Drinking my first brew of Jun Kombucha... I got buzzed for sure

So Im drinking my 1st brew of my Honey Jun Kombucha and I started to feel buzzed. I googled it and yep... Jun has 2%+ alcohol. So let me get this straight:

Jun Kombucha:
1) Brews faster 3-4 days per batch if using mature SCOBY (roughly twice as fast as kombucha)
2) is healthier because green tea healthier than black tea
3) is healthier because honey has tons of micro nutrients in it whereas sugar has none.
4) has enough alcohol to get me buzzed (2%+)
5) assuming has enough alcohol to prevent mold and perhaps enough alcohol to kill maggots/white flies/insect eggs?

I guess the only real question I have is, if Jun has 2%+ alcohol then how do the pro-biotics stay alive?

Assuming that the pro-biotics stay alive in the 2% alcoholic brew then why isnt everyone brewing this version of Kombucha? It seems like a superior product in half the time.

Did you drink an entire liter of it in 15 mins? Just don't see how 2% is gonna get anybody buzzed, especially not any homebrewer.

The alcohol content will likely vary from batch to batch too, depending on how sour you let it get. As the yeast in the scoby convert the sugar to ethanol, the acetobacter are converting the ethanol to acetic acid (vinegar). Or if there is any type of lactobacillus bacteria in the scoby, then it's likely metabolizing the sugars into lactic acid, which means less sugars for the yeast.

Check out this calculator:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/caldrunk.htm

If I type in male and 90 kgs, and then say I had two light beers over a period of an hour (more alcohol than your kombucha, and double the number of drinks consumed likely?), then I wouldn't get removed from the workplace if I was working a "safety sensitive transportation job."

My wife brews the "normal" kombucha, and I must say that this version sounds much more interesting as far as flavor goes. Only problem is it's not safe for kids or anyone who can't consume alcohol.

if 2% is too low to do anything then I dont know. I just drank a resealable bottle's worth. Im drinking some right now and Im already buzzing.

Another thing thats odd is that my bottles were delayed being delivered so it actually brew a few more days than it should have. But in that case you say the alcohol content would be even lower.

So who knows.... all I know is I love this stuff. Unbelievable feeling drinking it. I just feel better overall.

with regards to alcohol and kids, fair enough. But I wouldnt be too hard on yourself. Kids in other parts of the world drink alcohol all the time. In France its quite normal for kids to drink wine. In parts of asia kids drink fermented Yak's milk; all over the world countless cultures allow their kids to try this thing or that thing. I dont think its a big deal. In the USA however, there are all these laws and whatnot.

Maybe Im a horrid parent but I personally wouldnt feel bad about giving my kid some kombucha if he wanted some. I highly doubt he would like the vinegary taste anyways and would likely spit it out.

Im also no home "brewer." I bullet proof my coffee, I drink kale shakes, and learning how to brew kombucha was the next logical step in the evolution of my health regimen.

First batch, absolutely a newb. God Damn this stuff is delicious though. unreal!

tadow said:

if 2% is too low to do anything then I dont know. I just drank a resealable bottle's worth. Im drinking some right now and Im already buzzing.

Another thing thats odd is that my bottles were delayed being delivered so it actually brew a few more days than it should have. But in that case you say the alcohol content would be even lower.

So who knows.... all I know is I love this stuff. Unbelievable feeling drinking it. I just feel better overall.

with regards to alcohol and kids, fair enough. But I wouldnt be too hard on yourself. Kids in other parts of the world drink alcohol all the time. In France its quite normal for kids to drink wine. In parts of asia kids drink fermented Yak's milk; all over the world countless cultures allow their kids to try this thing or that thing. I dont think its a big deal. In the USA however, there are all these laws and whatnot.

Maybe Im a horrid parent but I personally wouldnt feel bad about giving my kid some kombucha if he wanted some. I highly doubt he would like the vinegary taste anyways and would likely spit it out.

Im also no home "brewer." I bullet proof my coffee, I drink kale shakes, and learning how to brew kombucha was the next logical step in the evolution of my health regimen.

First batch, absolutely a newb. God Damn this stuff is delicious though. unreal!

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Yeah, like I said, unless you're guzzling that stuff down in 5 minutes, there's no real reason 2% should be giving you a buzz. Unless you never, ever drink alcohol (doesn't seem like that's the case), and you hadn't eaten in a few hours, and you are under the average size for a male. Then I suppose it would be plausible if all four of those applied to your situation. Otherwise, it's likely just a placebo effect of sorts because of you thinking that it's just gonna be a miracle-working drink for you. It's just probiotics is all. Nothing else special about it. It's the same as any other probiotic drink in all reality.

2% is the typical strength of table beer, which is (was?) often served to children.

tadow said:

if 2% is too low to do anything then I dont know. I just drank a resealable bottle's worth. Im drinking some right now and Im already buzzing.

Another thing thats odd is that my bottles were delayed being delivered so it actually brew a few more days than it should have. But in that case you say the alcohol content would be even lower.

