Kombucha & Beer...

I was wondering if anyone else has tried using a Kombucha SCOBY as a method for acidification of a sour beer?I have an overly complicated psuedopseudoLambic going right now where I used a 3-9day exposure to the SCOBY. It seems to have worked but I would be interested in hearing some thoughts on the matter.

(I'd be more then happy to give out the full details later)

Scobies are mostly acetobacteria, so you're going to get a definite acetic bite from it. A lot of people don't care for that.
I demand a full write up from you when you bottle and taste it.

Just bottled some kombucha today. I have been thinking about trying it to sour beer. I was going to use it to sour a small unhopped portion of wort, achieve nice sourness, halt the bacteria by either boiling or campden tablets. Then add that back to the main batch. Maybe a stout or something. Please do post your results!

Goose Island had a Kombucha beer at the Great Taste of the Midwest last summer. It was one of the beers on my "list" that I didn't get to try. There might be some info on the interwebs though.

Here's the description from the program:

"Kombucha Belgian Ale: 7% ABV OG 15.5 dP A Belgian Pale Ale primarily fermented w/ a Belgian Ale yeast. Secondary fermentation occurs when Kombucha cultures are added to sour the beer."

http://www.mhtg.org/great-taste-of-the-midwest/programs/doc_download/168-official-program

I have a sour going that has a kombucha strain in the secondary, however it is one of 13-14 sour/brett strains aging with the beer, so I am not sure how prevalent this will be in the finished product. To be honest, I was ignorant to kombucha prior to this beer, but since it was the only strain in the coctail I did not know about I did some reading. I am suprised to see other have experimented with it too.

Ok so this is actually really complicated and I'll draw a flow chart and e-mail to people if they message me. (If you actually work for a brewery hands off)
So step one Cooked grains inoculated with Koji
Step two 'sparge' grains and add SCOBY
Step three add various yeasts etc cultured from selection of beers
Step four add Flor Sherry Yeast and healthy pack of wyeast
Step five wait....?
(complicated transfer method but you get the idea)

OK I used the SCOBY prior to adding any large quantities of yeast. Since I was going to be using both a Flor Sherry Yeast and var. Brett strains. Both of which I hear need lower PH. Actual Wort Contact time with the scoby was between 1 and 9 days due to my production method. Since obviously prolonged contact would give me wonderful vinegar but not drinkable beer.

I was curious to see what kind of results other people had gotten if they had tried using said scobies.

I did a couple kombucha beers back a couple years ago (for example http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2007/07/malt-kombucha-bottling-and-tasting.html ), it was interesting, but none of them were especially tasty. One of them was tated on an episode of basic brewing radio, needless to say the reaction from the other guys was pretty funny.

I will be trying to sour an ale with Kamboucha Scoby soon. I went to a small brewery in Charlotte , NC ( Lenny Boys) they are brewing some outstanding sours with Kamboucha Scoby. They were originally a Kamboucha Brewery and are now doing beers including "Kamboucha Wild Ales" They had one called Holy Moly that was a sweet potato /Molasses sour probably the most unique beer I have ever tasted it was incredible.

I was in Denver this week and made my way to The Crroked Stave tasting bar. They had a beer with kombucha. I have to admit though, I tasted a lot of what they had, but not that one. Interested to hear your results. I didn't know that kombucha was mostly acedic.

A rad local brewery has a berliner-weisse made with local kombucha and it's really great but also pretty clean tasting. I'll have to ask them about their process next time I'm down there (ie, hopefully tonight)

I talked to one of the owners last night. She said that they kettle soured using the kombucha, then boiled and proceeded as normal.

I have done a few experiments with it to hold me over as I get into sour beers since I already brew and drink kombucha everyday. I have a one gallon batch that is 2/3 pale ale wort and 1/3 kombucha going on about a year right now with a nice pellicle that I'm not really sure what to do with. I also have a black rye ipa with the same mixture going on three weeks that smells awesome and I plan to try this weekend. Both where just experimental batches taken from five gallon batches of non sour beers. Of my other experiments the most successful was a skeeter pee/kombucha That was really funky and I thought tasted great.

In my opinion after experimenting a bit, you are better off not adding a scoby to your brew, just the kombucha itself. 1/3 kombucha has worked out good for me.

I just bottled a batch of kombucha and was thinking about this same thing - I'm thinking about trying to sour a Berliner Weisse or sour saison with a SCOBY as an alternative to uncrushed grain for a sour mash. Maybe do a three way experiment: split the sour mash into three parts, one with grain tossed in, one with a SCOBY, one with both, to see how they come out. There seems to be more speculation here than actual results, so I'm interested if anyone has any experience with this before I go off on a wild goose chase.