Sugar content home brew vs bought

OK, I'll try again!

Hi. Have just started brewing my own Kombucha, continuous brew method. Used standard recipe, with organic black tea. First brew was fermented in the pot for 9 days, then in bottles for 5 days. Taste was pleasant and somewhat tangy, but still a lot too sweet for my taste. Fizz almost non existent.

I have read that for all or most of the sugar to be used up, the brew must be fermented for 30 days, by which time it is vinegary and unpalatable. The question is, how to achieve a brew which is not too sweet but still pleasant to drink? Until now I have been buying a local brand of (raw, unpasteruised) Kombucha based on green tea, which is light and pleasant tasting but without the sugar 'aftertaste'. The label states 2.6 grams of sugars per 100gm. I am wondering how they achieved this low level of sugar without the vinegar effect. (Don't know if it has anything to do with using green vs black tea, but probably not).

Any ideas appreciated!

I'm not a pro or anything but I recently started kegging/force carb. my kombucha and that has changed the taste. Most commercial Kombucha brewers force carbonate after the Primary fermentation which IMO doesnt have that strong of a vinegary taste. My bottle conditioned Kombucha has always come out vinegary. Do you add any fruit before bottling?

Hi. Both my primary and secondary fermentations have still been quite pleasant tasting and I have not yet let them get to the 'vinegary' stage. I just suspect that there is still a lot of sugar in the brew providing the pleasant taste, and am wondering if there is a way to have less sugar but still a pleasant and not vinegary taste? Haven't done a lot of experimenting yet. So far have not been able to get much fizz in my second fermentation, despite adding fruit, etc. The weather has been cool .. might try leaving it a bit longer.

The easy answer to getting it less sweet is to let the primary fermentation go another few days or a week until the flavor is where you like it. Maybe you like it after 2 weeks or 3 weeks. Everyone's taste is different.

Remember that continuous brews change over time, so it's always different. If you want more consistency, try batch brewing.

Here's what I have done to get the right mix of sweet and tart. Run it out 30 days so it ferments all the way out. It's not vinegar yet, but it's really "dry." Really. Divide the kombucha between bottles or jars, but only fill them half way. (So if you have pint mason jars, fill them with 8 ounces in each jar.)

Make a strong tea (this is a good time to use a flavored tea) and fill the jars the rest of the way. This will be pretty tart and flavored, but not sweet. But it should have very little sugar in it.

If you want sweeter, then sweeten the tea that you dilute with. If you make 32 oz of tea with 32 grams of sugar (roughly 8 tsp I think), and divide that into several bottles, just keep track of the number of ounces of sweet tea you add and that is (about) how many grams of sugar is in it.

So, if you have 8 oz of dry kombucha plus 8 ounces of sweet tea, you have 16 oz of drink with 8 grams of sugar, or about 4 per 8 oz serving.

If you bottle it with sweet tea, you'll get some new fermentation and fizz, and a little less sweet. It's always a little different. But this method lets you control the variables better. The booch is NOT sweet, the tea IS sweet, and you control the proportions.

I have noticed that green tea does seem lighter and more "pleasant" tasting (I think of it as "refreshing"). So if you like that, mix some green tea in to lighten it up some. Lately, I have been using about 10 green teabags and 2 black.

Try using a flavored green tea and see if it is more to your liking.

What fruit are you adding to the secondary?

Hi Ericbw

Thanks for your detailed reply. Your method sounds like a good one for achieving what I want in my brew, and I will certainly try it.

I did achieve some 'fizz' in my second bottling after 2nd fermentation. On that occasion I added some sugar syrup plus fruit or ginger, etc. and left for about 5-7 days. 3rd bottling I added some apple juice to a couple of bottles and crushed blueberries to some others. This lot have so far not produced much or any carbonation ... I am wondering if this is because I omitted the sugar syrup this time. Trial and error indeed!

Next time I will try your method. It sounds like a good solution.

Regards

I have a hard time getting really strong fizz from a secondary fermentation, especially now that the weather has cooled down. I have also heard that you might not have enough yeast in suspension (yeast make the fizz, I guess), so getting some dregs mixed in is good. I avoid dregs, so that could slow down fizz production.

I have a batch right now that has kombucha with mixed fruit juice (100% juice), and it's been 5 days. I know it's making some fizz, but trying to hold off on refrigerating until I'm sure!

Have just finished drinking my 3rd batch of bottled kombucha. This time I left the primary fermentation till it was a bit more acidic then secondary ferment in 6 x 500 ml bottles. Flavourings added were crushed blueberries; apple juice; and lemon/ginger (other than these, no extra sugar). Tried a blueberry after 2 days and it was quite tart with no fizz. Added 1 tsp sugar to the other blueberry bottle and left a further 5 days then refrigerated. This time when opened the brew was nice and fizzy (despite having been refrigerated), and the right mixture of tart and sweet. So it seems the thing to do is, leave the secondary fermentation long enough before refrigerating to get bubbly, and make sure there is enough sweetness in it for carbonation to take place.

Kimsue said:

Have just finished drinking my 3rd batch of bottled kombucha. This time I left the primary fermentation till it was a bit more acidic then secondary ferment in 6 x 500 ml bottles. Flavourings added were crushed blueberries; apple juice; and lemon/ginger (other than these, no extra sugar). Tried a blueberry after 2 days and it was quite tart with no fizz. Added 1 tsp sugar to the other blueberry bottle and left a further 5 days then refrigerated. This time when opened the brew was nice and fizzy (despite having been refrigerated), and the right mixture of tart and sweet. So it seems the thing to do is, leave the secondary fermentation long enough before refrigerating to get bubbly, and make sure there is enough sweetness in it for carbonation to take place.

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You may also have better luck if you crush the fruit so the sugar is coming out more easily. A berry skin is pretty protective!