Kombucha beer

Anybody have experience with kombucha beer making with a second fermentation with an airlock?
I was thinking of taking my finished kombucha and adding some sugar and yeast, put on an airlock and see what bubbles.

I'm not offering direct experience with what you propose, but I would not recommend adding straight sugar. It'll taste like hooch (fun old-school term for straight white liquor). If you want something like a beer that's more complex and appealing, go for the malt extract syrup or, even better, do your own mash! Add that instead of sugar. Otherwise, what you posted resembles a method of controlled souring for beer except that you don't pasteurize the kombucha in your method. I believe if you pasteurized it before your secondary fermentation, you would have greater control over the final product.

Great info, thanks. I had not thought of doing a mash, great idea. I agree that pasteurizing the kombucha would be a good way to maintain control of any wild yeast/bacteria.

I haven't seen this anywhere else online, but I tried this today since it is snowing outside. I have been making Kombucha for a while now, and I wanted to make it into a hard tea. Here's what I did for a 1 gal batch:

1 gal for my homemade Kombucha (aged about 7-10 days)- I think, can't remember exactly when I started this batch, I use a continuous brew system, so it's hard to tell.

3.5 oz. grated ginger- grated with a microplane

I boiled the Kombucha and ginger (well, simmered) for 15 min to kill any wild yeast, bacteria or other nasties in it. I would like some feedback as to whether this was necessary. I just didn't want to F- with the alcohol fermentation.

After boiling, I added 2 cups dark brown sugar & let cool in the primary until suitable for pitching yeast. While cooling, I put yeast (Nottingham) in 1/2 cu. warm water with 1/2 tsp. of yeast nutrient in a seperate container to "bloom."

Once cool, I added in the yeast mixture to the kombucha, ginger, sugar "wort."

I loaned my hydrometer to my dad, so I didn't get the OG, but based on other recipes for different stuff, this should come out somwhere in the 7% ABV range. (Comments/Feedback)

Stirred to combine/further hydrate/airate. Put lid on & airlock.

Here's the plan...

Will let it ferment 14 days, then I'll check it. If no activity, will rack to a carboy. I'm going to try it, and if not sweet enough, will want to add some sweetner to the secondary (reccommendations, tips please, this is my first time doing anything like this)

I'm thinking 30 days in the secondary, with airlock.

Then bottle with priming sugar. If cloudy, I will clear with gelatin. How long should I let it sit in the bottle? I'm thinking 2 weeks min.

Like I said, this is my first time doing anything like this, so please comment on anything and everything. This forum has been an invaluable help to me. Note: I have (am) celiac, so I am looking for a unique beer replacement, and I love Kombucha, so I thought this would be a cool experiment. What do you think?

Hey just wanted to see if there were any updates, this sounds like an interesting brew!

Cheapo....it seems the response is here.. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f167/kombucha-hard-tea-379505/