Help needed with hard Kombucha

[zid]

I've been making my own kombucha for about a year now. Recently, decided to graduate to some hard kombucha, using Boochcraft recipe (https://boochcraft.com/diy-high-alcohol-kombucha/). I've never tried to homebrew anything so I'm not really sure what I'm doing, and something's not right.

The first problem I had was the yeast, or maybe I'm doing that step wrong. I bought some red star blanc yeast on Amazon and tried to activate it in simple syrup (1 cup sugar, 1 cup water). The recipe suggests I should see some active reaction relatively fast. I've tried 3 times with 3 different packets, waiting between an hour and overnight, and there was literally no reaction or bubbling. I got some other yeast, thinking the whole batch was bad, and that was kinda doing something, but not overly reacting.

Anyway, I decided to keep that last batch and mixed it with my kombucha. I left it for about 14 days. I'm not really sure what to look for, but there definitely wasn't a lot of activity. Some bubbles appeared on the surface, but I haven't seen anything bubbling through the airlock. I opened the brew today and had a taste - it's not very alcoholic, tastes very sweet, so clearly the yeast hasn't broken down the sugar.

Couple of things I considered:
- bad yeast - but it's unlikely that 4 packets, from 2 suppliers were all bad, isn't it?
- acidity - my kombucha wasn't overly acidic when I added the yeast, so that should be fine, but maybe I should use some different, acid-resistant yeast?
- scoby - there was no scoby in the second fermentation, I decanted the kombucha from the scoby container for the second fermentation, so the acidity levels were not building up.

So my question is - where am I going wrong? And what should I do with this batch? Should I just dump it or there's a way to save it? Should I be adding more or less yeast (I used 3/4 of a teaspoon)? Should I use some specific yeast? How can I know it's working before adding to kombucha - can anyone share a picture of how it should look like when everything's going right?

 

[zid]

Ignore that last image called new_yeast - that's just a weird bubble that grew in there. I've also tried activating more yeast today, it's been looking like this for about 2 hours:

 

[RPh_Guy]

That is one of the worst possible ways to rehydrate yeast. I'm not surprise it isn't working very well. Just very bad instructions; you didn't do anything wrong.

Do you have a thermometer?

• Get some dry yeast of your choice.
• Make sure it's not expired.
• Heat a cup of chlorine-free water to 95°F. (Temperature is important)
• Sprinkle in the yeast.
• Gently break up any clumps. Avoid stirring.
• Let it sit 15 minutes. (Timing is important).
• Add about 2-3 ounces of your kombucha. Stir.
• Continue to add 3-4 ounces every 5 minutes until the yeast and kombucha are within 18°F of each other.
• Dump the yeast into the batch.

This method is more complicated, obviously, but it's a far better way to get your yeast off to a healthy start.

Welcome to HBT!

 

[Seamonkey84]

Yea... Simple syrup killed your yeast. They clearly had a typo, or intended to make you to fail and not make your own stuff at home.

 

[zid]

Thanks for the replies!!

Yes I do have a thermometer, shouldn't be a problem to follow your suggestions.

So just to clarify, you don't add any additional sugar for the second fermentation? Would you put more sugar in the first fermentation? Or it's enough for the yeast to feed on that residual sugar from the first fermentation?

And what about the batch I already have? Should I just dump it? It doesn't taste bad, just sweet and not very fermented.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Sounds like you already added sugar. Add the properly rehydrated yeast to the sweet batch as instructed and it will ferment.

Cheers

 

[Seamonkey84]

Take a gravity reading if you want to make sure there’s still enough sugar, then add your step fed yeast. Then make sure to seal it with a air lock so it makes alcohol and not more vinegar.

 

[zid]

Resurrecting this thread.

So I bottled the batch after a couple of weeks. I think I should have left it longer as there were still bubbles coming through the airlock. It tasted good after the third fermentation with some fruit juice, but not very alcoholic.

Anyway, another batch of kombucha was ready the other day, so I attempted to second ferment it with some yeast again. This is what i've done:

1) Drained the kombucha into a jar
2) Added 2 cups of sugar to the room temperature kombucha, stirred until dissolved
3) Prepared 1 cup of water at 95F
4) Sprinkled 2g of champaign yeast into the 95F degree water
5) Waited for 15 minutes
6) Added 2 cups of kombucha to the yeasty water
7) Waited for 5 minutes
8) Measured the yeasty water mix and the original kombucha. They were within 18F so I added the yeast to the full batch.
9) Saw a bit of bubbling in the airlock, rather slow.

