Kegging and force carbonating kombucha

[sdmi...@gmail.com]

Hi,

I would like to start kegging my kombucha in order to try selling commercially.  I have bought several ball lock corny kegs as well as a 10# and 20# CO2 tanks and I will have two 5 gallon batches of kombucha ready this week.  There's a lot of information on kegging beer but I'm having trouble finding out how to keg kombucha.  My questions are:  how long will it take to force carbonate a 5 gallon keg?  Should the keg of kombucha be chilled first?  Should the keg be shaken?  What PSI should I use?  What is the shelf life for a keg of kombucha?  In the beer forums, they say that the beer needs several weeks in the keg to taste it's best, does this hold true for kombucha?

[Jared Englund]

There is a lot you can learn about carbonation from beer brewers.  Beer is usually kind of gross unless it's perfectly carbonated, so beer brewers have perfected the art of carbonation.  Also keep in mind you will not get it right the first time - it takes lots of experiments and trial-and-error to really master the art of carbonation.

Sometimes the SCOBY seals in the carbonation, so Kombucha can come out naturally carbonated though not usually because the CO2 sneaks out from the sides of the SCOBY, or by making vent holes.  With that in mind, your Kombucha may take different amounts of time to carbonate depending on how much "natural" carbonation you were able to preserve.

The best way to carbonate in a keg is to set the pressure you want (7-10psi) and let it sit for at least a week or two.  The longer you let it sit, the more 'deep' the carbonation will be (smaller bubbles).  Liquid needs to be cold to absorb carbonation.  If you shake the keg, it will speed up the process.  Fruit solids will make your shelf life short, otherwise Kombucha can last almost forever.

There is so much to know about carbonation.  Just keep practicing and learning new tricks, and you'll get there!

Jared


On Tuesday, August 11, 2015 at 11:56:56 AM UTC-7, ___wrote:

[rses...@gmail.com]

Did you find answers to any of your questions? I also looking to keg my kombucha and do a secondary fermentation in the keg. I want to control the level of carbonation so I can fill bottles when I need them. Right now we are doing a secondary ferment in bottles, but many over-carbonate, resulting in a big foamy mess when you pop the flip top cap. I want to be able to control the level of fizziness. If you have come across helpful resources, please share!

[caroleb...@gmail.com]

Did you get the information you're looking for I would assume by now… I too would like to bottle kombucha commercially - I believe I need to force carbonation in order to hold the fermentation process and control the alcohol levels - any information you be willing to share would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

[Walt]

Set the pressure to 40 psi and shake the (chilled) keg for about 5 minutes, leave it overnight and you're ready to bottle. The longer you let the keg sit in the fridge the deeper the co2 will get and the slower it will escape the fluid. Don't forget to release the pressure before botteling and use the lowest pressure to force the liquid out of the keg. Good luck!

Op dinsdag 23 mei 2017 19:59:55 UTC+2 schreef caroleb...@gmail.com:

[joshua...@gmail.com]

Hi,

I really appreciate the info in this thread. I'm currently home brewing Kombucha and hoping to scale up to a small commercial operation.

I've decided to force carbonate the brew so that the consumer gets a consistent amount of fizz.I wondered if you could give some advice on what equipment I'll need to do that, and if there are any brands you'd recommend that would also be helpful. Also, I know I will need a counter pressure bottle filler to fill from the kegs, are there any of these you can recommend?

Thanks

Josh

[Jared Englund]

When you are first starting out you can use the keg carbonation technique, but eventually you'll want to get a bright tank.  There are a lot of tricks for any carbonation method.  Also bottling carbonated liquid is more challenging. 
For a small setup I would say
*Use kegs or a small brite tank that is in your walk-in cooler
*When you are bigger get a bright tank that is either in your walk-in or has a glycol chiller.
*Bottle with beer guns, and down the road either create your own bottling machine (lots of helpful info on youtube, etc).

I don't have a bottling machine and I'm interested to hear other ideas from people as I would also like to upgrade.

The carbonation will also help preserve the flavor of the booch, just make sure not to let a secondary fermentation occur or you could get over-foaming (or exploding) bottles.  We prevent this with low sugar content, eliminating oxygen in the liquid/bottle, and keeping it in the fridge after the primary fermentation.

[wouter]

Jared, I found the following setup on a pro brewer forum. It's a bit of a DIY job but you'll get a semi-pro counter pressure bottle filler for it for a few hundred bucks: http://vinesandrushes.com/equipment 

I ordered a counter pressure filling unit from aliexpress to test out the usability before building such a setup. 

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[Michelle]

Have you set this up yet? Would love to hear how it's going for you.

[Walt]

I'm still building the setup, I ordered some sort of automatic device custom build from a guy in Sweden that I'm using now, check my insta to view it: @cultbrewery 

I'm going to build the setup with the filling head next as this is a much cheaper option to put 4 heads in row. Keep you posted!

Op maandag 10 juli 2017 19:30:04 UTC+2 schreef Michelle:

[Michelle]

Watched the video, nice work. Have you gotten the 4 head filler built?

[Walt]

Hi Michelle,

No I didn't build it yet. I'm working with 2 single head counter pressure fillers for the moment. 4 heads would be to much to operate for a single person. 

Op dinsdag 12 september 2017 19:40:58 UTC+2 schreef Michelle: