You’re ready to brew kombucha at scale—but which equipment truly matters? Guessing leads to contamination, downtime, and missed orders. Here’s a clear, manufacturer-backed roadmap to choose, install, and run a line that performs from day one.
Commercial kombucha brewing equipment is a complete system: a heated brew kettle for tea extraction, jacketed stainless steel fermenters (tanks) for controlled fermentation, a brite tank for cold conditioning and carbonation, sanitary pumps and fittings, CIP cleaning, temperature control, and a packaging module for kegs or bottles. Size each stage to your weekly batches and cold capacity.
Understanding Commercial Kombucha Brewing Equipment
When people say “commercial kombucha brewing equipment,” they mean an integrated line designed for repeatable flavor and safe operation. At minimum, you’ll assemble four building blocks that work together like gears in a gearbox:
- Ingredient preparation — water treatment, heating, and tea extraction in a brew kettle; inline screens or bag filters to keep particulates in check.
- Fermentation — jacketed tanks (fermenters) with precise temperature control, sampling points, and CIP spray balls to minimize contaminant risk.
- Finishing — a brite tank to clarify and set target carbonation before filling.
- Packaging — a compact module for keg or bottle, date coding, and label application.
As a brewing equipment manufacturing plant, we engineer systems to your room, utilities, and demand curve. The right equipment is more than metal; it’s a layout that shortens hose runs, standardizes fittings, and keeps staff moving safely. If you’re upgrading from a pilot rig or a homebrew kit, the big wins come from sanitary design, reliable chilling, and a workflow that protects the product path end-to-end.
From Tea to Booch: The Complete Brewing Process
The brewing process is a simple arc—hot tea to cold, bright booch—yet each step demands purpose-built equipment and tight hygiene. Think in stages and match capacities to avoid bottlenecks.
Process map and equipment match
| Step | Goal | Primary gear | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heat & steep | Extract clean tea | Brew kettle, inline screen | Add sugar, whirl or recirculate for uniformity |
| Cool & transfer | Reach pitch temp fast | Plate chiller, pump, hoses | Short hose runs improve efficiency |
| Primary fermentation | Steady conversion & flavor | Jacketed fermenter (tank) | Track gravity and ph; sample daily |
| Cold condition | Clarify & stabilize | Brite tank, carb port | Use a carbonation stone for fine control |
| Packaging | Protect shelf life | Filler/crowner or seamer | Low O₂ and consistent fills are key |
A few practical notes from installs we’ve commissioned:
- Chilling and flow: A right-sized glycol unit protects flavor and schedule. Undersized chilling is the #1 source of delays.
- Sanitary path: Standardize clamp sizes and gaskets; color-code hoses; keep a spare coupler and gasket kit within arm’s reach.
- Brewing process control: Record setpoints and timelines (heat-in, cool-down, transfer, crash) and stick to them; repeatability is your best friend when volumes rise.
“Tight, boring routines make great booch. Document the routine, then scale the routine.”
Fermentation Tanks and Fermenters: The Heart of Kombucha Breweries
Your cellar is where flavor becomes brand. That’s why we advocate jacketed stainless steel fermenters with smooth welds, full-coverage CIP, thermowells, and sample valves. Compared with plastic totes, stainless is durable, cleans faster, and maintains narrow temperature bands that keep batches consistent and safe. For most brew schedules, conical tanks with racking arms simplify lees management and protect clarity on transfer to brite.
Sizing strategy: pair two primaries to one finisher. For example, running 600–900 gallon weeks? Consider two 10 bbl primaries feeding a 7–10 bbl finisher. That staggering allows one tank to ferment while the other conditions or transfers—keeping crews busy but not overloaded. If you already share a facility with beer, isolate hoses and CIP cycles to avoid cross-aroma surprises.
Quality control is simple habits done every time: log ph, temperature, and gravity; taste from the same sample valve; and clean to a written SOP. Those three behaviors protect kombucha character and cut rework. We’ve seen small teams move from scattered buckets to a tidy bank of jacketed tanks and produce high-quality results within two turns—just by locking in sanitation and chilling.
If you want a quick tour of geometry, jackets, port layouts, and valve trains we commonly build for kombucha brewer workflows, see Jacketed Tank & Fermenter Options.
“Buy the cellar you can run on a Monday morning—then let demand tell you when to add steel.”
The Role of the Brite Tank and Carbonation Control
A brite tank is where your kombucha goes from good to great. After primary fermentation, the beverage is chilled, clarified, and set to its target bubbles. Because flavor is delicate, we recommend pressure-capable, jacketed stainless steel brite vessels with a sampling valve and a sight glass. That hardware lets you verify clarity, taste at service temperature, and dial carbonation with precision before packaging.
