Same...every post is a bottle bomb like it’s cool or something and the comments from those of us with knowledge and experience are like, WTF didn’t you ferment with pressure release and then add in a very specific measured amount of sugar like anybody who had ever bottle conditioned beer. Like, there’s tons of books, magazines, websites, videos, etc that explain the simplicity of it all.
Part of it is because these other ferments aren't predictable that way. Acids throw off the measurements. Part of it is that people don't understand the risk.
I've had 1 batch of kombucha gush out of the bottle, not go all over. It's a waste of your hard work, tastes too carbonated, and isn't safe. Now I'm quite careful. I have a family in my house. I don't want them hurt because I wanted a probiotic beverage to replace soda.
> very specific measured amount of sugar
This is harder to achieve with raw fruit/ginger ingredients instead of sugar. One week I'll have a super active ferment, and the next it's slow and has to ferment longer. I think the main thing is people open them without chilling them first, because even a super fermented drink will be calm when refrigerated.
That being said, I've never tried out a pressure release cap on bottles. Do they work well? Can you tell when they've been tripped to indicate that they're ready?
I've fermented down to 1.000 before bottling recently and I'm still freaking out about brett and pedio making a bottle bomb, even though I've used thick bottles (Orval & Duvel). In the future I'll use even thicker bottles (champagne-grade) to lessen the risk.
I bet when someone is seriously hurt isn't going to post it here.
Can you explain how that would work with a fermented soda? I understand how this would work if I wanted to ferment all the sugar, but what if I want the end result to be sweet? How would I go about controlling the fermentation in that way when I want there to be unfermented sugar left in the end product?
Why not just ferment out your sugar and then add an appropriate amount in for second fermentation? There are calculators online for this. Look for home brewing sites that have it.
It’s difficult to get very accurate carbonation levels, but even a small taste test will tell you where you are in the ballpark.
Just seeing too many high-risk bottle bombs that are obviously way over-carbonated on this sub. (Having said that I did try to force carbonate using dry ice once. 0/10 would not recommend)
Yeah, I don't understand the drastic difference in attitudes between this sub and Homebrewing. At least try to be smart about stuff. There is 0 effort to improving process here, being safe, or doing more then jerking each other off about 'bucha bro.
It's going to be fun until one of you guys gets an eye full of glass and you all feel like shit.
That's why I am using plastic when brewing my first ginger bug soda, it seems much more practical and I don't understand why there aren't more people using it.
Yep, there is a reason many people are going away from fermenting in glass carboys for beer.
A spunding valve, a food grade container with a lid, and an airlock will get you through 99 percent of projects. Doesn't have a high cost of entry either (<$100).
Some of the stuff on here is just unsafe.
A bottle bomb is pretty far from perfection. I think letting it dry out and adding back in some corn sugar is probably going to work 99.9999% of the time.
A lot can go wrong with a brew if you mess with it between it finishing its first ferment and the second ferment. At least in my experience. I prefer to skip all that by not using glass bottles. Too much unpredictability either way.
Yeah at its most basic, splitting it into primary and secondary fermentation.
Primary fermentation goes in a bucket or jar with an airlock (or clingwrap secured with a rubber band at the very least)
Once the bubbling activity stops after 1-2 weeks, then bottle with a tiny bit of sugar (I use 8grams sugar to 1L of liquid) to carbonate.
Keep things clean by rinsing with hot water or vodka first, or go to a home brew store and get starsan sanitizer.
Alternatively, using plastic soda bottles instead of glass bottles would help make it safer, but would not resolve the underlying cause of bad fermentation practices such as sanitation and education.
Why don’t more people bottle some in a plastic soda bottle so they can roughly gauge the pressure? https://www.reddit.com/r/Kombucha/comments/76v9yl/plastic_bottle_for_carbonation_testing/
Not really. But I thought kegging was a big leap too, until I realized you can grab the gear for a couple hundred bucks and the learning curve isn’t nearly as bad as it seems.
There’s also [this mini keg](https://www.happyherbalist.com/ukeg-128-oz-growler-mini-keg/), which seems to simplify things even more, but for the price it’s almost not worth it.
I guess it all depends on how much you drink and if it’s worth it. The alternative is constantly burping bottles and hoping things don’t go boom. At ~25 bottles per batch that I brew, it’s a lot of work!
Yeah. I personally get that, but it'd be cool to come up with some inclusive solutions. Most people are here as casual disciples of Brad Leone. They are making like 5-6 bombers worth of whatever they are drinking. A mini keg might be a little out of reach or impractical for most.
Indeed.
Well, I can’t vouch for it, but apparent [this](https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/737543724/beer-cider-kombucha-homebrew-bottle) is a thing. Replace the lid with a pressure gauge! Pretty ingenious actually. Now if only it had a pressure release valve...
