Hops kombucha

[amcardon]

Hey guys, I tried searching to see if this had been discussed before, but as you can imagine, searching "hops" on a brewing site pulls up thousands of hits...

Anyway, I recently had a hops flavored kombucha that was fantastic and I was hoping to add hops to my home brews. I don't brew beer so I have limited knowledge of hops but talked to some local brewers and they recommended doing a water boil with the hops and using that water as the base for the kombucha (with tea & sugar). This didn't sound right to me, so I figured I'd post on here to see if anybody could point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

 

[riptoldnutonKT]

I wouldn't use hops in the primary fermentation.. You would use hops for a 2nd fermentation for the flavor. Do you do 2nd ferm?

 

[skadalajara]

Hops are mildly antibacterial. Not what you want in a kombucha.

 

[hunter_le five]

Not what you want in a kombucha.

Having had commercially produced hopped-kombucha that was pretty tasty, I must respectfully disagree. But it would probably be best added after primary fermentation is complete, I would think.

 

[Brewser_]

I'm almost ready to brew my first batch. But I might try this down the road. Having only tasted store bought kombucha, it smelled overpoweringly vinegary. Hops might be a good way to mask the smell. Unless homebrew kombucha doesn't get that smelly.... I understand it is a product of fermenting time

 

[skadalajara]

Allow me to clarify my previous statement...
Its the antibacterial quality you wouldn't want in your kombucha. Adding a hops tea to secondary would be OK, but you'll still be killing (or at least stressing) some of your probiotic strains.
It all depends on why you drink it. If it's purely for the taste, no issue. If it's purely for the probiotics, might be an issue.

 

[hunter_le five]

Allow me to clarify my previous statement...
Its the antibacterial quality you wouldn't want in your kombucha. Adding a hops tea to secondary would be OK, but you'll still be killing (or at least stressing) some of your probiotic strains.
It all depends on why you drink it. If it's purely for the taste, no issue. If it's purely for the probiotics, might be an issue.

Fair 'nuff.



Almost as good as drinking beer at work. Almost.



For what it's worth, the bottle claims to have "19 billion live probiotics per bottle". I wonder if the count was done before or after hopping...

 

[amcardon]

It was that Buddha's Brew Hop'd that made me want to try a home version. I've got a batch that should be ready tomorrow, trying to figure out how to get hops in there... Boil? Dry hop? Boil in water or kombucha (and kill any probiotics) for the acidity? Just really unsure how to proceed with this one!

 

[hunter_le five]

It was that Buddha's Brew Hop'd that made me want to try a home version. I've got a batch that should be ready tomorrow, trying to figure out how to get hops in there... Boil? Dry hop? Boil in water or kombucha (and kill any probiotics) for the acidity? Just really unsure how to proceed with this one!

Make a hop tea and add it to the finished kombucha? No idea honestly. I'd be interested to hear the results of your experimentation, though.

 

[skadalajara]

They could also be selecting for either hop-tolerant strains, or a hop variety that minimizes the antimicrobial properties.

 

[hunter_le five]

I suppose one could attempt to culture a SCOBY from the bottle to see if the little buggers are in fact still alive.

I might try that this weekend. But I probably won't. I am lazy.

 

[amcardon]

Alright, so after talking to the local brew shop I decided to boil .25oz whole cascade hops in 2qts of water for 10 minutes. I don't brew beer, but was told that the short boil will keep bitter flavors out and the more floral hop flavors in. Strained out the hops and added that to 2qts sweet tea and 1qt booch.

Today was day 7, my typical bottle period, so I tasted the booch and it was pretty dang good! Not as good as Buddha's Brew Hop'd but I would imagine some of that has to do with their using 3 different varieties of hops. The booch was slightly different than normal, with a hint of sweetness but a bit of a bite at the end. It was also extremely carbonated. Anyway, I'm gonna set these out for 48ish hours before I crack one open.

FWIW, the scoby grew quite a bit with this batch so I'm not anticipating much negative effect from the hops... Doing a batch of plain sweet tea before using the scoby again for another batch with a variety of hops this next time.

 

[anteater8]

I've just started brewing kombucha with the sole intention of experimenting with hopping it. I have been brewing beer for a while, with a large focus on hoppy beers. My first batch of kombucha hasn't even been bottled yet, but I have a lot of ideas.

