Newb Kombucha wants to keg 5 gal batches?

[Vetter]

Please excuse my ignorance in this matter, but I can't seem to find the answers to my questions about making and kegging 5 gallon batches of Kombucha.
I just received my Kombucha Scoby, and tea which is enough to make 5 gallons. I was planning on boiling up 5 gallons of water, steep the tea for 10-15 minutes, dissolve the sugar in the water, then place the Scoby in the liquid after it had cooled. I was going to use a 6 gal plastic bottling bucket with spicket(never used) place the lid on it with a airlock filled with Star San. I could taste test the tea after 5-7 days using the spicket to see if it is ready.
Once complete to my liking, I could put the tea in a corny keg, place it in the Kegerator under CO2 10 psi, let it carbonate, then enjoy.
I would take the left over Scoby and place it in a container, with some tea in the fridge for the next batch.
Does this sound like a feasible method? How long would it take to carbonate? What would the life expectancy be of the tea kegged, and the scoby in the fridge?
Sorry for all the questions, and please let me know what I should, or should not be doing in this plan?? I realize I am a total newb to all of this, and may be way off in my thinking process.

 

[kyt]

For 5 gallons of product, you're going to need a lot more than just a scoby. The minimum amount of starter liquid you need is no less than 1cup per gallon, plus the scoby. So no less than 5 cups of starter liquid.
You'll definitely need to check the pH of the total volume going into the fermentor. I don't know if 5 cups will be enough to drop the pH to an acceptable range.

Do not use an airlock for primary, the sour character will not develop as well without exposure to open air. You can strap a T-shirt to the top of the bucket if you like, you want to keep flies out not air.

When kegged I like mine with 2.5-3.0 volumes of CO2.

 

[Vetter]

Thank you kyt, I am going to search some health food stores for starter tea tomorrow. I may just go with a 1 gal batch at first, then just keep it going weekly adding to the keg, but I'm worried about mixing batches, do you think this would be a problem?

 

[kyt]

It would not be a problem, but you'll have to keep decompressing the keg, popping the seal, and adding back gas. If you don't mind that, there's no problem.

 

[infielders3]

Interesting idea, I would be nervous about the bacteria component of Kombucha in my keg. You would need to be very sure you cleaned it thoroughly before using the keg again. Also, I don't know how well Kombucha would keep in a keg for a substantial amount of time. I guess the question would be- how much do you drink? I don't think I would want it sitting in my keg for as long as it would take me to work through five gallons.

 

[Vetter]

I will be using a designated keg for Kombucha, also a dedicated tap. I figured being under CO2 would help it keep longer, but I am not sure?
I was in the big city today, and able to locate some GT Kombucha, I also found a 2 gal jar, which I thought was cool, it had a small chalkboard on the front of it and a spicket. I decided to do 2 gal batches at a time.
The pic is what I brewed today, you can see the scoby on the bottom.

 

[Stovetop535]

Why wouldn't it keep in the keg? The bottled kombucha I have sometimes sits in the fridge bottled for a month before I drink it. I would think cold and under pressure it would keep fine.

I think the biggest problem you would have would be the sediment and deposits from continously drawing from and re filling the keg.

 

[benco]

We are planning on doing a 5 gallon keg for our first batch. We have 4 separate quarts growing scobies from GT original and GT Trilogy. Plan is to add the 4 scobies once they get bigger to a 6 1/2 gallon bucket with about half of the starter liquid from the 4 quarts and fresh sweet tea to equal about 5 gallons. Thinking one scoby wouldn't be enough to brew that large of a batch? Ferment until it tastes right (not sure how long that should take) and then keg it, removing the scobies or new monster scoby (?) and reserving some liquid for next batch. Add some dried fruit in a hop bag to the keg and then put CO2 on it. What do you think we should do differently?

 

[kyt]

The number of pellicles is completely irrelevant. They're just going to sink to the bottom and take up volume.
And for 5 gallons of tea you'll need around 5 liters of starter which is more than 5 quarts. You could try using 2qts, but I don't think it'll be enough to ferment 5 gallons in a reasonable amount of time. It would have to be very acidic to bring down the pH of the new tea to safe levels, and at that strength your yeasts would be very stressed out if not completely dead, and risking the entire volume to mold.
Yes you can use 8oz of starter to ferment 1 gallon, but that's 1 gallon not 5 and takes 2 to 4 weeks. You also need to consider the pH buffering potential of the water you're using.
If you are sure your yeasts are still viable, and the pH is at least 3.0 or less, try it, see what happens. If the pH is above 3.4, you're gambling on the whole batch. I wouldn't go less than 20% starter and pitch some new yeast for a single 5 gallon volume.
Let us know what you decide and how it goes. Good luck!

 

[benco]

Thanks for the info! My wife and I are trying to get started, she loves kombucha. Seems harder than brewing beer. More questions to come.

 

[kyt]

Eh I don't think it's harder, if anything it's easier. No mashing, just steeping tea. No boil. No hop schedule. Sanitation is almost unnecessary since you want the bugs. You'd use a volume of finished KT from a previous batch kind of like you would for repitching beer yeast.
Once you get used to it, its really easy.

 

[Vetter]

I just tasted my Kombucha, and it was done, DELICIOUS:fro:. So I pulled out 1 1/2 gallons and put it in flip top bottles, and a 2 liter pop bottle, then placed them in the fridge. Made a 1 1/2 gallon batch of sweet tea, and put it back in my 2 gallon container, ready for the next batch.
My plan is to take another 1 1/2 gallons out of this new batch, then place the total 3 gallons of Kombucha in a keg under CO2.
My question is, once I have about 5 gallons of Kombucha kegged, and can't keep drinking more than I can make in 1 1/2 gallon batches, would it be OK to brew 1/2 gallon batches (total 1 gallon with 1/2 gallon already remaining) in my 2 gallon container with out ill effects?

 

[kyt]

Yes

 

[benco]

It took a little while to make, but now have 5 gallons of blueberry kombucha on tap. Tastes great! 4 cup starter for 2 gallons, 10 cup starter to make 5 gallons. We transferred to keg and added blueberrys and let set at room temp for a couple of days. I had some issues with the connections on my keg. Transferred to a good keg and not the blueberry. I'm glad I didn't transfer the blueberry, I think leaving them in the keg would make it to overpowering.

 

[Hoptimistic]

I don't know if 5 cups will be enough to drop the pH to an acceptable range.

Do not use an airlock for primary, the sour character will not develop as well without exposure to open air. You can strap a T-shirt to the top of the bucket if you like, you want to keep flies out not air.

When kegged I like mine with 2.5-3.0 volumes of CO2.

+1 for both ph mention and t shirt or cotton cloth.

i would recommend using a 1-2 gallon continuous brew method to grow you scoby nice and thick before taking on a five gallon brew. one and a half gallon glass jars work great as well if you want to stick with single batches. just remember to wash your hands in distilled or apple cider vinegar whenever handling your scoby