Booch Hooch Boogie ;-)

[Owly055]

I've done several products that were crosses between kombucha and beer or wine over the last 3 or 4 years, and just began another as follows:

1 quart fresh raspberries from my patch, 2 pounds, invert sugar, 2 tea bags, and one and one half gallons water. The strawberries and tea bags were added to the invert sugar syrup while still boiling, the mixture was returned to a boil for a few minutes, then cold water was added to bring the total volume up to 1.5 gallons which was put into a fermenter. US-05 yeast was pitched straight from the packet on top of the liquid.

This will sit until it is fermented out to a stage I determine to be just about right in terms of flavor. I will then add about 3 quarts of kombucha and let it do it's magic until it is suitably soured. I will then keg it, pressurize and chill.

The target is an approximate 3% AVB raspberry booch hooch.


Comments???

H.W.

Note:

I'm not a believer in scobies having any real value, so I remove them and dry them for my mother to use in making paper.........an excellent source of high quality cellulose. I won't be transferring the scoby..... I never do. I always remove them and let the booch make it's own new one.

 

[Owly055]

I'm at an OG of 1.072, which puts the potential alcohol at around 7% before diluting, quite a bit higher than I had hoped for........ I won't of course ferment it all the way out. I'll leave it pretty sweet, and add the kombucha for "secondary", fermenting with the kombucha until I like the flavor.

This is a complete "crap shoot", with absolutely no way to predict or measure the actual results. I took the OG using a refractometer, but between the yeast and acetobacter, there is no way to really measure alcohol accurately due to the souring process. The only test is the "buzz test".

H.W.

 

[Owly055]

I always seem to be on the fringes doing crazy experiments, trying this and then trying that. Not all of them successful, but enough to keep me going. The "Booch Hooch" was a great success. I can't share a recipe, or procedure, as the whole process is very subjective. I called the primary fermentation without the kombucha finished when I felt it was appropriate based on taste and the amount of kombucha I was going to add, relying entirely on my own judgment. I then soured it with the kombucha until it was sour enough to satisfy me, racked into a keg and carbonated it.

The product is great, a nice pale red to pink rose color........ I added some juice from fresh garden beets I was cooking during the process to deepen the color. The raspberry flavor comes through very well, but is not intense, and the kombucha adds a sourness that makes me think of some wines I've had. I would judge the ABV at about 3.5% based on that unscientific method of taste testing and "buzz factor", which is pleasantly low but there. It's quite dry on the palette, and the carbonation gives it a nice zing. There's nothing no to like...........

H.W.

 

[Spaceman]

I'm curious about your primary and secondary fermentations. Are they both open air? Do you use an airlock at any point to create an anaerobic environment? Have you ever had problems with too much carbonation as a result of the secondary ferment plus force carbonating?

 

[Owly055]

I'm curious about your primary and secondary fermentations. Are they both open air? Do you use an airlock at any point to create an anaerobic environment? Have you ever had problems with too much carbonation as a result of the secondary ferment plus force carbonating?

Primary fermentation is pretty well covered with a fairly tight lid.....no airlock. There is enough leakage to allow pressure to vent. Secondary is with the kombucha, and is open more or less. There really is no significant carbonation at the end of secondary, and I force carbonate to the level I want.

H.W.