Survey of Brix and TA in Kombucha
The goal of this study was to determine the possible ranges of TA values in kombucha, and see if we could apply either gravity units or °Brix as normalization factors. We received 53 samples from a total of >30 kombucha brewers. Each sample was analyzed for TA, specific gravity, and °Brix. The work resulted in the data compiled below in addition to the development of two operators, TA/GU and TA/°Brix, to normalize acidity values with approximated sugars. The utility of TA/GU and TA/°Brix were validated at KombuchaKon 2019 via a sensory study that provided evidence that the ratios correlate well with overall perceived sourness and sweetness. The application of these two sour/sweet numerical operators can be used by producers to help dial-in sourness and sweetness between batches.