Kegging Kombucha

I've seen this touched upon and the answers I've found don't reference any real-world experiences. It seems most people just frown at the idea because an acidic solution can pit stainless.

I'd love to hear from some people that have dedicated one of their tap lines to kombucha and whether the experience was good or bad.

nothing? I would love to know too!

I have never entertained the idea. I am not very experienced with kombucha. I had a mother a few yrs ago, got rid of it because I was the only one drinking it. When I brew a gallon every week, the bottles were piling up. So what level of co2 to you shoot for? Mine was always very light.

Now that I started a new mother I may try to keg...

I keg it all the time, just make sure to sanitize your beer lines really well after you switch to another keg to make sure you don't get gunk in your lines.

Never had any pitting in my kegs.

What pressure do you put it at? And do you add flavors to the keg? Like fruit or anything or just straight kombucha?

I keg at serving pressure, which for me is about fifteen psi since I have to push my beer up 7 feet our so. I have never added flavorings so I can't speak to any of that.

A local company here in asheville Buchi' serves their kombucha from cornies. They also distribute those to bars and restaurants.

I've got a 3 gallon keg and 3 gallons of Booch that's gonna be ready in a week or so, I'll give it a shot and report back.

How did kegging the kombucha go?

I use a juicer to juice fresh for flavors, mix to taste in another 5+ gal container, let sediment separate for a few hours, rack to sanitized corney keg purged with co2, store sealed at room temp for 3-5 days for secondary fermentation and carbonation, move to fridge for a day and serve or save from there. The first serving or so will be thick with sediment, but the buch will run clear after that. If you don't mind sweet buch you could force carbonate right away, but I prefer the texture of the naturally occurring co2 and a drier buch, plus it gets plenty of time for sediment to settle. Great success so far. Way easier than bottling. Just clean and sanitize those lines thoroughly between batches.

Sounds awesome! I need to get another SCOBY and starter from a friend. I did a SCOBY hotel when my wife was pregnant and now after the baby is born I tried to brew with it. I think it's dead...

What do you brew in? I was thinking of a 5 gal food safe bucket that you would brew in? I get em from MoreBeer concord right down the street.

As far as the kegging of kombucha goes, I work at a health food store and we serve somewhat local 'buch on tap, as well as one that comes from a couple states away. They all come in standard ball lock cornys.

Though I personally haven't ventured into the buch brewing world, my girlfriend has used these wide mouth 1 gallon ball jars: http://www.target.com/p/ball-1-gallon-collector-s-mason-jar/-/A-12794404?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=google_pla_df&LNM=12794404&CPNG=Kitchen&kpid=12794404&LID=26pgs&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=12794404&kpid=12794404&gclid=CIH5y_Giq8ECFQooaQod4YAADw, she would then decant into swingtop bottles with their own flavorings inside.

So I've been brewing kombucha in 5 gallon batches and kegging it. The only problem I'm having is nothing but foam is coming out of the kegerator. I don't know what is causing this to happen.

I brew in these 5.25 gal glass barrels at the link below. They work great. If you are getting a lot of foam in the kegerator, try releasing some pressure occasionally through secondary fermentation. I assume you're doing that in the keg. Any more than 3 days in secondary and the co2 seems to be too much. I have had one keg blow off the emergency pressure release and I ended up with some super foamy buch. Forgot about it for about a week. Put it in the fridge by day 3 or 4 and it's ready to serve the next day.

Glass barrels:
https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...6.8&ei=IO8-VMyGJaG7igLQ94C4Cg&ved=0CGsQpiswAA

I didn't secondary I just put juice in and right in kegerator. Maybe it was fermenting in the kegerator but it would have been slow I keep the temp at 40°F

Acid doesn't pit stainless. Bleach will pit stainless.

Go ahead and keg your Kombucha, it will be fine.

Has anyone determined how long we can store our kegged Kombucha in a kegerator?

I've seen evidence of being able to store bottle 'buch for 2 or more months (refrigerated)...I would imagine it would be the same, if not longer, in a keg?

Let me know if anyone has experience

Thanks!

I have no idea especially since my kombucha doesn't last that long. We usually go through a keg in 2-3 weeks.

But as for bottled buchi I have had a couple bottles in my fridge for over a year and they tasted great still!

bbradh789 said:

I've seen evidence of being able to store bottle 'buch for 2 or more months (refrigerated)...

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I've seen evidence of being able to store bottle 'buch for 20 or more months (unrefrigerated)...

