like a, a painkiller because you’re so jacked up on the cortisol, and yet of course that’s depleting your body over time. And it’s not like they haven’t studied this stuff.

[00:25:19] They are specifically applying principles in order to manipulate your behavior. And so when we take back that control by simply turning it off, by unplugging, by not letting it be something that dominates our thought process and we stay focused on what we can control, on, on the community that we have, on the people we love, on restoring our own inner health, this is how peace happens.

[00:25:41] It comes from in here first. ‘Cause when this feels good, when this is in balance, you’re not yelling at the coffee person for spelling your name wrong or, right? We’re not taking it out on other people because we feel frustrated by everything that’s going on. We take back that control and that power by putting it back in our own hands.[00:26:00]

[00:26:00] It doesn’t mean we’re not gonna be sad or have emotions or all of these things. Those are all normal, but it’s a good reminder that we actually have a lot more control than we realize.

[00:26:14] What happens when the engine is dirty, when it’s all gunked up? Is that engine gonna run well? No. It’s gonna have crud. And so again, kombucha’s acidic. It’s like an acid. Think of what acid does. It comes in and it strips away crud. It strips away stuff. So it’s like this coming into your pipes and cleaning the pipes.

[00:26:36] Plus, as I mentioned before, this is the glucuronic acid part. So glucuronic acid is naturally made by our livers. When a xenobiotic or an external chemical, that could be a medicine, a chemical, just something that’s coming from outside of our body, caffeine from coffee, things like this, comes into the body and it could have a potentially deleterious effect on our bodies, the glucuronic acid molecule bonds to that [00:27:00] toxic molecule, and through hydrolysis, which is a fancy way of saying we drink water and go pee, we flush it out.

[00:27:07] The problem is we’re so overtoxified, our liver simply cannot keep up with the amount of toxins that we’re being exposed to. And so they sequester those toxins into your fat cells, for later. It’s trying to protect you, right? It’s trying to keep your liver safe, and so it moves them out of this part of the body.

[00:27:27] And this is why it’s not one instance of having fast food or one instance of exposure to something that’s causing the problem. It’s built up over time because when all of these toxins build up in your body, that’s when it starts to lead to deleterious effects. And so just drinking kombucha, even if it’s a small amount on a daily basis, we’re literally just helping to release some of these excess toxins.

[00:27:50] When you clean the filter, you feel good and you run smoother But here’s why it works. Tea. Again, pull up [00:28:00] all the research studies on tea. You are gonna find that it is an incredible plant. So we’re working with something that’s amazing to begin with. Then we have vital nutrients. I know, is anyone here surprised to see alcohol as a vital nutrient?

[00:28:11] Anyone think that weird? Yeah. Here’s what I mean by it. Human beings evolved with yeast. We evolved with trace amounts of alcohol that had B vitamins in a living form. Because when we saw those bubbles, our ancestors, and we learned through our DNA wisdom, that meant nutrition was present. This is why sodas are fake.

[00:28:33] They’re faking you out with their fake bubbles ’cause there’s no nutrition present there. But when we consume alcohol in a matrix of nutrients and organic acids that support the body, we crave less alcohol. Most alcohol is pasteurized. It’s filtered to remove all the yeast components. It has sulfites in it.

[00:28:54] It’s been sterilized. While it might… it’s literally been turned into a controlled substance at that point. [00:29:00] Because when you have biodynamic wines or you’re drinking unfiltered beers, you actually end up consuming far less of them because your body’s receiving the nutritional benefit that it’s intended for.

[00:29:09] It’s our original medicine. It’s what tinctures and cough syrups were originally put in because alcohol extracts. It’s an effective extraction tool for pulling nutrients out of herbs and plants, and it thins the blood when you have that first sip. Before you have the 50th sip, that first sip, you’re like, “Oh, the edge is off.

[00:29:32] I can feel the weight falling off.” When you have that first sip of beer, that first sip of your wine it’s just “Ah, there it goes.” And that’s what it’s there for. It’s there to have this medicinal effect. So the trace amounts of alcohol produced by all fermented foods and drinks is there also as a preservative, right?

[00:29:48] When you injure yourself and you have a wound, you go to the medicine cabinet and grab rubbing alcohol because it kills microbes on contact. So the alcohol is there, and it’s a necessary component, but it’s not there in an amount [00:30:00] that’s gonna create a negative effect on the body. Who else thinks sugar as a vital nutrient is weird?