The bubbling has stopped after a day. I had some doubt about the yeast I used as it was already open from the previous batch. It was still less than a month, and I stored it in the fridge, but anyway. So I tried the following:

0) Opened a new packet of yeast
1) Prepared 1 cup of water at 95F
2) Sprinkled 2g of champaign yeast into the 95F degree water
3) Waited for 20 minutes (the yeast packet advised 20min)
4) Added 2 cups of kombucha to the yeasty water and waited for 5 minutes (2x)
5) Measured the yeasty water mix and the original kombucha. They were within 18F so I added the yeast to the full batch

There hasn't been any bubbling at all in the airlock since I've added the second yeast.

Any suggestion is much appreciated. Clearly I'm either cursed or doing something wrong

 

[RPh_Guy]

Have you been taking specific gravity readings? That's the only way to monitor fermentation progress.

Make sure you aren't dropping the temperature too much at a time when attemporating. 2 cups of cold kombucha added to 1 cup of hot kombucha will be traumatic for the yeast.

 

[zid]

I'm sorry, I meant ounces not cups. I've added 2 ounces of lukewarm kombucha to 1 cup of warm kombucha (bringing the temperature down from 93f to 78f.

I haven't tried taking the gravity readings - I'll need to buy a refractometer for that.

Any suggestions what should I do? It's been sitting there for a bit now - there's still no bubbles in the airlock and looks like a film has formed on top of it (new scoby?). Also there looks like some big bubbles formed under that film.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I'll need to buy a refractometer for that.

Use a hydrometer. They're cheap and reliable. Refractometers don't accurately measure sugar content in a solution with alcohol.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/triple-scale-hydrometer.html

Any suggestions what should I do?

Can't really give good advice without s.g. readings. Bubbles aren't a reliable indicator... Maybe it's completely fermented already. How does it taste?

 

[zid]

Update from the field - the brew has restarted bubbling for a bit, then stopped again. I've opened the jar and tasted it the other day and it was very sweet. Weirdly, it started bubbling again after being opened and handled. I guess i should look for different yeast..

 

[maxt50]

Any update? I am guessing we need to find a yeast that can handle the low ph in Komucha. Most yeast probably can handle it.

Lets us know if you had any success.

 

[zid]

The batch was brewing for far too long - only bottled it a few weeks back. It tastes ok, kinda like apple cider, but I think the alcohol content was low and the third fermentation (with added juice to increase the carbonation) didn't really take. Trying another batch in the next few days. Got some additional yeast food to help with the process

 

[zid]

Batch 3 is looking much better!! This time I've used Lalvin ec-1118 and also added Cellar Science Go-Ferm Protect Evolution to the rehydration water.

 

[Sonyaf627]

Batch 3 is looking much better!! This time I've used Lalvin ec-1118 and also added Cellar Science Go-Ferm Protect Evolution to the rehydration water.

Update on the batch with the lalvin yeast? I'm starting my hard booch soon. In first ferment with the Scoby now. I was just looking up the lalvin yeast. Did you ever end up needing to add sugar to the second ferment after you found out not to activate the yeast in the simple syrup?

 

[Booch before hooch]

Are you guys doing any guestimating for sugar content for a target ABV % via s.g. readings before adding second fermentation yeast?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Are you guys doing any guestimating for sugar content for a target ABV % via s.g. readings before adding second fermentation yeast?

My suggestion for alcoholic kombucha is to first make regular kombucha, which ultimately should have no alcohol, and then add wine yeast and enough dissolved sugar to target your desired ABV. Keep it under airlock during and after the high alcohol portion of fermentation.

Gravity readings should be taken after adding the sugar + wine yeast and then again when it finishes.

 

[zid]

Update on the batch with the lalvin yeast? I'm starting my hard booch soon. In first ferment with the Scoby now. I was just looking up the lalvin yeast. Did you ever end up needing to add sugar to the second ferment after you found out not to activate the yeast in the simple syrup?

It worked really well. Yes I added another cup of sugar to the fermented batch (after taking out the scoby and before adding the yeast)

 

[aatypical]

It worked really well. Yes I added another cup of sugar to the fermented batch (after taking out the scoby and before adding the yeast)

Hey Zid,

Thanks for sharing this info as you go. I'm on my fourth batch of hard booch--still no luck, but I'm hopeful for the one currently in the 2F tank. My progress reports are posted under thread "Hard Booch Headaches"

Did you end up taking any gravity readings? When you say the batch with the yeast "worked really well", how much alcohol did you end up with?

Thanks!