I kegged a 5 gallon batch. Put one whole ginger root worth of candied ginger into the keg (in mesh bag) and hit it with 30 PSI worth of pressure to seal the keg and kick start carbonation.

Left it sitting at room temperature (about 68 in my basement this time of year) for a week and then put it in the kegerator to tap.

Initially while still 68 it poured a bit foamy, but after chilling overnight to around 40 degrees it's now pouring perfectly even with a small beer like heat that dissipates rather quickly. Nice carbonation, good balanced ginger flavor and not overly sweet or tart. I'd compare it to the LIVE Soda Kombucha I can buy locally.

Really happy with it.

FYI, all of my equipment in the system is stainless steel from the Keg to the Shanks & Faucets. No chrome, I'm not sure chrome faucets are going to stand up to the acidity in the long run.

Also the scoby from a 5 gallon batch is kind of unreal, huge and about 1/2" thick. I fermented it with a t-shirt covering the top of the bucket with a stretch strap holding it in place.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1439478619.484965.jpg

Plastic bag is food grade HDPE liner that I use to make sure my buckets are 100% sanitary and lets me not worry about doing Kombucha in it followed by beer or wine...

I've been brewing buch for over a year now with great success. I pretty much brew a gallon a week using a 2 gallon glass jar something like this:


I've never kegged anything, but want to get started kegging my kombucha and potentially keg some cider that I'm experimenting with.

Can someone point me to a comprehensive, step by step on kegging along with the necessary equipment?

Thanks,
Greg

What does everyone use to brew 5 gallon batches?

WiscBadger said:

What does everyone use to brew 5 gallon batches?

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I think I'm going with this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W3PYBMS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I like glass for fermenting kombucha, and this one has a wide mouth to make it easier to clean 'buch crud out. The six and half gallon size should allow enough space for a big, healthy SCOBY and still get a full five gallons into my keg. It would also leave enough kombucha behind to get a good start on the next batch.

WiscBadger said:

What does everyone use to brew 5 gallon batches?

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I use a 40 liter (10.5 gallons) ceramic crock to make 30-35 liter batches.

What do you do with the mother between batches? Leave it at room temperature in a little bit of liquid? We are brewing faster than we can drink.

My girlfriend and I started a Kombucha company in Southern California and I've been helping her get the Kegging figured out (we sell in pint and quart glass jars currently, but have many bars and restaurants begging us to keg). Here is our process, almost seem to have it perfected.

Brewing:
1. Brew in 1 gallon glass jars (a ton of them) for two weeks.
2. Pour 5 gallons into keg.
3. Add fruit/pulp/spices/whatever mixture to a Muslin bag and drop into keg.
4. Let keg sit for a week or a bit more to secondary ferment.
5. Hook up to kegerator. We leave the co2 turned off to the keg while it's not in use so as not to get a full carb on it, we prefer it that way.

This process has worked in my kegerator. We are still dialing it in. I believe next time we will use a bag with a tighter weave, the Muslin let a bit too much sediment through and I'm worried about a clogged dip tube. Also, note that we try to get some sediment and pulp to come out of the tap to mimic our bottled product. May try a nylon bag or something next time to ensure no blockage. The Muslin bag almost allowed a blockage but I turned up co2 and blew it out.

KatoBaggins said:

I think I'm going with this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W3PYBMS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I like glass for fermenting kombucha, and this one has a wide mouth to make it easier to clean 'buch crud out. The six and half gallon size should allow enough space for a big, healthy SCOBY and still get a full five gallons into my keg. It would also leave enough kombucha behind to get a good start on the next batch.

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Beware. I have seen many on the forums hear say that these big mouth carboys actually suck. I guess the lid isn't airtight. Do some searches on it.

aghenender said:

Beware. I have seen many on the forums hear say that these big mouth carboys actually suck. I guess the lid isn't airtight. Do some searches on it.

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The lid being airtight or not is a very minor issue for beer brewing, and pretty much completely irrelevant for kombucha.

The main issue people had with the glass BMB carboys was them shattering when you look at them wrong. But that was mostly gen 1 I think. I haven't heard much about the gen 2 version.

I have kegged dozens of sour beers, no problem. Even stronger acids are fine in stainless so kombucha should be no problem. I've been doing 1.5 gal batches so far and bottling in swing tops, but I think my next batch will be 5 gals that I will try putting on tap. I wonder how kombucha would taste on nitro? I might have to try that at some point.

