My journey from mason jar to 5 gallon keg

[riptoldnutonKT]

Hello everyone..

I'm new to this forum and wanted to share my Kombucha journey. I'll try to keep it short. I first started home brewing beer with my husband almost 6 years ago and learned the art of fermentation. I stumbled upon Kombucha after hearing of all the benefits of drinking this "wonder drink". I was hooked on KT from the moment we met. I'm a big fan of Natural news and read an article on making home made Kombucha. My journey began 3 years ago with a bottle of GT's raw original. I started with a 1/4 gallon mason jar and then multiplied to more jars as soon as I could. With several 1/4 gallon batches going and scoby's galore, I started brewing larger batches in 1/2 gal mason jars. While brewing every week, I was doing second ferments, experimenting with different fruits and juices and they turned out great. Nice and fizzy the way I like. I was just wingin it and making a great product. I've been a health nut and personal trainer/nutritional consultant for more years than I can count on both hands and added Kombucha to my list of supplements for myself and others.
Anyway, I said I would keep it short in telling my journey. I like getting right to the point sometimes. I was making so many batches with these small vessels each week and bottling my KT. It became overwhelming, so I had this idea of getting a bigger vessel/fermenter..Duh. I jumped right in to brewing a 5 gallon batch with some 1/2 gallon mason jars for experimental flavors or backup starter. The one 5 gallon vessel soon went to four 5 gallon fermenters within a month and into kegs. Can you tell this hobby became a passion?
Then comes the finale with my journey so far.. My husband who started as a homebrewer of beer 6 years ago became head brewer at a well known brewery in our area 3 years ago. So guess what? I was given the opportunity to put my KT on tap at the brewery. My first 5 gallon keg went away in 4 hours. We just put a second keg on and it's a hit. These first two batches are a blueberry pomegranate and my next one ready to keg is a pineapple coconut. I'm so excited.. who knew that my husband and I, who found a hobby not that long ago, would or could turn that hobby into a passion of brewing a wonderful, live, healthy beverage, and are sharing our passion with others to enjoy.
I hope you enjoyed reading this trip of mine.. I will be happy to share my processes, experiments, methods, etc.. for anyone interested. Since I'm a newbie here, I'll be on the forum more often to share, and to learn more from all of you. The learning never ends..I've gone from wingin it to still wingin it with experience and learning.
Thanx
CD

 

[dlgura]

Hello! I'm new to this too, but looking to do pretty much what you just described. I've been brewing kombucha at home since 2007 - a continuous ferment of four one-gallon containers. It's always just been a hobby of mine for personal consumption, but lately I've been seriously considering branching out and starting to sell my product. I love the idea of getting it on draft in a couple of the local bars around here but have never delt with kegging my kombucha, just bottling it. Anyways, would love to hear your thoughts on how you went up to the larger 5 gallon containers before going to the keg. I would prefer to ferment in glass for obvious reasons but there doesn't seem to be any large glass fermenting vessels out there other than the "big mouth bubbler" as sold by Norther Brewer (and a few other brew sites online). What containers did you use for your 5 gallon batches? And do you rack your primary ferment before bottling or kegging it? And how closely do you monitor your temps/PH/specific gravity? I've always brewed by "feel" with great results, but feel like I should start being a little more scientific/precise about it if I'm going to start aiming for a consistent, large scale brew. Thanks a lot for any feedback or thoughts you may have! And congrats on getting your brew on tap!

 

[zipper8650]

welcome and congratulations! I am about a year into my hobby at this point and have recently expanded my 1G at a time system to a 5G glass barrel (ready to rack first batch in about a week), and 3 1G jars (2 for experiments, 1 for Jun). Im sure we would all love to hear about your trial and experiments. tea preference? Ferment time? I was briefly working with a local kombucha and ale brewery and their kegged straight kombucha did fantastic in NYC. Have a company name yet?

 

[WhackedBear]

That's great, I just started brewing beer a year ago and now looking into kombucha. Looking for a more acceptable day time drink!

 

[riptoldnutonKT]

Hello! I'm new to this too, but looking to do pretty much what you just described. I've been brewing kombucha at home since 2007 - a continuous ferment of four one-gallon containers. It's always just been a hobby of mine for personal consumption, but lately I've been seriously considering branching out and starting to sell my product. I love the idea of getting it on draft in a couple of the local bars around here but have never delt with kegging my kombucha, just bottling it. Anyways, would love to hear your thoughts on how you went up to the larger 5 gallon containers before going to the keg. I would prefer to ferment in glass for obvious reasons but there doesn't seem to be any large glass fermenting vessels out there other than the "big mouth bubbler" as sold by Norther Brewer (and a few other brew sites online). What containers did you use for your 5 gallon batches? And do you rack your primary ferment before bottling or kegging it? And how closely do you monitor your temps/PH/specific gravity? I've always brewed by "feel" with great results, but feel like I should start being a little more scientific/precise about it if I'm going to start aiming for a consistent, large scale brew. Thanks a lot for any feedback or thoughts you may have! And congrats on getting your brew on tap!

