I really love my kombucha brewing, especially after I do secondary fermentation with ginger. Have given away two scoby, have a scoby hotel and two batches going. Have been really interested to see the differences in length of fermentation, temp, kinds of tea and kinds of sugar (tried coconut palm sugar, maple syrup, honey, sugar in the raw, and of cane. Really fun! Kombuchakamp has been a good web source of info for me. I ferment a lot of other foods too with good success following Sandor Katz's book Wild Fermentation. Yep, there are risks. Small, but real. Kinda just life, in my book. Good luck and enjoy!