Nitro Booch???? I need that

aghenender said:

Beware. I have seen many on the forums hear say that these big mouth carboys actually suck. I guess the lid isn't airtight. Do some searches on it.

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hunter_la5 said:

The lid being airtight or not is a very minor issue for beer brewing, and pretty much completely irrelevant for kombucha.

The main issue people had with the glass BMB carboys was them shattering when you look at them wrong. But that was mostly gen 1 I think. I haven't heard much about the gen 2 version.

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What hunter said...kombucha does better with a loose fitting lid, from my experience. As for the BMB being fragile...could be. But outside of a 30 L stainless steel Fusti ($50 more), the glass 6.5 gal BMB seems to fit the bill for 5 gallon kombucha corny keg filling.

KatoBaggins said:

What hunter said...kombucha does better with a loose fitting lid, from my experience. As for the BMB being fragile...could be. But outside of a 30 L stainless steel Fusti ($50 more), the glass 6.5 gal BMB seems to fit the bill for 5 gallon kombucha corny keg filling.

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My homebrew side came out, my girlfriend does most of the brewing, I do the business and kegging

Here's what I use for ~5 gallon batches. It's 20 liters, ~5.25 gallons.



https://www.katom.com/634-9520004.html

gregsatt said:

I've been brewing buch for over a year now with great success. I pretty much brew a gallon a week using a 2 gallon glass jar something like this:

I've never kegged anything, but want to get started kegging my kombucha and potentially keg some cider that I'm experimenting with.

Can someone point me to a comprehensive, step by step on kegging along with the necessary equipment?

Thanks,
Greg

Click to expand...

I bought that exact jar from target for $14. Kegging is super easy. I watched a ton of beer kegging videos and settled on this, assuming you're at the point of kegging.

Force Carbonating
Set regulator to 30 psi. Tip the keg on it's side and roll vigorously. You'll be able to hear a gurgling noise. It'll take about 10 minutes of rolling for the gurgling to stop. Once it does, put the keg in your fridge. I leave it in there overnight to cool properly. Once cooled burp the keg and then set the regulator to 12 psi for dispensing. The final step - pour and enjoy!

There's more to kegging in terms of sanitizing and setup that you can easily search on YouTube. Again just watch the videos related to kegging beer. It's essentially the same process.

Does anyone have any experience comparing kombucha to soda as far as carbonating and kegging? I see people saying 12 psi like beer, but wonder if that gives it a lot of fizz or just a little. I do soda at 30psi in the keg AND in individual 1 liter bottles.

Just curious if anyone can comment.

I do 3 gallon batches of both Kombucha and soda.

For Kombucha after I keg, I put it on at 30 PSI @ 40F for 24 hours. I then purge the keg and drop it down to 5 PSI for serving.

For soda after I keg, I put it on at 30 PSI @40F for 72 hours, with the gas connected to the liquid out side. I then purge the keg and drop it down to 20 PSI for serving. I use 2 1/2 of the epoxy mixing sticks in the liquid out post to slow it down.

That's on 10 foot liquid lines for both. Hopefully that helps!

I serve most of my beers at 11 PSI @40F for comparison.

11 PSI for soda would be way to low and 11 PSI for Kombucha would be way too high.

This setup gets me about the same level of carbonation you find in commercial bottled Kombucha and about the same you get from a soda fountain.

So...im not new to Kombucha, but I've been thinking about upping my batch size as now friends often want some of my buch as well as what I drink....I was curious about kegging in cornies, and that seems to be a resounding 'yes'....but I'm curious...has anyone tried just fermenting IN a keg? I have a small 2.5gallon keg, and I'm wondering if I could just ferment right in the keg with a piece of cloth on top? How about a stainless steel Kettle with a t-shirt on top? Could you do it that way? Anyone tried this or know enough to answer this?

Will work, but the narrow shape will limit the size of the Scoby and oxygen available to it, slowing the fermentation process

The prefect PH for Kombucha is 3.5 to 2.5
That is the same as lemon juice, so unless you are storing for months, which you don't really want to do, stainless should be fine.
After all, Coca Cola and other soft drink syrup is equally acidic at 3.8 to 2.8

I'll be testing some second fermentation methods using corny kegs in the next few weeks. Trick is being sure it's done fermenting before tapping the sludge from the bottom. Might do blueberries or strawberries in a glass jar first to see what is left after the 2nd ferment is done.