Putrefaction!

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jambafish

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It's not cider, but you guys seem to know a lot so I'm reaching out from across the divide.

The recipe:
14 gallons finished dry kombucha pH 3.1
3 packages EC-1118 made into a starter using 3/4 water + 5 teaspoons nutrient + 3 cups sucrose
1 gallon apple juice pasteurized
5 cups sugar

(I'm straight up winging it as my first trail.)

Sanitized the fermenter, put it all together and 4 days later it putrefied. I'm assuming it was the bacteria in the kombucha reacting with the fruit, but if anyone can offer advice on building a recipe that might work to make an alcoholic kombucha, or what went horribly wrong, please do.
 
What did go wrong? You haven't got any details about what happened. Elaborate on what you mean by "putrefied".
 
I'm not actually sure, except that after 4 days in a sealed container the entire thing began reeking horribly of rotten trash. I opened the top and a blast of rotting alcohol smell almost knocked me over. I pulled out about a gallon of trube and the rest of the batch had turned a yeasty milky color. As to what exactly happened...I'm not sure. I had to dump it as every gnat in the neighborhood was trying to get into my garage. The smell persists even after cleaning and re-sanitizing.
 
Oh wow, never heard of anything quite like that... I'd say it was possessed by a demon, or possibly was abducted by aliens and experimented on.

I am sorry for your loss.

If you don't get a response soon, maybe try posting this in the Kombucha & Fermented Tea Forum section (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f167/) if you haven't already. I am guessing this has something to do with the kombucha because I have lost ciders before and I have never heard of cider doing anything quite that extreme.

Good luck finding answers!
 
The kombucha forum is largely noobs without experience with yeast and brewing. I don't think this is a question they could answer.
 
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