How to Brew High Alcohol Kombucha!

how's it going everyone and welcome to my personal guide on how to brew high alcohol kombucha now this in no way is a comprehensive guide to the subject but I found a scarcity of info on this specific style of brewing so I at least wanted to extend my process for anyone who may be interested in learning let's begin with a quick overview of what kombucha is kombucha is a fermented varietal tea drink that is believed to have its origins from Northeast Asia as well as Russia it is traditionally a probiotic rich and sweetened black or green tea fermented using this Kobe Kobe of course meaning symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast this be very similar what's used in vinegar making with mother of vinegar include in the scoby are a slew of different microorganisms though each Scobie will have its unique blend of cultures some of the highlighted organisms include sacrum ices serve a CA the common bearest Brut animai seasoned Brux to lenses and lactobacillus bacteria however the main organisms in the production of kombucha are a a bezoar acidic acid producing bacteria now these bacteria are responsible for fermenting the alcohols that the yeast produce into the tanga sand which is famous for being acetic acid all that being said there are a ton of variations of bacteria you can find in scobie's and plenty of opportunity to induce your own cultures and develop a personal house taste so let's go over some tools you may need I'll be breaking down the video into two parts an initial basic fermentation and a secondary alcohol Focuses fermentation for our basic fermentation some of the tools you'll need are a boil kettle a fermentation vessel I recommend one with his Fayette cheesecloth or coffee filters and I actually use fine mesh hot bags you can pick all these up at brew supply stores or online vendors a Scobie if you don't have a Scobie no worries you can always use a bottle of neutral kombucha to ferment and may just take a little bit longer to finish out and you could also find scobie's for free online a great place to look is reddit and I'll post a link to the best subreddit for that below you'll need starter liquid it's important to have this to introduce the culture to a new solution without shocking it too much you'll need teabags start with black while you get the hang of brewery before graduating to other varieties sugar I think a simple cane sugar works great a stirrer spoon rubber bands and a five-gallon bucket for our secondary fermentation you will need a separate fermenter I use a Carlos Rosie jug a stopper a number 6 with hole 3/8 inch works really well for the Carlos grocery jug an airlock pH strips a funnel wine or champagne yeast I recommend the Red Star brands baker's yeast will not work here dependent on temperature the white wine varieties will look better in the colder temps and the warmer temps red wine and champagne for that fizzy specific champagne flavor bottles flip lid bottles beer bottles with a capper and reused kombucha bottles Burk grape acid PBW sanitizer you can also use white wine vinegar here grape juice a refractometer and titration test kit unfortunately a hydrometer will not work here as the amount of acids that kombucha spits out are gonna throw off your hydrometer ABV reading so refractometer and titration test kit all right let's start with the initial fermentation after you've properly cleaned your tools start by filling your five-gallon bucket with cold water and sanitizer place your tools in the bucket and let's sit until needed next pour 1 to 2 gallons of water into your boil kettle I like to let it sit overnight to let the clone of that rate but you can use distilled water or a Brita filter just as well it's important though that if you are using municipal non spring tap water you take some sort of measure to reduce the fluorine as chlorine can really wear on the scoby over repeated use in order to truly coerce the most amount of out of our kombucha we did an extremely healthy Scobie you can also fill your boil kettle with a little extra water initially and boil it 10 to 15 minutes longer before adding your tea this should evaporate about 90% before turn your burner to high and start boiling your water after your liquid has reached a boil turn off the heat and add approximately 2 to 3 cups of sugar per gallon of water stir this around until completely dissolved from this point on as the water cools remember to be extra cautious of sanitation and cleanliness as we're now at a stage where other unwanted microbes can be introduced into our ferment check to make sure there are no drafts coming in through windows or ceiling the fans on around there may be blowing in airborne organisms next add your tea the amount of tea you add is dependent on the strength of caffeine and flavor you desire I experiment a lot in this department but can safely recommend 15 to 20 grams of black tea per gallon one thing to keep in mind is that the scoby tends to feed off the tannins and polyphenols leached from the tea so there is some evidence that a longer steep can positively affect your end product I've even gone so far as to squeeze my teabags into the solution at the end of the cool-down however there is no tried-and-true technique here as it's all dependent on each Brewers taste once all my tea is submerged I'll begin to cool off the liquid by placing it in an ice bath I also place my sanitized hot bags over top for extra measure the quicker you can cool down the less of an opportunity you give unwanted microbe from finding a home in your liquid if you have a sanitized thermometer you're looking for the liquid to hit the sweet spot of 78 to 82 degrees for fermentation just make sure it doesn't get to below 70 or you may start running into problems after reaching proper temperature will transfer over to our primary fermenter and add two cups per gallon of starter liquid shake your fermenter around a little bit as we want to add as much oxygen into our solution as possible before inoculating with our Scobie because the acetic acid producing bacteria really need that large amount of oxygen to perform well after shaking add your Scobie into the liquid then place your chosen cover over the top of the fermenter and secure it with rubber bands we want to let our kombucha ferment in the most temperature controlled environment as possible away from any Sun or UV rays a closet or basement is great place to do this but as long as it's dry and dark most rooms will do the trick if you live in a cold climate wrap your fermenter in a blanket or place on a heat controlled pad before storing for fermentation during the fermentation process it helps to agitate the fermenter every few days because we don't want to build up of co2 in solution to get trapped at the head preventing our culture from obtaining its necessary oxygen and nutrients a simple shake will do here after about seven days check to see how your kombucha tastes it may still be more time but your best gauge for this is how similar it tastes to the neutral kombucha we use for our starter liquid sometimes it may take up to 14 