http://kombuchahome.com
  • Home
  • START HERE
  • Fermentation Guides
    • Kombucha
      • How to Make Kombucha
      • Brewing Kombucha on a Budget
      • How to Second Ferment Your Kombucha
      • How to Bottle Kombucha
      • Flavoring Kombucha: The Guide
      • Kombucha Ingredient Guide
      • Types of Sugar for Kombucha
      • Kombucha Ingredient Ratios
      • Creating a Kombucha Continuous Brewing System
      • How to Grow a SCOBY from Scratch
      • Click HERE for More Guides…
    • Kefir
      • How to Make Kefir: The Ultimate Guide
      • How to Second Ferment Kefir: The Ultimate Guide
      • How to Make Dairy Free Kefir: The Ultimate Guide
      • The Ultimate Guide to the Best Milk for Kefir Making
      • Best Equipment for Making Kefir
      • Best Containers for Making Milk Kefir
      • Why You Should Make Kefir
    • Cultured Veggies
  • Equipment Guides
    • Kombucha Equipment
      • Best Kombucha Equipment
      • Best Containers for Brewing Kombucha
      • Bare Essential Kombucha Equipment Needed
      • Non-Essential Kombucha Equipment
      • Specialized Kombucha Equipment
    • Kefir Equipment
      • Best Equipment for Making Kefir
      • Best Containers for Making Milk Kefir
  • Recipes
  • VIDEOS
  • FORUM
  • Home
  • START HERE
  • Fermentation Guides
    • Kombucha
      • How to Make Kombucha
      • Brewing Kombucha on a Budget
      • How to Second Ferment Your Kombucha
      • How to Bottle Kombucha
      • Flavoring Kombucha: The Guide
      • Kombucha Ingredient Guide
      • Types of Sugar for Kombucha
      • Kombucha Ingredient Ratios
      • Creating a Kombucha Continuous Brewing System
      • How to Grow a SCOBY from Scratch
      • Click HERE for More Guides…
    • Kefir
      • How to Make Kefir: The Ultimate Guide
      • How to Second Ferment Kefir: The Ultimate Guide
      • How to Make Dairy Free Kefir: The Ultimate Guide
      • The Ultimate Guide to the Best Milk for Kefir Making
      • Best Equipment for Making Kefir
      • Best Containers for Making Milk Kefir
      • Why You Should Make Kefir
    • Cultured Veggies
  • Equipment Guides
    • Kombucha Equipment
      • Best Kombucha Equipment
      • Best Containers for Brewing Kombucha
      • Bare Essential Kombucha Equipment Needed
      • Non-Essential Kombucha Equipment
      • Specialized Kombucha Equipment
    • Kefir Equipment
      • Best Equipment for Making Kefir
      • Best Containers for Making Milk Kefir
  • Recipes
  • VIDEOS
  • FORUM
  • Home
  • Brewing Kombucha
  • How To Increase Kombucha Carbonation

How To Increase Kombucha Carbonation

Posted on Apr 28th, 2015
by admin
Categories:
  • Brewing Kombucha
  • Brewing Tips n Tricks
  • Kombucha How To's
  • Kombucha Questions
  • Second Ferment
kombucha bubbles
  • shares

Freshly-brewed kombucha tea is a lightly-carbonated drink. When you’re making a basic kombucha recipe, you’re providing the SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast) with a supply of sweetened tea for its food. The microorganisms work together (symbiotically, in other words) to process the nutrients in the sweetened tea. The yeasts take the sugars and break them down into basic sugar molecules, primarily glucose and fructose, and absorb other organic elements like amino acids that they use to divide and reproduce. The action of the yeast produces two main byproducts at this stage: ethanol (a type of alcohol) and carbon dioxide (CO2).