I feel that the best way to start would be to dry hop the kombucha once fermentation is mostly done and the scoby has been removed. This should result more in light hop aroma and flavor (no bitterness).

The next thing I might try is to steep some very potent hop tea separately and add it after the scoby has been removed. This would be to add some noticeable bitterness to the kombucha, and it could then be dry hopped as well for flavor and aroma.

I'd imagine that brewing tea with hops from the beginning could work as well, but I doubt the scoby would be viable afterwards.

I have even considered steeping some malted barley (something like crystal 20) separately and adding to finished kombucha for some additional body and a caramel like sweetness that could balance well with hop bitterness.

For hop varieties I am most interested in the tropical fruit forward ones (Citra, Galaxy, Mosaic, Simcoe, Amarillo), but there are also more classic pine/grapefruit forward ones (Cascade, Centennial, Chinook), and earthy/dank/herbal ones (Saaz, Colombus, Tettnanger).

Finally, I believe that a lot of actual fruit pairs really well with hops. For example, I've had excellent IPA's brewed with citrus zest, mango, pineapple and passion fruit. This concept should work well for kombucha as well.

 

[telebrewer]

I've just started brewing kombucha with the sole intention of experimenting with hopping it. I have been brewing beer for a while, with a large focus on hoppy beers. My first batch of kombucha hasn't even been bottled yet, but I have a lot of ideas.

I feel that the best way to start would be to dry hop the kombucha once fermentation is mostly done and the scoby has been removed. This should result more in light hop aroma and flavor (no bitterness).

The next thing I might try is to steep some very potent hop tea separately and add it after the scoby has been removed. This would be to add some noticeable bitterness to the kombucha, and it could then be dry hopped as well for flavor and aroma.

I'd imagine that brewing tea with hops from the beginning could work as well, but I doubt the scoby would be viable afterwards.

I have even considered steeping some malted barley (something like crystal 20) separately and adding to finished kombucha for some additional body and a caramel like sweetness that could balance well with hop bitterness.

For hop varieties I am most interested in the tropical fruit forward ones (Citra, Galaxy, Mosaic, Simcoe, Amarillo), but there are also more classic pine/grapefruit forward ones (Cascade, Centennial, Chinook), and earthy/dank/herbal ones (Saaz, Colombus, Tettnanger).

Finally, I believe that a lot of actual fruit pairs really well with hops. For example, I've had excellent IPA's brewed with citrus zest, mango, pineapple and passion fruit. This concept should work well for kombucha as well.

I've been wanting to add hops as well.

Maybe use some grapefruit juice to carb it with hops. Like a grapefruit sculpin? I don't want it to be sweet though. Maybe use green tea also.

 

[anteater8]

I've done three hopped kombuchas now, all with oolong tea. I should note that these were also my first three batches of kombucha. For all three batches, I removed the scoby and put it in a new batch or stored it with some starter tea, then I simply added the hops in pellet form to my primary fermentation vessel. When I was ready to bottle, I skimmed what hops I could off the top, then bottled the rest through a double layer of cheese cloth.

1) 1 oz mosaic per gallon: overwhelming hop flavor, absolutely undrinkable. I don't think it was the fact that it was mosaic, but the fact that I used so much.

2) 0.5 oz citra per gallon: best kombucha I've made so far. I far preferred this to the hopped kombucha I buy in Portland. Really nice tropical fruit flavor. I only hope I can replicate it, citra is an amazing hop.

3) 0.5 oz cascade per gallon: good but not as good citra. I think it comes down to the hop variety here. Citra is tropical, mango, passion fruit. Cascade is floral and citrusy.

 

[rossi46]

I've done three hopped kombuchas now, all with oolong tea. I should note that these were also my first three batches of kombucha. For all three batches, I removed the scoby and put it in a new batch or stored it with some starter tea, then I simply added the hops in pellet form to my primary fermentation vessel. When I was ready to bottle, I skimmed what hops I could off the top, then bottled the rest through a double layer of cheese cloth.

1) 1 oz mosaic per gallon: overwhelming hop flavor, absolutely undrinkable. I don't think it was the fact that it was mosaic, but the fact that I used so much.

