Reboil tea left sitting out?

[Joan]

My setup is a two gallon continuous brew. I make a big pot of sweet tea once a week or so that I refrigerate until needed. Last week I made the tea and then all heck broke loose in other areas of life and the sweet tea sat on the stove for about five days now.

If I heat it up again and boil it for 10 minutes, will it be okay to use the tea (once it's back at room temp) to replenish my kombucha jar?

Grateful thanks for advice!
Joan

 

[pvpeacock]

I wouldn't risk it if it had sugar in it for 5 days and sat at room temperature. I would just make a new batch of tea. Who knows what grew in it for those 5 days and whether boiling it again will truly kill it. I know botulism spores are not killed by boiling and they are deadly.

 

[Joan]

Thank you for good advice!

When I posted, I hadn't actually lifted the lid and looked at the tea - when I went to dump it out, the surface was covered with little mold circles - yecchhh! The deadly enemy of kombucha brews.

Had been thinking that since sugar is a preservative, it might be okay.

Thanks again, PV!

 

[pvpeacock]

Happy to help. I learned about botulism spores from making beer and learned that it is better to be safe than sorry.

By the way, have you thought about making sun tea? It is much easier than boiling water and then cooling it. I just put 1 gallon of water in a jar with 8-9 tea bags (but no sugar) and put it out in the sun in the morning when I go to work. When I come home, the tea is done. I then add 1 cup of sugar, mix it up until the sugar dissolves and add it to my kombucha fermenter. voila! That way, if you get too busy, your tea doesn't have sugar in it until you are ready to add it to your fermenter.

 

[Joan]

That's brilliant! I made up a new batch of tea earlier and now I'm waiting f-o-r-e-v-e-r for it to cool down. Looking forward to using it up so I can start doing it your way!

 

[pvpeacock]

I know, I got tired of waiting for it to cool or doing ice baths as well. Then it hit me that we used to makes sun tea when I was a kid. The Big Book of Kombucha mentions making sun tea as well. Good luck.

 

[Joan]

Thanks PVP!