Hi folks. I’ve been doing some experiments with hops and water kefir - basically making a naturally carbonated hop water - and was wondering if it could get skunked or oxidized or if those processes require malt and/or boiling. My process is to simply add some hops to the mixture of water kefir grains and sugar water in a clear glass container, leave for a day at room temp to ferment, then transfer un-gently to a clear plastic bottle, seal, leave for a day or two to carbonate, then refrigerate and drink. I haven’t noticed any off-flavours but am curious about the science.
It can definitely get oxidized. This is what happens to old hops when they start getting “cheezy” of “skunky”.
The Wood Bros Brewery here in Alexandria was using lupulin powder to increase the hops and haziness of their IPA and when they didn’t seal up the packages properly, the beers got pretty soapy, cheezy.
Denis
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