Satisfy your hop fix– Hangover-free!
Eager to hop on the hops bandwagon, but not wanting to suffer the consequences of drinking beer (which my body has, in not so subtle ways, recently told me to give up), I wanted to see if kombucha could be hopped in a similar way to beer.
I use [amazon_textlink asin=’B01HDY02SA’ text=’whole leaf, dried hops’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’fermeclub-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’a92c870b-4c37-11e8-a12a-1db286cf21ef’] so far and have had great results. Hops is also sold in “nuggets”, whereby the flower is compressed into pellets or nuggets. I have not yet used these, mainly because I like the results from using whole hop flowers.
After a few experiments, I found that the flavors indeed work well together.
You can use many different fruit juices: grapefruit, strawberries or other berries, loquats, etc. I’ve even combined hops into kombucha with a cannabis simple syrup. The terpenes from the hops and the cannabis play very well together!
You can customize the hoppiness to just your liking.
Mild variation. 5-10 hop flowers per quart. Ferment at room temp 3-4 days.
Hazy AF variation. Double the amount of hop flowers (20 flowers per quart of kombucha). After fermenting at room temp 3-4 days, bottle condition another 3 to 5 weeks in the refrigerator. Aromas are dank, lemony, piney. Flavors are bitter, sour, chalky, hoppy.
Check out that haze! (this is the 30 day hopped variation.)
- 1 qt/liter ripe (or slightly sweeter than ripe) kombucha
- MILD: 5-10 whole hops flowers (1 to 2 grams), any variety
- HAZY: 20 hops flowers (4 grams), any variety
- ¼ cup (60ml) grapefruit juice (freshly squeezed, about 1 medium sized grapefruit)
- If fresh squeezing, slice grapefruit in half and juice through a strainer sitting inside a funnel, to catch seeds and pulp, into a swing top or tightly sealable bottle (or add about ¼ cup juice).
- Add hop flowers to bottle.
- Top with kombucha until there is only ½" space from the top of the bottle.
- Ferment at room temperature 2-5 days, (less time in hot weather, longer in cooler weather).
- Carefully let out pressure by slowly uncapping over a sink.
- Refrigerate bottle.
- MILD: Serve chilled. Pour through strainer into glass (to filter out hops petals).
- HAZY: Let sit in refrigerator from 3 to 5 weeks.
- Serve chilled. Pour through strainer into glass (to filter out hops petals).
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