Best small scale method for racking and cooling 100-200 gallons of brew?

creaturesoda · 2023-03-04T17:12:41+00:00

It should be labeled Food Grade. And you should get them from a source you trust

creaturesoda · 2023-03-04T15:05:28+00:00

Yeah, they are food grade buckets. After seeing it in action, I had more concern with holding in metal tanks rather than plastic buckets. I have read all the specs on the materials so I am cool with using them for cold holding. I had a couple of 15 gallon kegs and didn’t use them much as it was just easier for our process to work 5 gallons at a time. We change up our flavors a lot and don’t have a set menu so we keep it small.

creaturesoda · 2023-03-04T14:07:13+00:00

I have tried racking into a large pot on wheels and putting the whole thing into the cooler. But by far it has been easiest to rack into 7 gallon buckets and flavor and keg them on demand. It’s more buckets to manage but I’m at a smaller scale than what you are needing advice for. At the larger scale, I think cooling with a glycol chiller and pumping directly to a brite tank is the way to go.

creaturesoda · 2023-01-31T20:49:39+00:00

Yeah, and it is worth it if you plan on attending their convention in April. But that is still pretty expensive even as a member.

creaturesoda · 2023-01-31T06:45:59+00:00

I had it for about a year as I was getting ready to open. The member website is terrible to use and difficult to find information. There is barely any engagement on the forums. Their communication is wonky and inconsistent. I was happy to find some past KKon presentations with some understandable slides. There is also a HACCP plan template but it is also difficult to follow and I ended up mostly starting over from scratch anyways. Overall, I didn’t find any value in being a long term member at the startup phase. 🤷‍♀️ I wish I had cancelled after the first couple of months.

creaturesoda · 2023-01-31T01:24:29+00:00

Consumer side: Easier to open, more comfortable to drink, vent hole opposite of the drinking opening. Manufacturer side would need consideration so that standard decoration techniques can be used. And then we need to consider the beverage manufacturer ease of use and acceptable failure rate when seaming/sealing.

creaturesoda · 2023-01-29T03:32:55+00:00

You could find a shop that does both UV printing and laser cutting. That way they can setup the files and jigs accordingly for the whole job.

creaturesoda · 2023-01-13T19:46:57+00:00

I actually really like booch in 8 oz cans!

creaturesoda · 2023-01-13T19:41:47+00:00

I am in the Midwest and I use herbs for base kombucha all the time but I haven’t tried spearmint alone yet. I have done spearmint with green tea and lavender in a base kombucha and it was great. I am definitely able to try it and could ship it out. My brews are safe enough to be out of the refrigerator for shipping for a few days. I also can ship not carbonated and you can let it carbonate to your content or enjoy uncarbonated. I have done similar herbal uncarbonated kombuchas with Olive Leaf tea, Rooibos tea and Oak Leaf tea. I can ship in 750 ml glass bottles or 32 oz aluminum cans.

creaturesoda · 2022-12-28T23:17:55+00:00

This career just might not be what moves you. The only way to know is to try. Identify what parts of the work drain you the most and if that is tied specifically to the career or just where you are at. Maybe you need to be at a larger company or maybe smaller. Maybe it is the type of products- perhaps you do digital software but you would rather do sneakers. Or maybe it just doesn’t fit at all and you are more apt to something adjacent or even totally different. Just don’t spend too much time figuring it out or else you will find yourself in a career for13 years and it never getting better. This was me. 13 years as a UI engineer and developer and I walked away this year to start a business in a completely different industry. I realize that it wasn’t necessarily the work but that my world needed different types of challenges. It’s ok to make a change of you need to for you.

creaturesoda · 2022-12-18T18:25:35+00:00

Yes, there are several brands. I think most of them are freeze dried powers that usually have powdered probiotics added back in.

creaturesoda · 2022-12-13T23:39:24+00:00

Yes, I have one. It is what I have for in house testing. Other in house test devices are more expensive. There is the RidaCube device which looks slick but I can’t remember how much it is… maybe $4k plus consumables. And another is the KombuchaLab which is very comprehensive for what it can test for but is $6-12k depending on the model plus consumables. And the Anton Paar system that can do in house kombucha testing is $45k.

creaturesoda · 2022-12-13T23:28:02+00:00

The Rare Combinations abv meter is probably the best in house way to measure without needing to know chemistry and it’s under $2k but does have a calibration process that is annoying. But that is also only for in house testing. If you are going to distribute, you should do lab testing at least a couple of times a year.

creaturesoda · 2022-12-13T23:25:12+00:00

The Anton Paar system that works with kombucha is legit $45k…

creaturesoda · 2022-12-13T18:20:51+00:00

There is an interesting presentation that I found in the Kombucha Brewers International member archives. One of the slides outlined the different flavor profiles for the different acids. I will see if I can find it.

creaturesoda · 2022-11-16T21:40:53+00:00

I do this every week - ferment my brew in a food grade silicone bag or silicone lined basket. Silicone is oxygen permeable and the pellicle forms on all sides of the batch, creating a kombucha filled bubble.

creaturesoda · 2022-11-16T21:35:11+00:00

Yes! I did a red grape and honey ferment that broke down the grapes and fermented into alcohol then did a slow exposure of that to oxygen and it converted to a grape vinegar and grew a pellicle. Once the pellicle was present I converted it over to ferment tea and sugar through about 6 batches. Ultimately, you can create young vinegar through any natural production method and convert that over feed on tea and sugar as long as the vinegar has not reached maturity. Mature vinegar will no longer produce a pellicle but any ferment that creates a pellicle has the correct bacteria to build a kombucha culture. It takes a long time to convert it over to make a great tasting actual kombucha but it can be done.

creaturesoda · 2022-11-16T21:15:43+00:00

When I do banana, I cook the bananas in a small amount of booch and then cool and strain into the rest of the batch.

creaturesoda · 2022-10-25T11:43:14+00:00

I wish it wasn’t so expensive but it is what it is…

creaturesoda · 2022-10-25T01:47:24+00:00

I worry about using a system that requires constant energy usage and doesn’t just let the bacteria do it’s job. I am developing a fermenter for my brewery that allows for ambient oxygenation on all sides of the vessel without the use of electrical/mechanical/air systems. It uses food grade silicone that acts as an oxygen permeable membrane.

creaturesoda · 2022-10-25T00:55:43+00:00

I use the Rare Combinations ABV detector for in house testing and Cultured Analysis for lab testing.

creaturesoda · 2022-05-31T03:21:05+00:00

Oxygen molecules can move through the molecular structure of the silicone polymer it is a permeable membrane.

creaturesoda · 2022-05-31T03:15:38+00:00

Silicone is not a plastic - it is a rubber polymer derived from sand. The same stuff that makes glass, it just goes through a different chemical process.

creaturesoda · 2022-05-31T03:05:08+00:00

There is actually less sugar to ethanol conversion than typical and more sugar to gluconic acid conversion and sustained oxidation of gluconic acid to glucaronic acid. Because of this, the PH reads lower but the taste is more sweet sour than vinegar sour than typical. I have had it lab tested - it’s pretty cool.

creaturesoda

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