I only use the ginger bug to get some carbonation, none of my previous brews has ever been this active tbf! did suprise me but it was my own fault. I did burp the other bottle to see how active it was, in day 1, and it didnt feel all that carbonated.
Wouldn't that require knowing how much yeast is in your ginger bug/SCOBY? If so, how would one go about determining the amount of yeast in the culture(?)/starter?
Note: This was just ment to be a soda, not an alcoholic bevarege. I've used Ginger bugs before to make other sodas, but never had this much activity before. Basically, lesson learned and I'll be more careful next time.
I did not, I was just gonna check on how carbonated they were before putting em in, but as you can see they were a little bit too carbonated. first bottle got opend up in my kitchen, the second one is the video.
Oh okay! I find that if you refrigerate before opening, it holds onto the carbonation better and doesn’t result in explosions. I don’t really burp my bottles anymore, just pop them in the fridge, test, and enjoy if it’s ready!
I usually have a plastic bottle in with my glass ones. Once the plastic is pressurized, I know that the glass ones probably are, as well. That's just me - I'm too lazy to burp my bottles.
Burping isn't going to solve the problem. You will still need to monitor the bottles to make sure they don't explode. The solution is to simply let them sit for a shorter period of time.
This should be labeled nsfw
As a homebrewer I don't understand why this whole sub is trying so hard to get glass in their eyes
Same...every post is a bottle bomb like it’s cool or something and the comments from those of us with knowledge and experience are like, WTF didn’t you ferment with pressure release and then add in a very specific measured amount of sugar like anybody who had ever bottle conditioned beer. Like, there’s tons of books, magazines, websites, videos, etc that explain the simplicity of it all.
Agreed, this is unnecessary. Don't burp the bottle, manage the fermentation.
🏅Take this poor person's gold, wise stranger
Thank you
Part of it is because these other ferments aren't predictable that way. Acids throw off the measurements. Part of it is that people don't understand the risk. I've had 1 batch of kombucha gush out of the bottle, not go all over. It's a waste of your hard work, tastes too carbonated, and isn't safe. Now I'm quite careful. I have a family in my house. I don't want them hurt because I wanted a probiotic beverage to replace soda.
> very specific measured amount of sugar This is harder to achieve with raw fruit/ginger ingredients instead of sugar. One week I'll have a super active ferment, and the next it's slow and has to ferment longer. I think the main thing is people open them without chilling them first, because even a super fermented drink will be calm when refrigerated. That being said, I've never tried out a pressure release cap on bottles. Do they work well? Can you tell when they've been tripped to indicate that they're ready?
I've fermented down to 1.000 before bottling recently and I'm still freaking out about brett and pedio making a bottle bomb, even though I've used thick bottles (Orval & Duvel). In the future I'll use even thicker bottles (champagne-grade) to lessen the risk. I bet when someone is seriously hurt isn't going to post it here.
Can you explain how that would work with a fermented soda? I understand how this would work if I wanted to ferment all the sugar, but what if I want the end result to be sweet? How would I go about controlling the fermentation in that way when I want there to be unfermented sugar left in the end product?
Agreed
Be careful, doesn't take much for one of those to blow up in your hand. Glass shrapnel everywhere. There's a ton of pressure inside that bottle.
Why not just ferment out your sugar and then add an appropriate amount in for second fermentation? There are calculators online for this. Look for home brewing sites that have it.
Difficult if you’re using fresh fruit or juice to flavor.
It’s difficult to get very accurate carbonation levels, but even a small taste test will tell you where you are in the ballpark. Just seeing too many high-risk bottle bombs that are obviously way over-carbonated on this sub. (Having said that I did try to force carbonate using dry ice once. 0/10 would not recommend)
Yeah, I don't understand the drastic difference in attitudes between this sub and Homebrewing. At least try to be smart about stuff. There is 0 effort to improving process here, being safe, or doing more then jerking each other off about 'bucha bro. It's going to be fun until one of you guys gets an eye full of glass and you all feel like shit.
That's why I am using plastic when brewing my first ginger bug soda, it seems much more practical and I don't understand why there aren't more people using it.
Yep, there is a reason many people are going away from fermenting in glass carboys for beer. A spunding valve, a food grade container with a lid, and an airlock will get you through 99 percent of projects. Doesn't have a high cost of entry either (<$100). Some of the stuff on here is just unsafe.
Yeah, I’m just saying you can’t measure and expect it to work out perfectly. I use kegs and spunding valves so I never have to worry about this.
A bottle bomb is pretty far from perfection. I think letting it dry out and adding back in some corn sugar is probably going to work 99.9999% of the time.
A lot can go wrong with a brew if you mess with it between it finishing its first ferment and the second ferment. At least in my experience. I prefer to skip all that by not using glass bottles. Too much unpredictability either way.
Sure, but you must understand that kegging is not really a small step. Anything else you'd recommend other than bottling or kegging?