[00:30:07] I know, sugar’s gonna kill you. Is it sugar? Is it sugar from a grass that human beings have been cultivating for 5,000 years? Or is it being made in a lab that tricks your brain into thinking you’re having something you’re not, so then you overconsume it because we haven’t evolved to be able to process these chemical sweeteners with no calories?

[00:30:29] We’re so confused by the programming, by the advertising, we don’t even know what’s food anymore. We don’t even know what’s good for us. And I’m not saying just eat sugar forever. You can’t. Right? How many people have gotten a tummy ache from eating too many sugar, too much sugar, right? It naturally gives you a point at which you have to stop because it’s gonna make you feel sick.

[00:30:50] And so the body naturally, because there’s a feedback loop there, “Oh, I’ve had sugar,” my brain receives this information, now I have a satisfaction. Okay, now I no longer [00:31:00] crave it, until it comes up again. But that doesn’t happen when we’re consuming chemicals intended to mimic profiles that don’t actually lead to a nutritional outcome.

[00:31:11] And then it’s bioavailable. We have nutrients in a living form. We have vitamin C, we have B vitamins in living form. These aren’t in massive doses, but who said we needed massive doses? Trace amounts in a living form that isn’t made in a lab, that’s not coming from a chemicalized process. Because look at this.

[00:31:26] This is a key. This ECGC that’s naturally found in tea is a key, and your body has the lock. And when that key goes in the lock, it instantly knows what to do with those nutrients and how to uptake them. When you make that ECGC in a lab, that key isn’t the right shape. So when you go to put that key in, it may or may not even have a positive effect.

[00:31:48] And in fact, what we’ve seen, people who over-supplement with certain nut vitamins or whatnot end up having the opposite effect of what they’re looking for. It creates a negative impact on the body because we can’t use it in that form. [00:32:00] So quality over quantity every day of the week.

[00:32:04] Nutrient dense, I promise. It might feel indulgent, and that’s great, but you’ll need less of it to get more of a bang for your buck. Anyone think kombucha sound like a magic bullet? “All I have to do is drink kombucha and everything’s cured.” It’s not, ’cause we’re way more complex than that. It’s simply a tool in our tool belt.

[00:32:24] However, there are studies showing that it is an adaptogen. They give people a known stress test. They give them water, they give them kombucha. Their body might have the same physiolo- physiological reaction to the stress, but those who drink the kombucha feel calm. That’s why I flip that script. I say, “Drink kombucha, then feel calm.”

[00:32:43] It’s not the other way around. You gotta drink the kombucha first, ’cause that’s what’s gonna help chill you out. But it’s non-toxic, non-specific, it balances the organism. And again, we can consume small amounts of it and make it from many different foods ‘Cause what [00:33:00] kills at the end of the day? It’s stress.

[00:33:03] Stress is what kills. Stress can come in stressful jobs, stressful diets, stressful life, trauma, right? But it’s the stress that kills, and that’s why we’re always wanting to find homeostasis, balance. Take that deep breath Drop your shoulders. Release your jaw. You’re back into ease and flow. But it’s when we’re holding on, when everything’s tight, that’s when things can’t move and flow.

[00:33:28] We need to be in ease and flow, and kombucha helps with that. And like I said, diversity is our nature. We need to be friends with people who don’t always share our viewpoint on everything. I guess that might sound controversial in this day and age because we’ve become so polarized, or at least that’s what the news is telling us.

[00:33:45] I don’t know that we should go back to this either, you used to not talk about religion or politics, and we all could be friends because we could be human beings who meet each other on that human level, and it doesn’t have to be ruled by ideology. I don’t know if we’ll ever get back there, but what I do see is that more than ever, we need to reach [00:34:00] out.

[00:34:00] We need to put a hand out and help each other reconnect as human beings. All right, who wants to learn how to kombucha? Thank you for listening to my sermon on the stage. We have spirit guac. Kombucha tea, easy as one, two, three. Brew sweet tea, add a SCOBY. Wait a week and then repeat. That’s it. That’s the whole class.

[00:34:27] Thank you, Michael Jackson. All right. That’s the basics. Of course, there’s a lot more nuance and detail here, but that’s essentially what we’re doing. If you can brew a cup of tea, you can make kombucha. In fact, you don’t even need an electric tea kettle. You can make sun tea and make your kombucha that way.

[00:34:41] So you don’t even need electricity to make kombucha. We do need tea, we do need sugar, we do need a SCOBY. So the SCOBY might be the only thing that’s not lurking in your cupboard. Thankfully, we’re bacteria farmers, so we certainly can help you with that. Our cultures are being sold in the bookstore, and I’ll be doing a book signing at the end of this, and [00:35:00] you can come and get your kit, your SCOBY, a hug, a handshake, ’cause we gotta exchange the bacteria, a sticker, more fruit leather.

