Re: More on Bottling and Fizz

January 2, 2006

>I'm new to the list and I appreciate what I've already learned. I am

>interested in bottling my tea, providing it turns out worthy.

KT is easy to brew and each bottle, each batch is unique and all are

worthy, honestly. One easily learns how to influence the brew in the

direction(s) one prefers.

>I already have experience bottling homebrew beer, ginger beer and

>rootbeer. I expect the process is much the same but I'm concerned

>with bottling at the right time.

The right time is determined by the tastes of the brewer.

>Does anyone on the list bottle at a certain PH, or perhaps use a

>hydrometer to determine when fermentation has slowed to a crawl?

The brews will keep fermenting all the way out to true KT-vinegar, and

fairly rapidly. I haven't used pH testing.

>My current plan is to bottle when the Tea is still a bit sweet.

Since " sweet " here is subjective, you'll have to experiment. It needs to

have a certain nonsweet factor to it to create the healthful food/beverage

that we are after. I have found that it is definitely possible to bottle

too late and achieve KT-vinegar (an incredibly useful substance, btw). If

you bottle too early, you have less time for the good acids to develop, and

it will take longer in the bottle to do anything as well, is my

experience. The perfect time has a particular taste that, I will wager, is

not always the same pH. Because each brew is so affected by environment

and contents, even the season (this latter even if the temperature indoors

has remained steady), somewhat similar to the French winemaking concept of

terroir.

There is also a window of time, not just a single time. But what I like is

when I know the good acids have developed (7-10 days), I bottle it, and

it's fizzy and refreshing when I need it to drink. Depending on how much

I've been able to brew, a bottle might sit for a week or more, or as little

as 2 days, before it is needed to drink. If I know what my supply looks

like, I can choose my bottling moment to coincide with that-- and what a

joy when I succeed. But knowing how to fine tune can only come from

getting in there and experimenting.

Not to say that you shouldn't look at pH testing if you feel most

comfortable doing so. Only that you should know there are a lot of factors

at work, which a number of us are convinced also includes the KT brewer's

own health needs.

>Seems like this will ensure enough sugar remains to provide

>carbonation. I normally bottle leaving about 1 " of air space at the

>top of a 12 oz. longneck bottle.

>I always sanatize the equipment and bottles using " one Step " brand,

>non-rinse sanitizing solution. Does this seem reasonable? I haven't

>seen it mentioned on the list.

No, actually it's not reasonable. Kombucha culture is highly sensitive to

soaps and poisons. A woman on this list killed her SCOBY when she used a

corn-syrup from the supermarket that had some kind of food preservative

added. So no absolutely do not sterilize in that manner. It's suggested

to use distilled white vinegar or pasteurized apple cider vinegar or

pasteurized brown rice vinegar to sanitize your equipment if you need to--

I just wash in dishwater with a hot, thorough rinse. If you have to

sanitize your bottles, after the first washing and triple-iple rinsing, I

would just use vinegar and rinse with hot water. I do not add any cleanser

to my bottles, I only rinse them with hot water between uses (do not drink

from them). I would suggest keeping your KT bottles segregated. And btw,

you can also use KT-vinegar-stage for all these uses, and it need not be

pasteurized.

>It also seems logical to me if you strain the tea it's less likely

>to have enough active yeast to cause an explosion in the pantry.

I don't think straining is assurance against explosions.

VINEGAR CHOICE: I want to take this moment to state again that in the USA

for sure, and possibly elsewhere, vinegar made with petroleum as the basis

for distillation can be legally made and sold to the consumer as " distilled

white vinegar " . That is like drinking a distilled version of gasoline, and

it is commonly used because it generally has been cheaper than using

grain. I really suggest that if people at all can, that they not use

distilled white vinegar, but use pasteurized apple cider or rice vinegar

(even though unpasteurized vinegar is healthier to use in general, boiling

unpasteurized vinegar will sufficiently alter it to not be a threat to the

kombucha culture). While I realize that simply saying " distilled white

vinegar " is a clearcut, generally error-free communication, in fact that

substance is not recommended for ingestion by wholistic health practitioners.

Kombucha culture may detoxify the distilled white vinegar, but doing that

work just makes it so that the KT has less capacity to detoxify the

drinker's body tissues.

The word " pasteurized " sounds like a technical term with a critical

standard. As I understand it, boiling for a short time kills the bacteria

in vinegar, so it's not critical. I think we could use the phrase " boiled

vinegar " or " boiled apple cider vinegar " or something.

QUESTION ON VINEGAR: What about wine vinegar? What is the thinking on

that? My instinct is no, but I'm not sure why that would be.

--V

~~~ There is no way to peace; peace is the way ~~~~

--A.J. Muste

January 4, 2006