2) 0.5 oz citra per gallon: best kombucha I've made so far. I far preferred this to the hopped kombucha I buy in Portland. Really nice tropical fruit flavor. I only hope I can replicate it, citra is an amazing hop.

3) 0.5 oz cascade per gallon: good but not as good citra. I think it comes down to the hop variety here. Citra is tropical, mango, passion fruit. Cascade is floral and citrusy.

How long did you dry hop for ?

 

[wishingiwasfishing]

I've thought about this for a while...but have never done it. Keep the info coming...I'm going to start my next batch today

 

[telebrewer]

I've done three hopped kombuchas now, all with oolong tea. I should note that these were also my first three batches of kombucha. For all three batches, I removed the scoby and put it in a new batch or stored it with some starter tea, then I simply added the hops in pellet form to my primary fermentation vessel. When I was ready to bottle, I skimmed what hops I could off the top, then bottled the rest through a double layer of cheese cloth.

1) 1 oz mosaic per gallon: overwhelming hop flavor, absolutely undrinkable. I don't think it was the fact that it was mosaic, but the fact that I used so much.

2) 0.5 oz citra per gallon: best kombucha I've made so far. I far preferred this to the hopped kombucha I buy in Portland. Really nice tropical fruit flavor. I only hope I can replicate it, citra is an amazing hop.

3) 0.5 oz cascade per gallon: good but not as good citra. I think it comes down to the hop variety here. Citra is tropical, mango, passion fruit. Cascade is floral and citrusy.

What did you use to carb it in secondary?

 

[ericbw]

Hey guys, I tried searching to see if this had been discussed before, but as you can imagine, searching "hops" on a brewing site pulls up thousands of hits...

Anyway, I recently had a hops flavored kombucha that was fantastic and I was hoping to add hops to my home brews. I don't brew beer so I have limited knowledge of hops but talked to some local brewers and they recommended doing a water boil with the hops and using that water as the base for the kombucha (with tea & sugar). This didn't sound right to me, so I figured I'd post on here to see if anybody could point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

The brewers were on the right track. Make a hop tea with sugar, then add it to the finished kombucha. Bottle or put it in a jar at room temp for 1-2 days, then refrigerate. Should be hoppy and bubbly.

Since you're not a brewer, it's good to know that if you boil hops, you get bitterness. If you just steep them in cooler water for some time like tea, they should be better. Tea is ideally brewed at like 190 degrees or something, so boil the water, wait a minute, then add it to the hops.

I also think you would be better off with whole cones, not pellets. Or you could use plugs if you have a source for that (they seem to have disappeared from the market).

But as people said, hops slow down bacteria, so your booch would be taken over by yeast, getting you alcoholic tea. The bacteria and yeast are symbiotic and assist each other in making kombucha.

 

[rhoadsrage]

This sounds wonderful. I have all the stuff to start growing a scoby and I would love to hop some of it. For non-beer brewers, as someone mentioned above.
boiling hops for 60+ min.=all bitterness
boiling hops for ~10 min. = some bitterness, some aroma, some flavor
boiling hops for 0 min. (add to just boiled water) some aroma, some flavor no bitterness.
dry hopping (in chilled water) =more aroma, some flavor
That is a fast and lose guide but I also find it works well with spices and herbs (in beer), and can't wait to try this with Kombucha.
I think fresh ginger and Columbus hops would be a good combo.

 

[anteater8]

What did you use to carb it in secondary?

I just boiled some organic sugar in a bit of water, let it cool, and stirred it into the booch right before bottling. I shot for 2.6 vol co2 using this calculator http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

It was perfectly carbed in 4 days, although some of them were gushers after being in the fridge for a few weeks. Should have used slightly less sugar or drank them faster.

 

[Robtobfest]

I just boiled some organic sugar in a bit of water, let it cool, and stirred it into the booch right before bottling. I shot for 2.6 vol co2 using this calculator http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

It was perfectly carbed in 4 days, although some of them were gushers after being in the fridge for a few weeks. Should have used slightly less sugar or drank them faster.

I am new to brewing booch as well. I did a mosaic ginger and a citra orange juice for my first batch. The juice and ginger fo carb in the bottle.
First of all I used way too many hops. Id say about a quarter ounce per gallon may be enough.
The Mosaic ginger did not mesh well. The Citra OJ was good and would be awesome with less hops.
I did a straight dry hop with pellets in the secondaries.
Love that this here, let's keep it going and keep bouncing ideas and experiments off each other!
Cheers, Rob.

