Bottling Kombucha

The lack of definitive bottling information worries me. With beer, I never worry about bottle bombs because everything is calculated out, I know how much sugar is in the beer, etc.

With Kombucha, it seems all of the bottling info says something like, "Bottle it, leave it out for a couple days, then refrigerate it so it doesn't explode."

Is there any more definitive, scientific info on bottling Kombucha, so I don't have to worry about bottle bombs? I'm having a hell of a time finding any solid info.

Thanks!

I have't had any problems with bottle bombs. I just leave the bottles out for a couple days for the secondary fermentation. The only explosion that I have had is when I used wine bottles with used corks -- then I ended up with kombucha on the ceiling -- after two days it just blew the corks off, no broken glass or anything. Messy though . . .

good luck!
SCOBYfiend

scobyfiend said:

I have't had any problems with bottle bombs. I just leave the bottles out for a couple days for the secondary fermentation. The only explosion that I have had is when I used wine bottles with used corks -- then I ended up with kombucha on the ceiling -- after two days it just blew the corks off, no broken glass or anything. Messy though . . .

good luck!
SCOBYfiend

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Thanks for the info. Yeah, I only left my "test bottle" out for 2 days, then fridged it. I tried it today and it had no carb whatsoever, so I guess I need to do it longer.

I'm also on the hunt for more exacting methods of brewing Kombucha. After having the rules of beer brewing drilled in over time, the general casualness is starting to wear on my OCD side

mikemates said:

I'm also on the hunt for more exacting methods of brewing Kombucha. After having the rules of beer brewing drilled in over time, the general casualness is starting to wear on my OCD side

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The closest thing to actual "science" I've heard for this is testing it with PH strips and waiting till it reaches "3." I've also read about some people using the hydrometer on it, but I haven't quite figured out the range you'd be looking for with Kombucha, or how well that works.

Please post back if you find any new info out.

onipar said:

Thanks for the info. Yeah, I only left my "test bottle" out for 2 days, then fridged it. I tried it today and it had no carb whatsoever, so I guess I need to do it longer.

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Did you flavor your kombucha with something for the second fermentation? I have found if what I flavor it with has very little sugar, the carb is much less. In addition, if your brew is less vinegary, you will have less carb.

Hope this helps,
SCOBYfiend

scobyfiend said:

Did you flavor your kombucha with something for the second fermentation? I have found if what I flavor it with has very little sugar, the carb is much less. In addition, if your brew is less vinegary, you will have less carb.

Hope this helps,
SCOBYfiend

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Really? I would have thought it was the other way around (the less vinegary the *more* carb, because less vinegar means more sugar). Interesting that it'd be the other way around.

I did bottle it with a few whole blueberries that I crushed slightly with my fingers. So you're saying hat would actually cause there to be less carb?

My next batch will be a whole gallon; I'm hoping it works out better than my starter batch did.

I have heard a hundred different opinions on what creates more or less carb...looking for some definitive information, also, so if you all discover anything, please post it. I'm in the process of growing a scoby from a bottle of GT's, so I haven't yet had the chance to do much. My husband is usually the brewer in the house, and he keeps asking me questions about kombucha brewing to which I have no real answers.

Chaucer said:

I have heard a hundred different opinions on what creates more or less carb...looking for some definitive information, also, so if you all discover anything, please post it. I'm in the process of growing a scoby from a bottle of GT's, so I haven't yet had the chance to do much. My husband is usually the brewer in the house, and he keeps asking me questions about kombucha brewing to which I have no real answers.

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Well, I'm still very new at this, but here's what I've done/found.

My first bottle ever, I added some blueberries and left out for 2 days, then refrigerated. There was NO carbonation. I relate this to the short time I left it out. It was in a glass bottle, and I was afraid it would explode.

My first full gallon batch I bottled in PET plastic beer bottles I had on hand from an old beer kit. In these I added something different to each bottle: Ginger and lime juice, blueberries, cherries, and cherry berry juice (100% natural).

These I left out for four days, testing each day by squeezing the bottles. On the fourth day they all were pretty hard, with only a tiny bit of "give." I probably could have left them another day, maybe even longer, but I stuck them in the fridge at that point.

Yesterday I tried the bottle with cherry berry juice, and it was PERFECT. It had a very nice "smooth" effervescence to it, and the flavor of the juice was subtle and tasty.

The amount of days you should leave it out will vary, depending on what additions you use (if any), the amount of residual sugar in your Kombucha, and the temperature in the house.

Since there are so many variables, I'm always going to bottle at least one bottle in plastic, so I can test it by squeezing. This way I won't have to worry about exploding bottles.

One last note: each of the different flavorings definitely carbed at different rates. For instance, the bottle with cherries got hardest the quickest, and the one with ginger and lime took the longest. But they were fairly similar (enough so that I stuck them all in the fridge at the same time).

I will say though that the ones that would have had more added sugar seemed to carb more, which is what I would expect.

Cheers!

