Boozy Booch Baby!

Alright people.  As many of you may have heard, GT's Kombucha has recently been unfairly pulled from many shelves.  This is due to alleged claims of the alcohol levels exceeding 0.5%.  The amount that is being insinuated is still not enough to create any alcoholic effect.  Kombucha does not get alcoholic enough to create intoxication.  NessAlla Kombucha was also recently pulled from the shelf for 2 days because we are the only other Kombucha on the shelf and were put into the same category as GT's.  The biggest difference between us and GT's is that we DON'T ADD JUICE and we are LOCAL.  We are right next door and our kombucha is super FRESH.

Kombucha always has trace amounts of alcohol as does everything else that is fermented.  As we have said before, fresh squeezed orange juice often has more alcohol than fresh kombucha. 

Increased levels of alcohol in kombucha are produced when more than the measured amounts of sugar are used.  In kombucha brewing there is yeast that eats the sugar creating the carbonation.  If there is too much sugar, you get a higher alcohol content that is still very low.

*The yeasts in the Kombucha SCOBY are primarily of the Saccharomycodes ludwigii, s. apiculatus, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Zygosaccharomyes, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This combination of bacteria and yeasts work in an oxygen environment. What is referred to here as an aerobic fermentation. Over-simplified the yeasts cleave the sugar into glucose and fructose. The yeasts produce alcohol from the glucose which the bacteria than convert to  acetic acid. Both the yeast and the bacteria compete for the glucose which the bacteria convert to gluconic acid. In the typical kombucha ferment (9 days at 80F/26C) very little alcohol remains (less than 1/2 of 1%). The Kombucha Tea has gone from really sweet to a pleasant semi-sweet state.

*If your desire is to create a higher alcohol content a la Kombucha Wine add additional sugar (glucose or dextrose) just prior to the air lock or balloon or fruit syrups for flavoring to increase the alcohol potential. Some more sweetness to the brew as all the sugar will not be utilized by the yeasts will also be likely. Adding fructose at this point will mainly increase the sweetness without adding additional fermentation or potential alcohol.

Adding Champaign yeasts that  produce higher levels of alcohol is another option. You can choose the yeasts for many reasons besides alcohol production, potential produce 5-12% alcohol. There's taste a factor as well in the selection of additional yeasts.

In other words, you have to work really hard to make your kombucha alcoholic. 

We hope that this clears the air for any one concerned with this issue.  Currently we are the only kombucha available in many places.....so drink up!

Nazdarovya!!!!

*info taken from the Happyherbalist.com