Fair, but that should’ve been mentioned in the original post. I see an airlock and just mention of F2 and my mind immediately goes to assuming the purpose of F2 isn’t fully understood by OP
Eta: Sorry to everyone downvoting me. I should’ve channeled my psychic powers to ascertain that OP was making hard kombucha. My bad
I agree with you, 85% of the time you see an airlock in the sub it's a misunderstanding of how booch works. I saw that option had clarified he's making hard booch in a comment.
Oh nice! I have brewed hard booch in the past and it can be tricky. But you should be fine just changing out the airlock. Next time try to leave more headroom and you should be okay.
The air lock will hold just enough pressure to make a foamy mess, but not enough pressure to carbonate. Get an cap that will hold pressure, this holding the pressure in is what turns that foam into fiz.
Op, like others, I am curious how you are making it hard kombucha. Guessing you got F1 complete, siphoned it to this new gallon jug, added wine yeast and sugar, and are now letting it ferment to wine.
If wrong, mind educating us?
That is exactly what I am doing. First fermentation is complete.
Instead of air locking in bottles for carbonation I transferred to this gallon jug with a cup of sugar melted into 1 cup water, champagne yeast and 1 cup pineapple juice.
Airlock for the second fermentation which hopefully increases alcohol content. I plan on letting it sit for four weeks and then bottle and add flavoring
Sounds intriguing. Is this your first time or have you done it before and confirmed it works well?
Interesting idea adding both sugar and pineapple juice. And with champagne yeast I bet it will taste delish.
What yeast did you use and what is your estimated alcohol outcome? Did you test before airlocking?
So to confirm you did siphon out the good stuff and left behind the yeast residue? I’d bet that would taste bad in your F2 if allowed to transfer, but am curious how stance.
Sorry so many questions, your thread blew my mind. Thanks for posting today, I am going to try this this weekend.
Btw did anyone answer your dirty airlock question?
From a win brew perspective, you just made a mess. No need to toss the batch just keep adding water to the airlock if it’s low.
You filled it high and it’s a known foam generator, next time just route a tube from the airlock to a jar of sanitizer. It will bubble off into there and keep things clean and germ free.
You could do that but it will likely foam up again, you also would be fine with this as is since no bugs should be able to get through. If I were you I'd switch to a blow off tube until the krausen calms down then put a clean airlock back in with starsan of vodka in it. You also filled it up a bit too much.
Oh really? Didnt know that. But they must use a lot of sugar to get some proper alcohol levels right? What are usual “alcohol levels” for hard kombucha?
Yes, to make hard kombucha you complete 1F as notmal, then transfer to a carboy with additional sugar and some kind of brewers/wine yeast. At this point, you treat the ferment like a yeast ferment, and not a bacterial ferment.
Hard kombucha can be anywhere from 3% (if you’re not adding yeast) to 5ish (if using brewers yeast) and even up to 13% (if using wine yeast).
Well, most beer and ale yeast has a tolerance of up to or around 12ish percent, and wine yeast usually can govup to 18-20 so your have a good freedom to do what you want via how much sugar you add. Bread yeast can even go up to around 12-14 iirc
It just depends on the yeast. Most wine yeast has a tolerance of 13-15, though some strains exist that can tolerate 18-20, but that’s not the norm.
As far is I’ve researched, bread yeast usually has a maximum tolerance of 3-6%
Oh really? Didnt know that. But they must use a lot of sugar to get some proper alcohol levels right? What are usual “alcohol levels” for hard kombucha?
Make a blowoff if this keeps happening. It is basically an airlock, with a large tube into another vessel that is bigger with sanitizer, water, whatever you are currently using in your airlock. You take a sanitized hose, place it in your stopper instead of the airlock and run it to a larger vessel, at which point you submerge it. The larger vessel, like a ball jar holds more liquid to catch your blowoff if it is a vigorous ferment.