[00:35:08] It’s gonna be a lot of fun. So I’ll be like the Pied Piper, and we’ll all go over to the bookstore together. But this is it. Tea, sugar, and SCOBY. Then time. How long depends on your brewing conditions, right? A lot of us don’t keep our homes at 75 to 85 year-round. That means it could take longer, or you might be more vulnerable to mold.

[00:35:29] So we have tools that help us keep it at the right temperature. I like to say kombucha’s a cross between a pet and a plant. The good news is it’s not gonna come slither into bed with you at night. However, it does need to be cared for. And so when we understand what it needs to be cared for properly, and we give it those proper inputs, then we’re gonna have a culture that’s literally infinite abundance in action.

[00:35:51] It’s gonna make more and more, and you’re gonna be like, “Oh my gosh,” like Trouble with Tribbles. There’s just gonna be so many SCOBYs everywhere. That’s why we make the fruit [00:36:00] leather, and like I said before, put ’em in the garden, the compost, give ’em to the chickens. They… There’s so many uses for ’em.

[00:36:08] So our SCOBY, look how dense this is. So the, the dense… So there we got the big glob in the middle, and then you see everything else around it. Those are nanofibers of cellulosic film that’s excreted from the cell bodies of the bacteria. So the bacteria literally just create these little fibers that, that knit together.

[00:36:27] The yeast are much larger, and that’s what that’s, that is there, but they create a scaffolding that the bacteria can hang onto. And so the SCOBY’s our mothership. She’s our immune system. She’s gonna make sure that we have a good, healthy brew, batch after batch. You’re gonna go online, you’re gonna see a lot of people, “Ah, you don’t need a SCOBY.

[00:36:43] Oh, the SCOBY’s the liquid. Oh, blah, blah, blah.” There’s all this confusion. And I always say, just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Yes, you can buy a kombucha at a store. This is a great thing to do to test if your store-bought kombucha is something you really wanna drink. You buy the kombucha from the [00:37:00] store, you pour it in a glass, you leave it for a week.

[00:37:02] Does it grow a SCOBY? Maybe you can even grow brew your own kombucha from that. But time and time again, people come into my Facebook group and say, “Oh, you know what? I bought a Kombucha Camp SCOBY, and it just tasted so much better, and it was so much easier to do, and I didn’t have to wait so long.” So please, by all means, experiment.

[00:37:18] It’s a valuable way to understand which kombuchas are right for you to buy from the store, and then trust that, I’m not the only purveyor out there. There’s lots of folks. But you want something that’s organic, with enough starter liquid, that’s really strong. And who’s gonna answer your questions?

[00:37:32] ‘Cause you’re gonna have ’em, right? You’ve already got questions right now. They’re just percolating in your mind. Don’t worry, we have answers. All right it’s a symbiotic culture, and what you would be seeing here are like party animals. So the yeast are the party animals. They get started first. They eat the sugar.

[00:37:48] That turns it into CO2 and alcohol. Then the bacteria come, and they convert the alcohol into the acetic acid, right? Vinegar, a bitter wine. Vinegar is an alcohol ferment. The [00:38:00] alcohol is converted into acetic acid. This is why we have white wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar, ’cause that apple cider was hard before it went to vinegar.

[00:38:12] How much kombucha do you drink? None. That’s okay. How much? One a day. And is that 16 ounces, 8 ounces? 12 ounces, yeah? How about someone else?

[00:38:30] 16 ounces a day. That’s a good amount. So again, it’s trust your gut. What does your body need? When I first started making kombucha and buying it, I needed so much kombucha. I was so thirsty. There was clearly things in my body that needed to be released, to be cleared out. I had a… I needed the nutrients.

[00:38:46] And now I’ve been drinking kombucha for 20 years, so I don’t need that same amount of kombucha. But sometimes I do, especially if I’ve been dr- I’ve been drinking too much. It’s a great hangover cure. I know from experience. Though not recent, [00:39:00] many years in the past. But it is the best hangover cure.

[00:39:03] Stumbling to the fridge at 3:00 in the morning, down it, go back to bed. You wake up, no headache. You feel great. It really is the best hangover cure. And that’s why kombucha cocktails are really fantastic. Little antidote with your poison. And again, a lot of people end up using kombucha as a alcohol replacement because it really satisfies our desire for a complex, delicious beverage with trace amounts of alcohol, and then you don’t even want the hard liquor anymore.

