Owly055
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- Feb 28, 2014
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One of my more successful kombucha variants, and I've made many, was a fermented wort added to or combined with kombucha. The first version involved fermenting an unhopped wort next to a gallon of kombucha...... continuous brew. Every 4 days, I would take 1L out of the kombucha jar, and replace it with 1L of fermenting wort. Needless to say it was a "sacrifice gallon", not my main brew. The product changed with each addition of course, and at the end when I had all the "beer" combined in, I let it go for a week, and bottled it all. It was quite good..... different and interesting.
More recently, I have been using a ginger syrup made with dry DME, into which I pitched USA-5 and fermented out. I add at least 1/4 cup to each liter of kombucha as a sort of "bottling syrup". Needless to say there is virtually no residual sugar in it, so the actual bottling sugar is the residual in the booch. It is delicious, with a distinctly rich malty flavor.
I carb in the bottles for a considerable amount of time....... 5-7 days, and I use a safety to prevent over carbonation / bottle bombs.
Mashing Today.............. I was out of Dark DME, so I'm mashing a pound of two row, half a pound of Crystal 60, and 1/4 pound of Melanoidin in half a gallon of water..... though it's pointless to mash crystal 60. Using BIAB methodology with a jelly strainer bag, mashing at about 150. I will then boil it down by at least 50%, toss in 2 cups of fresh grated ginger during the latter part of the boil, and perhaps a few hops at flame out. I may add some table sugar to provide fermentables, and toss in some USA-05. That half gallon of wort should ferment out to about 6-7%. I will then add it to my booch when I bottle, probably at a rate of 1/2 to one cup per liter 12.5% to 25% roughly. The result should be interesting.
I wonder if anybody else has mashed for a half gallon brew ........ I had more grain than I need for my next brew, so why not?
H.W.
More recently, I have been using a ginger syrup made with dry DME, into which I pitched USA-5 and fermented out. I add at least 1/4 cup to each liter of kombucha as a sort of "bottling syrup". Needless to say there is virtually no residual sugar in it, so the actual bottling sugar is the residual in the booch. It is delicious, with a distinctly rich malty flavor.
I carb in the bottles for a considerable amount of time....... 5-7 days, and I use a safety to prevent over carbonation / bottle bombs.
Mashing Today.............. I was out of Dark DME, so I'm mashing a pound of two row, half a pound of Crystal 60, and 1/4 pound of Melanoidin in half a gallon of water..... though it's pointless to mash crystal 60. Using BIAB methodology with a jelly strainer bag, mashing at about 150. I will then boil it down by at least 50%, toss in 2 cups of fresh grated ginger during the latter part of the boil, and perhaps a few hops at flame out. I may add some table sugar to provide fermentables, and toss in some USA-05. That half gallon of wort should ferment out to about 6-7%. I will then add it to my booch when I bottle, probably at a rate of 1/2 to one cup per liter 12.5% to 25% roughly. The result should be interesting.
I wonder if anybody else has mashed for a half gallon brew ........ I had more grain than I need for my next brew, so why not?
H.W.
