Owly055
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2014
- Messages
- 3,008
- Reaction score
- 686
I'm planning a kombucha beer (again). My first attempt used kombucha for strike water and was an all grain brew. A brew that had 4.5 pounds of two row, with one pound lightly toasted in the oven, and half a pound of CR60 in a 2.5 gallon brew. It was hopped with East Kent Goldings at a very low IBU (7) because of the sourness of the kombucha. My mash efficiency was horrible, due I think to the acids in the kombucha, but the beer ultimately tasted OK, though the ABV was lower than intended.
This go around, I'm planning to use 4 pounds of light or extra light DME with a 2.5 gallon brew, and a half pound of CR10 for sweetness and color. Doing it as an extract brew, I eliminate the kombucha lost to absorption, and dodge the mashing efficiency loss from using the kombucha as strike water. It's a win win situation. I will over sour the kombucha, as the sourness really wasn't very dominant. I'm debating what hops to use and how much. I'd like to keep the IBUs down around 10 due to the sourness, or perhaps not use any bittering at all and resort to dry hopping heavily for flavor and aroma.
Any suggestions as to what combinations would work will be appreciated. I'm walking into terra incognita here. I'm thinking of something like Crystal. Or perhaps a strong citrus hop like Amarillo mostly dry hopped........ sour and citrus might work.
Thoughts, Ideas?
H.W.
This go around, I'm planning to use 4 pounds of light or extra light DME with a 2.5 gallon brew, and a half pound of CR10 for sweetness and color. Doing it as an extract brew, I eliminate the kombucha lost to absorption, and dodge the mashing efficiency loss from using the kombucha as strike water. It's a win win situation. I will over sour the kombucha, as the sourness really wasn't very dominant. I'm debating what hops to use and how much. I'd like to keep the IBUs down around 10 due to the sourness, or perhaps not use any bittering at all and resort to dry hopping heavily for flavor and aroma.
Any suggestions as to what combinations would work will be appreciated. I'm walking into terra incognita here. I'm thinking of something like Crystal. Or perhaps a strong citrus hop like Amarillo mostly dry hopped........ sour and citrus might work.
Thoughts, Ideas?
H.W.