[00:39:27] Gradually goes away. So there’s so many ways we can drink it. We can dilute it with water for the folks who find that vinegar nose a little too intense. You’ve got some soda addicts in the house, don’t tell them. You pour a little kombucha in the bottom. It’s mostly soda, so they’re not even gonna know it.

[00:39:41] It’s a little lime in their Diet Coke, right? That little bit of kombucha, and then gradually shift that ratio. The body knows what’s good for it. It’s gonna ultimately crave it, and the people who fight it the most are usually those who need it the most. But that’s just kinda how the body works.

[00:39:55] It’s kinda funny that way. It’s like those bacteria that have taken over are like, “No, [00:40:00] this vinegar gonna kill me.” So I’m gonna say I don’t like it, but in fact, they need it

[00:40:09] But it’s great for digestion, so here’s some considerations. Really, the only people who shouldn’t drink kombucha are those who have a histamine intolerance. Again, trust your gut. I had a friend, she loved kombucha, she got pregnant, she couldn’t stand the smell of it. Okay, your body’s saying, “Not for me right now.”

[00:40:24] Other women have said they drank it through pregnancy. It helped alleviate the symptoms of morning sickness. It helped with breast milk flow. So everybody’s experience is gonna be unique to them. Same with children. Children actually love kombucha. Oh my gosh, who here has a child who loves kombucha? Me too.

[00:40:41] Yes. They ask for it. They have cute names for it. If you turn around, it’s all gonna disappear. I’ve seen it happen time and time again. This is a great substitute for sodas, for juice, which can also be good, but sometimes really high in sugar, and this gives you that little bit of probiotic. In Russia, they did a huge study, and it helped babies who had [00:41:00] colic.

[00:41:00] They don’t even know where colic comes from, but it hel- it just helps the digestion, keeps everything flowing smoothly. Oh my gosh, so there’s batch brew, and then there’s continuous brew. This is our favorite way of brewing kombucha. So as you can see, it’s in a larger vessel with a spigot, and this is an important feature.

[00:41:15] So we’re making double the amount of kombucha as we normally would in a batch brew, and here’s the reason why. Because we’re not gonna drink the whole thing. We’re only gonna drain about 50%, which is the gallon jar you’re making at home. So we’re gonna take out a gallon at a time, then we’re gonna top it off with sweet tea.

[00:41:32] Now, why are we doing this? There’s research that shows that the organic acids peak at 30 days and get higher the longer it ferments. But at 30 days in a one gallon jar, that kombucha might not be palatable, and now you’re missing out on the benefit ’cause the kombucha does- doesn’t taste good and you don’t wanna drink it.

[00:41:48] So when we put it in this vessel, it’s called continuous brew, and it’s like we take a little out, we put a little in. We take a little out, we put a little in. So we’re tempering the flavor with the sweet tea, plus the addition of fresh sweet tea [00:42:00] later in the fermentation process actually causes more of those acids to be created.

[00:42:04] So you’re getting all those great acids, and it still tastes good, plus less cleaning. Who doesn’t love that? You only have to clean it once every three to six months, yay, instead of every single time. So it’s also a great way to… A- and it’s healthiest because it’s always in a pH protected environment.

[00:42:24] So when we’re starting a fresh batch every time, there is the potential it could become infected with mold. Not always, and a lot of times once you’ve been brewing it for a while, you know the process, and it’s not something you expect to have, but it can happen, and that’s the only thing we really need to beware of.

[00:42:38] So look at that mold. What does it look like? Mold on bread, cheese, right? It’s food mold. A lot of people are like, “Can I make kombucha and kill myself from it?” And I’m like no, you would have to see mold.” There’s no hidden… Okay, now don’t brew it in a barn with cows with anthrax, okay? There was one study that said it can have [00:43:00] anthrax if you brew in a barn next to cows with anthrax.

[00:43:02] Okay? That’s not having the proper sanitized brewing conditions. But when you’re brewing it at home in a properly sanitized environment, and it doesn’t even have to be crazy sanitized, just, clean. Be smart. But this is it, mold. It’s like bread mold. And with bread mold, sometimes we pick the mold off and we still eat the bread.

[00:43:19] With kombucha, we don’t recommend doing that. Just toss everything. We’ve seen it more than once. It’s only on the top layer. We throw the top layer away. We use the bottom layer, and then the next batch goes to mold. So once the mold is in the kombucha, we just don’t wanna drink it, and we don’t wanna use those cultures, and that’s why we have a SCOBY hotel, which is just a bunch of SCOBYs hanging out in a jar.

