Brewing Kombucha with Honey?

[@karlmenard4505]

I’ve been using raw honey in my first ferment for over 2 years and never had a problem. I have two kinds of mothers. Ones that’s a traditional one (sugar & black tea) and my preferred one Jun (raw honey and green tea). In my experience people prefer the Jun.

[@saab-xq8lc]

imo jun tastes weird

[@PolkafacePanDuh]

could you tell us why you prefprefer Jun? just curious if it's the flavor or maybe you find it 2nd ferments better 😊 I'm super curious!

[@pdp11]

Same, I only use raw honey+green tea.

[@karlmenard4505]

@@PolkafacePanDuh it has a less vinegary taste to it. You have more control over the added flavours of the F2. And in my opinion honey is better for you then cane sugar.

[@PhikanetGaze]

@@karlmenard4505 That doesn't make much sense. Honey contains more fructose than cane sugar which contains more glucose, so honey is objectively worse for you than sugar from a perspective of raising blood sugar, releasing insulin, and contributing to a non-alcoholic fatty liver, also scientifically the honey with the more fructose content will undergo more of the pathway that creates acetic acid the primary component of vinegar. The higher fructose in honey means Jun has more acetic acid than Kombucha and is chemically more vinegary than using sugar. Maybe people don't know what vinegar tastes like and they confuse it with the tart taste of kombucha. Your opinion that honey is better for you than sugar is not an opinion, it's a falsehood... one that is both wrong and incorrect, because it doesn't matter if you used honey or sugar in your brewing, the final product shouldn't have either as you're not the one consuming it, the bacteria is. If there is still honey or sugar leftover in your brew when you drink it, then you didn't finish brewing it. Despite being made with sugar, true kombucha should have zero sugar in the final product, if not, then it's not a healthy drink and you should have let it brew longer.

[@sewathome]

I fermented garlic in honey. And it was a high TA honey, so extra anti-microbial. It bubbled heaps so the good bacteria loved it I guess.

[@clarasanday8096]

I use a Scobie that was converted by a friend. I added more honey then recommended, n the Scobie was so healthy after 8 days. Thank you for sharing.

[@kathleenschlecht3371]

My best Kombucha SCOBY that I made into a JUN. I used Manuka Honey from New Zealand highest grades. ♥️💗♥️ Katy

[@SimonLeslieTan]

Honey's anti-bacterial property is an issue only if the honey is UNDILUTED. When used with black tea it is actually a good sugar substitute.

[@kj-marslander]

How many batches did you try with honey? Jun doesn't count.

[@dougstucki8253]

It's more likely that the hot tea is eliminating those qualities in honey. Over about 110 F, honey is no longer considered raw and loses those properties.

[@lindachandler2293]

I so very much agree first time kombucha makers should follow good guidelines, but once you get into a familiar pattern you could make in your sleep, then start playing and have fun with flavors. Some things might not carry on strongly, indefinitely without a healthly dose of a refresher dose of my original kombucha.

[@White000Crow]

Great! Now I’m wondering about using barley syrup for a sweetener.

[@ALCRAN2010]

I wasn't ready for that sound effects at the end. Now I need a kombucha drink!

[@marladeklotz6613]

Recently found your website and love all the resources you've put together! I would assume the fact that honey is all fructose is also important. Many of the microbes in a sucrose-fed scoby probably prefer the glucose part of the sugar and can't use fructose as a food source.

[@ayishas4385]

Honey actually isn't all fructose; most honeys have a roughly equal amount of fructose and glucose, but some honeys are higher in glucose, while others are higher in fructose. For instance, from a 2016 study that was experimenting with honey's effect on glycemic index, they used four different sorts of honey. " Fructose-to-glucose ratios were 1.09, 1.12, 1.03, 1.54, for clover, buckwheat, cotton, and tupelo, respectively". In other words, clover honey had almost an equal amount, whereas the tupelo honey had almost twice as much fructose as glucose. Sucrose, or white table sugar, also has an equal amount of fructose and glucose, which makes it very similar to clover honey, ratio-wise, though it lacks all the extra nutrients & water that honey has. Fructose/glucose ratios depend largely on the time of year the honey was made, and what flowers the bees were foraging for the honey.