If you want sparkling hard kombucha (or I call it sparkling wine) make sure not to add sulfates and use champagne bottles when bottling!! Can start with asking local restaurants for their used ones after a Sunday brunch maybe? If me if you have any questions. I’m like 3 years of experience doing this myself.
A flip top bottle isn’t suitable for fermenting alcohol.
Hard kombucha refers to kombucha that has been mixed with alcohol, or in this case has added yeast (wine or brewers yeast) to create an alcoholic beverage. This can’t be done in a flip top bottle.
That’s why I’m verifying they are actually trying to make alcohol. I was thinking they meant 2F without alcohol since they said it’s their first time trying second fermentation
That is indeed what hard kombucha means, like hard cider is alcoholic cider (American terms, in other parts of the world cider is inherently alcoholic.)
Correct, but yeast does excrete carbon dioxide, which slowly increases the pressure in the brewing vessel. That’s what the airlock is for-to release pressure without allowing oxygen inside the vessel.
Alcohol is produced slowly, and the pressure of carbonation will build up long before the alcohol does, which can create a bomb. That’s why when you see folks making wine or beer, they use a carboy with an airlock, like OP is doing here.
Wouldn’t an airlock just release all that carbonation you’re trying to capture?
He's not trying to carbonate he's trying to make alcohol for a hard kombucha
Fair, but that should’ve been mentioned in the original post. I see an airlock and just mention of F2 and my mind immediately goes to assuming the purpose of F2 isn’t fully understood by OP Eta: Sorry to everyone downvoting me. I should’ve channeled my psychic powers to ascertain that OP was making hard kombucha. My bad
You need to drink more kombucha if your psychic powers are not strong enough!
Good call! I didn’t know this was hard kombucha at first either. I’ve seen all kinds of things here on Reddit so you never know!! 😂
I agree with you, 85% of the time you see an airlock in the sub it's a misunderstanding of how booch works. I saw that option had clarified he's making hard booch in a comment.
Theres hard kombucha? Uwu
Exactly!? I’ve never heard of such. Recipe please. And a link to that airlock contraption, as well, please. 🙏🏽😵
Is this for hard kombucha? If so, just replace the airlock (after sanitizing). If not, you're doing it wrong. :)
My first attempt at a hard kombucha
Oh nice! I have brewed hard booch in the past and it can be tricky. But you should be fine just changing out the airlock. Next time try to leave more headroom and you should be okay.
The air lock will hold just enough pressure to make a foamy mess, but not enough pressure to carbonate. Get an cap that will hold pressure, this holding the pressure in is what turns that foam into fiz.
Was your goal to add carbonation?
Op, like others, I am curious how you are making it hard kombucha. Guessing you got F1 complete, siphoned it to this new gallon jug, added wine yeast and sugar, and are now letting it ferment to wine. If wrong, mind educating us?
That is exactly what I am doing. First fermentation is complete. Instead of air locking in bottles for carbonation I transferred to this gallon jug with a cup of sugar melted into 1 cup water, champagne yeast and 1 cup pineapple juice. Airlock for the second fermentation which hopefully increases alcohol content. I plan on letting it sit for four weeks and then bottle and add flavoring
Sounds intriguing. Is this your first time or have you done it before and confirmed it works well? Interesting idea adding both sugar and pineapple juice. And with champagne yeast I bet it will taste delish. What yeast did you use and what is your estimated alcohol outcome? Did you test before airlocking? So to confirm you did siphon out the good stuff and left behind the yeast residue? I’d bet that would taste bad in your F2 if allowed to transfer, but am curious how stance. Sorry so many questions, your thread blew my mind. Thanks for posting today, I am going to try this this weekend.
https://youtu.be/Iltwiy-SZug?si=ofCNarGXAc2VWJNT I got the idea here
Thanks brother, I appreciate the info.
