Where I live (California), adult recreational use of cannabis is legal. In a brief stint as brewer for a local cannabis beverage company, I learned how to infuse probiotic beverages with a cannabis simple syrup. The additional sugar in the syrup works well in a secondary fermentation of either kombucha or water kefir.

I found that the secondary fermentation with cannabis syrup happens more slowly than with other sweeteners which I commonly use (fresh squeezed fruit juice, dried or fresh herbs, ginger), so the length of time in secondary fermentation is longer.

The syrup I made used some old trim/shake for which I did not know the THC content, so I had to estimate it. Read more about that.

STEP 1: Make Cannabis Syrup

You will first need to create cannabis-infused simple syrup.

STEP 2: Make Kombucha or Water Kefir

Follow our classic recipe for kombucha or water kefir.

STEP 3: Make Secondary Flavored Cannabis Beverage

The recipe below creates a finished beverage with about 10mg THC per 8 ounce serving.

Initial Experiment

Kombucha (primary fermentation) with cannabis syrup

In order to test whether the fermentation affects THC content, I tried a scientific-ish experiment. I tasted a spoonful of cannabis syrup mixed in with regular kombucha, and then studied the effects. Then I tried an equivalent amount of syrup in the fermented-with-cannabis batch. The effects of the fermented batch were indeed more mellow. So it appears that the fermentation process reduces the THC content at least a little.

The effects of the cannabis when it’s been fermented in with the kombucha are noticeably more subtle than when consuming the syrup without fermentation. The finished kombucha has a really nice aroma (subtle terpenes), and is quite tasty. Many testers report that they couldn’t detect any flavor of cannabis. I’ll keep working on the recipe. Most would therefore argue that it’s not a good technique because it is loses potency during fermentation. That could well be true. I still enjoy drinking the kombucha and its light effects. I will continue the experimentation again using more and stronger syrup.

Always store scobys used in this recipe separately from other “non-cannabis” scobys. Best is to store them in their own jar (always at room temperature– never in the refrigerator!) in a little of the reserved liquid from the last batch you make. Keep a cloth lid on top of the jar to keep out flies and allow the scoby to continue to breathe. It doesn’t need much liquid to hang out– just enough to keep it submerged.

References:

1. Meet the Cannabis Kombucha Guru, herb.co. Accessed Mar. 20, 2018
2. Cooking with Cannabis: Delicious Recipes for Edibles and Everyday Favorites. Wolf, Laurie.
3. How to Calculate Edible Potency, keytocannabis.com. Accessed Mar. 12, 2018.
4. How to calculate THC dosage in recipes for marijuana edibles, thecannabist.co. Accessed Mar. 12, 2018.
5. Dosing Homemade Cannabis, Cooking with Cannabis, Part 4. Leafly.com