[00:43:39] Oh, there’s resources. Any questions? I don’t know what time it is, so I have no idea. Yes

[00:43:49] She’s curious about kvass. Yes. Kvass is in kombucha. There’s a couple different ways you can make it. It’s typically, like if you make beet kvass or vegetable kvass, it’s the organisms [00:44:00] on the vegetables themselves combined with the salt solution that creates the fermentation. So that’s a lacto-ferment.

[00:44:06] In Russia, they made it with bread, so it was like the yeast from the bread would create the fermentation. It is a beverage. It is a beverage, yes. Is it good? I don’t… I haven’t really had it. Yeah, I love beet kvass, but I haven’t had the bread kvass. Yes? Okay.

[00:44:29] Yes. So as bacteria farmers, the question was do we sell jun cultures? Yes. Jun, june, jun tomato, all the same. We just say jun rhymes with fun ’cause that’s easy to remember. But yes, kombucha and then jun is its raw honey green tea cousin. So the raw honey is the important distinction between kombucha and jun because raw honey has its own host of microbes, and they process differently than the sugar.

[00:44:53] And I know if you’re super experimental, you can try to make a jun SCOBY over time, but you might just kill your [00:45:00] kombucha in the meantime. So again, it just depends on how much you wanna… how many ingredients you want to play with before you get to it, or you can just grab a jun culture. And then we also have milk kefir and water kefir.

[00:45:10] I have water kefir grains here with me today. There are kombucha SCOBYs and kits in the store. Yes?

[00:45:17] Audience Member: Okay. So I may be the only one here, but okay, so I let it sit for five to seven days. Is that when I drink it?

[00:45:25] Hannah Crum: You drink it when it tastes good to you.

[00:45:27] Audience Member: Okay.

[00:45:27] Hannah Crum: Oh my gosh. How do you store it? So you strain it, you put it in a bottle.

[00:45:30] You can flavor it or not

[00:45:33] Audience Member: Okay. Does it refrigerate or is it sitting out hot?

[00:45:36] Hannah Crum: Yes.

[00:45:39] Audience Member: You’re not helping here.

[00:45:41] Hannah Crum: It… The book is 400 pages. I promise it’s in there. But long story short, yes, you’re gonna stir… So now you’ve made your sweet tea. The SCOBY’s in there. Ooh. We gave it warmth. We gave it love. A week later, a new layer has grown across the top.

[00:45:58] Now we have two SCOBYs. [00:46:00] We take them both out. We take out one to two cups of starter for the next batch. Everything else in here is now yours to drink. There’s yeast that’s collected on the bottom, so we recommend stirring. You put your fruit, your herbs, your flavors in your little bottles if you want five different flavors.

[00:46:17] If you want it all the same flavor, you can put it right back in the jar. Then you pour the kombucha in, you put a cap on it, and now you let it sit another couple of days outside of the fridge because now that we’ve reintroduced a fermentable sugar to the yeast, it’s gonna create fizz in your bottle.

[00:46:34] But remember, this isn’t forced carbonation. This is effervescence. So when we put it in the fridge, all that fizz might go away because the yeast are temperature sensitive. So what we do is we store it out of the fridge. Now, we live in an environment where we can do this. If it gets really hot in the summer, you could create bottle bombs-

[00:46:55] which can be dangerous and/or messy, both. And so this is why I’m saying it [00:47:00] depends. How much room is in your fridge? You could put it all in the fridge, but then you might lose your fizz, so then you might take it out of the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes and now your fizz is back. But the ones you buy at the store are more than likely forced carbonated because they know you as a customer who’s paying money for their product wanna have a consistent experience, right?

[00:47:19] Just when we make anything at home, it may or may not always turn out the way we want it to. There’s gonna be ebbs and flows.

[00:47:25] Audience Member: Okay. So you said the SCOBY’s gonna make two. Are they-

[00:47:28] Hannah Crum: And then those two SCOBYs will make more SCOBYs. Are

[00:47:30] Audience Member: they merged together or do you cut ‘

[00:47:32] Hannah Crum: em apart? They lightly… You just tear ’em apart.

[00:47:34] Audience Member: Okay.

[00:47:34] Hannah Crum: Yeah.

[00:47:35] Audience Member: All right. So then I have two.

[00:47:36] Hannah Crum: Now you give one to a friend, or you start a hotel, or you make fruit leather, or you give ’em to the chickens, or you plant it in the garden, or you throw it away and maybe it helps break down the landfill. But I get this all the time, people like, “Ah, I feel guilty letting go of the SCOBYs,” and, “I have too many.”

