STORAGE & “BURPING”
GUIDANCE
Now we’re into autumn and heading to winter, our guidance for storing, ‘burping’, and avoiding leakages, caps sticking, popping and sticking if left out of fridge. How to enjoy GO Kombucha at it’s best!
IMPORTANT: Always refrigerate GINGER SENCHA 250ml, CHINA WHITE 250ml Lot. 146 and SPARKLING KOMSECCO 750ml on receipt to stabilise until ready to use. We advise to refrigerate all varieties where possible to enjoy GO Kombucha at its best!
GO Kombucha is a holistic living tea that faithfully replicates an Ancient recipe. As such our kombucha requires special care when storing and opening compared, say, to a canned “kombucha” variant that has had its beneficial microbes removed, or been hyperprocessed and/or pasteurised for mass production and supermarket shelf stability whether positioned in the chilled or ambient section.
At GO Kombucha we’ve honed and finessed our brewing process over 20 years to ensure a stable balance of yeasts and bacteria, and because we don’t add fruit sugars before bottling most tea flavours can generally be stored out of the fridge if kept cool <10C and n their card packing cases, which provide some insulation, in an unheated room, unheated garage or shed during autumn and winter months.
In any event, following this guidance and chilling all bottles before serving will enable you to enjoy our real kombucha at its very best
HOW TO ‘BURP’ BOTTLES
Learning how to ‘burp’ a bottle is rule no.1 when opting to buy authentic, 100% raw and wholesome kombucha. For over 21 years we’ve bottled in glass, without exception, because we know it’s the best and by far safest option for transiting our kombucha to the end consumer. Like our kombucha itself, glass contains only 4 key natural ingredients and there is zero risk of our low pH, acidified tea leeching any chemicals, metallic residue or plastic particulates into our high ‘Schumann Resonance’ beverage made with naturally purified water drawn deep below ground from our own on site spring well.
Real, authentic, small batch kombucha is by nature lively and varies from batch to batch, devoid as it is of the artificial and industrialised processes mass-produced supermarket kombuchas variants thereof our competitors apply to their products. Therefore we advise our customers to always open each bottle slowly to assess whether it’s from a relatively stable batch; if fizz immediately shoots up the neck space then close quickly and ‘burp’ the bottles by repeating the process of opening slightly until the fizz reaches the top of the bottle’s neck and closing again quickly until the fizz recedes and the contents can be drunk straight from the bottle or poured into a glass without losing any tea.
STORING GREEN SENCHA & RED PU-ERH 750ml
Refrigerate Green Sencha and Red-Pu-erh to ensure no onward fermentation occurs and to maintain the alcohol at <0.5% (defined in law as non-alcoholic and the point at which it was bottled before being stored in a chilled facility before reaching you). If you don’t mind the alcohol creeping into the low-alcoholic region, specified in UK law as being between 0.5-1.2% - still well below the level of intoxication for most people not sensitive to alcohol - you can store bottles in their closed card cases which helps to insulate against external temperature upright in the coolest place available, such as an unheated room or in a shed or garage between the cooler months of late September through late March, and chill each bottle before serving.
If the storage area is 10C> then over a few weeks a minor impairment in taste may develop due to onward fermentation reoccurring inside the bottle due to the as the remaining sugars are slowly consumed, which works in your favour if you have a low tolerance for sweetness. Over several weeks the taste may become more beer-like and low in alcoholic, which refrigerating alleviates and maintains stability for many months.
OVERRIDING A STUCK 750ml NECK SLEEVE CAP
If stored out of the fridge, outward CO2 pressure on the cap caused by the onward fermentation allows the cap seals on our 750ml wine format bottles to release slightly to enable excess CO2 gas to escape; a safety feature that prevents the glass bottle exploding. Occasionally this can cause the neck sleeve cap to “jump” a groove making the cap itself tricky to detach from the neck sleeve - in which event the neck sleeve should be gripped firmly while the cap is twisted one way and the bottle the other quickly to separate the two.
In rare cases the cap may detach from the neck sleeve and rotate but without removing due to jumping a groove and being out of synch with the groves on the bottle, in which event we advise:
i) gripping the bottle firmly and removing the cap with pliers, or;
ii) inserting a clean sharp pointed knife directly into the cap top and cutting open a hole through which the tea can be poured.
In both of these scenarios you can make the hole air tight with cling film or tin foil to maintain fizz and freshness!
CAUTION: We do not advise cutting into the neck sleeve with a knife due to the jagged and sharp edges that result
SPARKLING KOMSECCO 750ml - STRAIGHT IN THE FRIDGE!
The only GO Kombucha line that cannot be ‘burped’ is Sparkling Komsecco 750ml; our limited edition champagne format China White brewed in November for Christmas and now sold throughout the rest of the year till it runs out. Because this line is corked and caged with no screw cap that can release to emit excess CO2 – or in the case of the 250ml bottles to pop off if the pressure builds up too much due to being exposed to the sun – we stress that bottles must be refrigerated on receipt, and that if buying a few at a time to ensure you have fridge space.
STORING CHINA WHITE LOT 146, YUNNAN GOLD & DARJEELING BLACK 250ml bottles
If you have room to refrigerate Yunnan Gold and Darjeeling Black at all times alongside China White Lot 146 and Ginger Sencha this will ensure no forward fermentation and will maintain alcohol at <0.5% (defined in law as non-alcoholic); the point at which it was bottled before being stored in a chilled facility before reaching you (note: China White Lot 146 should be refrigerated due to it being a mid-summer brew when there are more wild yeasts in the countryside atmosphere making batches very lively, so ‘burp’ slowly to open. Later numbered batches can be kept in a cool place (check label or outer case for lot number).
If you don’t mind the alcohol creeping into the low-alcoholic region (specified in UK law as being between 0.5-1.2% - still well below the level of intoxication for most people not sensitive to alcohol), you can store bottles upright in their closed card cases in an unheated room or in a garage or shed during colder months between mid-September and mid-March and chill each bottle before serving (the closed cardboard box helps to insulate against external temperature).
If storing out of the fridge in ambient or warm temperature, such as a heated flat in autumn and winter, then over time some impairment in taste may occur and outward CO2 pressure can cause the 250ml cap to expand, break its seal and, eventually, “pop”. If stored over 10C check the cap seals every few days for any sign of an outward bulge; in such an event hold the cap end of the bottle pointing away from you, and either break the cap seal on each bottle by slightly opening to emit excess CO2 and screw back tight, and refrigerate if space allows.
GO Kombucha is 100% raw and live so thanks for appreciating why it has to be treated with special care. Following this guidance will ensure that our uniquely authentic kombucha that honours the heritage and legacy of a tradition that began in Ancient China over 2200 years ago will, in turn, take care of you, as well as being the most refreshing and thirst-quenching taste experience bar none!
For some frequently asked questions, click here
Any questions: Please email sales@gokomucha.co.uk