Kombucha Commercial Brewery Alcohol problem

[RPh_Guy]

Is Tit. acidity also specific to one type of acid?

I was referring to TA as titratable acidity, since that's what we measure.
AFAIK total acidity would be difficult or impossible to measure without advanced tools (GC/MS or HPLC).
However, the values should be close.

 

[ahnavbilauvaq]

Hi, sorry for the late reply.

I have 2 questions:

What effect does the sugar have on the tea's pH- assuming this is before the starter inoculation?

What is the most effective way to speed up the alcohol fermentation? Temperature control? So, should I should increase my brewing room temp from 23 C to about 30C?

Hello, sorry for the late reply. The starting pH from the tea doesn't really matter much before the innoculation. Though, for me below pH 4 is best (to ensure fermentation success).

I've been busy researching the alcohol content problem (it's also a problem in my brewery), so here's some things I've found helped me:

1. Agitating and oxygenating the fermentation (by stirring or oxygen pump) helps to lessen the alcohol fermentation and boost the acetic acid fermentation. Some big kombucha brewery actually do this to ensure less fermentation. This also cancels the dimension problem of kombucha fermentation vessel.
2. Cleaning the batch every fermentation helps to lessen alcohol fermentation, as yeasts will pile up at the bottom of the fermenter. This also means you can't use SCOBY continuously.
3. If you can force-carb (or don't need carbonation in your product), you can use 1 micron filter to filter out the yeasts. Bacteria is less than 1 micron in size and yeasts is more than 1 micron.

My cheap way to do it is to stir vigorously the fermentation every 1-2 days (I'm still using 20L jars, . This helps to degas and oxygenate it, thus lowering the alcohol fermentation and yeasts reproduction. SCOBY won't form, though, but for me it makes it easier to clean up each batch.