So who knows.... all I know is I love this stuff. Unbelievable feeling drinking it. I just feel better overall.

with regards to alcohol and kids, fair enough. But I wouldnt be too hard on yourself. Kids in other parts of the world drink alcohol all the time. In France its quite normal for kids to drink wine. In parts of asia kids drink fermented Yak's milk; all over the world countless cultures allow their kids to try this thing or that thing. I dont think its a big deal. In the USA however, there are all these laws and whatnot.

Maybe Im a horrid parent but I personally wouldnt feel bad about giving my kid some kombucha if he wanted some. I highly doubt he would like the vinegary taste anyways and would likely spit it out.

Im also no home "brewer." I bullet proof my coffee, I drink kale shakes, and learning how to brew kombucha was the next logical step in the evolution of my health regimen.

First batch, absolutely a newb. God Damn this stuff is delicious though. unreal!

Click to expand...

Is it possible the actual Alcohol By Volume content of your tea is higher than the google research says? I suppose you could have seen the ABV potential by doing a before and after hydrometer reading.

Since you indicated you are not a home brewer, a hydrometer is a very inexpensive floating device ($5ish) that measures the suspended solids (sugars) in your solution which is the consumable food source that converts to several byproducts (inc alcohol) during the fermentation process. By reading before and then after, you can see exactly how much sugar has been consumed which in turn determines your ABV.

My kombucha tea always tastes sweet which indicates little or no alcohol has been created. What method are your discussing that actually turns your solution into an alcoholic beverage? Are you also using yeast with a scoby?

joshesmusica said:

Did you drink an entire liter of it in 15 mins? Just don't see how 2% is gonna get anybody buzzed, especially not any homebrewer.

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LOL, hey dude, remember - not everyone is a friendly friend. Or maybe he made beertea. I dunno. Sounds interesting

edit - I drink a lot of Pu Erh tea, and there is the concept of being basically "tea drunk." Different from just the small amounts of caffeine in it. Maybe its that
"ood tea can make you feel good, just like being drunk but without the negative effects. When drinking tea from old trees such as our Jingmai Pu-erh tea , one can feel more concentrated, relaxed and en
http://articles.bannacha.com/index.php?article23/describing-pu-erh-tea

I had actually read both here and on other sites that hydrometers and refractometers were not reliable instruments to use when trying to measure final gravity for kombucha due to all of the other byproducts of this type of fermentation (more than just alcohol which is the primary byproduct of beer fermentation) and they're not really tooled for taking such fine grain measurements as you'd need to measure the low alcohol of kombucha.

Not sure if that's 100% accurate or not, but if you just Google "kombucha hyrdometer" you'll find lots of links, some of them coming from HBT.

As someone that makes both kombucha and "hard" kombucha (refermented with extra sugar and champagne yeast) I can tell you there is a very noticeable difference in the taste when you go from the .5% normal range to the 5-6% ABV of the hard booch, so if you're a regular kombucha drinker I think you would easily know if this one had a high enough ABV to get you buzzed.

@drgonzo2k2 what is this hard kombucha you speak of? I've never heard of it. Do you have a recipe?

GuyP said:

@drgonzo2k2 what is this hard kombucha you speak of? I've never heard of it. Do you have a recipe?

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Hey, sure thing. I don't think a lot of people are doing it or that it's caught on yet, but I heard about it, thought it sounded interesting, and decided to give it a try. So far I've been pretty pleased with the results, and it's a fun experiment for when you don't have all day to dedicate to brewing beer.

Here's a Kombucha "Kriek" recipe that I posted over on the Milk The Funk Group:

Kombucha Kriek! This is a hard kombucha of mixed fermentation.

I was inspired by a recipe in the Speed Brewing book, but wanted to kick it up a notch to make sure the sour cherry taste really came through. Basically I started by following my usual kombucha recipe:

24 oz sugar
15 black tea bags
9 green tea bags
2 cups starter Kombucha

- Combine sugar with 1 gallon of water and heat until boiling.
- Remove from heat, add tea bags, and let steep for 15 minutes
- Meanwhile combine the 16 oz of starter Kombucha (from your last batch) with ~1 gallon, 7 pints of water so you have 2 gallons of liquid
- When done steeping cool the tea to ~70 using an ice bath
- Combine the two liquids in your fermenter, shake like hell, and add your Scoby
- You should now have 3 gallons of Kombucha
- Ferment for 7-10 days until it's at the tartness level you like (this batch went from 4.5 to 3.2 in 7 days)

Okay, so now you've got some Kombucha, and you're ready to make your hard Kombucha:

- Create a simple syrup using 2 lbs. of raw cane sugar and 500ml of water, heating just long enough to get everything combined
- In a clean fermenter add 3 lbs. of frozen sour cherries that you've really mashed up in their bag
- Add to that the simple syrup you just made
- Rehydrate 7.5 grams of EC-1118 champagne yeast (or whatever one you like) with 10 grams of Go-ferm in 3/4 cup of water (follow basic yeast rehydration methods)
- Rack your base Kombucha off to the fermenter with the cherries and simple syrup in it, add1/4 tsp of Fermaid directly to the kombucha, and shake like hell
- Pitch your rehydrated champagne yeast and let ferment out for 2 weeks prior to packaging
- Once done, keg it, force carb @30 PSI for 24-36 hours, and then reset to ~1.8 volumes for serving)

After adding the sour cherries and simple syrup to my kombucha base I wound up with an OG of 1.051 and it finished with an FG of 0.991!

