Kombucha flavoring

[devon972]

I am considering flavoring my Kombucha with strawberries + balsamic vinegar. However I am not sure if anything in the vinegar will aggravate the culture. Has anyone tried this yet??

 

[runningweird]

I love kombucha, and your combination sounds good but I wouldn't add anything to the fermenting jar. Those flavors will not be there too much after fermentation and i think the vinegar might offset your culture.

Your best bet is to add them after transferring out of your primary. add some in the bottles.

Try here for a source for flavorings without worrying about the gooey strawberry leftovers.
http://www.naturesflavors.com/

 

[frailn]

My wife brews kombucha and she has tried adding blueberries and mangos when she bottles in grolsch swing-tops. sometimes she will add a little fruit juice instead of whole fruit. We have tried pomegranate and blueberry/cranberry combos on the juices. They turn out great!

When you add fruit at bottling it will carb up. We have not gotten this down to an exact science regarding C02 volumes. I have been concerned for bottle bombs because her bottled kombucha is heavily carbed after a week sitting at room temp. Thus, I suggested she use the swingtop bottles, I hear they are stronger than regular beer bottles.

 

[flowerysong]

Vinegar won't be a problem, but flavouring after the fact is probably still the way to go.

 

[MakeshiftBrew]

When you add fruit at bottling it will carb up. We have not gotten this down to an exact science regarding C02 volumes.

Get a hydrometer or refractometer to measure the SG or Brix of your fruit juice, and factor in the dilution when you add it to your Kombucha. 1 Brix is 1g of sucrose in 100g of liquid, you should then be able to use a carbonation tool (free online) to figure out the rest. Just a little backwards calculating.

 

[Varming]

In my last batch I added apple vinegar as (or instead of) the starter fluid and it's working really well - actually a lot better than the kombucha that came with the scoby. So apple vinegar doesn't harm the scoby for sure