Learn how to build up explosive fizz like this (watch Terry, host of our KombuchaHome YouTube Channel and mastermind of KombuchaHome as she opens one of her Second Ferment bottles she kept fermenting for a couple weeks):

When carbon dioxide is dissolved in a liquid, it creates carbonation. If you look at the brewing container, you’ll probably see some bubbles around the edges of the SCOBY, especially at the beginning when the yeasts have the most sugars to work with. Don’t worry if you see lumps and bubbles in the SCOBY itself – that’s usually just carbonation getting stuck between the colony layers, and you should still have a healthy SCOBY even if the surface of the colony isn’t completely smooth.

Why Fresh Kombucha Tea Isn’t Super-Fizzy

fresh kombucha tea not fizzyWith all that CO2 being produced by the yeasts, why isn’t your fresh kombucha tea full of carbonation? Because only a small amount of CO2 will stay dissolved in the liquid, unless something keeps it from escaping. Your SCOBY needs to breath – it takes in oxygen and releases CO2, just like you do – so you’ve only covered your brewing container with a piece of tightly-woven material that lets the air flow evenly to the colony and back again. The oxygen is being pulled in by the SCOBY, and the CO2 is flowing out again. You’ll only be able to keep the CO2 in the liquid tea when you cover the brewing container with a tight seal, and you can’t do that until the SCOBY is out of the jar.

Once you remove the SCOBY, you can cover the brewing jar, and the yeasts that remain in the tea will continue to convert any residual sugars, creating carbonation. If you leave your fresh kombucha tea in a sealed container at room temperature, the yeasts will keep working until all of the sugars are gone, and you’ll get a more carbonated brew. Putting the container in the refrigerator will slow down the action of the yeast, but you’ll still notice an increase in carbonation.

While most people focus on adding carbonation during secondary fermentation of kombucha  you can also adjust the way you do the first fermentation to boost the overall bubbliness of your kombucha tea, whether you do a second ferment or not.

Increase Carbonation During Primary Fermentation (Brewing)

Kombucha-temperature

Although most of the CO2 will still escape the open container while you’ve got the SCOBY in the jar, you can keep the level higher by making sure that there is more CO2 in general, over a longer period of time. You can do that in four different ways:

  • by putting more yeast into the starter culture
  • by keeping the supply of sugar constant
  • by providing more of the other nutrients the SCOBY needs
  • by increasing the temperature of the container

NOTE: You can use any one or all of these techniques alone or in combination, but keep in mind that you may also be changing the yeast/bacteria balance in the SCOBY. Also, altering the amount of sugar or other nutrients will have an effect on the brewing time for kombucha tea and will change how the flavor develops, especially the balance between sugar and acid. Be sure to test your tea regularly, by tasting it and by using a pH meter or test strips. Keep a record of changes you’ve made in the basic recipe, and what the results were, so you’ll know what works with your particular SCOBY and your unique brewing environment. Remember, every SCOBY and every batch of kombucha is different!

1. Encourage the Yeast

yeastWhile the yeast and the bacteria work together to ferment the sweetened tea mixture and turn it into finished kombucha, it’s the yeast that are creating the carbon dioxide. Fewer yeast microorganisms in your SCOBY mean less natural carbonation. More yeast means more carbonation, as long as you control the process – if the yeast gets out of control, your kombucha tea won’t have a good flavor, and the yeast may start crowding out the bacteria, leading to an unhealthy SCOBY.

One way to add more yeast without compromising the SCOBY is to use starter liquid that’s already full of yeast. The best place to find this is at the bottom of your SCOBY hotel, where the free-floating yeast tends to settle. You’ll see clumps and strands of brownish material at the bottom of the jar, and those are the live yeast clusters.

However, there’s also dead material at the bottom of your SCOBY hotel, especially if you haven’t cleaned it in a while, and that dead material will generally give your kombucha tea an “off” flavor. If you’re going to use this bottom-of-the-jar liquid, be sure that you’re maintaining a clean hotel.

2. Use More Complex Sugars

complex sugarsWhen the yeasts are provided with sugars, they start feeding as quickly as possible, and keep going until the sugar runs low. That means there’s a spike of CO2 at the beginning of the brewing cycle, and then a drop as the yeast slows down and the bacteria start processing the ethanol and residual sugars left over from the yeast’s feast. It will take a few more days (at least) for the bacteria to convert these nutrients into organic acids and get the kombucha tea down to the right pH and flavor level, and all that time the CO2 will be escaping from the liquid.