[00:47:51] But it’s okay. There are so many questions. Let me get to you. Okay? Yes. What about a substitute for the sugar, like raw [00:48:00] honey, stevia? Do you have- So stevia’s not fermentable, right? Sugar is a primal food source for every living thing on this planet, including bacteria. So raw honey, you would then go for the junk culture.

[00:48:12] But it must have sugar for the kombucha fermentation to happen. That’s what creates the nutrients, so it’s literally like taking sugar and turning it into gold. Like Rumpelstiltskin, right? We’re taking something that we perceive as having a negative effect when we consume in large quantities, but due to the fermentation process, it becomes fuel for the microbes.

[00:48:29] They eat it, and what they produce for you are organic acids and vitamins. Is cane sugar better than beet sugar? Cane sugar is better because beet sugar is more than likely GMO. We’re just trying to make the healthiest beverage we can. Yes? Between the two, you mentioned-

[00:48:51] Can you make your own SCOBY? Yes-ish, but you have to have kombucha to make it. You wouldn’t just take tea and sit it outside and hope that the right microbes [00:49:00] come along and populate it.

[00:49:01] Audience Member: So then my next question would be, like, the kombucha that you can buy from Costco or-

[00:49:11] Hannah Crum: So is commercially produced kombucha gonna have the same health benefits? And this is where it depends on the manufacturer, it depends on their process, and it’s why at KBI we’re creating a verified seal so that what’s on the label is what’s in the bottle. There are a lot of kombuchas that are, like, fermented to vinegar, then back sweetened with stevia, and that’s a wonderful flavor profile for that diet soda drinker.

[00:49:34] I can’t drink those ’cause I can’t do stevia, ’cause it tastes like diet soda to me. But for certain people, that’s great, and that’s valuable, and that’s wonderful. And this is a part of our philosophy. There’s a kombucha for everyone. But just like you might go to the store and choose pasteurized juice ’cause it’s convenient, because the raw juice is too expensive, but we all understand there’s gonna be differences in that nutritional profile.

[00:49:55] So how do you know? Right now it’s hard to know, which is why we’re coming out with the seal. [00:50:00] Good morning. Hum is gonna be that back sweetened with stevia, so look at the label. I also have, on the website if you type in the search nutrition label, I break down a bunch of labels and kinda how you can figure that out.

[00:50:11] Yeah. All right. And then, yes. Oh, I think over here and then over here. Yes.

[00:50:16] Audience Member: So speaking of the labels and everything so I know that

[00:50:22] if,

[00:50:22] when you buy it on, out on the shelf, they add the carbonat-

[00:50:29] Hannah Crum: So they don’t… Okay, let me clear up this miscommunication. So they can’t? No, ’cause the FDA requires that if you use sugar in the initial fermentation, you still have to list it as added sugar on the label- Okay … even though you’re not adding it after fermentation. Okay. So follow-up on that. Yes. So

[00:50:50] Audience Member: after you’ve done the weeding and the sugar is in-[00:51:00]

[00:51:02] Hannah Crum: Great. So she’s asking about the sugar in the kombucha when it still tastes a little sweet. So what’s happening is those sugars are already broken down from that disaccharide into monosaccharide components, which has a lower glycemic impact on your body. But a teaspoon of sugar helps the medicine go down.

[00:51:17] If it only tasted like vinegar, you probably wouldn’t drink it. But essentially does it spike your insulin? So a lot of diabetics, and if you’re, you are one and you have those testers, a lot of folks have shown that it doesn’t spike their glucose, and in fact they can reduce the amount of medicine they’re taking.

[00:51:33] But again, every body is different, and so you have to do what’s right for you. But it does have a… It’s not… So when we see sugar, we’re all thinking like table sugar and sugar cubes, right? But it isn’t that. It’s already pre-fermented sugar, but there’s nowhere on the label for us to express that nuance.

[00:51:49] Audience Member: 650 also has

[00:51:50] Hannah Crum: sugar? Yes, and then yeah. How do you go about getting the story behind the kombucha? I didn’t. I got it from someone else.[00:52:00]

[00:52:02] We have a story. So this is… I’m so glad you’re asking.

[00:52:04] So World Kombucha Day is 2/21, February 21st. Why? Because our earliest mythological origins for kombucha are from China, 221 BC. And I have a story that was related to me on the website from a Chinese SCOBY farmer, and he talked about this accident that occurred, and they discovered a vinegar moth in a jar of something that had been left during a really hot time of the year.

