Brix sugar measurement - kombucha

If you have the recipe including exact amounts and exact volumes of all ingredients used, you could maybe come up with a rough estimate based on that. If not... no not possible as far as I can tell.

 

A good question is, why do they want to know?

 

Kombucha is commonly 0.5-1.0% ABV. I used to take mine to work until it was determined that kombucha was strictly forbidden based on its slight alcohol content. Nuclear power thang.

 

Right, but since some of the alcohol is then converted in acetic acid, gravity readings aren't necessarily a good way to measure ABV. I was thinking it was more of a calorie/residual sugar thing.

 

Yeah, if sugar is all you want to know then Brix is your answer.

You have 5% sugar, or more accurately 5% dissolved solids in your bev. Brix scale is good for knowing the dissolved sugar content and is usually needed to determine the sugar content prior to fermentation. Brix is used by Coke and Pepsi and anyone who wants to set up a soda fountain for example. Brix is good for wine makers who want to determine the grapes sugar content anytime before harvest. All sorts of industrial food processors need to know how much Strawberry puree to add to their Pop Tart making machine for example, since Strawberry puree will vary from rail car to rail car.

If you have a commercial bottle of Kambooch the best and easy way to determine sugar content is to look at the label, because it will tell you right there in black and white.

Brix is limited value for brewers because the OG/FG methods tells us what we need more accurately. There are all sorts of conversions that can be applied if you want to jump through hoops. Determining ABV in Kambooch is going to require some additional data since not all the sugar that is fermented turns into alcohol, so the FG reading includes alcohol and anything else less dense than water.

If all you need to know is sugar content Brix is the lingua franca.
Cheers

 

Yes...but in an already fermented beverage, brix doesn't actually tell you how much sugar is present, because the alcohol skews the hydrometer measurement (downward).