One way you can regulate this and keep up a more even production of CO2 is by giving the yeasts more complex sugars. When you use organic white cane sugar, which is mostly sucrose molecules, the yeasts can easily break those molecules down and use them. If you choose a more complex sugar, like unrefined cane sugar, brown sugar, or molasses, the yeast has to work harder to convert the sugars into ethanol and CO2, so the process goes more slowly.

Using a mix of complex and simple sugars will usually give you more CO2 in your finished kombucha tea, especially if you also increase the total amount of sugar slightly, allowing the yeast to stay active longer.

3. Add More Tea

types of teaWhat do you do when you want to stay awake? You drink tea, or coffee, or something that has caffeine in it. (Kombucha has caffeine in it, though not as much as tea or coffee, and there are ways to make caffeine-free kombucha.

What works for you also works for the yeasts in the SCOBY. Extra tea gives them the extra nutrients they need to stay active, especially as the amount of sugar in the kombucha tea goes down. Some people have found that using green tea gives the most carbonation. Experiment with any of the types of tea for brewing kombucha and see what gives you the best result.

4. Keep it Warm

The SCOBY works best when the temperature is around 72F to 75F, but the yeasts in the SCOBY actually like it a little warmer than that. You can encourage the yeast to be more active by starting out your primary fermentation at a higher temperature, between 78F and 82F. Keep the container at this temperature for the first 24 to 28 hours, or until you see bubbles around the edges of the SCOBY and/or the edge of the jar, then drop the temperature back down to the optimum brewing range for the remainder of the brewing cycle.

Increase Carbonation With Secondary Fermentation (Bottling)

how to bottle kombucha

Using the techniques above will usually give you a bubblier brew, but the way to really boost the carbonation in your kombucha is to bottle it and do a second fermentation. Once you put a tight seal on the bottles, the carbonation will start to build up. Since there are still yeasts and sugars in the kombucha tea, the carbonation will continue, especially if you leave the bottles at room temperature. When you put the bottles in the refrigerator, the yeasts will go dormant.

Overview

For even more carbonation, you can use several different techniques during second fermentation:

  • keep as much yeast as possible in the liquid
  • give the yeasts more food to process
  • use flavoring ingredients that provide a natural carbonation
  • use airtight seals on the bottles/containers
  • start the second fermentation at a higher temperature

You can do the following to ensure your secondary fermentation produces as much carbonation as possible:

1. Don’t Filter the Tea

dont filter the teaTo continue the production of CO2, you need yeast. You’ve removed the SCOBY, so all the yeasts in the colony are gone, but there are still free-swimming microorganisms, both yeasts and bacteria, in the kombucha tea itself. You’ll probably see more yeast clusters at the bottom of the brewing jar. Some of these will be dead, but most should still be alive and active. If you filter your tea when bottling, you will filter out these yeasts, and you won’t get as much carbonation.

You should also stir the kombucha tea in the brewing jar to evenly distribute the yeast before you pour it into the bottles. If you don’t, some bottles will have more carbonation than others.

2. Add Extra Sugar

add more sugar All of those free-swimming yeast need energy, so help them stay active (and producing more CO2) by giving them a little extra sugar. Normally, you’ll stop the primary brewing process while the kombucha tea is on the sweet side, so that the continued bottle fermentation doesn’t end up too sour. The yeast will use the residual sugars already in the tea, but you can give them additional sugar now to provide them even more fuel. This is a good place to use sugars that also give you different flavor profiles, like honey, maple syrup, and coconut sugar.

3. Add Fizz-Friendly Flavor Ingredients

Fizz-Friendly Flavor IngredientsFruits are very high in sugar as well (they contain fructose) and adding fresh fruit, frozen fruit, dried fruit, fruit juice, or pureed fruit will add flavor and yeast-friendly fuel that also helps promote more carbonation.