[00:52:32] So the short answer is just like we have no idea where human beings actually came from, we don’t really know where kombucha SCOBYs actually came from. We know there’s bacteria on the legs of insects that are acetic acid bacteria. Did somebody leave a pot of sweet tea out and forget about it, and a butterfly landed in it, or a fruit fly landed in it?

[00:52:50] And then they’re like, “Oh, here’s this weird thing. Let me drink it.” I… who knows what that first person who discovered a kombucha SCOBY actually did to [00:53:00] understand it? So all SCOBYs have the same bacteria? No. They do have predominantly the same bacteria. The yeast can definitely vary more.

[00:53:11] But there is variation in the bacteria. It’s either Gluconobacter, Acetobacter. Some of the Acetobacter have been renamed Komegatibacter, because whenever a scientist does meaningful work and they’re able to differentiate, they change the names of it. But you’ll find it in the back of the book. We have a whole listing of this information, and then there’s also a kombucha research database, research.kombuchabrewers.org, or just look up kombucha research database, and you’ll find tons of papers and studies that talk about it.

[00:53:37] But we’re…

[00:53:38] think about it like this. Beer and wine, they’ve been around for thousands of years. They put billions of dollars. They totally understand, and they’re still doing research. We’re just tip of the iceberg with kombucha, so we’re in a really exciting place where we can start to understand and dig in and learn more about this.

[00:53:54] Yes? So Synergy’s the OG. So GT [00:54:00] Dave is the first person in California in the ’90s who put it in a bottle and sold it, and he’s still around. So he would tell you his is the best kombucha, and everybody else is just copying him. It was your idea. I think there’s different ways that… Look, we need a kombucha for everybody.

[00:54:16] Not everybody’s gonna find that GT’s palatable. I loved it. For me, it was like, “Ah.” I sneak the pickle juice out of the pickle jar. I love the sour. I love the tang. Other people, you give them that, they’re gonna be like, “Oh my gosh, get it away from me. I can’t even smell it.” But those people still need the benefits of kombucha, so there’s value in having these softer profiles, these other types of kombucha.

[00:54:37] So that’s what I mean about diversity, right? It’s not about one type of kombucha’s the only kombucha. There’s a lot of types, but they all have benefits. They’re just gonna vary depending on what you need and how much acidity you can tolerate.

[00:54:49] Audience Member: Kombucha is acidic. Do you know what the typical pH range is of kombucha?

[00:54:55] Hannah Crum: Yeah, so it’s usually between a 2.3 and a 3.2. I’ve seen them higher [00:55:00] lately though, ’cause I think for those softer profiles, more like a 3.6. So we do a kombucha cup. We just launched it last year. It’s a, a competition, and part of what we do is we’ll test all of the entries. And in fact, we’re initiating another research study at Kombucha Kon this year.

[00:55:14] So I think I mentioned I’m also president of Kombucha Brewers International. We do a conference every year. We have a magazine. And at this conference, we’re starting to try to put together what I call a kombucha sourness unit, where we’re trying… just like an international bitterness unit for beer.

[00:55:28] Like, how do you know you’re gonna like this IPA or not? They have a bitterness unit that tells you how bitter, or the Scoville scale, so like a hot pepper, how hot is it? They have a scale that tells you so you can understand. Maybe I wanna try this, or maybe I wanna stay the heck away from it. So we’re trying to do the same thing for kombucha, but we’re at the very early stages of understanding what that could look like.

[00:55:48] So

[00:55:48] Audience Member: if you’re drinking this regular, it’s not so good for your teeth because it’s so acidic.

[00:55:52] Hannah Crum: So that’s not entirely accurate. So just like citrus has an alkalizing effect in the body, so does kombucha. [00:56:00] Now, in terms of your oral microbiome, that’s gonna depend on you. So there have been studies showing that it actually helps to reduce cavities in the mouth.

[00:56:07] But again, because of that pH and depending on how much you’re drinking, I always drink it with a straw. Yes. Now, if your oral biome is already compromised, it could potentially have a negative effect, but it’s not gonna be the same as drinking a ton of soda. Yes.

[00:56:20] Audience Member: With the… I don’t, I don’t-

[00:56:30] When you drink yours, do you just drink the whole SCOBY?

[00:56:33] Hannah Crum: The question is, could, do you drink the SCOBY that grows in the bottle? I remember distinctly the first time it touched my lips, and I did a spit take in this. I … Oh, my gosh, what is this thing? It’s like a fish trying to get into my mouth. Ah! Oyster shooter, toss it back.

