Team:Austin UTexas/Integrated Practices
Integrated Practices
For the integrated practices requirement we used insight from Greg Goodman, founder of a local kombucha company, and applied it to our project.
The Kombucha industry is prominent in Austin, Texas because of the beverage's supposed health benefits. Local brands include Buddha’s Brew, Wunder-Pilz, Kosmic Kombucha, Live Soda Kombucha, and K-Tonic. We reached out to the Austin kombucha community to learn more about the industry and what characteristics they would want to see in designer kombucha.
We met a couple of times with Greg Goodman, the founder of K-Tonic Kombucha, to discuss his company and the kombucha industry. We learned about his company’s brewing process, challenges they face, and the properties he would want to see in designer kombucha. We signed non-disclosure and non-compete agreements to protect his business, so while much of what we learned informed our project, a lot of this information cannot be shared.
Goodman was curious about finding out what specific microbes are present in his kombucha. In addition, he was interested in the potency of a brew, in terms of “good bacteria,” and how to make the most non-alcoholic brew(thus in a reduction of ethanol). He also discussed the potential to cut down the brewing time without losing the flavor profile of the beverage.
Goodman stated that the primary demographic of Kombucha drinkers prefer organic, natural foods and beverages. Thus, they would be unlikely to accept GMOs. Unless there was an obvious perceived benefit, adding GMOs would alienate consumers.
Goodman confirmed that minimizing the amount of ethanol in kombucha is an ongoing concern in the industry. The yeast in kombucha produce ethanol during the fermentation process. Ethanol content increases on supermarket shelves as live yeast continue to ferment the beverage, restricting the drink’s shelf life. Most kombucha is marketed as non-alcoholic, dictating a legal maximum ethanol content of 0.5% at any point before being purchased by the consumer. This requirement places such a strain on kombucha brewers. Kombucha Brewers International, a trade association for the kombucha industry, is attempting to have the limit raised to over 1% ethanol content in order to reduce this strain. Currently commercial kombucha has a limited shelf life and thus it would be ideal to increase this time period. This would enable kombucha companies to be more competitive and widen their market.
We also discussed determining a method to decrease the brewing time of the drink to save on time and effort. While this could be achieved by fermenting the kombucha at a higher temperature, using current methods the flavor of the drink would be altered. Synthetic biology could potentially be used to decrease the brewing time.
Our interaction with Goodman greatly influenced the course of our project, especially in regards to our attempt to reduce kombucha’s ethanol content. While our initial approach to the problem was to genetically engineer the microbes to produce less ethanol, we altered our methods to instead look for microbes that convert ethanol to acetic acid at a faster rate.
