Episode #35, Science and History of Brewing Kombucha with Honeymoon Brewery

Today we have a very interesting and information-packed episode with Ayla Bystrom-Williams founder of the Honeymoon Brewery in Santa Fe, New Mexico and her partner James Hill, head brewer of Honeymoon Brewery. They tell the origin story of their new brewery that is focussed on alcoholic kombucha brewed in one of the most pristine environments in the country at the foothills of the Sangre de Christo Mountains. First off, they share their entrepreneurial experiences, the barriers they had to overcome to found their unique brewery, and then they go into the history of kombucha in the United States. Then James talks about my favorite subject, microbes, how they inoculate their kombucha, and how their SCOBY culture evolves with the local indigenous microbes, making it very unique to our high altitude ecosystem. We talk a lot about microbes and the terroir of different brewing locations. James shares the details of kombucha brewing in general from home brewing to larger scale operations, how to control the alcohol content and carbonation, and keep it safe for consumption. Then we circle back to running a business, launching a startup by leaning on local resources, dealing with the government bureaucracy and supporting alternative economies as entrepreneurs.