Pressed juice instead of sugar for first fermentation?

[sovietchild]

In this video GT Kombucha puts pressed juice instead of sugar into first fermentation. Has anyone done this before? Does it work better than sugar?

 

[rushpapers]

Sugar is produced with consistency.
Fruit varies in sweetness depending on season, source, ripeness, etc.
If you want consistent results and a repeatable process, fruit juice might be difficult.
Jun has the same drawback.

 

[Garrett Allen]

In this video GT Kombucha puts pressed juice instead of sugar into first fermentation. Has anyone done this before? Does it work better than sugar?

You can certainly use fruit juice. I don't know that it's necessarily going to be "better" than sugar, but it can create more depth of flavor and a more interesting beverage all around.

For inconsistencies in fruit sugar concentrations and unknowns, you can (if you want, I personally like the idea of using fresh fruits even with inconsistent or unknown sugar concentrations) use Oregon Fruit Products aseptic puree that will give you sugar amounts. We've had good success using them on a professional brewing (beer) scale.

If you want to use fruit juice that you press yourself, measure the density of the resulting juice with a hydrometer or refractometer. The extract is going to be mostly sugar, so you can estimate your sugar content that way so you know roughly how much sugar you're putting into your recipe. Hope this helps!

 

[rushpapers]

Bottom line, adding juice from the start is more expensive, extra steps, and added equipment, such as refrigerator space to store the juice. I'd rather experiment with different sugars like brown sugar, Turbinado sugar, Demerara ETC, and most importantly, different teas, tea steep times, ETC, during fermentation, than using juice for flavor. To add depth you can mix your booch and juice in your brite tank, bring it down to 36 Fahrenheit, carbonate, and let it sit. The longer it sits, the deeper the flavors get, up to a point of diminished returns.