 

[ericbw]

I am new to brewing booch as well. I did a mosaic ginger and a citra orange juice for my first batch. The juice and ginger fo carb in the bottle.

First of all I used way too many hops. Id say about a quarter ounce per gallon may be enough.

The Mosaic ginger did not mesh well. The Citra OJ was good and would be awesome with less hops.

I did a straight dry hop with pellets in the secondaries.

Love that this here, let's keep it going and keep bouncing ideas and experiments off each other!

Cheers, Rob.

Even a quarter oz per gallon seems high for this. I think the fruity hops like centennial, citra, Amarillo, would be good. Not earthy, spicy, or floral like Willamette or the noble hops.

 

[anteater8]

I am new to brewing booch as well. I did a mosaic ginger and a citra orange juice for my first batch. The juice and ginger fo carb in the bottle.
First of all I used way too many hops. Id say about a quarter ounce per gallon may be enough.
The Mosaic ginger did not mesh well. The Citra OJ was good and would be awesome with less hops.
I did a straight dry hop with pellets in the secondaries.
Love that this here, let's keep it going and keep bouncing ideas and experiments off each other!
Cheers, Rob.

I really like the citra OJ idea. There's a link here about a brewery that did citra kombucha with lemon peel and lemon juice:

http://dcrefined.com/eat-drink/what-happens-when-four-beer-experts-try-hoppy-kombucha

I found for 1 gallon of kombucha, 0.5 oz works really well if you're using just hops. I'd definitely like to try tropical hops with fruit sometime, something like citra, mosaic or galaxy with peach or mango.

 

[anteater8]

Drinking my hops & mango kombucha. 0.5 oz hops (citra/mosaic/galaxy) and one diced mango for 2 days for ~1.5 gal.

Flavor was not great at first, sort of a weird tangy grassy hop flavor. The only other time I got this was when I did 100% mosaic, and it was worse that time so I think I'll avoid that hop.

After 4 days in the fridge though, this batch has turned out to be really great. Hop flavor is really nice, not much mango though. Next time I'd ditch the mosaic and use 2 mangos in stead of one.

 

[ericbw]

It's hard to get mango flavor. When you cut into a ripe mango, it has that pungent, sweet smell, but it doesn't seem to carry over when you ferment it. I tried using unpeeled mango (thinking the aroma is in the skin), but that tasted like squash. I like mango, but maybe I only like it fresh and raw.

 

[charles]

Save the mango till after the fermentation has stopped. Like when you sweeten wine.

 

[anteater8]

It's hard to get mango flavor. When you cut into a ripe mango, it has that pungent, sweet smell, but it doesn't seem to carry over when you ferment it. I tried using unpeeled mango (thinking the aroma is in the skin), but that tasted like squash. I like mango, but maybe I only like it fresh and raw.

Save the mango till after the fermentation has stopped. Like when you sweeten wine.

I wouldn't have wanted to wait any longer into fermentation, I just added the mango for 2 days after it tasted ready to bottle. 1-2 days seems like a good amount of time for dry hops, but I'm thinking longer might be better for mango. I'd also consider trying mango juice as priming sugar in the bottle.

 

[charles]

Can you get a mango extract? It would have the flavor without any sugars in it. I'm currently making a hard tea and added blueberry extract to it. It has a good aroma to it.

 

[charles]

Just looked up flavoring and you can get a mango extract from brewers best. Hope this helps and let us know how it turns out. Cheers

 

[anteater8]

Bottling my next batch this weekend. Probably going to dry hop with 100% Citra and then prime the bottles with mango juice or mango lemonade.

I'm drinking a bottle of hops n' mango (citra/mosaic/galaxy) from my last batch now, and it is one of my favorite kombuchas I've ever had.

Its been tricky keeping all the hop matter out of the bottle even when using a paint straining bag into the bottle. Using whole flowers would do the trick, but I already have a ton of pellets for beer. Things I'm going to do differently this time include using a hop bag to contain the pellets, and cold crashing the booch in the fridge the night before bottling to try to get the hop particles to settle.

 

[anteater8]

Drinking my 5th batch of hopped kombucha now.

