The law is tricky. From Wikipedia “For works that received their copyright before 1978, a renewal had to be filed in the work’s 28th year with the Copyright Office for its term of protection to be extended. The need for renewal was eliminated by the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992, but works that had already entered the public domain by non-renewal did not regain copyright protection.”
Yes. Kombucha is a actively fermenting beverage. It has microorganisms in it that contribute to its flavor. When you consume kombucha, you also consume the microorganisms. This cannot be replicated because as you know there are strict rules about using the replicators to create living organisms.
This was their project. You should have assumed that they had knowledge of what was happening and asked them about it as opposed to putting it in the matter reclamator.