days to fully ferment but ideally in a perfect environment kombucha should be fermented around 10 days these time variations of course are dependent on your ambient temperature around the fermenter as well as personal taste the scoby can look pretty crazy after seven days but don't fret mold growth unless you see blues or greens on the top of your culture very dry spots on the top of the school we can also indicate mold remember that mold is always dry fuzzy and always on the top of the scoby mold however is extremely rare in kombucha making and only tends to occur in under acidified or cold fermenting environments most likely that black spot you see is just a stray loose tea leaf caught in a layer of this goby now that our initial fermentation is done it's on to our secondary fermentation and alcohol production once your kombucha is tasting how you like use your pH strips or a pH meter and test the level your liquid is in it it's recommended that the pH is not below 3.0 both from a health and yeast environmental perspective breaking below three is gonna make it really difficult for secondary east to get going so if everything is looking in place it's time to move over to secondary fermentation make sure your fermenter is clean and sanitized before adding the kombucha I like to give it a hot water acid bath for about an hour before rinsing and letting my vessels sit in sanitizer and cool water for 24 hours before dumping and inverting to air-dry dispense out your fermented kombucha into your secondary fermenter but leave about two cups of liquid in the initial fermenter cover secondary with sanitized tin foil and will do that a sec if you want to check the amount of alcohol you have in your liquid you can first measure the TA or titratable acidity with an acid titration kit then use a refractometer to measure the Brix and subtract the volumes of TA from your Brix reading together an initial alcohol level on the bottom of our initial kombucha front you should see some particulates floating or Reston about what kind of looks like sand is actually yeast that is flocculated out of fermentation this yeast is dormant but still very much alive it will be super helpful in increasing our alcohol content on our next batch as it's already conditioned to the kombucha environment yeast gets stronger each generation so every batch that you make with it will have a stronger alcohol and acid resilience at this stage I tend to also have my next batch of kombucha cooling and ready to dump into this fermenter as the space opens up if you aren't ready for another brew you can always place this yeasty starter liquid into a sanitized bottle and store in fridge for later after we've moved our fermented kombucha into our secondary fermenter let's get started prepping our next yeast measure out one cup of filtered water into a boiling pot and turn on the heat once the water has reached boiling turn off the heat and add one cup of sugar mix until completely dissolved and let cool until about a hundred degrees depending on the type of secondary yeast you are using that this temperature may vary but the proper temper strain should be listed on the back of the dry packet after our temperature is reached we'll add in our wine yeast packet and stir into solution grab your funnel now and pour your newly activated yeast solution into your secondary fermenter with your kombucha since wine ease tends to enjoy fermenting lots of different sugars at this point I will usually add about a third a cup of organic pressed grape juice into the secondary you can add other organic juices but keep in mind that you still may want to add fruit or other adjunct flavorings after second fermentation is complete after everything is all poured in place your stopper on the head and fill your airlock with a sanitizer and water solution cap stopper store your secondary kombucha in a similar environment as before and check back in a couple days after five days or so you should see activity in your airlock and bubbles raising from the bottom of your fermenter as the yeast begins building alcohol into your solution since there is now a lack of oxygen in the vessel the acetobacter is no longer able to thrive and produce as much acidic acid so the new wine yeast culture is able to thrive and produce ethanol from our new sugar source without having to compete as much so try not to check your kombucha at this stages we want to keep the environment as anaerobic and sanitary as possible until we deem terminal gravity has been reached after three to four weeks and when you no longer have bubble activity in your airlock pull out your kombucha for sampling the kombucha should taste slightly hot or alcoholic as well as quite a bit more acidic than after our initial fermentation do know that once you open up your kombucha for sampling I recommend not reapplying the stopper for a fermentation as oxygen is your biggest enemy during this part of the process too much oxygen exposure may begin to spoil the drink to taste overly vinegary or cardboard if you test the alcohol of your liquid before go ahead and again use the acid titration kit and refractometer to measure your final alcohol level and note that the ideal general consensus is around four to five volumes of total acid now that alcohol kombucha is done fermenting you can add flavoring adjuncts if you like depend on what you add this addition will most likely be used as another sugary fuel source for the culture to produce more co2 let your mind run wild here as secondary ingredients can be the most Korea part of the process if you don't want to add any flavorings I still recommend adding a small but measured amount of sugar if you want your drink to be fizzy and carbonated you could pick up properly dosed out carbonation pills which are essentially just weigh it out sugar cubes and add a brew supply shop if you have a keg and would like to force carbon in your drink you can go ahead and do that now don't forget that you'll still be producing co2 in the keg so start with a low input of psi after processing the fruit mix ingredients together and use your funnel to pour a liquid into the bottles of your choosing make sure to leave about 1/2 inches of headspace at the top after your bottles are all filled set in a room temp dark place to ferment for 48 hours after 48 hours and check your carbonation by burping or slightly opening the lid of one of your bottles if things seem to be progressing appropriately move bottles the cold storage to finish building co2 it's left longer in room temp make sure to burp every day after the initial 48 hours to prevent bottle explosions like what I had one ounce just started up hey we've all been there after a couple more days your high alcohol kombucha should be carbonated up and ready to enjoy and that's it guys that is my process for brewing high alcohol kombucha I hope you all enjoyed the video and at least picked up a trick or two feel free to comment any thoughts or questions you may have I sincerely thank you for taking the time to watch and wish you all the best of luck on your kombucha brewing adventures Cheers [Music]