How teams use the brite step well
- Stabilize cold: Hold near 0–2 °C to drop haze and slow activity without shocking the product.
- Set CO₂ accurately: A carbonation stone gives fine bubble control. Verify volumes using a headspace analyzer or a trusted lookup table.
- Protect flavor: Keep dissolved oxygen (DO) low—move product cold, purge lines, and avoid splashing when transferring from fermenter to brite.
- Target pH and mouthfeel: Track ph daily through brite; small adjustments on temperature and CO₂ can make aromas “pop” without changing the recipe.
Typical working specs (illustrative)
| Parameter | Range | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| CO₂ volumes | 1.8–2.6 | Balance lift vs. bite; lower for tea-forward SKUs |
| Hold temp | 0–2 °C | Faster clarification, better carb absorption |
| DO at fill | < 100 ppb | Longer shelf life and truer flavor |
| Pressure | 5–15 psi | Safe headspace for fine control |
A brite step also smooths service. Taprooms can loop a small draft panel to the brite for tasting and local sales. For distributed product, consistent brite control means batch after batch of excellent results that match your spec sheet, which your sales team will love.
Packaging Options: Keg, Bottle, and Draft Equipment
Your format should match your channels. The three common paths—keg, bottle, and draft—serve different needs. Each has cost, speed, and freshness trade-offs.
Quick comparison
| Format | Pros | Cons | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kegs | Fast, low O₂ pickup, reusable | Cold chain required, deposits | On-premise, festivals, trial flavors |
| Bottles | Premium feel, clear product view | Slower line speeds, glass breakage | Specialty stores, gift packs |
| Cans | Light, fast, portable, stackable | Seamer QA needed | Grocery & convenience, shipping |
For taprooms and restaurants, clean draft equipment backed by a weekly line-care routine keeps flavor bright and reduces returns. For retail, pick a compact bottling equipment setup or mobile canner with good QC tools (seam mic, torque checker). Whatever your form factor, keep fills cold and oxygen low.
Two simple upgrades pay back fast: (1) inline DO monitoring on the filler or immediately after brite, and (2) a small date coder for traceability. Together they protect your brand when you scale from dozens to large batches moving daily.
Designing a Scalable Kombucha Brewery
“Scale” isn’t only bigger tanks. It’s coordinated capacity across hot-side, cellar, brite, cold storage, and packaging. Start by mapping weekly demand in gallon units, then back into turns per week and idle time.
Capacity tiers (example only; tune to your recipes and schedule)
| Tier | Hot-Side (Kettle) | Primaries | Finisher | Est. Weekly Output |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pilot | 3 bbl | 2 × 5 bbl | 3 bbl brite | 300–450 gallons |
| Startup Core | 7 bbl | 2 × 10 bbl | 7–10 bbl brite | 800–1,200 gallons |
| Growth | 10–15 bbl | 2 × 20 bbl | 15 bbl brite | 1,800–2,700 gallons |
Planning rules that prevent bottlenecks
- Balance the line: Pair two primaries per finisher; size cold storage for 1.5–2 weeks of finished goods.
- Cooling first: Upgrade glycol early; undersized chilling turns into missed deliveries.
- Short runs, straight hoses: Place the pump centrally; standardize fitting sizes to shrink changeover time.
- Room for tomorrow: Leave pads for one more tank and a small pallet staging zone—this is your built-in scalability.
When you budget, remember the hidden wins: flooring slope, floor drains, adequate lighting, and a simple parts wall (gaskets, clamps, spare coupler). Those details are low cost and high impact on uptime.
For layouts, see our Starter to Growth: Pilot Systems and Upgrades and Packaging Lines: Kegs, Bottles, and Cans.
Ensuring Safety and Quality in Kombucha Production
Consistent quality is a checklist, not a mystery. Treat your line like a food plant, and you’ll get consistent and high-quality output.
Core practices
- Hygiene first: Full-coverage CIP with validated chemistry; verify rinse conductivity to “zero”. Color-coded hoses reduce cross-use contaminant risk—vital if you also make beer on site.
- Measure what matters: Track ph, gravity, temp, and CO₂ at defined steps. If numbers drift, pause and investigate rather than “hoping it’s fine.”
- Document everything: Write SOPs for the brewing process (heat in, cool, transfer, crash, brite, fill). New staff learn faster and make fewer errors.
- Ingredient preparation matters: clean water, consistent tea lots, and staged sugar additions keep tastes aligned.
Helpful references: FDA retail food protection resources and Cornell Food Science beverage safety. Technical draft-line care is well covered by the Brewers Association Draught Quality Manual.