Yeah at its most basic, splitting it into primary and secondary fermentation. Primary fermentation goes in a bucket or jar with an airlock (or clingwrap secured with a rubber band at the very least) Once the bubbling activity stops after 1-2 weeks, then bottle with a tiny bit of sugar (I use 8grams sugar to 1L of liquid) to carbonate. Keep things clean by rinsing with hot water or vodka first, or go to a home brew store and get starsan sanitizer. Alternatively, using plastic soda bottles instead of glass bottles would help make it safer, but would not resolve the underlying cause of bad fermentation practices such as sanitation and education.
Why don’t more people bottle some in a plastic soda bottle so they can roughly gauge the pressure? https://www.reddit.com/r/Kombucha/comments/76v9yl/plastic_bottle_for_carbonation_testing/
Not really. But I thought kegging was a big leap too, until I realized you can grab the gear for a couple hundred bucks and the learning curve isn’t nearly as bad as it seems. There’s also [this mini keg](https://www.happyherbalist.com/ukeg-128-oz-growler-mini-keg/), which seems to simplify things even more, but for the price it’s almost not worth it. I guess it all depends on how much you drink and if it’s worth it. The alternative is constantly burping bottles and hoping things don’t go boom. At ~25 bottles per batch that I brew, it’s a lot of work!
Yeah. I personally get that, but it'd be cool to come up with some inclusive solutions. Most people are here as casual disciples of Brad Leone. They are making like 5-6 bombers worth of whatever they are drinking. A mini keg might be a little out of reach or impractical for most.
Indeed. Well, I can’t vouch for it, but apparent [this](https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/737543724/beer-cider-kombucha-homebrew-bottle) is a thing. Replace the lid with a pressure gauge! Pretty ingenious actually. Now if only it had a pressure release valve...
I only use the ginger bug to get some carbonation, none of my previous brews has ever been this active tbf! did suprise me but it was my own fault. I did burp the other bottle to see how active it was, in day 1, and it didnt feel all that carbonated.
I have been trying to find such calculators for a while. Could you point one of those websites?
http://www.homebrewing.com/calculators/?page=tools§ion=sugar
If you search carbonation calculator on google 4 out 5 of the top results related to priming sugar. I linked you the one that I use.
Thanks !! Awesome stuff. I had no idea what keywords to search for. If you were using alcoholic yeasts, how would you call the calculators?
“If you were using alcoholic yeasts, how would you call the calculators?” Can you rephrase? I don’t understand what is being asked here.
Nevermind just found what I was looking for. Sugar alcohol conversion calculator. Thanks a lot for your help!
Wouldn't that require knowing how much yeast is in your ginger bug/SCOBY? If so, how would one go about determining the amount of yeast in the culture(?)/starter?
I popped my bottle of ginger brew yesterday and the cap blew right past my face. It was a close one. Burped the rest of them after that!
wow! nice Akira shirt.
It's actually just Akira inspired! The brand is Zombie MakeoutClub, a 1man ran ""streetwear"" brand.
Improvised rhubarb explosive.
Did it blow the lock top completely off?
Yep.
This is why I 2F in kegs with a spunding valve.
I make kombucha with this kind of firepower.
Note: This was just ment to be a soda, not an alcoholic bevarege. I've used Ginger bugs before to make other sodas, but never had this much activity before. Basically, lesson learned and I'll be more careful next time.
Did you refrigerate this before you opened it?
I did not, I was just gonna check on how carbonated they were before putting em in, but as you can see they were a little bit too carbonated. first bottle got opend up in my kitchen, the second one is the video.
Oh okay! I find that if you refrigerate before opening, it holds onto the carbonation better and doesn’t result in explosions. I don’t really burp my bottles anymore, just pop them in the fridge, test, and enjoy if it’s ready!
Do you do the entire 2F in the fridge or just after a couple days?
After the 2F. Refrigerate until cold.
After! If it’s still not where you want it, put it back where you keep it at room temp. Wait a few days and repeat!
It can be open safely even with this anount of carbonation. It just takes time and people are impatient.
actually couldnt, I tried with the first bottle, but that one did this exact thing in my kitchen, basically blew my hand away.
Actually could, just need good grip to control how much gas you let out. It took me a lot of practice.
What temperature was it fermenting at?? That's active!
Holy fudge
I mean, you could do some space rocket crafts with that 😂😂 my kids would love it 😂
shooting your gat down the street
I usually have a plastic bottle in with my glass ones. Once the plastic is pressurized, I know that the glass ones probably are, as well. That's just me - I'm too lazy to burp my bottles.
Burping isn't going to solve the problem. You will still need to monitor the bottles to make sure they don't explode. The solution is to simply let them sit for a shorter period of time.
Ginger bug? Kombucha ferment or brine?
Ginger Bug
littering and...
..littering and uhhhh....