Here's a pic:


I've also done a Mango Boozy Booch. The sample when I kegged it tasted really good, but it's not on tap yet for me to have a full review. It's basically the same recipe up until the secondary fermentation, and then use honey and frozen mango chunks instead.

Happy brewing!

drgonzo2k2 said:

Hey, sure thing. I don't think a lot of people are doing it or that it's caught on yet, but I heard about it, thought it sounded interesting, and decided to give it a try. So far I've been pretty pleased with the results, and it's a fun experiment for when you don't have all day to dedicate to brewing beer.

Here's a Kombucha "Kriek" recipe that I posted over on the Milk The Funk Group:

Kombucha Kriek! This is a hard kombucha of mixed fermentation.

I was inspired by a recipe in the Speed Brewing book, but wanted to kick it up a notch to make sure the sour cherry taste really came through. Basically I started by following my usual kombucha recipe:

24 oz sugar
15 black tea bags
9 green tea bags
2 cups starter Kombucha

- Combine sugar with 1 gallon of water and heat until boiling.
- Remove from heat, add tea bags, and let steep for 15 minutes
- Meanwhile combine the 16 oz of starter Kombucha (from your last batch) with ~1 gallon, 7 pints of water so you have 2 gallons of liquid
- When done steeping cool the tea to ~70 using an ice bath
- Combine the two liquids in your fermenter, shake like hell, and add your Scoby
- You should now have 3 gallons of Kombucha
- Ferment for 7-10 days until it's at the tartness level you like (this batch went from 4.5 to 3.2 in 7 days)

Okay, so now you've got some Kombucha, and you're ready to make your hard Kombucha:

- Create a simple syrup using 2 lbs. of raw cane sugar and 500ml of water, heating just long enough to get everything combined
- In a clean fermenter add 3 lbs. of frozen sour cherries that you've really mashed up in their bag
- Add to that the simple syrup you just made
- Rehydrate 7.5 grams of EC-1118 champagne yeast (or whatever one you like) with 10 grams of Go-ferm in 3/4 cup of water (follow basic yeast rehydration methods)
- Rack your base Kombucha off to the fermenter with the cherries and simple syrup in it, add1/4 tsp of Fermaid directly to the kombucha, and shake like hell
- Pitch your rehydrated champagne yeast and let ferment out for 2 weeks prior to packaging
- Once done, keg it, force carb @30 PSI for 24-36 hours, and then reset to ~1.8 volumes for serving)

After adding the sour cherries and simple syrup to my kombucha base I wound up with an OG of 1.051 and it finished with an FG of 0.991!

Here's a pic:

I've also done a Mango Boozy Booch. The sample when I kegged it tasted really good, but it's not on tap yet for me to have a full review. It's basically the same recipe up until the secondary fermentation, and then use honey and frozen mango chunks instead.

Happy brewing!

Click to expand...

Finally getting around to brewing a batch of this.

Pared down to 1 Gallon

400g frozen dark cherries (thawed and mashed with a fork)
500g organic cane sugar (enough water to cover and blend in, about 3 cups)
Topped up to 1 gallon with Kombucha that had been brewing for 16 days
(1 gallon batch
-2 cups starter liquid
-4 green tea bags
-6 black tea bags
*I use a 15min steep time
-1 cup organic cane sugar
-scoby on top
)


OG 1.068

Added yeast nutrient and Lalvin 1118


Will top up to the neck once rigorous fermentation has calmed down

View attachment 1483227989451.jpg

GuyP said:

Finally getting around to brewing a batch of this.

Pared down to 1 Gallon

400g frozen dark cherries (thawed and mashed with a fork)
500g organic cane sugar (enough water to cover and blend in, about 3 cups)
Topped up to 1 gallon with Kombucha that had been brewing for 16 days
(1 gallon batch
-2 cups starter liquid
-4 green tea bags
-6 black tea bags
*I use a 15min steep time
-1 cup organic cane sugar
-scoby on top
)


OG 1.068

Added yeast nutrient and Lalvin 1118


Will top up to the neck once rigorous fermentation has calmed down

Click to expand...

That's awesome! Let me know how it turns out.

If your SCOBY is not really a SCOBY, but a yeast culture that eats sugar and makes alcohol, then your Jun is not really Jun or kombucha, it's just fermented tea, which obviously tastes great. Green tea kombucha is much lighter and more refreshing. I think (all in my head I am sure) that it takes to fruit flavors better as well. Black tea makes a sharper, stronger tea flavor. I like both/it all.

A SCOBY is a culture where there is yeast that eats sugar and makes alcohol, along with bacteria that eat alcohol and make acids. They need each other to survive, which is "symbiosis," the S in SCOBY. (I don't think the yeast really *need* the bacteria, as they do ok on their own since you give them sugar.)

Some people do say they get buzzed from booch. I don't, but I do think I feel better overall when I drink it regularly.