When the team cares for basics daily, you’ll be producing batch after batch that tastes like your brand—no surprises, no rework.
Case Studies: Growing from Pilot to Commercial Scale
Case A: Pilot to 10,000 gallons/month
A founder began with a 7 bbl kettle, two 10 bbl primaries, and a 7 bbl brite tank. Cold room was tight, so we staged weekly runs and added a slightly oversized glycol unit. Nine months later, demand hit 10,000 gallon/month. The only upgrades needed were a third primary and a faster filler—no downtime, no layout scramble.
What worked: right-sized chilling, short hose runs, clean SOPs. What didn’t: delaying a spare parts kit (clamps and gaskets) caused one afternoon stall. Total capex stayed focused on steel where it mattered.
Case B: Taproom plus small retail
A kombucha café wanted both draught and cans. We set a 5 bbl hot-side, two 7 bbl primaries, and a 5 bbl finisher tied to a compact seamer. They used bright, fresh flavors; oxygen control at the filler improved sparkle without “sting.” As SKUs grew, they added a third fermenter and scheduled brite time by daypart, keeping cash flow steady.
Lesson: Revenue-paced upgrades beat “buy everything now.” You can expand the cellar in steps and still keep the bar pouring.
Why Partner with a Professional Brewing Equipment Manufacturer
As a Brewing Equipment Manufacturing plant, we don’t just sell hardware—we engineer lines that work in your room, with your utilities, and your flavor goals. You get drawings, fabrication, install, commissioning, and training in one package. That reduces vendors, speeds timelines, and gives you a single point of accountability for the whole operation.
What you gain
- Quality kombucha brewing equipment built from food-grade steel and inspected welds.
- A selection of stainless steel options (304/316) tuned to your budget and exposures.
- A wide selection of kombucha equipment and equipment and supplies—from stainless steel tanks to small-footprint fillers—configured to your process specification.
- Global install and support, spare parts, and responsive after-sales help.
Market landscape (read before you buy)
You’ll see strong vendor claims— Phrases such as brewhouse engineered specifically for kombucha and engineered specifically for kombucha brewing sound great; just make sure the spec list fits your real workflow: flow rates, jackets, ports, controls, and cleaning. Whether you choose a branded package or modular build, insist on water trials and a documented FAT/SAT checklist.
With the right partner, you move from planning to commercial kombucha brewing smoothly—and keep moving as orders rise.
FAQs
Do I need pressure-rated fermenters for kombucha?
Not always. Many teams ferment at near-zero pressure and reserve pressure for the brite tank where carbonation happens. If you want higher in-tank carbonation, specify pressure-rated lids and PRVs.
Can I re-use my beer cellar for kombucha?
Yes, but set strict CIP routines and color-code hoses. Kombucha’s acidity can loosen residues; dedicated gaskets and a separate hose rack help keep lines clean.
What size should I start with?
Work backward from weekly sales. For 800–1,000 gallon weeks, a 7 bbl kettle, two 10 bbl primaries, and a 7–10 bbl finisher is a balanced start.
How do I avoid contamination spikes?
Lock in sanitation habits: verify CIP, keep spares (gaskets, clamps), purge lines, and sample from the same valve every time. Small habits beat big heroics.
Do I really need special equipment to brew at scale?
Yes—you need special equipment for reliable, food-safe results. Sanitary paths, CIP, temperature control, and jacketed tanks are what separate home setups from professional plants.
What if I only sell on draft?
Invest in clean draft equipment, a small brite for conditioning, and a simple keg washer/filler. It’s a lower-cost path to market with quick turns.
Sources & Further Reading
- FDA: Retail food protection (for general food safety principles)
- Cornell Food Science: Beverage processing & safety resources
- Brewers Association: Draught Quality Manual
Summary: What to Remember
- Map demand in gallon units, then size tank capacities and cooling.
- Use jacketed, CIP-ready kombucha fermenters for repeatable fermentation.
- A brite tank with a carbonation stone locks in sparkle and stability.
- Pick formats (kegs, bottles, cans) that fit channels and keep O₂ low.
- Plan growth: add primaries, keep brite balanced, upgrade chilling early.
- Work like a food plant: measure ph, document SOPs, and protect sanitary flow.
- Partner with a manufacturer to align hardware with your room and your goals.
Looking for a build you can run on busy Mondays and short Fridays?
We fabricate stainless steel kombucha lines—hot-side, cellar, and finisher—and help you go from first batch to steady production. Tell us your room size and target output; we’ll send a draft layout and quote for stainless steel tanks and equipment that deliver high quality results.