Acidic fruits tend to produce the most carbonation. Fresh or frozen strawberries make a delicious kombucha tea with lots of antioxidants and vitamin C. While fresh apricots aren’t always tart, they become more acidic when they’re dried and concentrated, and using dried apricots will let you do a longer second fermentation that results in a deeper and more complex flavor. Pineapple usually creates a very fizzy kombucha, so if you’re using fresh or canned pineapple, be careful when you’re opening the bottles.

Fresh ginger is another good source of natural carbonation, and it adds a great spicy flavor as well. Fresh ginger is also good for you, and it adds antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds to your kombucha tea. Ginger is often used to help with upset stomachs or motion sickness. Ginger also tends to produce a lot of carbonation, so be careful with the seals on your bottles.

4. Use Tight Seals

Tight SealsWhen the carbonation can’t escape, the pressure builds up and more bubbles are created when the CO2 is finally released. The better the seal on your container, whether that’s a jar or a bottle, the more CO2 will build up.

You can use several different types of bottles for kombucha but whether you choose glass or plastic, you need to make sure that the cap or seal you use is tight enough to keep in the CO2, but loose enough that you can “burp” the bottles if the carbonation is building up too quickly. Too much carbonation, and your bottle could explode. This is especially important if you leave the bottles at room temperature.

Note that some of the canning jars with rubber seals are designed to RELEASE pressure (which carbonation produces) when it builds up. If you are doing a secondary ferment in one of these types of jars, your finished ‘buch’ won’t be as fizzy as if you used container/jar/bottle that was completely sealed.

5. Fill Kombucha almost to the top (1 inch from top of container/bottle)

how to bottle kombuchaThe less space you leave in the container you are second fermenting your buch in, the stronger your carbonation. We suggest you fill your container (jar or bottle) nearly to the top with your second fermenting kombucha — about 1 inch from the very top.

6. Use Bottles with Sealed Tops

One of the BEST ways to increase carbonation in your Kombucha is to use small bottles with a latch/sealed top. You can buy these specifically made for kombucha or homeage alcoholic beverages. Using these will almost certainly ensure you will have strong fizz in your kombucha after a second ferment.

When it actually comes to Kombucha Carbonation, I recommend the EZ Cap Bottles. These produce the best fizz.

CASE OF 12 – 32 oz. EZ Cap Beer Bottles – CLEAR

CASE OF 12 - 32 oz. EZ Cap Beer Bottles - CLEARIF you want better carbonation, I recommend this set of 12, 32 oz EX Cap bottles. For a second ferment, you simply put your kombucha + fruit and let it sit for a couple days. You will have a very strong fizz. Keep in mind you may need to burp the bottles every day or two to prevent too much carbon buildup.

These 32 oz are good if you want to share the Kombucha around. If you want am more personal size ‘soda pop’, then get the 16 oz variety below.

 

 

CASE OF 12 – 16 oz. EZ Cap Beer Bottles – CLEAR

CASE OF 12 - 16 oz. EZ Cap Beer Bottles - CLEARThis is about the size of a soda pop can. And you get a great fizz.

I recommend you buy the a case of 32 ounce and a case of 16 ounce and try both — you’ll find the size that you best like and you’ll have enough bottles to handle a lot of Kombucha — enough for a household brew every two weeks.

7. Airlock with Bung

If you want to step up both your carbonation level and your alcohol level up a notch, then you need to move on to an actual airlock + bung — the two pieces of kit that will turn your Kombucha into something more fizzy and more alcoholic.

1 Gallon Glass Wine Fermenter-INCLUDES Airlock

Normally, you only do a second ferment for 1-5 days. And you have to continually burb the containers to release to pressure, which also allows O2 back inside. Even if you have a container that’s fully sealed and you don’t open, you likely can’t leave it for a long period of time because of the gas buildup. So you need a way to release the gas while completely keeping O2 out, to allow the yeast to continue to ferment the brew.