Thanks for the info! I'm going to try to keep detailed logs and take pH readings, brix, etc., and try to pin down a few things on which the community seems to disagree. I might cave and buy a scoby, but until then it's just planning and plotting - and impatiently checking the culture.

onipar, you didn't mention the size of your beer bottles nor the amount of juices and berries you added. Just to give you another data point, I start my secondary (anaerobic) ferment in 1-liter glass swing-top bottles. I generally add a 100% cranberry, mixed-berry, or pomegranate juice and have tried 2oz to 4oz per liter - or 60 ml to 120ml per liter to use consistent units. I also think of that as somewhere between 1:8 or 1:16 ratio of juice:kombucha. The juice label claims 30gm sugar per 8oz serving of the juice, so that means I'm adding 8gm to 15gm sugar per liter prior to the start of secondary ferment.

After one day of room-temperature secondary fermentation, some of the bottles will "burp" slightly if I open the swing-top, and some won't. If I swirl the bottle a bit before burping the bottle, sometimes I'll see a little kombucha-geyser start to form at the base of the bottle about 5 seconds after burping it, and then I have to cap it quickly before I get a strong eruption. After two days of room-temp 2nd ferment, all the bottle will burp pretty forcefully, and all will erupt if I don't re-seal the bottle quickly. I'll sometimes go a 3rd day before refrigeration because I prefer a strongly carbonated drink.

I don't drink a liter at a time, and I don't want any leftoever brew to go flat, so I actually re-bottle the 1-liter bottles into 12oz to 16oz glass bottles. Because I lose a little carbonation during the transfer I almost always leave the smaller bottles at room temp for another 24 to 36 hours. I guess you could call that a tertiary fermentation if you like those high-dollar words

What I described in the last paragraph as an "eruption" sounds dramatic, but really there is still time to tip the 1-liter bottle over my strainer+funnel and get it into the smaller bottles with minimal loss. I do this transfer in a very clean, large plastic bowl, and I recapture the ounce or two that gets spilled as well. I've heard that if I refrigerate the 1-liter bottles before the transfer I can reduce the carbonation loss, but I haven't tried that.

Zapped, thanks so much for the extra info!

Honestly, I wasn't very precise with my additions. I should have been, but I was in a rush. I basically just added stuff to the bottles (12 oz) before pouring the kombucha on top.

The juice I think I added something like 3 table spoons, if I had to guess. I put something like 8 blueberries in one (i squeeze them between my fingers before dropping them in. Maybe 4 cherries that I chopped up went in the other. And probably about 1 tablespoon of ginger and 1 teaspoon of lime juice in the last.

These are all estimations. In the future I'll be much more precise.

Chaucer, I'm also thinking about buying a scoby, but for now, my homegrown is working. the Kombucha Kamp rep posted in another forum about how the ones we're growing is from the "reformulated" kombucha, and thus has a different taste, and reduced probiotics (though there doesn't seem to be definitive info on which ones/how much, etc).

After some more reading, I noticed that GT Dave mentioned that the reformulated version is easier for newbies to enjoy (I think he refers to it as the "light" version), and that the "classic" has more bite. That bit of info actually has made me rethink buying a SCOBY, because I rather like the flavor of the one I'm making, and I'm not sure if I'd enjoy more "bite" or not.

If you do buy one, I'd appreciate a side by side review of a homegrown SCOBY versus the purchased one, and how the resulting Kombucha differs. I wanted to do something like that eventually, but have no immediate plans to.

onipar said:

Chaucer, I'm also thinking about buying a scoby, but for now, my homegrown is working. the Kombucha Kamp rep posted in another forum about how the ones we're growing is from the "reformulated" kombucha, and thus has a different taste, and reduced probiotics (though there doesn't seem to be definitive info on which ones/how much, etc).

After some more reading, I noticed that GT Dave mentioned that the reformulated version is easier for newbies to enjoy (I think he refers to it as the "light" version), and that the "classic" has more bite. That bit of info actually has made me rethink buying a SCOBY, because I rather like the flavor of the one I'm making, and I'm not sure if I'd enjoy more "bite" or not.

If you do buy one, I'd appreciate a side by side review of a homegrown SCOBY versus the purchased one, and how the resulting Kombucha differs. I wanted to do something like that eventually, but have no immediate plans to.

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The SCOBY I'm growing is a little over a week old and seems to be doing well. I did end up ordering one, too - because I don't think I'll be satisfied unless I find out what kombucha produced that way tastes like, as well. I have swing-tops and mason jars (I'm going to monitor carb closely, I guess) for bottling and will probably do some sort of elderberry-herbal thing for the first batch. I will most definitely take notes and put up some sort of post with my observations and pictures.

Chaucer said:

The SCOBY I'm growing is a little over a week old and seems to be doing well. I did end up ordering one, too - because I don't think I'll be satisfied unless I find out what kombucha produced that way tastes like, as well. I have swing-tops and mason jars (I'm going to monitor carb closely, I guess) for bottling and will probably do some sort of elderberry-herbal thing for the first batch. I will most definitely take notes and put up some sort of post with my observations and pictures.

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Awesome! I really appreciate that. I never did buy one because (as I mentioned in a different thread), I found that after adding black tea to my mix, the SCOBY grown from that batch was thick and pure white, and much better looking. I haven't tasted that batch yet, but it smells great.

Looking forward to what you find.