Channel: GettinWiggyWiddit

Views: 131,637

Rating: 4.876266 out of 5

Keywords: kombucha, high alcohol kombucha, fermentation, how to, brewing, beer, alcohol, sour, health, homebrew, beverage

Id: Iltwiy-SZug

Length: 14min 28sec (868 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 01 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/venkuJeZima]

Wau. High quality video. Nice edit and sound. Useful information. Thank you.

[u/senileomniscient]

Great video! I was wondering what is the highest/usual alcohol by volume you have generated with this process?

[u/chumley-kc]

Good work! Thanks for taking the time to make that.

[u/fawsewlaateadoe]

Inspired to give this a try! Thanks again.

[u/mighty_falcon]

Awesome work and thanks for sharing. Been making kombucha for about two years now and always wanted to try making a boozy batch. This was the inspiration I needed.

[u/ToddLikesDrink]

That’s a great video man. Does the alcohol not kill the gut bugs?

[u/Darjeelingtea42]

Thank you!!!

[u/PhonieMcRingRing]

How sweet is it at this point? Is it tart like a cider?

[u/ipoopwithmylegsup]

Great video!

I've been make high alcohol Jun for awhile. I use a 2.5 gallon keg with a spunding valve for secondary that way it produces alcohol and CO2 charges at the same time. Takes about 2 weeks and tastes like a "soured mead" with champagne like co2. Cheers!