For this one I used 50/50 black/green tea and did about ~0.3oz/gal Citra hops for some and ~0.3oz/gal Amarillo hops for the rest (I had two jars going). Then I primed with R.W. Knudsen Mango Nectar, using the sugar content on the nutrition label to work out the same amount of table sugar I'd use (almost the whole bottle for 2.5 gal booch).

This batch is fantastic. Amarillo is a great hop choice, but not quite as good as the almighty Citra. Both add a nice layer of hoppy, tropical fruit but Citra is a bt smoother. The mango juice adds quite a different character than whole mango, not necessarily better or worse. Very happy with both mango n' hop methods, I think I might try citrus zest for my next batch.

 

[coypoo]

I keg my kombucha. After primary is complete in glass I add fruit and KT to the keg and let it combine at room temp for about a week and then pull the fruit and put into the kegerator. I think I'll try to do a non-fruited one with some dry hop for a few days at room temp and see what happens

 

[charles]

Drinking my 5th batch of hopped kombucha now.

For this one I used 50/50 black/green tea and did about ~0.3oz/gal Citra hops for some and ~0.3oz/gal Amarillo hops for the rest (I had two jars going). Then I primed with R.W. Knudsen Mango Nectar, using the sugar content on the nutrition label to work out the same amount of table sugar I'd use (almost the whole bottle for 2.5 gal booch).

This batch is fantastic. Amarillo is a great hop choice, but not quite as good as the almighty Citra. Both add a nice layer of hoppy, tropical fruit but Citra is a bt smoother. The mango juice adds quite a different character than whole mango, not necessarily better or worse. Very happy with both mango n' hop methods, I think I might try citrus zest for my next batch.

If you like citra have you tried simcoe hops? They are very similar to each other. Got some simcoes in a batch of hard tea. And as for your brew do you carbonate it?

 

[anteater8]

If you like citra have you tried simcoe hops? They are very similar to each other. Got some simcoes in a batch of hard tea. And as for your brew do you carbonate it?

I use simcoe all the time in beer, but have yet to use it in kombucha. I'll most likely be trying it out at some point!

For carb, here is my process: I do all my dry hopping in my primary vessel after removing the scoby. Then I scoop the hops out. I boil some table sugar in water, let it cool, add it to my primary vessel for priming, by calculating how much I need for 2.7 vol co2 (1oz/gal). Then I bottle! 4-5 days at room temp and another 4-5 days in the fridge and they are perfect.

For the mango juice one I just posted about, the juice acted as the priming sugar.

 

[charles]

I'm hoping to have similar results from my hard tea for carbing it. I ended up adding the simcoes 15 minutes b4 to and discarded when I put it in the fermentation bucket. It's a 1 gallon glass jar with airlock. I did it this way because the opening is small and I used cones. I used a stabilizer and am going to carb and bottle it by this weekend. I'm thinking of using that mango nectar. How much do I need for 1 gallon batch?

 

[anteater8]

I'm hoping to have similar results from my hard tea for carbing it. I ended up adding the simcoes 15 minutes b4 to and discarded when I put it in the fermentation bucket. It's a 1 gallon glass jar with airlock. I did it this way because the opening is small and I used cones. I used a stabilizer and am going to carb and bottle it by this weekend. I'm thinking of using that mango nectar. How much do I need for 1 gallon batch?

I used an online priming sugar calculator to figure it out how much nectar to I'd need for 2.7 vol co2 by looking at the sugar content on the nutrition label. I can't recall the exact amount for a gallon.... but I primed 2.5 gal of kombucha with almost the entire bottle, there were only a few ounces left over.

You added simcoe 15 min before what? For dry hopping I've found 24 hrs before bottling to be the sweet spot.

 

[charles]

Before flame out. If I use half of the bottle it will be carbonated nicely

 

[anteater8]

Before flame out. If I use half of the bottle it will be carbonated nicely

I haven't tried using any hops in the boil at all, I'm definitely curious to hear how much bitterness you get and how you like it.

Doing some quick napkin math, I would use about 11 to 12 oz of the mango nectar to carb 1 gal.

 

[charles]

From my experience on hoping beers citra and simcoe hops really work well for late additions. The flavor profile is very pronounced. Hope this helps