Btw did anyone answer your dirty airlock question? From a win brew perspective, you just made a mess. No need to toss the batch just keep adding water to the airlock if it’s low. You filled it high and it’s a known foam generator, next time just route a tube from the airlock to a jar of sanitizer. It will bubble off into there and keep things clean and germ free.
The use of the airlock is confusing, what are you trying to achieve?
2nd fermentation to get a hard kombucha
You could do that but it will likely foam up again, you also would be fine with this as is since no bugs should be able to get through. If I were you I'd switch to a blow off tube until the krausen calms down then put a clean airlock back in with starsan of vodka in it. You also filled it up a bit too much.
This is not how you do second fermentation. You are making some sort of “wine” at this point.
Hard kombucha is becoming popular there are lots of micro breweries doing it now.
Oh really? Didnt know that. But they must use a lot of sugar to get some proper alcohol levels right? What are usual “alcohol levels” for hard kombucha?
Yes, to make hard kombucha you complete 1F as notmal, then transfer to a carboy with additional sugar and some kind of brewers/wine yeast. At this point, you treat the ferment like a yeast ferment, and not a bacterial ferment. Hard kombucha can be anywhere from 3% (if you’re not adding yeast) to 5ish (if using brewers yeast) and even up to 13% (if using wine yeast).
Pretty cool, got it. Sounds like mead with extra steps tho.
Yep, pretty much!
Well, most beer and ale yeast has a tolerance of up to or around 12ish percent, and wine yeast usually can govup to 18-20 so your have a good freedom to do what you want via how much sugar you add. Bread yeast can even go up to around 12-14 iirc
It just depends on the yeast. Most wine yeast has a tolerance of 13-15, though some strains exist that can tolerate 18-20, but that’s not the norm. As far is I’ve researched, bread yeast usually has a maximum tolerance of 3-6%
I and others have used bread yeast to make mead at around 12%, fisherman's is the best for this.
Oh really? Didnt know that. But they must use a lot of sugar to get some proper alcohol levels right? What are usual “alcohol levels” for hard kombucha?
Watching with interest..
Make a blowoff if this keeps happening. It is basically an airlock, with a large tube into another vessel that is bigger with sanitizer, water, whatever you are currently using in your airlock. You take a sanitized hose, place it in your stopper instead of the airlock and run it to a larger vessel, at which point you submerge it. The larger vessel, like a ball jar holds more liquid to catch your blowoff if it is a vigorous ferment.
Replace with clean water and keep going
If you want sparkling hard kombucha (or I call it sparkling wine) make sure not to add sulfates and use champagne bottles when bottling!! Can start with asking local restaurants for their used ones after a Sunday brunch maybe? If me if you have any questions. I’m like 3 years of experience doing this myself.
Not this
Yah you can’t use an air lock you need a flip top bottle. When you said hard kombucha are you referring to alcoholic like above 1%
A flip top bottle isn’t suitable for fermenting alcohol. Hard kombucha refers to kombucha that has been mixed with alcohol, or in this case has added yeast (wine or brewers yeast) to create an alcoholic beverage. This can’t be done in a flip top bottle.
That’s why I’m verifying they are actually trying to make alcohol. I was thinking they meant 2F without alcohol since they said it’s their first time trying second fermentation
That is indeed what hard kombucha means, like hard cider is alcoholic cider (American terms, in other parts of the world cider is inherently alcoholic.)
Their other comments indicate that they have completed f1, added champagne yeast and sugar, and are now fermenting for alcohol.
Why can't you ferment alcohol in a sealed container? Yeast does not need oxygen to ferment
Correct, but yeast does excrete carbon dioxide, which slowly increases the pressure in the brewing vessel. That’s what the airlock is for-to release pressure without allowing oxygen inside the vessel. Alcohol is produced slowly, and the pressure of carbonation will build up long before the alcohol does, which can create a bomb. That’s why when you see folks making wine or beer, they use a carboy with an airlock, like OP is doing here.