[@athena03000]

I’m currently in the process of trying to convert a kombucha scoby mat to accept honey (so far so good). Personally, I’m not crazy about the taste of honey in tea (weird, I know), but I’m curious if it will have a faster first ferment time and if the carbonation will be as good as my “normal” kombucha in the second fermentation. We’ll see. Thank you for sharing this video.

[@klimtkahlo]

My mother does not like honey and I always wonder if she may be allergic. Not sure if one can be allergic to honey… so not that weird. 😊

[@Erica-yr3gf]

Awesome video. Thank you. ❤❤❤

[@Ftybr57]

Spot on!

[@lorentzinvariant7348]

I am new to kombucha brewing so here is a really weird one. Has anyone tried maple syrup? Absolutely love your channel btw.

[@Soundsaboutright42]

Might actually try it just to see what happens

[@elizabethhappiestwhengarde2938]

When making a traditional kombucha, can you use a combination of black and green teas?

[@joejeczen4617]

The controversy of how much sugar in 1st ferment is what needs to be explored, GTs always tastes way sweeter than a homemade batch that uses 1cup/ gallon. I'm experimenting w using 1.5 cup per gallon, results are coming soon. Also w the larger amount of sugar combined w longer first ferments the combination of flavor profile can be varied too, not sure how this can be broken down, but it makes for good topic

[@montanaman3911]

I think you'll find that the more sugar you add, the longer the fermentation will take. I use the standard 1cup of sugar in a 1Gal jar of strong tea consisting of 7 tea bags, and then add 16oz kombucha starter. Then I place it on top of a hand towel and wrap a couple more hand towels around it to shield it from the sunlight. I first sample the kombucha after 13 days, but most of the time it takes a day or two longer to reach the taste I prefer. I perform a second brew of three stages with fruit juice, and using the formula of 32oz juice (that contains 33grams of sugar) with 1cup of sugar. I've had to adjust my brewing time in a warm room according to how much juice I add. This is how I know that the more sugar you add the longer it will take for the yeast to complete the brewing process.

[@Drewjober]

I wonder scobes that are “ok”with honey is honey that has been heated or old enough to kill the yeast and live enzymes leaving the honey as just “sugar”

[@philjore2253]

Fyi: Plain white sugar is "beet" sugar, not "cane" sugar. I live by a Holly sugar plant & the sugar beet farms.

[@GeorgeVT_wrld6]

Hello! Can I use FRUCTOSE in first fermentation? Thank You

[@oanarusuungureanu1309]

I use honey and herbal tea. Never black or green tea. This culture will fed on any kind of sugars...some people make things way more complicate than it shoud be. God bless us all!

[@canalroadadventures5079]

How about brewing with inulin instead of honey or sugar, which would be ketoKombucha?

[@saab-xq8lc]

it should work.. i just found a reddit thread where two people said it worked for them and one even included a picture.

[@drapoler]

Ketombucha

[@PhikanetGaze]

If you're worried about sugar, and you should be, don't worry. It's no problem to use sugar during first fermentation to brew your kombucha. The sugar is not for you to eat, it's for the bacteria to eat, you just need to wait long enough for the bacteria to eat all that sugar. I don't consume carbs, and I always brew mine that way. About three weeks at 75F is about right for all the sugar to be consumed for the gallon, and if you're off by much it won't matter, cause you're not going to drink the entire gallon in one sitting. After the three weeks, I do a secondary fermentation with some berries and 1tsp of inulin per liter jar. The kombucha definitely prefers sugar as it's food, but sealing an unrefrigerated jar of it with some inulin in there for about 4 days without burping then chilling in the fridge for a day will result in a very nice carbonation level that's not overpowered and any leftover inulin will be mixed into the beverage as a nice prebiotic to ingest with all those probiotics. But don't worry about the sugar, by the time you're drinking it all the sugar should be gone. The benefit of this is not only a no sugar end-product, but letting the first fermentation go the appropriate amount of time instead of cutting it short like everyone on youtube does, is you get a ton more probiotics in your beverage, and isn't that the whole point?

