Advice needed for priming

[Calder]

My first batch was 1 gallon. Went pretty well. I bottled in beer bottles and capped. Tastes great, but no carbonation. I did not add anything at bottling. The bottles were left at room temp for a couple of weeks, and have since been in the cold in the garage.

What do I need to do to prime/carbonate the Kombucha?

Do I need to add additionl sugar? If so, how much per gallon?

I have my second batch going, and plan to bottle this weekend if it tastes OK.

 

[Calder]

39 views, and no reply's. This is what I plan to do with the latest batch. Please tell me if I am doing anything stupid.

It is a 1 gallon batch. It tasted fine, sour, but no overly so. It had been a month in 'cool' basement temps. I moved it into 2 half gallon jars. To one I added 0.25 ozs Nelson Sauvin Hops, and the other, 0.25 ozs Amarillo hops. I plan to bottle in 5 days. I will make a simple syrup with 0.5 ozs plain sugar, and add half to each half gallon container, and then bottle. This should get me to about 2 volumes of CO2, or a low carbonation level.

 

[zekevin]

I’ve never had to add any priming sugar to the batches I’ve made. The residual sugar and yeast should do the job. Did you happen to filter it? Can’t hurt to add the sugar. If anything it will just act as a back sweetener.
The hops sound awesome! I did one batch with some Sorachi Ace and it turned out great (thanks for reminding me!)
Keep us posted!

 

[Calder]

This is only my second batch. My first batch was flat after 3 weeks in the bottle at room temp. I thought adding a little sugar would help it carbonate.

Even though it was flat, it tasted pretty good, and nice and refreshing.

 

[mr_stout]

I have never tried to carbonate kombucha. It tastes just fine without the bubbles. There is also the chance of building up too much pressure in the jar. I had a lid blow off once and fly across the room. I won't do that again. LOL.

 

[Sajbrewer]

I like carbonation that is soft, not sharp. Somewhat like a beer carbonation, rather than a soda. I'm just getting back into brewing kombucha, but did 4 or 5 batches in early 2017. I read somewhere that putting a few raisins in the bottle for the 2F would help. I did that I was pleased with the outcome. Even though I did a number of batches a year ago, I'm feeling like a newbie again as I have my first batch in 9+ months going now.

 

[UncleAvis]

I carb mine with fruit juice. 1/4 cup per 16 oz bottle of a good 100% juice. So far I've used blueberry and mango in my 20 or so batches. They obviously changed the flavor but added a very fine effervescence similar to that of bt's. I keep mine room temp in a dark cabinet for a week or so, then into the fridge they go. I havent had any bottle bomb issues thusfar, early on I burped bottles every day to track carb, now i feel pretty comfortable with my experience ymmv. I use old kombucha bottles and swingtop bottles, unless one was drinking a whole bottle in a sitting (I don't) you'd lose all the carb with a crown cap, I reopen my bottles 2-4 times and it stays carbed. fwiw the only thing i've pay attention to regarding the sugar in the juice is that they both had around 20g sugar per serving.

 

[thebuchaman]

In recipes that require a bottle primer, I either just put a dab of honey, or a small amount of cane sugar in the bottom of the glass

 

[Boer]

The most effective way you can get a carbonated Kombucha in your primary fermentation is simply to do your fermentation in a sealed container. Before I started with 1000 liter batches, I brewed in 25Liter buckets and simply sealed the lid- after 1 week the Kombucha was already quite carbonated. You are basically forcing the CO2 produced by the yeast into the product.

And in my opinion: Natural carbonation is by far the best!