Sparkling Tea or Kombucha like REAL Royal Flush "champagne alternative"

[warx]

Hi, been brewing British cask-conditioned ales for a few years and looking at making a low alcohol fizzy tea or kombucha for cocktails. Got my first batch of kombucha at Day 6 right now - although looking at these "champagne alternative" drinks they are generally heavy on white and green tea - not straight black tea.

Anyways, my question is about carbonating to 3-4 vol (3.5-5 bar). Can this be done like wine/beer through enough priming alone for secondary or will it need forced carbonation before or after F2? In keg only, in keg then transfer to bottle or directly in bottles? If before should I do it cold at 1C/33F then add other flavors and allow it to warm back up f)or a few days?

The two products I'd like to emulate are
REAL Royal Flush (https://realdrinks.co/products/sparkling-tea-royal-flush-750ml-6-pack)
Copenhagen BLA (not kombucha just sparkling tea) https://sparklingtea.co/process/

I never force carb my beers (go for around 1.2 vol and cellar temps of 9C/48F) but I get a bit of experience making some ciders that I carbed up with 25psi and lots of shaking in 1.5 and 2.5 gallon torpedo kegs.

Cheers,
Mike.

 

[hottpeper13]

I make a simple syrup and dose each bottle with 30ml. To find out the amount I dosed 10, 20, 30, 40ml bottles. the 30ml was spot on for me.
This would be the F2, which is where I would put flavoring. My fav is freeze dried ginger.

 

[warx]

I make a simple syrup and dose each bottle with 30ml. To find out the amount I dosed 10, 20, 30, 40ml bottles. the 30ml was spot on for me.
This would be the F2, which is where I would put flavoring. My fav is freeze dried ginger.

Thank you! I was not sure there would be enough active yeast in each bottle (compared to beer) to keep consuming the sugars. Do you give the 2F a few extra days at room temp?

 

[hottpeper13]

I put them in a tray with a heat mat underneath, put a winter coat on top and set controller to 75* for 4-5 days, then in the fridge they go.

 

[warx]

On to F2. Shooting for about 20g of sugar per bottle (what 30ml of simple syrup would contain) but trying grape juice, white wine, and Pom juice. One I try force carbing at 40psi and shaking.

Oh, these bottles are 700ml/24oz. Guessing you were using 16oz bottles? Might need to add some sugar.

 

[hottpeper13]

Old Grolsch bottles, so 16

 

[warx]

So some updates;

my sparkling tea was not bad. flavored with grape juice and white wine and carbed to 50psi.

my kombucha first batch was ok - I used "Lord Bergamot" as I only drink green tea and did not know this was actually an Earl Grey (clue in the name! doh). So 2F carbing was a bit limited because of that. I tried a few flavorings some worked and some were stinky! The pomegranate and ginger were good. The grape and white were not... With just sugar it was pretty good.

I actually ended up carbing to 50psi after the bergamot oil likely limited the yeast in 2F. Much better. (50psi, shake, reapply 50psi repeat 8 times).

Anyways, I have another batch of kombucha finishing now with a mix of Darjeeling, white needle tip, and sencha. Tastes really good so am excited to leave unflavored and see how much CO2 it can self-generate this time. I will do one bottle with ginger and one with Pom then just sugar for the rest of the batch.

I'm now thinking of doing another batch (same teas & scoby) and doing 2F in a 1.5 or 2.5 gallon torpedo keg for my keezer. sure will be easier that carbing in the bottles. I think this 3 volumes of CO2 works really well as both a refreshing drink and good low-alcholol cocktail base.