You The idea here is the you allow the excess C02 to escape but lock out the O2 from entering. Since secondary fermentation is anaerobic (no oxygen) and one by the YEAST in the kombucha, you get a nice deep ferment going on with enough CO2 fizz locked into the brew. This also allows only the yeast to start fermenting and if you leave it long enough, the alcohol content goes up, making a sort of Kombucha wine or Kombucha alcohol if you leave it long enough.’ll need three things:

1) a Glass bottle to ferment your Kombucha (I recommend a 1 Gallon for starting off, but if you get serious you can easily buy a 5 Gallon which will work with a matching bung and airlock

2) a ‘Bung’ which is basically a rubber cork-like cap you push into the top of the bottle which seals it. The difference is this has a hole which you then fit the airlock into, allowing the C02 gases to escape.

3) An Airlock. This is a tube like container that fits into the bung allowing the Co2 to escape out the top but won’t let any O2 back in. It’s the magic that makes it all happen.

I recommend you read my How to make Kombucha Alcohol and How to increase Alcohol Content in Kombucha for more info. Keep in mind, you can just use this to increase secondary fermentation time to increase the flavors — you don’t have to necessary make more alcohol as long as you leave the secondary ferment for 1-2 weeks.

Recommended Airlock Fermentation Kit for Kombucha

If you want this, I suggest you buy this kit for 15 dollars on amazon which includes a 1 gallon container, the bung, and the airlock. This is all you need to get started on a new level of fermentation. You can do stuff you could normally not do with just regular bottles. This includes being able to just leave your secondary fermentation for days and weeks and months.

1 Gallon Glass Wine Fermenter-INCLUDES Airlock

1 Gallon Glass Wine Fermenter-INCLUDES Airlock

Allow Carbonation to Develop

natural carbonation

After you pour the brew into your bottles, with or without additional kombucha flavoring ingredients,you can leave them at room temperature for one to three days so that the yeast stay as active as possible and continue to produce the CO2. Remember to watch the carbonation levels carefully to avoid any leaks or explosions.

Once the level of carbonation is high enough to make a great bubbly brew, store the bottles in the refrigerator or another cool place to force the yeast to become dormant, and to keep your kombucha tea fresher for a longer time. Check the bottles regularly to make sure that the pressure is not building up too much, and that the flavor is developing the way you want it.

(Visited 7,103 times, 2 visits today)
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • SHARES
  • carbonation
  • fizz
  • increase kombucha carbonation
  • increase kombucha fizz

admin

6 Comments Hide Comments

TRacy says:
July 13, 2015 at 10:21 pm

So…question…how do you know if there is too much carbonation building up? Do you “burp” one bottle to check it out or what? Im most confused about this part…some sites say to burp everyday, some say leave your buch for a week and then check. I just dont want to burp them and then mess up the carbonation process but I also dont want to have bottles exploding in my face. Thanks for any suggestions!

Reply
admin says:
July 14, 2015 at 8:03 pm

There’s a couple ways to do test. My favorite easy way: fill a small plastic water bottle (you know, those soft plastic types you drink from then throw away) half way with your buuch and let it ferment (along with your regular batch in the glass jar or whatever container most if it is brewing in). The plastic bottle will get hard as the gas builds up. When there is no ‘give’ when you squeeze it, this is a good indication your regular brew needs to be burped. That one plastic bottle is simply the sample that indicates whether you should burp your actual ‘brew’.

As for how much carbonation builds up, this depends on how much sugar is still left in your brew, whether you are doing a second ferment or first ferment, how full your container is, and lastly, what type of sealed container you use to brew with. Some containers trap more air and as such your Kombucha will be more fizzy.

In my videos, I use one of those canning jars with a rubber seal. These don’t yield a very carbonated second ferment because the little rubber seal seems to release the pressure/carbonation automatically when it builds up. This means you don’t worry about having to burp your second ferment (or first ferment). However, it also means the Kombucha does not end up very fizzy unless you move the second ferment into a different container.

To test this out specifically, I moved the completed buuch to a sealed 1 liter plastic water bottles for a second ferment. Every 2 days of second fermenting, I had serious issues with gas build up. In one situation, I opened the bottle and it exploded. This was never the gas when I fermented (both second and first ferments) in the regular glass jar as on my videos.