Hey there..My first 5 gallon batch started with a 1/2 gallon mason jar primary that I would have bottled but used for my starter for the 5 gal batch. I brewed 4 gallons of sweetened tea, cooled to aprox 76 degrees. then added tea, starter and scoby to my fermenter. I waited a week before checking Ph and then checked every few days until the Ph got down to aprox 2.70. This initial batch took a month to finish. Though Ph isn't an indicator of being ready, I go by taste...slightly sweet, slightly sour/tart/tangy (balanced). I don't want it over sweet because I do a secondary with juice or fruit. I try to keep the temp between 73-75 because I think its important for the fermentation to do what its supposed to in a temp controlled environment without too much fluctuation in degrees. Btw, I use big mouth bubblers for 1st (aerobic) fermentation. Then I transfer/rack the primary into a bottling bucket with a juice of choice for the 2nd (anaerobic) fermentation. I save at least 1/2 gallon of primary to start the next batch in the same big mouth bubbler. I also still have mason jars brewing just in case I need more starter. I monitor the 2nd by tasting (balanced, as stated with primary) and checking Ph for about 4 days @ (73-75 degrees). Usually at 4 days i'm ready to keg. After kegging it gets chilled for a day. After at least 1 day it will be forced carbonated with co2 and shaken and back to the chiller. It will usually be shaken several times throughout the day for co2 to get into solution. This will sit in cold room to settle overnight and be ready to go on tap at ant time.
Whether KT is naturally conditioned (fizzy/effervescent) or forced carbonated and the taste may be slightly different, its great..
I hope I answered all your questions plus more..
Bucheers (cheers)

 

[riptoldnutonKT]

welcome and congratulations! I am about a year into my hobby at this point and have recently expanded my 1G at a time system to a 5G glass barrel (ready to rack first batch in about a week), and 3 1G jars (2 for experiments, 1 for Jun). Im sure we would all love to hear about your trial and experiments. tea preference? Ferment time? I was briefly working with a local kombucha and ale brewery and their kegged straight kombucha did fantastic in NYC. Have a company name yet?

Thanks..
My experiments are usually just different flavorings in secondary batches. I did do a coffee kombucha after reading a previous thread..turned out good. My biggest trials with secondary ferments have been with dialing in percentages of juice per amount of primary ferment. I did dial that in when bottling and before brewing bigger batches and kegging. Too much juice and it takes too long to get fizzy. I used to do 3:1 (75% primary, 25% juice), experimenting down to using aprox 6% juice now. My ferment time for secondaries in bottling have ranged from 4 days to a week or more depending on temperature in the cupboard or closet..no temp control there.
My tea preference is an organic black tea. I've experimented with green tea darjeerling, and oolong. The black teas seem to be working well for now.
Btw, no company name for myself yet since the kt is brewed at the brewery where its on tap.

 

[dlgura]

Thank you for all the info riptoldnutonKT - it's great to hear how straightforward the kegging process is. It is interesting to me, too, how quickly your secondary ferment is. I always have done my secondary in bottles and sometimes don't get around to drinking them until months later. And with bottles, I find that I have to let them sit a good couple of weeks anyways to get the right amount of fizz. But based on your experience it sounds like it's actually a faster turnaround to force carbonate in a keg - that's great to know! So is all kombucha on draft force carbonated, do you think? Or is it possible to let it naturally carbonate, if you're going for the authentic nuances or that nice soft fizz, and then keg it without force carbonating it? I apologize if that's an elementary question! Like I said - I'm totally unfamiliar with the kegging process. Also do you do your secondary ferment for the kegged booch in a plastic bottling buckets? If so, what are your concerns regarding plastic vessels altering the flavor of the brew? I've always felt like the kombucha community is totally no-no when it comes to plastic at any step of the way...? No solid business names yet btw but I have a few ideas....letting them brew up there until the right one hits me...it's got to be right for the area that I'm in.

 

[riptoldnutonKT]

Thank you for all the info riptoldnutonKT - it's great to hear how straightforward the kegging process is. It is interesting to me, too, how quickly your secondary ferment is. I always have done my secondary in bottles and sometimes don't get around to drinking them until months later. And with bottles, I find that I have to let them sit a good couple of weeks anyways to get the right amount of fizz. But based on your experience it sounds like it's actually a faster turnaround to force carbonate in a keg - that's great to know! So is all kombucha on draft force carbonated, do you think? Or is it possible to let it naturally carbonate, if you're going for the authentic nuances or that nice soft fizz, and then keg it without force carbonating it? I apologize if that's an elementary question! Like I said - I'm totally unfamiliar with the kegging process. Also do you do your secondary ferment for the kegged booch in a plastic bottling buckets? If so, what are your concerns regarding plastic vessels altering the flavor of the brew? I've always felt like the kombucha community is totally no-no when it comes to plastic at any step of the way...? No solid business names yet btw but I have a few ideas....letting them brew up there until the right one hits me...it's got to be right for the area that I'm in.

Hello and your welcome..
Regarding my second ferment for bottling, I've had to leave the bottles at room temp for at least a week, then try one to see if it has the fizz I want. When ready, I put in fridge and they just get better over time becoming more sour/tart/tangy/less sweet and drier. I've learned patience for a better kt. It is a faster turnaround to force carbonate in a keg and yes kt on draft is force carbonated. If I want to naturally condition before serving instead of on draft, it could go on a cask. Haven't done that as of yet. Force carbonating does guarantee the product will be bubbly, yet is definitely different tasting than the natural conditioning with being fizzy and effervescent. When I do keg the kt, it does more conditioning in the keg before going on draft. I'm still learning and experimenting with all of this.
I do the second fermentation before kegging in a bottling bucket. This second sits at room temp anaerobically for 2-4 days, then kegged. I did have my concerns about using plastic but decided to give it a go anyway since homebrewing beer in plastic seemed to work. There are no off flavors to me by using plastic, so I'll continue to use bottling buckets. Plus, I do not want to do a second in 5 or 6 gallon big mouth glass bubblers..I would have exploding fermenters..lol They do make plastic big mouth bubblers also. I'm thinking of getting those to utilize also.