[00:56:49] But that said, the dregs at the bottom, I may or may not wanna drink that, so sometimes I’ll just dump the dregs out. But the little SCOBY, usually I feel like it’s a little blessing. It’s a little vitamin shot for me, but [00:57:00] yeah, it is weird, so I toss it back.

[00:57:02] Audience Member: Has anybody ever investigated its

[00:57:04] Hannah Crum: topical uses?

[00:57:04] Yes. It’s the best, and you’re starting to see a lot more skincare products include kombucha in it. It creates hyaluronic acid. Oh,

[00:57:11] Audience Member: put on the

[00:57:11] Hannah Crum: SCOBY actually? Yeah. So I put it on my face. Okay. Yeah, and then it’s also great for burns.

[00:57:16] Audience Member: Oh, gosh. I wonder what it

[00:57:17] Hannah Crum: feels like. It feels amazing. It’s so soft.

[00:57:20] What is the texture? Yeah, it’s rubbery and smooth. It makes your skin really soft. There’s lots of uses in the book. Yes?

[00:57:27] Audience Member: Okay. So I know I’m back to the beginning.

[00:57:29] Hannah Crum: I have no idea what time it is, It’s after 3:00. It’s after 3:00? Yes.

[00:57:31] Audience Member: Oh,

[00:57:32] Hannah Crum: and I- Is somebody waiting to get on the stage? Oh my gosh. Okay, let’s make this the last question, then we’ll all…

[00:57:38] Then we’re gonna do one more thing, so don’t go yet, but this is the last question.

[00:57:42] Audience Member: All right. You said five to seven days it says.

[00:57:44] Hannah Crum: Yes.

[00:57:44] Audience Member: So like at day five, do I put a little teaspoon in there so I can

[00:57:48] Hannah Crum: taste it? Yes, a little straw, a little teaspoon, whatever you want.

[00:57:50] Audience Member: Okay, so I taste it till… If it starts to get too bitter, I don’t…

[00:57:53] I need to stop.

[00:57:54] Hannah Crum: Then you wanna harvest it. Okay. You might dilute it. Yeah.

[00:57:57] Audience Member: All right.

[00:57:58] Hannah Crum: Yes. But it’s… Yeah, [00:58:00] it’s choose your own adventure. Taste is king. Okay. And so initially you might ferment for a shorter amount of time, but it’s also temperature dependent, like it’s spring, so it’s not gonna be as quick.

[00:58:09] Summer’s gonna go really fast. Winter, even with the heater, will still go slow just ’cause it’s winter. So it like… You’ll learn the seasons of your kombucha as you go through the process.

[00:58:19] Audience Member: Okay.

[00:58:20] Hannah Crum: Okay, guys, so here’s the thing we’re gonna do. As I mentioned, we’re bacterial sapiens. We need to hug, we need to touch.

[00:58:30] We need to share microbes. And so my husband gifted me this word, common immunity. Common immunity, community. And so right now we’re gonna make a giant human SCOBY. How are we gonna do that? We’re gonna throw out our nanofibers of connection. We’re gonna all hold hands with safe, healthy touch and consent of course.

[00:58:48] So this is voluntary. You don’t have to participate, but I’m gonna come on down. And

[00:58:56] I’m gonna see if I can turn this on without… [00:59:00] There we go. Can you hear me? Okay, great. Sorry. This one. Okay, so close the loop. Make sure both hands are connected. It can be three on a node. It’s okay. It doesn’t have to be a circle. SCOBYs come in all shapes and sizes. That’s our dog. Aw, and the doggy wants to join us too.

[00:59:17] Okay, so let’s close our loop. Let’s close our loop. Okay.

[00:59:20] Audience Member: You didn’t remember.

[00:59:21] Hannah Crum: Here we go. This is… When’s the last time we did this? This is a… Just for a moment, let’s breathe together.

[00:59:32] This right here is how we change the world. Like minds, like hearts, like passions, people coming together, helping each other, seeing the humanity in each other, recognizing that we’re all part of the same planet, the same world, the same place. We all wanna live. We all wanna thrive. We all wanna be healthy.

[00:59:53] We all want clean water and beautiful sunshine. We wanna play in the dirt. This is how we change the world. We come [01:00:00] together, we learn these things, we meet new people, we take action at the local level. So I wanna just thank all of you for coming here, for being here today, for listening to my sermon on the bacteria mount.

[01:00:13] And I invite you all to trust your gut. Yeah? Thank you.