[@canalroadadventures5079]

@@PhikanetGaze I've fermented for 30 days, but the BRIX never dropped below 4-5%.

[@PhikanetGaze]

@@canalroadadventures5079 BRIX is not an accurate measurement for the sugar content in Kombucha... Unfortunately neither is pH. There is no at home tool to get an accurate reading of the sugar content. However, if you control your variables, keep temperature during and between brews consistent, and start each brew with consistent starters, then you can know. For my brews, about three weeks for the first fermentation is about right. I also tried BRIX and pH, but ultimately I just know by my weight. I can tell if I've eaten any sugar by my weight, because I don't eat any carbs for years, and don't eat every day, and I exercise every day, and I always measure my weight every day after waking. Carbo-"hydrates" bind with water, which significantly increases body weight... so basically if I didn't eat for several days and weigh myself each day I shouldn't lose more than 1lb of fat each day because 1lb of fat is 3500 calories and it's hard to burn more calories than that in a day... then if I consume only kombucha and weight myself the next day, my weight will increase significantly, by 4lb or 5lb in a single day if the kombucha contained sugar. I find it needs to go about three weeks on fermentation before my weight wouldn't increase from drinking it... that's a very good indication that there is no residual sugar remaining. If you do fasting and keto and you eat anything with sugar, you will rapidly gain water weight... over the course of three days eating sugar for a 200lb person you'd gain about 15lbs of water weight.

[@perqva]

Tack!

[@kaylynnosburn4305]

Hello! Do you know if I can use fructose in a juice concentrate in my first fermentation?

[@dorisdunn9845]

How much honey do you add in second ferment?

[@mehsttm]

I got my scoby from a friend and she warned me to do lots of research before attempting anything with honey because she had a horrid time using it

[@normalizedaudio2481]

She is so strict about cane sugar. I'm scared to try anything else in 1st process.

[@shaunrollo1991]

I've used regular white sugar. I've gotten decent results. I'd say, use what works best for you

[@shaunnewberry1492]

A quick search and I found that honey doesn't kill good bacteria it's bad bacteria if scoby is good beneficial bacteria honey should be great for it But don't quote me on it I need to do more research but I'm gonna try honey ,,honey doesn't go bad On the shelf

[@SH-jy6lc]

Oh no! The company I oredered my kombucha scoby sent me a bag with the pellecle and the kombucha containing honey!!!

[@Edwin-nl3qu]

I'm still scratching the surface of this stuff but based on first principles, its should be fine.. Organisms at these microscopic scales whether if its a virus, yeast or bacteria adapt and evolve at crazy speeds. The only concern should be in destroying the symbiosis of the culture so it should be done slowly and carefully. Also about the Honeys anti-microbial properties, when diluted in water the effects are greatly stunted (ph, hydrogen peroxide, osmosis). The remaining mild effect is on balance a good thing, it will kill off bad bacteria and stimulate hormesis.

[@bonsang1073]

Jun

[@carolmlaw8347]

I am new making my first fermentation. Got kombucha tea which was made over 6 months ago. The scoby is very thick and I wonder if I can still use it for my first kombucha. Do I need to cut the thick scoby first. Thanks for your advice.

[@AA-gw6wd]

You might have done the experimentation before making a video about it. 🤣 But we still love you anyway!

[@YouBrewKombucha]

I get so many questions about this that I figured I'd just share the info I have so far until I do have more information. Aiming for progress over perfection here.

[@babydii3487]

I done watch many of her videos... She be lying and deliberately withholding information

[@HellGod67]

Funny when an asian descent person doesn't know that green and black tea are made from the same camelia sinensis plant.