SO…Provided you have a fully sealed container like a plastic water bottle or a totally sealed glass jar, even when you ‘burp’ the carbonation, the actual drink still stays fizzy after you burp it and will continue to.

My best recommendation for building up a good fizz without worrying about burbing is to use those special 16 or 32 oz bottles that come with a cap. You’ll get some proper fizzy kombucha with those AND since they are strong and well sealed, you won’t have to burp them (though, put them in the fridge after 2-4 days of second fermenting, and you can still burp them if you are concerned.

Hope the helps!

Reply
Alison says:
August 25, 2016 at 1:34 pm

I have been making Kombucha for almost two years. My fizz is not 100% consistent. This article is a comprehensive, excellent guide to the frolic of fizz which most of us seem to LOVE. I have printed out this post and plan to give it the old college study system with highlighted key points and putting all 24 pages in a binder I keep for FOOD & BEVERAGE recipes.

I have one question, I went to a Farmer’s Mkt where they were dispensing Kombucha into bottles. They were adding CO2 then and there to each bottle with the Kombucha. That seems like an unnatural shortcut and even cheating, depriving consumers of the right way to create fizz and get the benefits from it. What do you think?

Reply
admin says:
August 27, 2016 at 11:20 am

Yea, I’ve never heard of this — adding in CO2.

I guess you could, but that’s just taking flat Kombucha and adding in C02. Properly done Kombucha won’t need this!! As you can see in the video with my mother, naturally carbonated DIY Kombucha can have ridiculously explosive levels of C02 already.

Reply
Vinnícius says:
July 11, 2017 at 2:59 am

So, with the airlock the kombucha will get extra fizzy, even though it allows CO2 to escape?

Reply
Chad says:
November 23, 2018 at 11:22 pm

Hi there,

Is it better to use kombucha with a lower ph say close to 2.7 or lower as startertea to increase co2 in the first ferment? I have noticed first ferment isn’t that bubbly and the flavour profile is slightly off I have quite a few containers with scobie in them but the ph is really low almost vinegar tasting should I use more of this liquid as starter for my fresh batch?

Reply

Add Your Comment Cancel reply

About Me

About Me

Hi, I'm Ben and I Love making Kombucha, drinking it, experimenting with it and teaching other people how to make it. This is my site about all things Fermented Foods (Kombucha, Kefir, and Cultured Veggies) and health related. Come browse around and learn how to start culturing your own foods!

Fermented Guides

Fermented Vegetables

Fermented Vegetables

Kefir

Kefir

Kombucha

Kombucha

Popular Posts

  • The Ultimate Guide to Figuring Out if Your Kombucha…
  • How To Divide A SCOBY (Remove Baby from Mother)
  • How to Create a Kombucha SCOBY Hotel (to Store Extra SCOBYs)
  • What To Do If Your Kombucha Has Mold
  • How To Make Second Ferment Kombucha (And Why You…

Our YouTube

Oops, something went wrong.
Ask a Question
View Questions

Latest Questions

  • Is this mold? asked by , 11 months ago
  • Added sugar without taking scoby out asked by , 1 year ago
  • Can Kombucha promote Gastritis? asked by , 1 year ago
  • Second fermenting kefir cheese? asked by , 1 year ago
  • Almond milk kefir asked by , 1 year ago

Recent Comments

  • Eugene on How to Brew Kombucha with Fruit instead of Sugar
  • How To Cut A SCOBY In Half | Kombucha Home on Continuous Brew vs. Single Brew System: Pros And Cons

Top Social Posts

The Ultimate Guide to Figuring Out if Your Kombucha SCOBY Has Mold (or NOT)

6
91 comments

Top 15 Best Kombucha Flavors: Recipes Guaranteed To Blow Your Tastebuds

5
16 comments
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • FORUM
  • Privacy Policy

KombuchaHome.com | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | © 2015


KombuchaHome.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com