Guides for kombucha makers
Written for commercial producers. Food safety, cultures, the paperwork, the rules by country, and what changes when you scale.
Start here
Three guides in reading order if you are moving from homebrew or spreadsheets to a licensed brewery.
- 1From homebrew to commercial: what changes when you scaleWhat changes when kombucha becomes a business
- 2HACCP for kombucha: the two control points that actually matterThe two control points every plan turns on
- 3Kombucha batch tracking and recall-ready recordsThe records that make a recall take minutes
Food safety and HACCP
Acidification, alcohol and the records behind them.
Measuring alcohol in kombucha: which method gives you a number you can defend
Hydrometers do not measure alcohol at all. What each method really does, the instruments KBI accepts, the two-tier approach a small brewery can afford, and the five questions an auditor asks.
6 September 2026Calibrating the pH meter: the record behind every reading
Which buffers, how often, the steps that avoid the common mistakes, what the slope percentage tells you, and the five questions an auditor asks about the meter that took your reading.
6 September 2026The brew-day log: what to record, and why an auditor asks for it
Lots, pitch temperature, the pH curve, transfers, packaging and sign-off. The record that turns a good batch into a defensible one, and the lines an inspector reads first.
11 July 2026HACCP for kombucha: the two control points that actually matter
Acidification and alcohol do the real work. A plain-English look at the control points in the KBI code of practice that every commercial kombucha brewery should document.
17 July 2026Keeping kombucha under 0.5% ABV
Every kombucha has some alcohol. What the 0.5% line means for selling it as non-alcoholic, what pushes ABV up, and how to keep finished batches compliant.
17 July 2026Kombucha batch tracking and recall-ready records
Lot numbers, retention samples, FEFO stock, and answering a recall in minutes instead of days. The four habits that make a kombucha brewery traceable.
Cultures and fermentation
What acidifies a batch, and how to carbonate without bombs.
Kombucha shelf life: setting a best-before date you can defend
The alcohol reading you take at filling is the lowest that bottle will ever give you. What carries on after filling, the two numbers that decide the date, and how to turn retention samples into evidence.
14 September 2026Culture lineage: keeping a starter alive, and knowing which one went into the batch
Pitching 20 percent mature starter assumes you have it, every brew day. The supply problem, the go/no-go before pitching, what drifts over generations, and the record that answers which batches share a culture.
11 July 2026Liquid starter vs. the pellicle: what actually acidifies your kombucha
The floating pellicle gets the attention, but it's the liquid starter that drops your pH fast and keeps a batch safe. Here's why, and how much to pitch.
17 July 2026Kombucha carbonation: fizzy bottles without the bombs
Flat one week, gushers the next. How second fermentation carbonates kombucha, why bottles over-pressurise, and how to hit consistent fizz every batch.
In BrauMo: culture planner, F1 and F2 tracking in the product tour →
Running the brewery
Where the week goes, what a bottle really costs, and how records stay honest over time.
Kombucha cost per bottle: costing a batch you can price from
In the worked example the kombucha is under a sixth of the bottle's cost, and a shop leaves you three and a half times what a distributor does. Costing a batch, line by line.
15 September 2026From order to invoice: the documents a wholesale delivery actually needs
The delivery note is where your lot numbers leave the building, which makes it a food-safety record most producers file as a packing slip. What each document answers, and where the six hours go.
30 August 2026Where a small kombucha brewery's week actually goes
Batches, HACCP records, stock, invoicing, month-end and audits, estimated in hours. The batch log is the visible paperwork, but it is not where the time goes.
30 August 2026Editing a recipe should not change last month's batch
A recipe is both the formula you brew to and the record of what a finished batch was made from. Storing only the first quietly rewrites the second, and nothing warns you.
In BrauMo: paperwork entered once, bookkeeping and exports →
Selling and registration by country
Brazil, Argentina and Mexico: what the registrations ask for, and the words a label may not carry.
How to register your kombucha with MAPA
The two SIPEAGRO registrations, the establishment (with an on-site inspection) and the product, both free. The step by step, the documents, the up-to-date legal base and what MAPA does not cover.
10 August 2026Autocontrole: Brazil's self-control programs, explained
Decree 12,709/2025 asks for auditable records from raw material to dispatch, traceable by lot, kept for 18 months. The new decree in producer language, including guidance-first inspection for small producers.
10 August 2026The words you can't put on a kombucha label in Brazil
Artesanal, probiótica, bebida viva: Brazil's IN MAPA 41/2019 lists the words that may not appear on a label. The full item 3.7 list, the alcohol tiers, and the records behind a defensible label.
11 August 2026How to register your kombucha in Argentina
Kombucha (2022) and water kefir (2024) are now in Argentina's Food Code. The two registrations, RNE and RNPA via SIFeGA, the legal parameters, and what varies by province.
11 August 2026How to legally sell kombucha in Mexico
No kombucha NOM and no per-product registration: one free aviso de funcionamiento, 30 days before opening. The real test is the label: NOM-051 warning seals and the 2% alcohol line.
Equipment and scaling
What a commercial brewery needs, and what to put in place first.
Kegs and kombucha on tap: what changes when you sell to the on-trade
A bottle leaves finished. A keg leaves unfinished, in a container you still own, to be poured through equipment you do not control. Fleet sizing, filling a live product, what to agree with the venue, and deposits.
18 August 2026Kombucha brewing equipment: what a commercial brewery actually needs
Station by station: the hot side, cooling, fermenters, carbonation, pumps, CIP, fittings and filling. Which specifications matter, what to ask before signing a quote, and what each vessel owes your logbook.
17 July 2026From homebrew to commercial: what changes when you scale
The recipe is the easy part. Going commercial is a records-and-consistency problem. Here's what to put in place first, roughly in the order it starts to matter.
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