Kombucha second fermenting

[Kombuchajames]

Hello, new here. Not so new to kombucha. I now have six one gallon jars of very healthy mother cultures. They have been in hotel state for some time. I am planning to discard a majority of them, keeping one gallon as a hotel and five for brewing.

I was just using tapwater with one cup of sugar per gallon of water. Roughly 60/40 green to black tea. Nothing special.

About second fermenting. Before the kombucha is normally 'ripe' or ready, by the guess of a day or two I would bottle with a measured amount of desired fruit juices and let sit at brewing temp for an additional two to four days?

Also, any recipies for kevita/master brew pineapple peach?

I was wanting to attempt some essential oils such as lilac and lavender. Any and all pointers here would be great.

Finally, any recommendations for what to do with my excess of mother cultures? They are so over grown now, it is basically one giant culture in a gallon jar. Am going to figure a way for cutting it up and redistributing.

The hotel juice is roughly four months old.. planning on retaining only a single cup with very large mothers and allowing a few additional days to start over again.

Thank you,
'BoochJames

 

[KombuchaJim]

I think most people just throw them away. If you really want to do something with them here are multiple ideas I ran into in my research....so people even make candy out of them!!!!

https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/kombucha/uses-extra-kombucha-scobys/

 

[Kombuchajames]

I threw about thirty outside yesterday.

Any tips or pointers for second fermenting? Mostly combinations of flavor

 

[stpug]

I've found the sweet spot for me and what I like to be 2.5 oz of 24brix of "priming solution" per 16oz bottle. This produces a fairly carbonated finished product if allowed to fully carbonate at room temp. I generally make up a concentrated fruit syrup with whatever fruit, herbs, additions I have on hand or ripe in the garden. How you make the syrup is up to you. I use fruit and a little water and bring to pasteurization temps on the stove (170F-ish), then squeeze and strain to get my juice out of it. I'll then top up to the needed volume to fill my amount of bottles, and backsweeten with raw sugar to get 24Brix. Then I'll put 2.5oz in each bottle before filling with booch. If you plan on including candied fruit in the bottles then drop the priming solution down to 22brix or there abouts. After filling the bottles I'll leave them on the counter for 6-8 days; 7 typically.

Spices and herbs I include in the pasteruzation step on the stove to help extract their essence. Candied fruit goes straight in the bottles in pieces small enough to dump out when I've finished drinking the bottle.

I've never used essential oils but I subscribe to "less is more" with concentrates like this, so I would start small and increase batch-by-batch until you find the level you like. I would put the oils in the cooling priming solution so as not to volatilize too much of their essence. I've used lavender direct from the garden and that works very well, and is plenty forgiving. I've found the need to use quite a bit more fresh lavender than I would think I needed; it took a few times before I found the level I needed.

Extra cultures: I toss 'em. I figure I'll grow more as time goes on.

For big fruit flavors from lightly-flavored fruits (pineapple-peach) you probably want to do a proper second ferment, which would entail fermenting your booch normally to a young ripe level. Then put your booch on a large amount of the fruit in a secondary container and give it another 3-5 days to referment on the juice. Then prime and bottle with the method I mentioned above - perhaps with just a plain sugar priming solution so as not to muddle the fruit flavors. I've not done this secondary-on-fruit step but is something I've read about and wanted to try. Please report back if you try.

Edit:
I've found that my booch would get too sour with 1cup of sugar per gallon, so I've reduced to 1cup of sugar per 1.5 gallons. This gets things to about the levels you typically buy in a grocery store, and is fairly forgiving in terms of brew time.

 

[KombuchaJim]

When I am in a hurry, I buy organic pure fruit juice (pomegranate, cranberry, or mixed berry and use about 1 oz to flavor a 20 oz growler of kombucha. I tried adding some ginger but haven't found the right ratio yet.

Jim

 

[Kombuchajames]

I was thinking roughly one to one and half ounce of pineapple juice with a candied ginger slice for a 16ounce bottle.

Or, one to two drops of lavender oil plus an ounce to once and half of melon juice.

I like the kevita master brew pretty well. GT's has the market on fizz no doubt.. I have easily purchased at least two hundred, maybe closer to three hundred GT bottles..

Just trying to get back into the swing.

I have never heard of using alcohol content (brix) for kombucha.. Will try some things and make comments.

 

[stpug]

Brix is a "sugar by mass" (percentage) content measurement. So 2.5oz of 24Brix solution would be saying to use 2.5oz of a sugar solution that is 24% sugar (by mass). You could extrapolate as needed (i.e. 1.25oz of 48brix, or 5oz of 12brix, etc).

 

[Kombuchajames]

How do i measure brix?

 

[stpug]

Refractometer is the easy way (with just a couple drops), but a triple-scale hydrometer also measures Brix (it just requires ~4oz).

 

[ericbw]

I use about 1 oz of fruit juice in a 12 oz bottle. But the juice I use most (Aldi Superfruit 7) seems kind of concentrated. I've also added just a few strawberries to larger batches. I'm not very scientific about the secondary fermentation!

Do you know anyone that wants to make booch? Pass the extra mother and some juice along to them.

 

[jimmyjusa]

Just started brewing my own, using 100% juice concentrates from the freezer to test out flavors. Reusing store bottles I pour right to the bottom of the label